Madhugiri Climb

Madhugiri

Madhugiri is a town in Tumkur district in the Indian state of Karnataka.
At 3930 feet elevation, Madhugiri is a single hill. It is the largest in Asia and second largest in the world. Nestled in its steep slopes is a fort, once credited to Hyderaali. Antaralada Bagilu, Diddibagilu, and Mysore Gate are the three gateways of the fort. A series of doorways leads to the hillock. The ruined temple of Gopalakrishna is located at the top.
Madhugiri is not so commercialised place; Tourists should not have any problem finding light food. It is much better to carry food and lots of water.
Madhugiri, or also known as Maddagiri, is located around 43 km north to Tumkur town. Madhugiri is famous for its giant rock overlooking the town and the fort nestling in its steep slopes. The giant rock is the second largest monolith of Asia. This monolith and the surrounding greenery of Madhugiri are the main attractions. The place has old temples of Venkataramanaswami and Malleshwara built by the Vijayanagara feudatories in the Dravidian style.
The highlight is the rock dome, atop which stands a fort, once attributed to Hyderaali. There are a series of doorways leading to the top and the climb is steep and exposed in some places.On the top is ruined Gopalakrishna temple.

This place is nearly 20kms off tumkur road. Bets think is to hire an cab to drive to this place.
we had nice mid day meal at Kamat on tumkur road. and started with our trek just before 12:00.

we were 6 of us, me yatin, sinari,niketa, bhagyesh and sonal. 

Ladies did find some difficulty in climbing but overall they made to fort base. 

ruins of fort.

 Yes fort indeed has a touch of mougal architecture, and looks like ruled by hayder Ali.

Ascending to the next level from fort base.

 Madhugiri climb is very deceptive. One can get feeling that top is just there and can exhaust the energy going behind it only to find that there is lot more left to cover.

This peak has lot of phases and every phase has nice beautiful view to capture.

 second castle phase. This place one can get some shade to relax a bit.

After the phase 2 ascend is quite steep and there are chiseled steps made to make climb easy.
At the end of this phase there will be small dead fountain. Sometimes water flowing through this fountain can make rock slippery. Be careful at this place as this has reported some nasty cases.

Look at the anle of the climb. Note this is not trick photography.

most dangerou climb of madhugiri.

 Crossing dead fountain gives a further glimpse of next phase of castle. This time it's bit scary as the climb is quite steep. Yes there is a protection on either side which gives bit of confidence.
Though acrophobic guys will have bit of tough time contouring this climb.  

Crossing phase 2 of castle will provide a good view of entire madhugiri town. Its like small matchbox houses. 

Yatin relaxing

Final Phase

 Just near the peak there are huge boulders and can give the trekkers some shade or cool place to relax.

 After crossing the boulders there is gradual climb to peak and this is very easy.

View from peak.

Final entry point in castle.

Peak seen in backdrop.

 On entering the castle door at peak one can notice the ruins of the palace or may be a temple. Mostly deserted surroundings. Since climbing to this point is bit of tough thing and no one wanders to this place to kill time.

Room to store grains.

Back door of the palace.

Big Huge water tanks at top

Entry to the grain store

 we spent about 1 hour on top before we were forced to get down due to heavy downpour about 20kms from this place. This place will be difficult to climb down if it started pours.

 winters is the best time to visit this place.