Climb those small hills | Mallikarjuna Durga

This small hill is something we passed to reach an unknown place beside the main rural road on way to Hogenakkal, the famous waterfalls in Tamil Nadu near Bangalore. We did our day picnic at this unknown nowhere place, did not go to Hogenakkal (had not planned to anyway) and on return climbed up this small hill. The views were spectacular, the location and the structures on top were so well fitting the environment - connecting the sky and earth.

On way to Hogenakkal, off Hosur Road
(turn right before Tumkur)

the flat top of Mallikarjuna durga, which we climbed in the evening

(Locations to use in Google Earth are added to the end of the post) The post has 2 parts - the apparently anywhere picnic spot and the Mallikarjuna durga hill climb. The picnic spot was found when we first stopped for our packed lunch, next time it was a trip just for the spot.

Call of Kavaledurga

Here are some sketches I created from memory of some of the places of Kavaledurga, the hill-fort beyond Tirthahalli in Shimoga district. I was lucky to have to have lived on this hill for 5 days during 2008 pre-rain on a measured-drawing trip of the excavated Palace, for the ASI. The submitted report consisted of Photographs and Measured drawings.There are few layers of walls, many gates (small and large) and bastions that I explored deep in the jungles around the main track of Kavaledurga trek to the summit. I will share some pictures in the next post, but I begin with sketches to evoke your imagination.

I also used these sketches in my travel article on Kavaledurga for the Terrascape magazine.

The place... it is for me so far, like no other. It is the perfect world of a LaraCroft game Tomb Raider! Full of surprises - jungle, fortifications and ruined structures.

Peeping out from the southern jungle
towards a layer of fort wall