Re: Best route to visit Srirangapatna, Sivanasamudra & Srirangam (trichy) Folks, me and my family (wife and daughter) did the darsan of all three Ranganathaswamy Temples situated on islands on river Cauvery last weekend.
Here are the details: Friday, 20/12/2019
We left Bangalore at 3.20pm. Reached hotel/stay at Mysore at 8.20pm. Distance covered = 157 kms. Saturday, 21/12/2019
We woke up at 4am. Started from hotel at 5.45am. Reached Srirangapatna at 6am. We finished darshan of all sannidhis by 6.50am. Distance covered = 23 kms. During Dhanu(r)masa, timings of the temple are:
5am to 1.30pm and 4pm to 8pm
During other months,
7am to 1.30pm and 4pm to 8pm.
We started from Srirangapatna by 6.50am. Drove via Baburayanakoppal-Karighatta-Bannur-Malavalli to Shivanasamudram (Madhyaranga). Distance covered = 79 kms.
The entire route was very beautiful - smooth roads, negligible traffic, early morning fresh air with tiff of Sugarcane molasses, with a slight tinge of fog. We reached Madhyaranga temple by 8.25am.
We finished darshan by 9.00am. We could see about 100-200 people in the temple, most of them doing the same Tri-Ranga Pilgrimage. Many cars and Tempo-Travellers (about 15-20 in total).
We had breakfast with our packed food and started at 9.40am from Madhyaranga Temple.
We drove via Kollegala-Hanur to MM Hills. We reached MM Hills around 11.45am. Distance covered = 92 kms. Road conditions are mostly good with few rough patches and potholes strewn around. Nothing major to worry. There was patchwork going on in the ghat sections to improve road conditions. Not much facilities on the way to MM Hills for bio-break or fuel pumps or restaurants.
MM Hills to Mettur: Beautiful scenic route with smooth roads. Distance = 51 kms. We crossed Mettur around 1.00pm.
Mettur to Sankari bypass (Hotel Vallalar): Distance covered = 61 kms. Roads are once again very good. Don't take the default route suggested by Google via Poolampatti bridge. That bridge is not for 4-wheelers, only wide enough for 2-wheelers. I took the following route: Mettur-Ammapettai-Kurichi-Koneripatti barrage- Koneripatti-Vellarivelli-Edappadi-Sankari bypass on NH544. Roads are very good and there are enough signboards (in Tamil and English) which guide you from Kurichi all the way to Edappadi. We reached Hotel Vallalar (Pure Veg restaurant) at 2.10pm. Food was decent and restrooms were ok. After lunch break, we started around 2.40pm.
Sankari bypass-Sankari-Tiruchengodu-Namakkal: Distance covered = 60kms. Mostly good to very good roads. Crossing Tiruchengodu town is bit of pain with all those huge trailer trucks moving slowly, overtaking them is painful on 2-lane roads. Tiruchengodu-Namakkal is now a beautiful smooth 4-lane highway with TALL divider almost all the way. Very little traffic in this section and I could maintain 80-90kmph easily. But speed limit is a ridiculous 30kmph! We crossed Namakkal at 3.45pm.
From Namakkal, we took the Thuraiyur route up to Kannanur, then reached Pagalavadi, Nochiyam, Uttamarkoil and finally Srirangam. Distance covered = 91 kms. Reached Srirangam around 5.30pm. This route was suggested by few BHPians (including friendly moderator ampere) in the Bangalore-Trichy thread. Big thanks to them.
We had already booked our room at Yatri Nivas through online. Also, we had booked Rs.250 darsan tickets online. Reporting time near Golden Dwajasthambam was 7.00pm. Darsan time allotted was 7.30-8.30pm. We reached temple at 6.20pm. Being Saturday of Dhanur masa it was quite crowded and we had our darsan at 8.10pm. After darsan of Goddess Ranganayaki, we reached Yatri Nivas at 9.30pm. Sunday, 22/12/2019
We woke up and went to Temple again after breakfast at 10am. Had darsan of other Sannidhis up to 1.00pm. I was told that there are as many as 70 smaller shrines/sannidhis in this HUGE temple (world's largest functional Temple). We left Srirangam at 2.10pm. Reached Bangalore at 10.10pm. This time we took the straightforward Srirangam-Gunaseelam-Musiri-Thottiyam-Namakkal-NH44-Salem-Krishnagiri-Bangalore route. Roads were narrow and potholed between Uttamarkoil and Gunaseelam. After Gunaseelam, roads widen a bit (still 2-laned) and surface is also very smooth. After Thottiyam surface gets even better and long straight sections with sparse traffic makes you catch up with lost time.
Overall, with God's grace we were able to complete Tri-Ranga darsan on the same day during Dhanurmasa. Trip statistics:
Vehicle: Zest (Petrol)
Total distance covered: 973 kms.
Fuel efficieny (as per MID) = 18.6 kmpl
Fuel efficieny (based on my past experience) = 17.0 kmpl Edit:
At Srirangam, I met a family who were doing the same pilgrimage. They had taken the route via Hanur-Ramapura-Moongilpalayam-Anthiyur-Bhavani-Srirangam. They said the roads were ok there too. But, they came as a group in Force/Tempo Traveller, so I'm not sure if their information is useful for cars.
Last edited by srvm : 23rd December 2019 at 14:04.
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