Monday, August 12, 2019

Day Trip to Chitradurga


It was a cloudy morning in Bangalore. The weather forecast for our destination today too showed the same weather. We started at 6am from Home. We drove through ‘our frequently traveled' NH48, but it is a very short trip today. 

After a light breakfast in Kamat Upachar, we reached Chitradurga Fort around 9am. It had just stopped drizzling, that the place looked fresh. The crowd was also less and it was a wonderful weather to trek or climb.

After parking right in front of the fort, we got the entry tickets (Rs. 25/- per head) and entered inside. On entering, we were welcomed by a lot of local guides, which we didn’t take. I was the guide for my wife & daughter as I rode to this place last year with one of my biker group.






There were many temples, pillars, water storage areas, mantapas, etc., Also the famous ‘Onakke Obavva’ site, where Obavva, a woman who fought the forces of Hyder Ali single-handedly with a pestle (Onakke). I don’t want to bore the readers by explaining details about the places. The pictures will speak themselves.





It’s a huge fort that we need a whole day to cover all the places. We walked up & down through many places in the fort; however we did not cover all of them. Some places were closed as it was slippery due to the rain and the drizzle that happened earlier. I promised my daughter, who also is fond of trekking that we will be back another day with our trekking friends to climb one of the peaks there.




 



One of the most fascinating things that I saw there was the system of “Harvesting the Rain”. The board there read “… the fort had enough water for its inhabitants to survive 12 years without rain!


There was a shop almost in the middle of the fort where you get some snacks & refreshments. Also there were guys selling refreshments in other parts of the fort.



We roamed around, taking some pictures and planned to return back around 1pm. While coming out of the fort, we saw an ice cream guy who was selling local made ice creams. All 3 of us had one; the taste made us remember our good old days when this so-called top brands were not in the market.
We stopped for lunch on the highway then zoomed to Bangalore and reached home by 5pm.

 

Overall, this short trip to this historic place was a good one. The fort is clean and well maintained. One can hire a guide if they need to dig into the details of the Fort. A light drizzle now and then made our visit a pleasant one.

 

Distance travelled:
Bangalore - Chitradurga Fort - Bangalore: 441 Kms.

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