Savandurga

A moonlit trek up Savandurga, the biggest monolith in Asia -figured that would be a good training ground to prepare for my Himalayan trek on May 23rd. After surviving a harrowing 2 hour ride in a crowded bus, we finally reached the base of the mountain at around 10 PM. And then on started the trek with around 40 of us (inclusive of 25 odd kids, the youngest being 7 years old!).

It took us around 4.5 hours to reach the summit after frequent rests and minor incidents of slipping and falling. The kids really set the pace, truthfully speaking, us "adults" were shamed into completing the ascend.

After reaching the summit at half past three in the morning, we rested for couple of hours before starting back down after seeing the sunrise. "Rested" being a relative term - most of us spent it shivering as the brutal wind buffeted us from all sides.

The descent proved mercifully easier, although seeing what we had climbed up under moonlight set us aback by the light of day - I'm sure if we had seen the height and the steepness of the climb first we would have decided to stay at the base and admire the monolith respectfully from the bottom! As always experienced after good long hours of physical activity, the food we had for breakfast from the village in Savandurga tasted better than anything we have ever had in the best hotels in Blr.