SkandaGiri - also known as Kalavara Durga, is an ancient mountain fortress named after a hindu diety. it is located approximately 70 km from Bangalore city, and 3 km from Chikballapur. It is off Bellary Road ( NH 7 Hyderabad-Bangalore Highway), The peak is at an altitude of about 1350 meters.
If you are in Bangalore and want a good spot for trekking you can obviously choose this place. unlike Nandi hills you'll need to trek for about 4 kms to reach the top.
It's quite adventurous during monsoon, and a bit easier during spring. This place is known for it's sunrise view. So plan accordingly.
We had went to this place during monsoon, we started around 4:30 in the morning and it took us around 1:30 hrs to reach the place. We had difficulties finding the starting point for the trek, please don't go with the help of Google maps instead ask a local for the way to starting point.
This route finding process had are up some time already and we had started with our trek at 6:15, all along the way it started drizzling, this made our trek even more difficult.
But trust me the views you'd get all along the trek is mesmerizing and an absolute eye candy.
The trek was really difficult given that it was continuously drizzling and the terrain became slippery it took around 2 hrs to reach the peak.
At the top we couldn't get any view we were longing for the rainy clouds and gushing winds totally blindsided us, and after spending some time we started our downhill journey, it was even more difficult. I had slipped 3-4 times , got scratches and bruises from the slides and thorns of the bushes.
But amidst all this the trek was totally worth it, it's best to view this place when Sun rises and the clouds would pass along.
This is an ecotrial maintained by Karnataka forest department, the entries are limited and you can book your slots from the official site, which would cost around 250 INR per trekker also you can see other treks around Bangalore in the site itself.
Happy trekking!
P.S: do visit the Nandi temple on your way back the location seemed pretty picturesque.
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