Fort pavagada is situated right inside -in the heart of the city.There is a small rock cut anjaneya swamy temple also called kote anjaneya swami at the bottom of the fort ,we prayed to lord anjaneya and started our trek by about 10:30 am
We started climbly slowly as the heat was simply too much -this place is mostly plains with a few mountains here and there.We were soon joined by a bunch of kids and we enjoyed a lot by talking to them and climbing up the fort.
This fort is well kept inspite of its non maintenance .We hardly found anybody in the fort on that day.A local guy called sadanand soon began showing us around the fort.
Once we reached the top of the fort,one can see a massive well which is supposed to be very deep.one can see the place of the simhasana with 2 elephants at the entrance in the open air.There are numerous watch towers at the top one can explore.We checked out the underground entrance which is supposed to run to a place somewhere in the city,one can explore this underground route if one comes prepared.
We then headed to a place which is supposed to be the coolest place on the fort,this place is apparently the place where the fort stored its milk products in two huge mud mounds.this place is surprisingly cooler even to this day.
By now we could see rains approaching and decided to check out the bheemna donne.We checked out this natural water storage place -the water here is supposed to be very sweet-also called bheemana donne.By now it started pouring heavily and we took shelter at one of the shelters at the corner of the fort .My friend prashanth had got something to eat and we all shared the eatables. We then checked out the shelter areas for the soldiers.The kid was about to throw the wrapper of the chips ,when i told him not to do so and to dispose all rubbish at dustbins only,impressing upon them to conserve nature and how it could degrade nature.Meekly he told that nobody ever told this to me.I dont hold the kid responsible -but it is high time the schools inculcate such small things which can go a long way in preserving nature.
Being the month of ramzan some kids headed straight to the small mosque in the fort.The pouring rain brought the temperature down much to my delight.This is one of my best experiences of a fort till date.By now the kids and the guy who showed us around wanted to take our leave and we thanked them for showing us around and giving us some very good company.The rain showed no signs of reducing.thankfully after about 15 minutes rain stopped and we decided to head to the topmost part of the fort.Just as we were moving ahead ,the natural swimming pool caught out attention-the really was impressed by the way they made best use of the natural areas around the fort.
We then headed to the topmost tier of the fort-the view from this place will just sweep you of your feet.We then started our descent from the fort.The sun came came out blazing and i had a tough time in the heat.We soon headed for bangalore in my maruti 800.
One can also visit the shani temple which again is very near to the fort.Also just on the outskirts of the city is kanive lakshmi narasimhaswamy devasthana ,although it was locked we prayed from outside and headed back to bangalore.
Pavagada is 180 kms from bangalore and i am glad i made it in 3 hours on the way back :)
ps: the approach to the fort in the beginning is slightly dirty ,so please watch out
