Last weekend, I went on a trek to Hutridurga – my first with the Bangalore Trekking Club (BTC). Hutridurga is a hill located close to Magadi and fortified by Kempe Gowda in the 16th century.

This was my first trek with BTC. Despite the strongly worded rules on their website, they were a friendly bunch. The trek itself was very short (only about an hour's climb), and much easier than I expected. I couldn't see much of the actual fort except for a few ruined walls. There was a tiny temple on the hill top with only a single room housing the deity.

The best thing about climbing hills is the view. You get to see all the surrounding regions as though you were looking at a little live map, much like in one of those classic Tycoon games (think Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe) with isometric graphics. The buses plying the road look like the little models you see in Transport Tycoon. And, from that height, you see that the clouds don't cover the land uniformly. There are patches of land lit brightly by sunlight, and patches that are shaded by the clouds.

The vantage point means that you could see any invading army approaching from many kilometres away. And, the steep climb would give the defending troops a huge advantage over any invasion force simply due to gravity. No wonder armies throughout history sought the high ground.

Some of the rocks looked as though waves lapping the shore of a lake had frozen into solid stone¹. I wonder if this hill was once volcanic, and molten lava flowing down the slopes had cooled into such a form. Still, I don't understand how that form could have held out against all the weathering and erosion. Perhaps, I should educate myself in basic geology so that I can better understand and appreciate the ground I trek on.