ShivaGanga Biking cum trek

ShivaGanga Biking cum trek
Date: 18 march 2007
Participants : Harish,Jatin,Rohit,Ganesh,Santosh,Sridhar & Sudha
Bikes: Bullet, Pulsar, CBZ, CT 100 & TVS Victor
Total distance :140 Kms
Route : Go straight on NH4 Tumkur highway till Dabaspet(20KMs from Nelamangala). Take left turn and travel for 6 KMs to reach Shivagange


View from top : on way to peak


View from top : on way to peak



Steep route :On way to peak

Having some photo session at peak

Having some photo session at peak

Having some photo session at peak

Having some photo session at peak

Having some photo session at peak

Having some photo session at peak

Posing in front of Nandi

Our gang which went to shivagange

On way to peak

At Anthargange

Bandar bhi peeta hai Sprite

Starting point

I wonder who tied these bells : Really Amazing

Shiva Gange View

It was going to be a long weekend, as Monday was an off for our office due to Ugadi festival. If it was not summer, then myself and my friends would have planned for a trip / trek. Usually we do not prefer going out for long trips in the heat. But this time Rohit took an initiative and planned for a biking trek to Shivagange. I was interested in it, as it is a holy place and I had not visited it before. I usually do not prefer biking if the ride is longer, as u cannot enjoy the place u visit due to tiredness of biking. Since this was going to be only 150 kms ride, I had no problems.

The activity was planned to start on Sunday morning at 6 AM. We had decided to meet at Corporation by 6:45 AM. I packed up few things (water bottle,biscuits ,camera and mp3 player) on Saturday night and went to sleep by 2 AM in a disturbed mood after seeing INDIA loosing their world cup match against meanows Bangla. Woke up by 6 AM, freshened and reached Corporation by 6:50. As few of my friends had not turned up I was asked by Rohit to continue to Yeshwantpur metro to give company to Sudha (Rohits collegue). I reached yeshwantpur ,but was not able to find Sudha.Actually i was waiting below the yeshwantpur bridge,where as sudha was waiting infront of Metro. Then we all meet infront of Metro and started by 7:45 AM.Jatin (My college friend) accompaniedme in my bike.

There was lot of traffic in NH4. It took us around 30 minutes to cross Nelamangala. We then moved at good pace ,crossed the Toll gate and reached a Flyover ,where we saw a boarding saying Shivaganga is 6 kms and we need to take the road on left to Flyover .We gave a break there to make sure that all of them meet, discuss and proceed. Jatn had taken out his new digital SLR camera (Pentax K110) to take a snap.He took some time to pack his camera back in the bag.In the mean while all our other friends had left. We also started hoping to catch up with them.We were not able to sight them even after traveling for some 4kms.I asked Jatin to call up Rohit and check whether we had missed the route.Rohit asked us to just keep coming straight. We moved ahead at 80kms perhour, but were not able to sight any of our friends. We were wondering what happened to other friends, have we lost our track. Have they gone a head in search of some good Hotel to have breakfast. We crossed the tollgate exit and I was sure that we had lost track. We called up Rohit again and said that we have crossed the toll gate. Rohit did not have much idea, so he handed the phone to Ganesh (My trek friend) and he informed us that we have gone around 15-20kms ahead. He asked us to return back and take a road going towards Dabbaspet. We were actually required to take the road left to Flyover, move for 50 mts and then take a Left deviation. We had not taken this Left deviation and Rohit had asked us to just keep coming straight. Cursing Rohit, we came back to Dabbaspet and reached Shivagange.

At Dabbaspet u should pay vehicle entry fee of RS: 5,as maintenance and improvement fee.NH4 is good , but the deviation road is not so good. When we reached Shivagange,we saw Rohit and Co taking the steps and going to the Temple. As there was no Mobile signal,we tried to call him by giving him a shout. When they did not respond, me and Jatin decided to have Breakfast and then join them later. We went to a nearby hotel, had Idli and then started our journey.Jatin saw the sparrowsin the hotel ad said that he is seeing sparrows after along time. U cant sight sparrows in Bangalore ,the reason as per my knowledge is that Mobile signals affect the sparrows and hence we cannot find them in Bangalore.

