Makalidurga Trekking on Sun, Dec 30, 2018
“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves” – Sir Edmund Hillary
The Alumni office in association with IIMBAA organised a trek to Makalidurga on Dec 30, 2018.
Makalidurga hill is 60 Kms on the outskirts of Bangalore, located at a height of 4430ft above MSL. We hired a tempo traveller and started from campus at 5:30 am and reached the destination at 7:00AM
We had participants across age groups – from 8 yrs to 64 yrs!. We assembled at Makkalidurga railway station around 7AM.
There was a brief self introduction by all the participants and a briefing session of do’s and don’ts from Hemant. The trek began with a 1.5kms walk along the railway tracks to the starting point of the mountain. We were accompanied by the forest guide and began our ascent at 8:15 am. The weather as perfect for a climb. It was took us 2 hours to reach the summit and 1 hour to return to the base camp. The summit has a dilapidated fort located at a height of 1117 mts above MSL.
The route was uneven and was laden with small and large rocks and can be moderately difficult for those having knee pain (esp. during descent). All paths to the top were marked with arrows and we met many other smaller trekking groups. Closer to the top, we got a beautiful view of the Gunjar Lake, whose shape is supposed to be similar to that of South America. We reached the summit – fort at 10:30 am. The fort perimeter is supposed to be 2 kms along the perimeter. A small and beautiful Shiva temple is located at the top. We had monkeys for company and had our brunch at the temple. We began to climb down at 12pm and reached the base at 1PM. It was hot during our descent. We realized that the ideal time to start from the base camp is perhaps 6:30am or earlier.
About Rustik Travel: Rustik Travel is a sustainable, experiential travel venture promoted by Hemant Soreng, PGP 1997. The company curates customized offbeat and activity-based global travel experiences that have a local flavour and that engages people from the local community.  The travel experiences range from adventure based – trekking, biking, cycling, diving etc. to cultural, culinary, volunteering and more.
History of the place:
The hill got its name from the late ruler Makaliraya, who used it as a granary back in the 1800’s. It has been a part of the Vijayanagara Empire, the Maratha Empire and the Gowda Empire. During the Vijayanagar Empire it was used to train military soldiers. It was then captured by Shahaji (Shivaji’s father). Finally it was captured by Kempegowda. The hill fort now lies in ruins.