Skandagiri - revisited

We did it this time :o)
The place has changed a lot. The car parking is not dark like last time. Forest department has posted a few employees to collect Rs. 100/- as parking and forest entry charge (newly introduced) !!! And believe me, the number and varieties of cars and bikes can even put parking lot of some shopping complex to shame. The place has become too popular and do not be surprised if one of the Cafe Coffee Day outlets welcomes you next time. The only positive change is - way to hill is clearly marked at different places and there is very little chance of getting lost as we did last time. Trekking to top in two hours should not be very difficult for a reasonably fit person. If you follow some minimum safety norms like carrying sufficient lights etc. then Skandagiri is very safe for enjoying the adventure of night trek. We reached at the top around 5 am. Far away, Bangalore city was still shining bright. And there were countless people everywhere - lying of the flat stone, sitting of the round stone, standing on the roof of a small temple, resting on the floor of the temple, sleeping inside tents, sleeping outside under the open sky, eating, drinking, smoking, laughing, chatting, shouting ....... one can go on. Skandagiri is indeed one of the top favourites of weekend revelers!! As the sunrise approached, people grew restless – you have to guess the right spot, take a suitable place accordingly, be ready with cameras etc. Clouded sky was making the guess difficult and everyone around had their own views. And then came the clouds. Bangalore city, till now visible clearly, was fading fast from our view. Very soon Skandagiri and adjoining peaks were looking like islands in the middle of sea of clouds, rising upwards to engulf us. The visibility was dropping every moment and in between we manged to take a glimpse of the glorious sunrise. My writing skill is at it's worst while I try to describe sublime and some great fellow said that “one can only feel such heavenly things” --- so better to keep the description brief. In the beginning the cloud was not dense enough to hide the glory of the rising sun ... the sun was disappearing one moment and reappearing with full glory the next moment. The hide and seek game continued for some time, before it was mist everywhere. After a few moments of rest, we began to climb down amidst the cloud and mist, which gradually cleared as we trekked down. It took around one hour to reach the foot of the hill. I looked up for one last time --- the peak was still hiding behind a chunk of cloud.
Last but not the least – team members who made the trip memorable ---- Sukrit, Kaka, Bota, Titas, Ankur and Soupi.

Previous experience .......

Skandagiri Night Trek

Important information : Drive to Chikballapur (max. 2 hours) from Bangalore. After entering the town ask someone the location of Papagni Math. If you are going from Bangalore, you have to take left turn from Chikballapur. If you are planning day time trek, then Nandi Hills and Skandagiri will be clearly visible from Chikballapur. So it should not be a problem reaching there. The trek starts from Papagni math. Reaching there you can hire local guide. The rest of the paragraph is for those who plan to venture themselves. One way starts right form the place of parking, but this would not take you all the way to the top. There is another road just left to the Papagni math. Take a left turn and walk towards the basement of the hill. This road is smooth and goes along the plane and you may wonder that you are going in the wrong direction. Keep walking for around 15 minutes upto a point where the road gets divided, one of them continuing along the plane and another starts climbing. Take a left turn and start climbing. Walk for 20-30 minutes before you reach the final bifurcation. The road going straight is going to take you towards jungle and the road climbing left will take you towards you destination (presumably Skandagiri peak). If you are planning to trek at night, I would strongly suggest to hire a local guide.

Our adventure : Ever since I saw the picture of a man standing on the top of the clouds, I wanted to trek to the Skandagiri peak. We planned to start late at night from Bangalore, so that we can climb to the top in the early morning. Our deperture got delayed due to torrential rain right from the evening (I abandoned all hopes at one point of time). We started at 2 am from Bangalore and reached near Papagni math in two hours.

Our first blunder : It was very dark. A few local people surrounded us. After little bit of haggling we decided to be brave (rather foolhardy) and trek without the help of a local guide. We took the very first road, adjacent to the car parking and started walking at frantic pace, desperate to be at the top before sunrise. After trekking to some height I looked back and Bangalore city was glowing far away, a spectacular sight indeed. But the road ahead was becoming steeper, road side bushes denser and climbing (literally so) tougher with each passing moment. Upward movement was becoming slower and slower and after ninety minutes or so it came to a halt. The slope was too steep, very difficult to climb up and vice versa (I mean very easy to slide down). By that time the dawn was setting in. Very soon we realized that we can not be at the top before sunrise and worse, we have to trek down. The retreat took another hour. Back to the plain, with plenty of pain and hardly any gain - but still high on spirit, we started again, this time apparently on the right track.

Oh no .. not again!! : Very soon we were back on the right track. By now we met people returning after the triumph and were very confident of achieving the feat ourselves in another hour or so. But Murphy's law (which states that "everything that can go wrong will go wrong") was rarely violated during the whole trip, right from the beginning !!! There exist one bifurcation, one road takes you to the peak and another towards the jungle. We missed (messed again !) the right track (left turn rather) completely, went straight ahead and very soon the grass along the road side started growing taller as we headed straight towards the jungle. (moral of the story : if you always walk straight in your life, you will never reach your goal). It took us another half an hour to realise the mistake and turn back.

Third time lucky : By the time we were on the right track, we were "dead exhausted". After endeavoring for some more time, we decided (and wisely so) to call it a day. Taking some rest, we began the final climb down with a broken heart and a vow to conquer next time.

Thanks to Pratap, Titas, Bota, Sukrit, Anirban, Soupi, Supratim and Ankur for making the trip memorable.

Part II