Madhugiri Fort

It was less than a week that I was back on my bike after the surgery. I wanted to go on a ride, starting in the morning which had not happened till then. So, I started around 6 AM for Madhugiri fort, north-west of Bangalore. It is a big monolithic rock, overlooking the town and has a fort built on the hill. I didn’t take the shortest route as the road is not good there. Went till Chikballapur on the Hyderabad highway and then took the other highway straight to Madhugiri. I was expecting heavy rains during the ride but got lucky. The weather was simply amazing: hardly any sun throughout the eight and a half hours. The ride from Chikballapur to Madhugiri also had some hilly patch, which was my first while driving. The way to the top of the fort was through stairs and I actually climbed almost one third of it. I could have gone further but thought I would be over-straining the leg. 25 kms from the town, there was a blackbuck reserve in a place called Maidanhalli. I distinctly remember the ride to and from the reserve because of many things. There was no road for the last 5 kms before the reserve and I had not been such a bumpy road for some time. Then, when I was very close to the reserve, a beetle entered my helmet and to make things worse, it got stuck somewhere in the visor.

The reserve was not big and planned like a national park. There was no person or vehicle for almost half an hour while I was in the reserve. Then, there were the beautiful butterflies all around and there were a couple whom I kind of followed on the bike. It was lovely to go slow and just ride along with them with for a few seconds. I saw two deer, one blackbuck and the other not a blackbuck, fighting each other. It was not a very intense fight but neither looked like a friendly affair. It felt like two professionals practicing for a boxing match, where they try to knock the other person down but don’t give their full strength. I was really exhausted during the last 50 kms or so from the airport to home. Loved the day and I really needed it. Also, I found this great link about the top 10 monolithic rocks in the world: http://www.touropia.com/largest-monoliths-in-the-world/