Makalidurga – Trails of Lemon Grass (8th Feb 2014)

What do you do when you have a free Saturday and are itching to get away???

You hop on a bike and ride away…. J

This is exactly what I did on 8^th Feb. Earlier in the week I realized that I did not have any plans for the Saturday.  Add longing to get back on a bike and you have the recipe for a long ride & trek. All it required was a couple of calls. The first one was to Pratap, to borrow his “Thumper” (Thunderbird). The second was to Shyam, to fix up a plan for the trek.

I had been meaning to hit the trails of Makalidurga for some time. The reasons that worked in its favour were

• Not visited the place before
• Good reviews from the previous trekkers
• At 60 kms from Bangalore, the distance is just right for a good bike ride without straining yourself
• Easily accessible with good roads throughout the journey 

Now with the date and destination fixed, all it was left was to ride away.

As usual, my day began early on the day of the trek. Waking up at 4:00 AM to prepare and pack the food required is now the norm.  We wanted to start the ride by 5:30 AM, but as they say about the best laid plans of men & mice…we eventually set out by 6:45 AM.

It was a very enjoyable ride with no traffic and beautiful roads.  The howling wind blowing past your helmet, the scenery zipping past, the feeling of you becoming one with the bike as you lean into a curve. All these came rushing back. Thinking back, I am not able to figure out what on earth made me abstain from riding for so long???

Once a biker, a biker for life!!!

The only regret was that the ride only lasted for a couple of hours. By 8:45 AM, Makalidurga hill with the fort on top came into sight. A few more minutes and we had reached the Makalidurga railway station. This is a picturesque station with the railway line running through the valley; providing a beautiful view of the granite hillocks. To reach the Makalidurga hill we need to ride past the station and take a detour to left onto a mud road, just past road leading to Ghati Subramanya.  This road goes on a kilometre and ends at a railway crossing.

 We parked our bikes under the shade of a tree and were stretching our legs, when a young local lad came about offering to guard our bikes, be our guide, help us buy weed;  generally being a pest. We were finally able to get rid of him by promising a small fee for sitting there and guarding our bikes till we return. The deal was that we would pay upon completion of services. Once he realised that he would actually have to work and this was not easy money, he slowly slunk away.

 

There is a path leading to small temple, past the railway tracks. The steps on the side of the temple lead to the path that will take us to the base of the hill. The start of the trek trail is marked by a pile of rocks with a painted arrow indicating the direction to be taken. You will be led by such painted arrows through out the trail. However, since the hill appeared to be fairly easy to climb we decided to take the road less travelled and walked ahead searching for different trail.

Continuing for some distance along the path, we came across a clearing from the back of the hill, and decided to start the ascent from there. Our stomachs were running on empty by then and we fuelled up on some Khara Buns in some shade. Energised after this, we set out on the trail. Since this was not a well defined trail, we had to look around for the path of least resistance. The way to top was frequently blocked by huge boulders and rocky outcrops. We had to circumvent such obstacles and pick up on the trail again on the other end. One distinct feature of this trek is the presence of lemon grass. The entire hill was filled with sweet fragrance of lemon grass.

 We had started the ascent by 9:30 AM and reached the summit in around an hour’s time. There is a decent sized fort on the top; however, it is now derelict and crumbling. We also have a temple of Makali Malleshwara inside the fort. I suspect that the name of the place may be derived from this. Among the ruins we were able to make out the structures for sentry outposts, granaries, water storage and residential quarters. We also came across a fallen structure, which appeared to be the temple gopura (tower) in its heyday.

We spent some time exploring the ruins and started the downhill journey by 11:30 AM. Again, we decided not to go back on the same trail and took the steeper downhill route that took us directly to the railway line. Though it was a little tougher, it was fun travelling in a route seldom taken. It took us a little more than an hour to climb down and we reached the railway line by 12:40 PM.  Walking alongside the tracks for a kilometre, we came back to the place where we had parked out bikes. By then, we were famished and gobbled up the food that we had carried. After the lunch and some rest, we started the ride back home by 1:30 PM and reached back by 3:00 PM.

About Makalidurga

I was not able to gather much information on this place. The legend has it that Markandeya rishi performed penance here. Historically the fort appears to have been established by some vassals of the Vijayanagara kings.  This eventually came under the control of Mysore kingdom when the fort was annexed by Hyder Ali.

Directions

Makalidurga is at a distance of 60 kms from Bangalore. To reach there you need to take the new airport road till Devanahalli. At the Devanahalli junction, turn left to head towards Doddaballabura.  Continue straight for a further 10 kms from Doddaballapura and take a left turn onto a mud road just after the Ghati Subramanya deviation to reach Makalidurga fort.

Trek Info

Terrain: Hilly with a lot of rocks, boulders and shrubs.

Grade: Easy

Distance: 2-3 kms. The height of the hill is around 4430 feet from the sea level.

Birding @ Makalidurga

Makalidurga is a popular destination for birding. You get to spot a large number of birds. The list of birds I identified is as follows.

• Racket tailed Drongo
• Split Tailed Drongo
• Red Vented Bulbul
• Greater Coucal
• Purple Sunbird
• Laughing Dove
• Pied Bushchat
• Common Myna
• Parakeet
• Tailor Bird
• Rock Bush Quail
• Hoppe
• Black Headed Cuckooshrike