This was my first ever hiking so I was super excited about it. Shivagange - the place was just fantastic, with breathtaking views from the high altitudes.
My husband and I started early from home and reached Bangalore City Junction by 7:15am. We reached first and were waiting for the group, they joined us and we got into the Bangalore-Hubli passenger train. The train departed at 7:50am and the group started chit-chatting. We reached the destination station Dabaspete around 8:45am and we had to get down here. The train stops at station only for 1 minute. Our coach was stopped outside the platform and there was a rush in getting down. All participants were already on the platform, only my husband and I were left and trying to get down. Voila! The train guard flagged green and the train started moving. It was not moving too fast and the coach was entering the platform. Santosh, our organiser dragged me safely from the moving train. Seriously than I came to know that in this way also we could deboard the train ;) hahaha just kidding guys please don't try this…!
We hired two autos from station and started for Shivagange. It was about 7kms from station and costs us 20 bucks per person. After reaching we had formal introduction. Santosh and Lohith, the organizers of this trek instructed us there is a huge fleet of monkeys and not to feed them anything.
As this was my first trek, I went a bit slower than others and the group accompanied us though we were slow they didn’t leave us behind on their way. After reaching half way we came across a temple of lord Shiva. Inside the temple there is a small cylindrical shape narrow hole carved in stone with water in it. No one knows from where the water has come, people say that the water never dry up. Also there are tales that say on touching the water inside the hole brings good luck. You can put your hand in the hole and can touch the flowing water. Short arms like me can face difficulties to find out the water, it only touched on my fingertips.
After coming out of the temple we started towards the peak as the steep increases it was a bit harder to climb. After a Shiva - Parvathi statue there started the steep climb and it becoming more and more steeper. Steps are carved on the rock and iron railings are provided so you can hold and move forward. The climbing was tough and exhausting, but finally I made it. Hip hip hurray!!….. The view from the hilltop was awesome it has taken two and half-hours to reach the peak. There we stood for some time had snack and fun with group and lots of snaps of course ;)
While descending we changed the route. About 40 meters from the Shiva - Parvathi statue we took left on a narrow path. Except our group there was only few people on this route. We found a lonely Nandi on the way down and had few photo shoots. We back to the route from where we had ascended and the way back was the same. We returned to Dabaspete for lunch. It was 3:00pm, Santosh said our train is at 4:15pm. We had lunch at a small hotel and went to Dabaspete railway station by 4:00pm there we came to know that the train is running late by one hour. We all sat on the platform and played dumb charades and had lots and lots of fun… :) The train arrived and we all boarded. Once again started cracking jokes and sharing experiences. By 6:00pm we reached Bangalore and went our own way.
I whole-heartedly thank our event organisers Santosh and Lohith for making my first trekking wonderful. I made some new friends. The oldest couple of our group Sreekanta uncle and Vijaya Sreekanta aunty really boosted us and marked motivation to climb the hill.
Written by: Amala Mahesh
Event date: 5th July, 2015
Place: Shivagange, Karnataka
No. of hikers: 17 (14 M, 3 F)
Event Organizer: Santosh Kumar Gupta
Photos of the event: Shivagange Day Hiking: 5 July, 2015
Photo Courtesy: Kartik, Santosh
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