Take road next to flyover to reach Shivagange

While taking the steps on the way to main Shiva temple, there is Harake Ganapati. After few more steps, there is main Shiva temple. The speciality of this temple is that the main Garbagudhi is inside a huge single rock. The other speciality of this temple is that,if u put Ghee on Shiva Linga for Abhishek, u get back Butter. We had heard that Ghee is prepared by heating butter, but we had not heard the reverse. We had a darshan in the temple and meet our bichde sathis. Rohit & Co had waited for us below for some 20 minutes and then started to the temple. Rohit and Co had not done their Breakfast. So they went down to have their breakfast asking me , Jatin and Sudha to carry ahead to the peak.

The first question, we asked Sudha was whether it was her first trek. The reason being that she had come wearing sandals, Jeans jacket, scarf and holding a Umbrella. She replied saying it was her first trek and we replied saying that u have chosen the wrong season to begin ur campaign.
We moved towards the peak taking some break for lassi, juice and Photography sessions, exploring the options of new Digital SLR camera which had an amazing zoom lens.The temperature was high,so we had to take more fluids to avoid dehydration. Luckily u get lots of stalls all throughout the way selling lassi, juice etc.

At one point Sudha asked us how far is the peak,for which I replied saying that is the peak pointing towards the peak. She said that i guess that we should also make it up to the peak. I responded to her by asking whether she was bored of our photography sessions and whether she felt that we were wasting time. She just smiled.(She has a good smile J)

I explained her the necessity of having Photography sessions : First we can have the photographs for our future reference as part of our wonderful moments. I always say that Moments are lost, only memories remain forever and photos are part of ur memories. Secondly it gives us much needed time to relax.


We reached Nandi ( Vehicle of Lord Shiva) statue near the peak. Jatin took his camera from the bag to take some snaps and in the mean time, a monkey took Jatin’s bag and started running. I had to run behind it , wage a war and get the bag back. The monkeys at Shivagange are very ferocious. There are lots of monkeys, if ur bag zip is opened or if u have some eatables in ur hand, then forget it. If you are not carrying any stick/staff to scare the monkeys, then be ready to get attacked by the monkeys. They not only snatch bags/carry bags from you, but also check your pockets for any eatables.
We then took few steps to reach the Peak. In the peak there are 2 Shiva temples and 'Shantala Drop' - a suicide point similar to the Tippu drop in Nandi hills. Queen Shantala, wife of Hoysala King Vishnuvardhana committed suicide here. The drop is more than 500 ft.
We went to the View point, took some snaps and had a spectacular Photo session. Jumping from rocks, pushing the rocks etc……In the mean time , Rohit and Co joined us. We went to the temple, roamed around and planned to return.

An amazing incident happened when we were about to return. A girl was carrying a Sprite bottle in her hand. Suddenly a ferocious monkey approached her. The girl got frightened and threw the Sprite bottle. The monkey took the bottle, opened the cap and drank the entire Sprite. So we said “Bandar bhi Peeta hai” Sprite!!!!!!!!!!!. U can see the snap.


We started our return journey. In the way we had some drinks break and we started pulling each others leg. First was Rohit, who was pulled by telling about his Non Onion food habits. We pulled his leg saying that he orders Onion free Onion Dosa and some old incidents.Ganesh and Co started pulling my leg over my Matrimonial (Solo) photos that I usually take in all trips / Treks. Ganesh went to an extent that he said that I daily send my Solo photos in Good Morning mails to potential Females to impress them. Pull others leg a lot, so I am also used to others pulling my leg, I just smile and respond to their comments.

On our return journey, we visited Olakal teertha, a temple inside a single big boulder of rock. You have murthis of Lord Shiva,,Ganesh and in the back side u have this Olaklal teertha. Olakal is a Kannada word which means manual wet-grinder, manual means one has to rotate the top oval shaped stone manually.
There is a 15 cm round opening, from which you can see holy water (Teertha). There is a saying that people who have sinned more will not be able to touch the water and the water level decreases when they try to touch it. We had to put our hands deep till 2 feet to touch the water. All of us wee able to touch the water, may be we have sinned less :-).
On the return journey we even saw 3 Bells tied to end of a big rock, we just wondered how did someone mange to reach that point and tie the bells. We could not imagine reaching to that point.


We reached down by 3:30 PM and started back our journey to Bangalore. Reached our homes by 5:30 / 6 PM.

For More Details About Shivagange Visit : http://www.dreamroutes.org/southern/shivagange.html