Beast and its rides 240km
First ride for the year 2016 in august but the preparations were
done just 3 hours before the start, got a call from my cousin in morning as the
conversation was about end, got to know both of us were free for the day (Thursday),
instantly planned the trip to Makalidurga, no gps no proper plans for the ride.
Ghati Subramanya Temple (600 year old temple)
Started by 10am from city with traffic consuming one hour of
our travel time inside city itself,
connected to state highway the roads were free to zip. By 11.30am we
were at the temple, not many people were there as it was weekday, as we were
entering the sanctum the doors were just opened for us after puja, it was like a special entry for us
with good darshan and blessings from twin gods, Lord Karthikeya with a seven
headed cobra is made from a single stone. It faces eastwards while the idol of
Lord Narasimha faces westwards. To ensure that both deities are visible to
devotees at the same time, a huge mirror is placed in the rear in the sanctum.
Makalidurga,
Approximately 7kms from Ghati Subramanya temple we reached
the base by 12.15pm, no sign boards a narrow mud road leading to the parking
lot from state highway, you got to cross the railway track to reach the
trekking base from parking lot, it was just my beast at the parking lot nobody
around, the straight trail leads to the lake, slight deviation towards right
will lead you to the trekking route, no proper steps just rocks and boulders
around with some arrow marks pointing upwards we followed the trail for a while
and lost route but we could see the fort wall and just headed that way, rock
climbing with heavy winds and my heavy backpack nothing did stop me from
reaching the destination, at the top there is no proper entry or stairs to
temple one has to climb the collapsed fort wall and go in, for the first time
in my entire trips never got to see an human in this tourist spot, it was just
two of us, luckily we were carrying enough water and snacks with us, there are
no shops atop or at the base. Shiva temple at top had no doors and it was dark
inside, rested for sometime at view point, descend from top was more
challenging we lost our way in middle and had to climb again to come down from
other side no gps no sign boards, true test to human navigating skills. We
could make it down by 3pm. ( please carry enough water and snacks dont venture
out alone).
Devarayandurga,
50km from Makalidurga, took rural roads it is well
maintained under rural development scheme each village we crossed had a maximum
of 20 houses in the vicinity, nearing Kopala we came across three huge baniyan
trees housing 1000+ bats of all sizes. 4:30pm we were in Yoga Narasimha swamy
temple at Devarayandurga, this temple closes at 5pm heavily fortressed with
metal doors and prison like barricades, narrow entrance to sanctum and lots of
monkeys, it was just us and priest at temple as it was closing time. Just below
Yoga Narasimha swamy temple is Boga Narasimha swamy temple, view point at the
backside is closed.
Return,
Exiting Devarayandurga a wrong turn and roads too good for
cruising ended up wasting 30 km, took an U turn and trailed all those 30km and
still could make it to Nelmanagala in one hour and from there to reach city it
took one and half hours.
Riders,
Santhosh Venkataram
Nandini Ram
Bike
Thunderbird 500
