140 KPH and going ....

Speed is the name of the game. As I always say, there is only one way and that is the 'High way'. The highway could not elude me for long and I had to hit it on my Baleno. The destination too had eluded me for long, which was none other than the famous ChitraDurga fort.
People generally ask me for places to visit around Bangalore. ChitraDurga is an ideal place for a one day outing, as it is only 200 KMs from Bangalore. Approach to this place is excellent. One can start in the early morning and return back to Bangalore on the same day. ( See also Places to visit around bangalore )
I had wanted to visit this place for a long time and finally the time had come. I had to get a few enthusiasts who could join me during the trip. It was hard finding people who would not mind waking up at 4.30 a.m. on a Sunday and start the journey. After making a lot of phone calls, finally I could convince 2 of my cousins (vijay and Nanda) and 2 of my engineering class mates (guru and chaitanya) to come with me.
After picking up everyone, we reached the outskirts of Bangalore by 6.15 AM. We set out on Tumkur road, and there was already a fair amount of traffic at that time. We reached Tumkur by 7.00 AM and stopped for break fast. Then we continued on the NH4 to ChitraDurga. This particular stretch of road between Tumkur and ChitraDurga is really very very good. It just reminded me of the free ways in the USA, with the only difference being that there were no entry and exits. But otherwise, the road is one of the best roads I have traveled in India. One can really test the Max speeds of the car on this stretch and I was trying the same on my Baleno.
There are a lot of wind mills all along the route. This is the only place in karnataka where wind energy is utilized. We reached ChitraDurga by around 9.30 a.m. And headed straight to the fort where we hired a guide to show us around the fort. They have a lot of things to tell us about the history of the fort. The famous song from kannada movie 'NagaraHaavu' explains the history of this place very nicely. 'Obavvana Kindi' is the most popular spots inside the fort, from where, the soldiers from the army of Hyder Ali tried to enter the fort, during their war against the 'Madakari Naayaka', the ruler of ChitraDurga. To our surprise, there was a Kannada film being shot inside the fort and we saw none other than the famous kannada film actor/director Upendra shooting for his film 'ParoDi'.
There are a couple of good hotels in ChitraDurga where one can go for lunch. After lunch we went to 'ChandravaLLi thoTa'. There is a small lake and an underground cave at this place. We did the mistake of entering the cave without a torch and that's probably the reason why we had more fun. There is pitch darkness inside the cave and luckily we had a cell phone with a torch without which it would have been impossible to take a single step. We got lost multiple times inside the cave and started going in circles. Finding the way out was quite fun as each time we took a different route, we would land back in the same place we had started from. We saw many groups like ours looking for the proper exit out of the cave. Outside the cave there are some beautiful and magnificent rocks. October to February is the best time to visit this place as this is a dry region and the rocks would be extremely hot during other times.
On the way back, if one has time, can go to a 'Jogi Matti' which I have heard is famous for high speed winds. Due to shortage of time, we did not go to this place. On the way back, near hiriyur, we took a deviation of around 20 kms from NH4 to reach the 'Vanivilas sagar' dam. This place is also popularly called 'Maari kaNive'. We reached this place by 4.00 p.m. The weather was ideal. We took a walk on the dam from where we could see a lot of wind mills on all the surrounding hills. We took a coracle ride in the dam waters with the cool evening breeze hitting our face. This is place not to be missed when one goes to ChitraDurga. After spending around 45 min. at the dam, we headed back to Bangalore, stopping in between at Tumkur for some refreshments.

Place: ChitraDurga
Distance: 200 km from Bangalore
How to reach: Excellent roads from Bangalore.
Time: 3 - 4 hours by road
Best time to visit: Sept. to Feb.
Places of interest : Jogi Matti, VaniVilas sagar Dam

More pictures here

- Nagendra HK