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| Thattakal Fort Trek |
- Place: Thattakal Fort Trek (Tamil Nadu)
- Difficulty: Difficult Trek.
- Distance: 125 x 2 = 250 km.
- Directions: Bangalore > Attibele > Krishnagiri > Thattakal Fort.
- Krew: Anwar (Bhai), Karthik (Sp).
- Bikes: Pulsar.
- Previous Visit: Kunagalu Betta Trek.
- Budget: Rs 225/head (Petrol = 380/2; Water + Sting = 70/2)
IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:
Alright, Thattakal Fort had its reputation of being the toughest fort hill in the region, and guess what, it lived up to its expectations. Thattakal Fort is a massive hill fort in the Krishnagiri District and offers a very tough forest exploratory climb. I am writing this article with 18thorns in both hands.
And this marked 33 weeks, 32 treks, 7.5 months, non-stop, since Oct 12th, 2025. This was our 20th trek in 21 weeks for 2026, with 18 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). With Bhai leaving on official work for a month, we decided to hit one of the toughest hillocks - Thattakal Fort Trek.
TIME: 12:00 (15 May, 2026)
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| The mighty thattakal fort seen afar |
ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:
Yes, this time was up by 2:30am. Yes, and fresh, well rested. Did a few push-ups and pull-ups to get the blood flowing. Had a sip of coffee and left home by 4:15am. Cruised through the first 30km in the city, listening to some slow doom metal, and made it to Bhai's place by 5:15am. After a formal greeting, we took off from Bangalore.
TIME: 05:15
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| Lost as usual in the forest. |
RIDE 1: (Bangalore > Attibele > Krishanagiri > Thattakal Fort)
The ride was surprisingly smooth. We had got used to the conditions. With the strict NO GMAPS rule in place, we cruised until Krishnagiri, talking about Vijay (Thalapaty), his rise to CM, and the IPL, and how our families were doing. After Krishnagiri, our focus locked in, and, surprisingly, without asking anybody, we navigated each turn to perfection, spotted the hillock from kilometres away, and made it to the base of the hillock.
Parking our bikes and locking our helmets in a farm nearby, we awoke the "lizard's spirit" and were set for the trek, little did we know what was instored for us.
TIME: 07:15
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| The trek begins |
THATTAKAL FORT TREK
ASCENT:
The ascent took us about 90 minutes. And +80% of the trek is in thick forest filled with thorny trees and shrubs. NEVER GO HERE ALONE, and TRY THIS only if you are experienced.
I would say most of the time you would be lost and disillusioned, hence the order of traits required to complete this one would be calmness, endurance and grit. This is not an easy one, guys!
Like always, I have divided the trek into the following phases: 1. Initial trails, 2. Dense forest, and 3. Final fort walls. So, here we go, keep up with me, here!!
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| The initial trails at Thattakal Fort |
Phase 1: The Initial Trail
This is quite an easy stretch. It might take around 10 minutes to complete this one. The forest really starts to engulf you here. The silence and the animals' sounds could be shaky at the start, but you'll get used to it.
The sunlight will slowly evaporate, hence making the climb slightly spooky, but also fun. One thing we always did was try to align ourselves with the main hillock here. Following the trail will lead you to a hillock on the right side, which is not the actual fort hill, but just a viewpoint.
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| Initially, a clear trail exists |
Looking at the trails and the ease, we felt good. But we knew the Fort Hill was far far away, and we had a long way to go. So we dashed through this stretch in a jiffy. The trail ends up near a small anicut. Post, which you would have to start re-orienting yourself towards the main fort hill, which can be seen unmistakably through the forest's canopy.
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| Bhai and the main fort hill |
Phase 2: Forest section.
Buckle up, this is the main meat of the trek. It took us over an hour to navigate this section. The reason being it is a dense forest with heavy thorns. The forest literally put us down multiple times. But like Naruto, we keep getting up, haha.
The trails vanished, and we had to kick-start our landscape reading instincts. Studying the water flow path, leaves settlement and the rock formation, we took turns and one of us navigated, and the other kept a lookout.
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| How the heck, do we get back to our bikes? |
With the forest completely shrouding us, the sweat never really evaporated. Make our faces drip with it, giving us a factual reality of how much water we were actually losing. This shook us pretty hard. We took regular breaks, hydrating ourselves in the middle of dead silence and thick forest all around us.
We had picked up a stick to help us move the thorn creepers aside. Still few got us real good, with few thorns embedded deep within our palms and hands we grounded through. Hands were busted and bleeding by now, but eyes locked on the prize ;)
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| Bhai squeezing through a tricky spot |
The opening of the canopy to open skies above felt so good. We could get a good sense of bearing and view of the direction. At one point, we hit an impasse; either we climb a rock face straight up or navigate through the forest. Having had enough of the forest, we tried to climb up, and BAM.. the rock face had mud with thorns on it. I slid down the rock face, with my hands trying to press and get a grip against the rock, infested with thorns. Yeah, my palms were bleeding and f,ew more thorns were embedded inside. Damn! The forest wanted us back, so it was the forest route!
