Jamalgudda fort

Supposed to be one of Tipu Sultan's strongholds. It's a black rock hill with steep faces. First half of the the climb is easy but the second half is steep. The steps are high but hardly enough space for a foot to fit... and very steep. Ascending was one thing but descending was scary, one slip and that's it!


These pictures were taken sometime December 2002, during a visit to Dharmasthala with Mom, Deepi and Praveen. Deepi and I had climbed the hill while mom and Praveen waited at the base. The top was full of tall grass, we could hardly make out what lay ahead of us.


The first time I saw this place was sometime 1992 with Anish. Jamalabad (that's the other name) is about 22km from Dharmastala. We climbed one third way and gave up. Somehow the same had happened with Anish at Shivagange and Savandurga.



Jamalgudda is almost as tall as Shivagange with ruins on the top. The summit is small in area bit offers a fantastic view of the surrounding forest covered hills. Deepi had shot better pictures, may be sometime I'll get them from him and post them in this blog.

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