My Maiden Trek - Udayagiri Hills 757mts

From Chennai, TN to Udayagiri fort, Udayagiri, AP (96 kms from Nellore)

A bite of History about the Udayagiri fort.

The fort was supposed to be built in 14th century in the Gajpaths kingdom, who hailed from Orissa. The fort was deemed impenetrable but for 1) A jungle path thorough the east of the fort and 2) A pathway on the Westside. Udayagiri, was attacked by Krishna Deva Raya for a period of 18 months after which he was successful. Thus, Udayagiri slipped from the Gajpaths rule and fell under the rule of Krishna Devaraya of Vijayanagar around the 14th century (wiki says : 1512). This was the Vijayanagara empire. This was further preceded by the Golconda, who had the credits of the mosques erected – Chinna Masjit and Pedha Masjit, the small and the big mosques respectively. After which it came under the Nawabs of Arcot and it was in their control until 1839.

The Hanumans Forté.

Tracing our epics, the Udayagiri range covers the Sanjeevni hill, which is purported to be similar to the Sanjeevani hill of Donagiri range that Hanuman carried to Lanka, in order to treat Lashmana. The hill was assumed to hold the Sanjeevani herb, the life giver. Epic further traverses to say that when Hanuman came back after treating Lashmana, he dropped the hill that it fell upside down : which is why the hill has some downward trending vegetation (some trees / bushes are said to grow upside down here).

Pre-Trek

I was super excited on seeing a one day trek mail from Chennai Trekking Club, not wanting to lose my Sunday rest, I signed up for the Saturday trek. I was excited like nobodys business, had the faithful man drop me on Saturday morning at Koyambedu at 4.30 AM. From Koyambedu a group of 18 ardent trekkers started our journey! Five to holy six hours later, we stopped near Udayagiri for a sumptuous breakfast of idly vada sambhar.

I was asked by fellow men to eat the pongal too to which I chimed – “Chancey illa.. ooh aah”, Sharon promptly cut me there and told me please do not wait for the afternoon lunch. You never know if the LUNCH per se is going to be by 4.30 or later. There! I silently ate the Pongal too *gulp*.

Forward march! (4 hours) 

At the foot of the hill, the height might have appeared to be childs play to the experienced trekkers who have present there! But to a person who slogs at the desk 40 hours a week without an ounce of sweat – INTIMIDATION was the word! 

Starting my walk, I found myself sweating profusely and panting for the first few minutes, I just thought I would not be able to make it. But the mind-body win happened in a matter of 20 minutes, when my pace became better / much normal and I actually started to catch up. We walked well a few paces up the hill when we met the cold water bath! A tub of water which gets filled by a crevasse in the rock (HOW? Reasons unknown) helped us quench our thirst and refill our water supplies.

From there on, we stumbled into a lovely banyan tree sorts with lots of prop roots. It was one kind of a scene and looked almost out of the world. (Check Picture) Radha Krishnan also managed to bring out the child in him (or) the animal in him *ahem* by making a dash to the farthest end of the reddish rock boulder and posed as much as he could for us – the ardent photographers! A few more fathoms away from the prop roots, we found the lovely Dil Chahta Hain rock that Arun told us about. It was SIMPLY beautiful, surrounded by the yellow flowers and brilliant bluish bees. There the photographers (Kaja, Gandhi et al) came out of their skins and we clicked some utterly lovely snaps here! I never wanted to come back from that place *sighs* But we had a journey to make.

A long walk later, we were *this* close to the top when the unpredictable happened. Gandhi, Ganesh and a few others were leading the path for the rest of the pack – Radha Krishnan, Padma, me and Immanuel. It so happened, that we missed the trail to the top and we ventured into a different path. After a few whistles, shouts and making communications with Arun, we started the march to the top of the hill again. The last lap.

Atop the hill was the much awaited Pedha masoodhi (Big Mosque) which held shape considering the fact that the enemies tried to bring it down by a siege that lasted for 18 months! We had our lunch at the top of the hill. With a beautiful breeze against our face and almost sodden dosas! That’s when the MAN of quips chimed.

He : Hey, Sambhar enga ya? Where is my sambhar??

Chella sir : iru iru.. ippo thaaney sollirukkom… varum! :D

All : *LOLs*

Lunch time = 4.30 PM!

The home march : 2 hours.

Post lunch we started our downhill walk. Not being equipped with torches, we were to hit the foot of the hill before dusk. We rushed therefore, moving out in groups, swiftly adeptly crossing the points scored before Elephant grass, DCH rock, Water point. Where we stopped for a few minutes not having too much time to spare, we furthered down quickly and hit the foot of the hill around 6 PM.

Thereon, watching the dusk break was such a pleasure!

Thanks to all of them who initiated, joined and completed the trek! What an experience!

Bye from...

me

Courtesy : Sharon

Credit rolls:

P/s @Ganesh, Gandhi, Arun, Radha Krishnan sir, Prakash : HEAPS of thanks to you all for helping me throughout, consistently and making it possible for me to complete this trek! Its pretty motivating to have good positive spirited AND sportive people like you folks around! @Subha – mwhaha, you know for what! So glad to have met you! @Sharon,Kaaja – may your interest in photography flourish!! ;) @Cabmates – Radha Krishnan sir again, Chella sir – whow, you men were fountains of information! Immanuel – chancey illa ponga, how to bring humor in death situations’nu you can host a seminar! Thanks for the safe drive! :D :D @padma – thanks for the company and err… dry fruits!!

P/p/s Being a maiden trekker : I was under the pretension that Sunday I was gonna die of leg pain et al. But not at all! I managed to make a full fledged non veggie lunch and eat it too! :D PLUS I attacked Monday with a super fresh mind :P