One day get away to Chitradurga

April/May month is mostly the break out time of the year for the Bangalorian husbands, as most of our families will be at native on summer vacation. As usual this year also we went on a getaway, a trip to Chitradurga, but the plan was made in short time. This time it was pack of five; Riyas (a thrilled journey lover with whom I had multiple journeys in past), Safir (motivator and supporter, my first journey with him), Jisah (whom I recently met, he has experience of multiple trips from Bangalore& our official photographer of the trip who is learning photography using his Canon EOS 1200D) and Arif (Jisah's friend, whom too I met recently) and me.

Riyas, Me, Safir, Jisah, Arif

Chitradurga was referred to me my brother Nawas almost 10 years back. Chitradurga is 200Km from Bangalore and the trip to this place has multiple peculiarities.

1.     Well maintained& omparatively less traffic in NH4 till the city (this is route to Mumbai). 200Km can be covered in 2.5hrs - 3hrs max.

2.     The site seeing destinations are less that 5Km from NH4

3.     Most of the places are nearby from the town, so we can plan& cover places easily

4.     Two main attractions of Chitradurga are  sunflower flower cultivation (we couldn’t see it as it is summer time) and the long array of wind mills, that you can see mounted on the hills across your 180 degree span in the horizon.

5.     Although the monuments and ancient sites are protected, there is no entry free or cheap entry fee (entry fee to fort is Rs.5)

We started by 5AM on 11^th May 2015 (Sunday)

Preparation to start the trip

We had our breakfast at Chidradurga by 8AM, the item we had was Mandakki (special food item of Chitradurga, it is yellow in color made of ‘pori’).

We then went to visit Chitradurga fort. This is a Fort whose history goes back to 17^th century! This Fort has been constructed, inhabited and renovated by various dynasties like Rashtrakutas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas and Nayakas of Chitrdurga. And later Nayakas’s were defeated by Hyderali and it was expanded by Tipu Sultan also.

Fort Map

This Fort on seven head-to-head hills, in the Chinmuladri range. The Fort has massive rock hills, various scenic valleys, large number of monolithic rocks, water reservoirs, Gun powder Grinder area, temples, a palace site which is cover by rock falling semi-circle shaped hill; which is awesome but crumbled down as the structures here are made of mud, multiple temples, masjid, small caves etc.

Gun powder grinder area

We could see lots of birds, butterflies, lizards and geckos around. You are always greeted by the sweet sounds of birds.

India Grey Hornbill cited at the Fort

Don't know the name of the Gecko

We almost spent 3 hrs inside this site. We have walk a lot to cover the area which is spread across multiple directions, and hike the steps to cover the full Fort. It is a fabulous experience climbing each level and covering various small sites around and moving on further. With family it would be difficult, but if they can rest at the middle level it would be easy to manage.

The most attractive item in this fort if the Palace site which has multiple ruined structures of mud, round shaped constructions which we didn’t understand what it is, pond etc. 

We then reached one of the observatory point too. See the panoramic views from there

Then we headed towards Chandravalli (also called Ankali Mutt), which is very near to this Fort, but we have to only travel 3Km from the Fort. There is an 80ft deep, underground cave here which referred back to Iron Age by the Archeological Survey of India. Many potteries and coins have been found from here in 1900s during excavation. It is an inhabited cave with stories, clear cut narrow walk ways, bed rooms, common halls, hidden pockets, provision of placing lamps, shivalinga, carvings etc. It is wonderful experience as it fully dark inside. There are multiple confusing ways around, but we explored our own with the mobile flash lights.

Then we returned back to Bangalore and on the way we went to Vani Vilasa Dam near Hiriyur (20Km off NH4). As per history, due to shortage of history royals of Mysore had contribute jewelry and that’s is why the name “Vani Vilasa Sagar”. This is the first dam in Karnatka and is higher than KRS dam near Mysore.

Really appreciated this ancient site in Chitradurga, the effort that have been put to build the Fort covered by moat around and multiple observatory points. The remnants of the paste marks the silliness of many of the great stuffs that human look for; and more over power& authority moves on from one hands to the other over the time, and it is the Almighty's practice so as to maintain the balance of Earth...