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| Ankushagiri Fort Trek |
- Place: Ankushagiri Fort Trek (Tamil Nadu)
- Difficulty: Easy Trek.
- Distance: 80 x 2 = 160 km.
- Directions: Bangalore > Attibele > Shoolagiri > Ankushagiri Fort.
- Krew: Datta (Dattu), Karthik (Sp).
- Bikes: Pulsar.
- Previous Visit: Thattakal Fort trek.
- Budget: Rs 232/head (Petrol = 320/2; Breakfast = 120/2; Tea = 24/2)
IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:
Alright, Ankushagiri Fort Trek is a serene, tranquil, beautiful, ok, ran out of words. You get the picture. One of the most peaceful treks done till. The climb is easy with a clear trail. The place kind of holds you on, there was no will to descend back, such beauty :) - Every TN trek is hitting us different, truly beautiful forts.
And this marked 34 weeks, 33 treks, ~8 months, non-stop, since Oct 12th, 2025. This was our 21st trek in 22 weeks for 2026, with 19 first ascents. :)
INTRO & PLAN:
The Grand TN expedition was in full swing (Rayakottai Fort Trek, Anchetty Durgam, Ratnagiri trek, Udedurgam Trek. Mallapadi Fort, Jagadevi Fort Trek, Thattakal Fort Trek). With our endurance monster's Dattu, last expedition to Kunagalu Betta, he had been on some serious sporting spree. With ultimate frisbee, pickleball, and cricket, he had hurt his adductors pretty badly. But when asked for a short climb, a happy "I will try to climb, select a mild one" was the answer.
Removed my dusty diary, and with all the place names written in pencil, with a few scratched off, decided it would be Ankushagiri. Reason? - to continue the first ascent and at the same time introduce Dattu to TN side of things :)
TIME: 12:00 (21 May, 2026)
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| Wish us luck in the TN expeditions :) |
ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:
Yes, this time was up by 03:00, stretched out a bit and hit the floor to do some pushups. After about 20min, sent a text to Dattu, and he replied at 03:30 haha. After getting ready, left home at 04:45, towards the total opposite side of town to pick up Dattu. The ride was smooth and dark. Blasted some slow doom metal and growling at the top of my lungs made it to Mahalakshmi layout - where a happy Dattu already stood awaiting. Once he hopped onto the bike, we started the trip.
TIME: 05:15
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| Gloomy skies and Cold weather |
RIDE 1: (Bangalore > Hosur > Shoolagiri > Ankushagiri Fort)
The ride began with riding back to my place, haha. Yeah and then we shot off towards the Hosur road. The ride was actually chaotic. With majority of people purging out of the city, we decided to take it slow and at our own place. We reached Attibele at about 06:00 to belt on some nice breakfast.
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| A good breakfast - fuel for the day |
With our tummies happy, we cruised along slowly. With the main 6-lane road undergoing construction, there was a huge traffic congestion post Hosur. Thanks to being on the bike, we squeezed through all of it. Yeah, with the strict NO GMAPS rule, we hit the open roads. As the roads opened up, the skies closed down. The air was cool and dark - kinda the way we like it. We spoke about K-dramas and discussed various TV series, and allowed the bike to glide on its own.
As we reached Shoolagiri, we pulled over for a stop to stretch. Now, from here, we knew we had to reach the STAR BRIYANI spot and then head left. And so we did, to perfection. Post, which, with country roads were really beautiful. Finding the right route sometimes steals us from tapping into the societal web, hence we played a game - spot the most fearsome looking person on the road, and we go ask them for directions haha. Finally, an old man was chosen, and we went ahead and asked: "Which way to Thimmarayaswamy temple?" He looked to the side, and there was a big board which said "Thimmarayaswamy temple with an arrow mark clear". We had got our answers and tapped the web, off we went :)
Parking our bikes at the temple parking, we awoke the lizard's spirit and were ready for the trek :)
TIME: 07:30
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| Dattu is ready to test his adductors :) |
ANKUSHAGIRI FORT TREK
ASCENT:
The ascent took us about 40minutes. This is a trek where time should not be taken into consideration, as the trail is really beautiful and can be enjoyed as one wishes. But one word of caution, do not follow the GMAPS point to the trek start point. - now you know why we don't use the GMAPS :)
Search for the "Thimmarayaswamy temple" (Co-ordinates: 12.67, 78.08) and from here there is a straightforward trail.
