Savana Durga - fort of death.
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Savana Durga means fort of death. Actually when i was travelling to the place on one sunny saturday morning with my friend SUjO, i was thinking it was a temple for Durga. We both had been planning some trips inside Karnataka for long, but couldnt. We both are from Kerala and have been living in Bangalore for 1.5 yrs from now, it was embarassing from our side that we didnt go any trips together , as both of us consider travelling as passion. Although i went to Mekedatu and Sivanasamudram, not forgetting Coorg also, travelling with SUjO is another experiance.
Anyways the bike have clocked almost 75 kms when it reached from Madiwala to Savana Durga. What greeted us was a beautiful standalone hill, which is composed of granite rocks. Although there is no entry fee for the small park maintained by Govt at the foot of the hill, the watchman let us in only after getting 10 Rs.
PICS:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ajoy.ka/SavanaDurga
we decided that we climb the black hill and started walking. the first thing we came accross was the ruins of the fort- of kempegowda and tippu sulthan.nothing much is left there. We started our climb up throught the forest containing shrubs. there are a lot of "chembakam" plants there. thankful to them more than once i was saved from slipping. As we are not experianced trekkers we had to take some rest in between. The gradient was also very steep.
Some wonderful places are there on the path like one place where there is a cave and in middle of that there is a small ravine and to get over that there is a small wooden bridge. The other ed of this cave is made like a door, probably by Kempegowdas soldiers. These places were all controlled by him and magadi, the nearest town was his capital. Another place was a bit trecherous- you come out of a cave by jumping into the next rock by crossing a deep ravine. One mis calculated step and you will fall into caves down there.
Atlast we were on top---amazing sight of the valley welcomes us.
