Our friend Srinu's visit to our home was long pending. We were happy when he messaged about his plan to spend a few days with us. Srinu drove down from Hyderabad on Aug 24th, reached Pushpa's office by 6-45 pm and came home around 7-20 pm. Nothing was planned for the following day except that we went to meet Mama who had met Srinu once in Aug 2014. The next day i.e. Aug 26th Saturday, we went to Neerasagar reservoir, spent a few hours there and returned home for lunch. Sunday mornings is reserved for bicycling. with so many interesting trails I was wondering what direction to go. I decided on Navalur Gudda, a woody hill about 3 km from our place. I'd bicycled on Navalur hill a couple of times, I knew it would be fun. Pushpa hadn't been to this hill yet.
Sunday morning, we woke up early and set to start the ride at 5-30. We rode along Chigari bus track and took the service road to Navalur village. BTW, Navalur is my maternal great grandfather's native. We cut across the village, navigating its narrow lanes. Once out of the village, we took a dirt track which goes around the base of the hill which is 1.4 km long and 0.5 km at its widest point. The hill has been fenced by Karnataka forest department. It is being converted into a eco park on the same lines as Sanjivini Park. At the southern end of the hill is the gate which is open currently. Probably entry will be restricted to fixed hours once the ongoing work is done. Another dirt track starts at the gate and runs along the fence. We stopped about half a kilometer into the track.
From this point, the track is uphill, gradual at the beginning and steeper as it goes deeper into the woods. I was riding Montra, a hybrid bicycle not really meant for this terrain. Srinu and Pushp were on MTBs, ideal for this terrain. The slimmer Hybrid tires can slip easily and every bump could be felt. The MTB tires neutralized almost every bump or ditch and felt stable. Perhaps, you could read the blog post
MTB vs Hybrid to know how different these bikes are.
Navalur hill has two peaks, I'll call them eastern and western peaks. The latter being higher than the former. On the eastern peak is a small temple called as Basavanna Gudi and on the western peak is a watch tower. My plan was to go towards the Basavanna Gudi and take a break. Srinu suggested we go to the watch tower. The narrow trail going up the slope had a lot of loose pebbles, riding uphill would be dicey. However, Srinu went up three-fourth way and gave up. Pushp and I parked our bicycles and walked up.
Looking in the northerly direction. On the northern and eastern sides of this hill are black soil plains as far as eyes can see. Pushp and I have a couple of bicycling routes there as well.
Panning to the right; Basavanna Gudi comes into view. Suryadeva is breaking through the clouds.
This is the south-easterly view. In a distance are two groups of buildings- those are SDM Medical College and SDM Dental College campuses -both are situated off Dharwad-Hubballi road. Between the hill and Dharwad-Hubballi road are agricultural plots, housing layouts, a small industrial area and Navalur Railway Station.
Great views from the watch tower. Time to leave.
A few pictures before leaving.
Upward ride is one thing but downward ride can be too risky. The loose pebbles can play havoc with balance & control. Safer to walk it down.
Thanks to the forest department for the watch tower. And a request to all visitors not to litter and mess up this beautiful place.
We retraced the dirt track back to the gate and exited. Instead of going along the eastern side i.e. the way we came here, we took another route to Navalur village. We entered the village again and exited on the lake side, passed through numerous housing layouts and hit Dharwad-Hubballi road.
Here's the route of our 16 km ride tracked by Google Fit. The lower loop is around half of Navalur & Navalur Gudda.
Though a short ride, this would remain one of the memorable ones.
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