Whenever I travelled on the Tumkur Road I always used to wonder at a Rocky Mountain on the left side found soon after Dobbaspet. Being a Nature lover I always wanted to climb the rocks and explore the hill. Sometime later I read an article in the local weekly which informed me that this hill is indeed has a fort built over it by an ancient ruler of Tumkur Dist. ‘Ramarasa Nayaka’ of Kasba Nijigal and the fort was referred by different names Nijigal pahad, Siddara betta, Hale Nijigal Kote etc.

The hillfort is sited about 60 kms from Bangalore on the NH 4 (Bangalore-Pune road) amidst several other exotic hills and valleys, including Shivaganga hills, Siddaganga Mutt, Tumkur, Devarayanadurga hills and many more. Each of these places is a Rock Climbers Paradise, a Piligrims Salvation, and a picnic spot for the ordinary tourist. The uniqueness of Nijigal fort is that it not visible at all from the road or from the plains. Only when one starts climbing the steep incline towards the top, will one see the ramparts and walls of the fort. This feature might have been highly advantageous during wars in the olden days.

I mentioned about Nijigal to a few friends: Shiv Kumar, Deepak and Ashok. They were immediately enthusiastic to explore this unique fort. So we all decided to bike it up to the base of the fort where lies the Hale Nijigal Village leave our bikes and then trek up the hills to the fort.

We reached Hale Nijigal village around 10 am in the morning and after speaking to the villagers for a few minutes we started towards the fort. To our surprise we found that this Nijigal is actually consisting of two hillocks one on the backside and one which is seen to the road. We started tackling the smaller one which is not at all visible from the Road. One has to travel at least 2-km away from the National Highway to view this place. We soon reached the foot of the mountains and started our ascent. We were lucky to catch a glimpse of a Mongoose, few large (really large) Chameleons and some birds.

The first leg of the mountain ended at an ancient Veerabhadreswara temple which is built inside a cave. The cave is big enough to accommodate at least 200 people comfortably. There were signs of cooking and camping here, so I guess that we were not the only visitors to this place. On further exploration we discovered many more things, some of which were ancient and some were recently built, some naturally formed and some man made.

One such feature is a naturally formed water tank. The tank seemed as though it has never been used in the past couple of 100 years. The water was totally covered with algae and looked bright green. This is a tank which has been formed naturally and rain water gets collected there regularly.

There was another way leading upwards towards the top of the mountain. After getting a closer look at the water point we proceeded in the cave passage towards the top of the mountain. After about a couple of hundred meters we found a small temple of Nandi the official vehicle of Lord Shiva (One of the important Hindu Gods). We rested for sometime and checked our route towards the top of the hill. For all practical purposes it seemed that we had reached the end point as there was no beaten path towards the top. Hence we decided to make our own route and climb the hill.

We started scrambling up the slope with Shiv in the lead. In many a places we had to help each other climb the steep and slippery rocky slopes. After about an hours climb Deepak got stuck in a place from where he couldn't climb up and we were feeling dicey about climbing down to help him up. I was too far up and Ashok was almost near me and Shiv was in the centre of the slope. Deepak was just not feeling up to it to climb alone. So we decided to just sit there and take some rest while the enormity of the situation dawned upon us. After sometime Deepak made up his mind and somehow climbed to where Shiv was sitting and from then on Shiv coaxed him ahead to reach the place where I was.

After this climb we traversed to the right and turned and were presented a treat to our eyes – the breathtaking majesty of the Main Nijigal hill. The top of the small hillock was covered by thick scrub jungle mainly containing Lantana and other thorny bushes. Our garments got stuck in the thorns innumerable times and Deepak who was wearing real loose fitting shirt was the worst hit. He had to stop at many places to free his shirt and then move ahead.

It was already 4pm by then and we were all hungry as wolves and it was time for us to start our return journey. It is very risky to travel by night in two wheelers on the National Highway. At the top of the hill we stopped for rest and had a drink of water and enjoyed the surroundings, taking in the beauty of the main Nijigal hill promising ourselves that we will return and climb the main hill.

Srinidhi Raghavendra