Gulveer and I had been to Savandurga several times, all were day trips. During one of the climbs we got an idea of camping at the top at night. A plan was formed in the December 1996. I think it was Dec-24th since 25th was off for Christmas. Food, water, a mat, a sleeping bag, a knife, newspaper, matchbox, etc. were stuffed into a haversack. We set off around 2 pm on my Kinetic Honda. We took Bangalore-Big Banyan Tree-Manchenbele-Savandurga route since it was much more scenic than Bangalore-Magadi-Savandurga route. This picture was shot from a crest of a hill where Manchenbele and Savandurga come into view.
We reached Savandurga around 3-30 PM. We parked the Kinetic Honda at Veerabhadra Swamy Devstana. We knew the temple priest well, we met him and informed him of our plan of staying at the top. We suggested to be careful since there we bears on the hill. We had planned to light a fire which keeps wild animals away.
Earlier we had climbed the hill in 45 minutes. With a stuffed backpack, it took about an hour. Our camp site would be the ancient stone shelter on the eastern side. We inspected the shelter, it was okay but we felt it would be safer to sleep outside, next to the shelter entrance. Our next task was to get firewood. We collected about 10 kilograms dry wood, include dry frangipani stems. As we went around our preparing for the night, we watched the sun go down the horizon, On the east the moon had risen., it was a full moon. It was coincidence that our visit was on a full moon night.
As the darkness increased, wind speed and coldness increased. We lit a fire then soon realized that the wind was fanning the fire way too much, consuming wood faster than we had imagined. We had dinner while the fire burned. We decided to hit the sack so that we could remain warm. Around 11 PM, we heard dry leaves on a tree make some weird noise. The combined effect of wind, noise, coldness and moonlight was spooky at times. Gulli nudged me and said there's a ghost nearby. I told him the noise was coming from the tree, the dry leaves were noisy. Gulli wasn't convinced. While Gulli was worried about ghosts, I was concerned about bears since we had run out of firewood. I was just wishing to see daybreak.
We came through the night safely. I was relived to see the dul glow on the eastern horizon. That's me with Manchenbele in the background.
Gulli behind a bouquet of wild grass flowers. That's the ancient shelter, probably built during the Palegars' time. Below the slope is a small pond of water. This is one of the few water tanks on this hill.
We packed up and paid a visit to the Nandi Mantapa at the summit. We were hungry and decided to descend. On the way down we spoke of the night.. it was a scary one but we loved it.. one of the most memorable trips.
PS: Subsequently four more overnight stays on Savandurga happened. Here are the links to them: Overnight Stay Two, Overnight Stay Three, Overnight Stay Four, and Overnight Stay Five.
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