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| Bhai heading towards the first fort wall |
Phase 3: Final Fort Walls
Ok, what we did to reach the fort wall is as follows. The hill is near vertical and impossible to climb. There are clear fort walls and buildings on top, hence what followed would be, there is clear route. Hence we pushed through the forest to hit the rock face. Then circumnavigated it, until we saw something that delighted us - ancient steps leading to the fort entrance. With sweat dripping down like a tributary, we ran up the steps to navigate the two fort walls and reach the top of Thattakal Fort :)
TIME: 09:00
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| Sippy is delighted reaching the summit |
TOP:
Took of our trek jackets, and trust me mine was soaking wet. Felt like Goku's clothes, weighed a ton. Removing it, made me feel so light. Lifted my arms and embraced the winds. Bhai then whipped out two boxes - bread omlet and biscoff gulkand bread. By the way, we had done the trek without breakfast. Belted on the breakfast like no tomorrow, hydrated ourselves and then CRASHED. A strong power nap for about 15-20minutes felt so refreshing.
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| Bread omelette and Biscoff Gulkand Bread |
The skies were gloomy and cool. Felt good and fortunate that we had trekked on such a day. With the monsoon around the corner, we didn't want to linger around for long. So, taking a deep breath and hydrating ourselves one last time, we decided to head back down as we knew it wouldn't be an easy one through the forest.
TIME: 10:00
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| A final pic before heading down into the forest again |
DESCENT:
The descent took us about 90minutes. Yeah, the sun was up now and then trying to peek through the clouds. Now, this really didn't matter as we navigated the fort walls in a jiffy and were back in the forest. Our entire clothing started becoming heavy due to the sweat not drying up. It was tough and it was tiring, but our spirits were high.
We took turns trying to find the right routes. Sometimes Bhai would lead and try to do the route finding, and sometimes I would. And other times, we both would just sit on a boulder (after clearing the thorns ofcourse) and just take in the forest, accept it and then take a deep breath and move on.
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| We enter the forests again |
And one thing, we had spotted our bikes from the summit. We had marked a few landmarks to guide us. So whenever the canopy opened up, we would climb up a boulder and check our orientation wrt to the bike. And lo behold, we were able to retrace our steps almost to perfection. We laughed at what all the treks had done to us. We navigated the initial stretch, like zombies walking and found ourselves back on our bikes.
TIME: 11:30
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| Sippy and Bhai, ready for the descent |
RIDE 2: (Thattakal Fort > Krishnagiri > Attibele > Bangalore)
As we were about to mount on the bike, we washed the blood from our hands, tried to get some thorns out of our palms, and had a final look at the hillock. Thanked her for the crazy experience and more importantly, "LETTING US GO". It was a crazy experience, and I would easily say the toughest of the 33 weeks of being on the road.
As we took off, the winds hit our faces, damn, that is the best feel ever. We pulled over at a local bakery, got a couple of "Stings" and a 2-litre water bottle. Hydrated ourselves well, felt soooooooo good. Then we rode at a decent pace with a couple of breaks in between to reach Hosur.
Atop the hill, Bhai had planted a seed of motivation, he had told u. Hes, how good a beer would taste if we returned safely, we rode into a small dhaba at Chandapura and had an ice-cold beer, felt heaven on earth. We sat at the bar for an hour discussing our next trips. And finally Bhai took back a bus, and I rode back home solo and reached home after a clean, or I must say very dirty and bloody 12 hours.
TIME: 16:30
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| Thank you Thattakal Fort |
CONCLUSION:
The Grand TN expedition roars on with the most difficult one in the bag. Every hillock in TN hits you differently and is very different from that of KA. It is a new experience for us too, and we are taking it with an open heart. Thattakalu, without a doubt, was the toughest amongst all 33weeks. More than the physical stamina, two important traits are required here - common sense and presence of mind. Not for the faint-hearted, surely.
Try these before attempting Thattakal Fort - Malapadi Fort and Jagadevi Fort.
Past 33 weeks, we have pulled off 32 treks, ~6350kms in total, 7.5 months, non-stop. The Flame lives on \m/
KREW:
Bhai: Getting up early, making breakfast. If we return to Thattakal Fort, I can think of no other person than him. His calm presence and caring nature really helped navigate this tough trek.
Sippy: Thatakal fort, hit me on my face. After completing 33weeks, it showed there are tougher hills and all you require is good friends to reach the summit. His wild child nature put Bhai's patience to test :P Haha!
Until next time, Ta-da Cia \m/
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| Sippy signing off |
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