Shivagange - Devine, Peace and Adventure 13/12/2014

December 14, 2014

Place: Shivagange Hill, Tumkur

Distance: 62 x 2 = kms
Route: Vijaynagar -> Nelamangala -> Dabaspete -> HaleNijagal Betta -> Shivagange

Crew: Santosh and Sagar

Bikes: Bajaj Discover 150
Budget: 250/Head

This is the second part of my trekking from the previous post Nijagal betta / Siddara betta - Exploring ancient temples

Brief about the place: Shivagange is a mountain peak with a height of 1368 meters and Hindu pilgrimage center located near Dobbaspet, in Bangalore Rural district India. It is situated 8 km from the town of Tumkur and 54 km from Bangalore Shivagange is a tall conical hill with a series of temples on the way uphill. There is a small source of water at the top which is considered to be sacred. There are steps laid on the top with steel bars to hold on inorder to navigate the rocky terrain.

Shivagange Hill

Note: I have added some photos from my last trek to make a better picture of the place.

Continuing from Nijagal betta: After seeing Nijagal betta we decided to visit Shivagange. Started trekking at around 12 pm, the climate was cloudy. It was my second visit to this place so it was very familiar to me. After Nijagal trek I was exhausted but Santosh dragged me to another big trek. For every 50 steps there is a shop so you dont have to worry about hunger and thirst.
The Trek: The path is carved very well with rock steps and support. After 20 mins of trekking there comes Olakal teertha where it is believed that one who does good work in his life only gets water but in reality one with longest hands gets the water. We moved on the path becoming more and more steeper exhausting me at every other step. I started scolding Santosh for the idea of second trek in the same day. We saw a local shop keeper climbing along with us with 35 bottles of water around 15-20 kg weight moving with constant pace, never taking test, seeing this scene I felt like he deserves that extra 5 Rs they take on MRP for every item they sell.

A photo from the past: Inside the temple

A photo from the past: Olakal teertha

Shiva Partvati Jotirlinga Temple

We first encountered the Shivaparvati temple, there is jotirlinga. The actual trek begins from this point onwards, The path becomes horrible, the steps are not at all nicely placed. The route takes a sharp 60 degree making the route steeper and exhausting you at every other step. The real monkey attack begins here. I recomend not to hold water bottle in hand or in the sidebag, better dont have a bag only. After you complete this part threre is a shop just before the peak. We kept our jacket and shoes with him and headed towards the peak.

Beware of monkeys

The zigzak path with uneven steps.

The final steps before the peak

The Peak: Standing beside the nandi and enjoying the view with the fresh breeze was worth spending enegry to get to here. Visited the temple at the top. Took some photos spend half an hour on the hill. It was around 1 o'clock the beatiful weather kept the sun behind the clouds.

Nandi

We started down, had tasty bhel and natural cold water. It was almost lunch time, we saw there was lunch available in temple at the base of the hill. We had nice meal and left the place.