Like always, I have divided the trek into the following phases: 1. Initial trails, 2. Stone Mantap, and 3. Final fort walls. So, here we go, keep up with me, here!!
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| Initial Trail |
Phase 1: The Initial Trial
This is a very easy part. We could spot the two ancient temples from the parking lot itself. A narrow trail followed clearly, ridden with boulders. A fascinating thing about this trail was that there are usually misleading boulder paths that tempted us a lot, but keeping the option open, we took the mud path.
Another unusual thing was the silence. It descended like a heavy anvil and, with butterflies (a lot of them), made us feel we were descending (or rather ascending) into another world altogether. The forest embraced us softly, and it felt good :)
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| The stone mantap and the fallen pillar |
Phase 2: Stone Mantap
Now, the route got interesting. Some amount of exploration made the whole ordeal fun. With the skies gloomy above us and the trail technicality easy, we enjoyed the experience. Many posts we had researched suggested this was the top, and as were about to settle, we could see some more fort wall higher than it. One rule of the mountains we always follow, keep climbing until only the sky is above your head - no land should. And so we did, pushing to the final point.
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| The final push |
Phase 3: Final Fort Walls
Ok, this was a good call. As the wind speeds picked up, we actually started to feel cold. With the relentless summer wave of South India, it had been a while since we had felt the cold. As we cautiously reached the summit point, we could spot a lot of fort walls in ruins, and the final summit mantap was in total shambles. There were a lot of wishing rocks placed all around it; it was both beautiful and sad to look at. But it was what it was at that point in time, so we decided to leave it as it was and looked for a proper place to crash.
TIME: 08:15
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| The summit mantap in shambles |
TOP:
As we found a nice spot, the wind speeds picked up, and the it was beginning to feel cold. We had to actually wear our jackets and sleep. It was so unusual. The silence was heavy and all we could hear was the wind blowing. Felt so good. We were lying there on the rocks, then Dattu suggested we stay at the top for an hour and just relax.
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| Dattu resting at the summit |
After sleeping for an hour, neither of us felt like going back down. It was actually hard. It was very serene with zero people. Oh yeah, one eagle was playing sneak-peak at us, wondering if we were food. After about an hour at the summit, imbibing all the tranquility, we decided to leave back before the place lost its aura for us staying too long.
TIME: 09:15
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| Into the forest we head :) |
DESCENT:
The descent again took us about 40minutes. We paced ourselves slowly, taking into account Dattu's adductor injury. He had no problems, but yeah, being cautious never hurts. The trek showed its real beauty during the descent, the multiple paths actually confused us. The trail as such was easy in terms of technicality of the climb, but confusing in terms of the routes.
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| Back on the initial trail |
It was fun as we made it back to the temple. There were a lot of cars and people who had come to the temple. We found a few kids playing around the old ruins of the temple. Smiling at the kids, we made it back to our bikes. There was a fair of some sort, where all snacks were being prepared and a lot of toys were being sold on the roadside. Was so tempted to buy a tipper / JCB plastic toy but couldn't fit into my small bag pack :)
TIME: 10:00
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| Dattu pulling off a good one - a healing trek |
RIDE 2: (Ankushagiri Fort > Hosur > Bangalore)
As we left the temple premises, we had one look at the hillock, thanked her for the good peaceful experience and more importantly, "LETTING US GO BACK". The ride back was a peaceful one, with the traffic lighter, we cruised along at a decent pace to reach back Attibele. We pulled over there for some hot tea, then we cruised back to reach Banashankri. We decided to skip beer this time, dropped Dattu back at his home and then rode back home :)
TIME: 13:00
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| Dattu at the summit of Ankushagiri |
CONCLUSION:
Well, as always with the Grand TN expedition, this trek hit us so differently. It was so peaceful and tranquil that we had no mood to finish it. It felt like a happy quicksand. The trail was smooth but fun. And the exploration was pure joy :)
Past 34 weeks, we have pulled off 33 treks, ~6500kms in total, ~8 months, non-stop. The Flame lives on \m/
KREW:
Dattu: With a hurt adductor, pulling of Ankushagiri, what can be said about this endurance monster. Pulled it off like a morning walk :)
Sippy: Happy with the gran TN expedition. Next time, will see sign boards and then speak to people haha :)
Until next time, Ta-da Cia \m/
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| Onwards and Forward. Sippy signing off :) |
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