Jamalabad fort also called GadiKal kote (more polular amongst the locals) is a old ruins of a fort located off Beltangadi. This fort is around 10 kms from Beltangadi town. The fort is atop a hill, and the trek is all about getting to the peak of the hill.
We were four people for this trip/trek. It was the first time Anand Pai had decided to try himself for a trek. The other two people for the trek/trip were Naveen and Kotresh. Naveen was an experienced campaigner while Kotresh was a novice not his first trip/trek though.
We started off as usual from our beloved college (Which is ideally located for a lot of treks) early after “jugad” of 2 bikes.. We left early from college at around 5:45 am with the intension of reaching BeltangaDi for our morning breakfast. Our usual route for treks near BeltangaDi was via HaleangaDi, and then the route to go to MooduBidre then to BeltangaDi. It is a route though some winding roads some nice scenery.. not much of traffic, mostly though villages. A pleasant ride through the road will take us to the main town. Some places the road gets bad due to heavy rains but still a nice journey.
We reached BeltangaDi around 730 am then had our Tiffin in a hotel - I think the name is "Hotel Samatha" then spent around 1 hr there with some food packing, some fruit juice.. and then back we were on the bikes to continue our journey.
The fort is around a drive of 20 min or even less, from the town of
Well the trek is more of a climb on steps rather than any serious climb. The total number of steps is around 1000, but you won’t realize all the steps you just think its ruins or its just rock. Humm… leave that aside... all that matters is the climb.
The climb starts off with some well maintained steps, and then we slowly start climbing steeper and steeper domains. We see a rock face after some time; we get a nice view of the Kudremukh mountain range from this open rock face. We took some rest here. Anand who was doing his first trek was almost worn out and was making it very slowly this early. Kotresh was also in a similar state. We had some lemons along with us, just gave one each to Anand and Kotresh (Lemons help us conserve our energy.... I don’t know what exactly it does). Kotresh having received the lemon and tasting it was on his feet and running to the top!!! You now know what energy it gives ha ha!!! He did not stop till he reached the peak. After some rest here we enter into a shrub laden region where we just climb following on some foot trails that were left by earlier trekkers. This trail follows though some fort walls, we have to look carefully to realize these things. Some places the rock walls are on the edge of this hill.. you can peep down and you see some place nearly 500ft deep.. If you have vertigo be careful this is just the starting point for you, there are many more to come down the lane. Just don’t worry about the taking pics for now... you will have many more nice spots to take on the peak. Continue on the trail it opens up into another set of steps.. which will take you to the peak. The height of these individual steps is much more than you can expect. On one side you have the rock surface of the fort while on the other you have nothing except a small cut out of the same rock surface... well you see on to you left in the climb and you will have your vertigo no doubt. It’s just that thrilling to go out there. Just imagine what if I slip!! Oh it’s going to be a fall of nearly 900ft to the base of the hill… That thought is surely going to come.
The specialty of this hill is its isolated from other ranges stands tall and dominant even from a distance. It gives a good view of all the villages in the surrounding. This is the reason why Tippu would have like to build his fort on such a strategic location. On once side you see the Western Ghats, on another you see the vast plains of
Continue on with this steps and you will get into the "fort palace" I think this what it is. At the peak you have a small shelter I think served as the palace for Tippu. You also find a have a small pond…guess for storing water from the rains for the palace in olden days.. You can’t get water from the pains no doubt about it. You have an antenna I don’t know which service provider it belongs to... nice thing to have at the top. We had been to this fort just a few days after the rainy season... so the grass had grown to be tall and it was really hard to find any path to look around the fort. We just had some open space and shorter grass at a place so it was mostly there that we spent our time.
The place is really nice and am sure is a paradise for photographers in case you want some real nice views. Guess the sunset would just be too good. But you have to have nice lights to get down. Early morning gives another nice view with the Sun rise behind the
We spent some time at the peak, we had taken nearly 1 and a half hour to climb it... it can be much faster if you have people who have the stamina to climb it in one go. Anand Pai considered this an achievement, this is the first time he had done something like that and still remembers it to this day. He was all high the whole day. We took another 45 min to get down and were at the base of the hill.
We had completed a nice trek a memorable one for the photographer in me.. I will go back at least for the photos.... Don’t miss it if you are a photographer.
With all these in memory we set back to college.. it was a fun day out for we four. We came back to our hostels and had a nice nap.. the day's trek/trip was over and now it was in our memories that all this remains.. Cherish it when I think about it.. Just cherish it......
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