Lately, life's been putting me through a ringer. Getting older hasn't been something that has upset me very much but watching the people around me get older has been hard, physically taxing and mentally challenging.
We then drove back into Bangalore- another two hours. That was our Madhugiri Trek. Beautiful distraction from the banalities of life.
If it were just the obviousness of loss, I wouldn't be writing in here. It's the combined knowledge of life's limitedness, confounded by the obvious truths of 'aloneness ' (a topic I've almost 'harped' on about here over the years) and then the emotionally charged slow everyday good byes we say to an ill parent or an ailing aunt. There is happiness in this world, but there is definitely a lot of sadness too.
Sometimes I think, life's balances are somewhat skewed for a lot of us- so happy to start with and then, wham! Wave after wave, incoming loss, tragedy, drama, chaos, and loss again... You get the drift.
So how do I balance it? I've learnt to go on beautiful hikes with anyone or no one but mostly with friends and this one was with Mr Dev!
That's him, and my favourite picture from today.
How did we get there?
We drove to the Google maps location stating Madhugiri Fort. Took us about 2 hours from Bangalore on a Saturday morning, we left at 4 am.
We were hoping to catch sunrise at some point during the trek, we caught it just when we started.
You may have already read that the fort has three gates, each of which one must successfully pass in order to get to the final destination, the fort. We did, and some recommendations I'd make would be:
1. Wear the best sport shoe you have, you'll need the grips on.
2. Be prepared to walk uphill mentally, being aware that it'll feel longer as you breathlessly grapple the steel frames at some points, where there are no steps.
3. Do take rest breaks, quick three min ones and use the time to look at the beautiful view. I found this bettas views were the most gorgeous of all the bettas I've hiked.
It took us about 45 mins up- this surprised us as most sources say you'll need about 3 hours up and down.
Forgot to mention, you'll find a friendly informative gentleman sitting by a table, he'll need your details along with an ID proof, so he can register the ins and outs of the place. He's not security, but we'll call him that here.
The gorgeous view and plants, I couldn't get enough off.
Summer scapes are absolutely gorgeous to me. I'd recommend going through the main building within the fort, and to the back- you'll find a nice windy back, where you can sit and eat something nice & non-polluting, mesmerized by the beautiful views. Later we found out we were sitting atop a prison, but more on that later.
We sat down and ate our sandwich and banana, to this view and the howling morning wind. We didn't find too many birds up here, weird given it was about 715.
And after about thirty minutes exploring the fort, the vegetation, views and its prison (I heard rats here), we began our descent.
It took us a little over 30 mins, as we stopped liberally to look at the sites we'd missed on our way up. Some are below:
Beautifully patterned window?
Hanuman deity (given this fort is first and foremost a piece of military architecture).
Huge appreciation for the beautiful cacti around the fort.
More of the view.
We said our goodbyes to the friendly security man, visited the old courthouse and marvelled at the beautiful Banyan tree in its compound. Both of these are right there on your way into the complex.
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