Karadigudda Outing

Peaceful New Year's Day at Karadigudda

For New Year's Day, I was determined to escape Bangalore's city buzz. What started as a plan for five dwindled to three (Akshay, Vignesh, and I) due to a car shortage. But I refused to cancel our New Year's Day plans, so we decided to explore the lesser-known Karadigudda/Maribetta. Vignesh arrived at my place at 6:30 AM, and by 7:00 AM, we were off to Kanakapura. We picked up Akshay at the 17km marker around 8:30 AM. Vignesh and I enjoyed a tasty breakfast at Adigas before continuing our smooth, if slightly "butt-paining," bike ride to Kanakapura.

We pulled into Kanakapura at 10:00 AM, grabbed our packed mixed pulav lunch from Sagar, and then it was time for some local navigation. After a bit of searching, we found the "kutcha" (mud) road leading to the hill. The advantage of being on bikes was that we could ride quite close to Karadigudda. We parked when the terrain became too difficult for the bikes to proceed. Karadigudda turned out to be more of a low hill than a towering mountain, but its serene solitude was truly delightful—we had the entire place to ourselves. The surrounding landscape was a patchwork of once-wasteland now transformed into agricultural fields. This area is also excellent for bouldering, with several good boulders and "chimneys" (narrow passages between rocks). We spent some time at a nearby boulder before heading for the peak. Being a small hill, there was no defined path; we simply navigated through the bushes and thorns. Once at the summit, the view was incredibly soothing and peaceful. After about an hour of soaking it all in, we made our way back down to our bikes, enjoyed our packed lunch, and headed home.

It was, truly, a wonderful and peaceful New Year's Day outing on January 1st, 2013.