Shivagange

            Shivagange is a mountain peak located near Dabaspet, Tumkur and 54 km from Bangalore with a height of 1368 meters. This mountain is shaped as a shivalinga. This hill has various spots to visit within such as Gangadhareshwara temple, Sri Honnadevi Temple, Olakal Theertha, Pathalagange etc. 

A historical rock statue of Nandi carved on top of a steep rock is considered as a spell binding sculpture because of its narrow location.

Also this is one of the best trekking place around Bangalore. Total trekking will take around 2 hours (depend on members). As its quite big trek, I would suggest to start in morning at least by around 7:30 - 8 AM so that trekking will be bit easy. We went in month of September and we started trekking by morning 7:30AM. If you are starting from Bangalore, better have breakfast at Bangalore and then start towards Shivagange hills. And have one bottle of water per person. If required, you can buy it on the way while trekking. There will be small shops on the way selling few snacks items/water bottles. For time being you can have those, however they are not much hygienic.

Once you start trekking within few mins you can see temple.. 

And there itself is a way in right side just before temple entrance which will take you to Pathalagange

If you walk in that path for 2-3 Mins you can see Pathalagange. There is a pond kind of water source. You can’t watch it clearly, but you can come to know about existence of water there. Some people will get this water in bottles as theertha. Come back to same point where you took right deviation and continue you trekking. 

 You can see some architectures in between.

This is the initial stage and trekking will be easy. 

From here to some distance it will be simple pathway. If you turn back you can get below view.

After that you will get Olakal theertha. This is also temple, and there is a rock carved, which is of about diameter 1 foot and it's litle deep, People will try their luck there. There is a believe that only good people/having luck will get theertha in it(Not sure to what extent it’s true. However, I got theertha when I tried :P ). After that you can take rest for some time and continue your trekking. 

Within few mins you will get another small pond like water source which has clean water and you can drink it as well. 

Now you have finished nearly 50% of trekking.After this actual trekking starts. I won’t explain much here, hope below pictures can describe better.

You can see some small shops in between.

Real thrill is at last 5% of the trekking. Awesome experience.

Lot of monkeys are there at hilltop. So be very careful for your belongings.

Nandi at the top:

 Here are some views from hill top.

If you go to other side, you can see Shakunthala drop where Natyarani Shakunthala committed suicide.

You can spend some time with cold breeze and start trekking down. 

If you started trekking before 8 in the morning some of the places mentioned above could be closed, then you can visit those while trekking down.

Thank You.