To Savandurga and back

On the fourth of December, 2005 my little team decided to take some time away from work and visit Savandurga. What a day it turned out to be...read on to find out how the day turned out to be.

First, a dose of history to start with. Savandurga - a little hamlet set in an indyllic milieu has etched itself a place in history as a formidable fortress during the times of the Magadi rulers, the Kempegowdas in the 17th century. In fact, Savandurga was the secondry capital of the Kempegowda empire. The topography of the hamlet is such that there are actually two hills that is separated by a deep valley; the one inundated with vegetation is called the Karigudda or the black hill and the other, the balder one, is called the Billigudda, the white hill. We later came to know that, we had climbed the Billigudda hill, a solid rock mountain of approximately 1280 feet. At the base of the Billigudda hill is the Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple - a famous diety in the region.

Our day began with our communion at the Madiwala office of our company. Thats when, I got another affirmation of girl power. Its amazing how a single lady can derail the well laid plans. Along came two of our team members, atleast a half hour late. We said to ourselves that these things are bound to happen (we had to, we had no other alternative) and started our journey to Savandurga about 45kms enroute to Magadi from Bangalore.After exercising our vocal cords (its a debate whether we were singing or screaming...well, it doesnt matter, does it?) playing antakshari, we stopped at an amazing place where we had this first view of the western ghats.

Breakfast consisted of one of the best kesaris that I have ever had along with hot pongal and yummy chutney. During breakfast, we deciphered the way one of our team member walks (one step and then kick the air with the other leg). Egged on by a wonderful breakfast, we renewed our screaming (singing) session and reached ground zero at about 0930. As we alighted from our transport, we were taken in by the wonderful sight that was awaiting us. The subtle layer of dew on the grass lighted up the atmosphere with its purity. We felt as if milky snow has melted and fell on our laps. After the initial instructions from Dev, our instructor, we started our ascent up the 1280 feet Billiguda.

As we ascented up hill, we relished the breathtaking views that the hill provided of Bangalore and its surroundings. We had a feeling that, as we continued on our ascent, the clouds were beckoning us into their fold. Yes, we were right amongst clouds and our insensate minds that were already 'bug'ged gradually opened up to Mother Nature. Slowly, the sensation of soaring consumed us and we forgot all the 'bugs' that awaited us on our return. The terrain was quite slippery and after many a pitstop, we reached the peak and gave company to the desolate yet majestic Nandhi at the summit. The majestic Nandhi was staring at wilderness and I was secretly envious of the Nandhi. But, thats besides the point. The summit offered some interesting snaps for the trigger-happy cameraman (Click on "Picturesque" to view the victims of this shooting)

Having recharged our batteries at the summit, we reached ground level at about 1400 and were all set for a much awaited lunch. Lunch was roti, aloo mutter, veg pulao, peas masala and curd rice along with assorted condiments. We all had quite a heavy lunch and I must tell you, anything vegetarian and edible at the time would have been a feast for us. We all hogged as if we have never seen food in days and were pretty much tired after the lunch session.

Post-lunch is when we realised that we were in for the surprise of the day. Cave exploration sounded so glamorous when we first organized this trip; at the end of it, cave exploration is anything but glamorous. After walking through a thicket of bushes that adorned the windy forest path, we reached the mouth of the cave. At the mouth of the cave we realised that, we had to do anything and everything BUT walking to explore the cave; crawling, jumping, sliding and hanging were the principal modes of transport! There was this point where we almost gave up. There was a huge stone standing in the middle of the path. There was no way around it, except over it. And to climb over the rock, we had no other alternative but cling on to a small bark of a tree that was way out of our reach. As if to make matters worse, if we succeeded in pulling ourselves up the rock, there was no place to rest our feet at the other end of the rock...instead, we had to jump across a gap that was large enough to take a man in vertically. Whew! Boy, did we make it?! After squeezing through narrow crevices the size of a mammoth dictionary, after crawling through a gap where we had to literally move our ass to get to the other end and after jumping across an abyss that was seemlingly endless, we reached the end of the cave and emerged at the other end. We were 'over the moon' and were happy that we made it this far. This was when someone reminded us that we had to return down the same path in the darkening evening. After a a similar strenuous journey, we returned to humanity and heaved a sigh of relief.

At the end of the day, I was reminded that

1. Most of the time, impossibility is what we maketh of our imagination when reality is very much possible
2. Mind - its very presence and strength is what separates the winner from the loser
3. If I can climb a rock hill without any harness and explore a dangerous cave without any eventuality, I can pretty much do anything once I set my mind to it.