[shrk_18]

Prologue

Saw various news reports in the local news channels that KRS was almost full. Its a pleasure to see the dam when its full, especially the backwaters and Cauvery, when the river is in spate. Was eager to see water gushing out of the gates at KRS. It was 3 years since this sight was last seen.

We decided to head out last Saturday and it was a decided that it would be a day trip.

The day trip

We decided to start early and the start was a little delayed as we had a relaxed start to the day and set out at 8.15 AM. It being a Saturday we decided to skip SH17 a.k.a Bangalore - Mysore road. That road gets really crowded and busy on weekends, as people heading out to Coorg, Kerala, Mysore use it as it has various eateries to stop by. We had decided to take Bangalore - Kanakapura road to head to our destination. We had a quick breakfast at Adigas in Gubbalaala near KSIT college on Kanakapura road and started towards Kanakapura

The route

Bangalore -Kanakapura-Malavalli-Bannur-Baburayana Koppal-Pandavapura-Katteri-Venugopala Swamy temple - KRS

Bangalore - Kanakapura - Malavalli : Beautiful scenic winding road, the cloudy day made it better !
Malavalli - Bannur : Patchy till one exits Malavalli town limits, then beautiful till Bannur
Bannur - Baburayana Koppal : There are virtually no roads in Bannur town. Baburayana Koppal is a small settlement just before Srirangapatna on SH17. We joined SH 17 here and turned off it again heading towards Pandavapura. The road is beautiful, lined with lush green fields on both sides and Cauvery river on one side
Baburayana Koppal - Pandavapura - Katteri - Venugopala Swamy temple : Beautiful roads through out, just a patchy part at the railway level crossing near Pandavapura Sugar Factory

The return route

Having spent a good amount of time at KRS and a sumptuous lunch at Jalpaan on JLB Road in Mysore we headed back to Bangalore after a short visit to the Nimishamba temple near Srirangapatna. Since it was a Saturday evening and traditionally Saturday evenings being light in traffic on SH 17 a.k.a Bangalore - Mysore road, we decided to take the route. The traffic was light as expected and were back home by 8.30PM

Now for some pictures,

[gd1418]

@shrk_18: A neat little travelogue with some good pictures of Cauvery in spate and the mighty KRS.

Brought back childhood memories when I visited KRS in 1969 as a ten year old with my parents. Then the dam looked humungous and the rush of the water through the gates scared me to no end.

It would have been quite nice if you had captioned the pictures.

[Vihari]

Originally Posted by shrk_18

It was 3 years since this sight was last seen.

Shrk_18, I also have very old memories of the KRS (Almost 20 years back). Thank You since you have ruffled some old pages in my Diary.

You have captured the powerful outflow of water very nicely in your photos.

BTW, which temple is it in the photos? Is it the Nimishamba temple?

- Sai

[sa_kiran]

The temple had been inundated with water for many decades. It was noticed a few years ago when there was a very bad drought. Khoday's group took it up to renovate the temple and they are doing a good job. Each and every stone block has been numbered and reused.
It is on the banks of Hemavati's back waters, if I'm not wrong.

[Fauji]

Lovely!

But if you really want to see the amazing vistas of backwaters, you should drive from Melkote to K R Nagar via K R pet and Hariharapura and explore surrounding villages. You will see small little islands in KRS backwaters.

K R Nagar being the rice bowl of Karnataka is lush green during this time. Just take a look at this picture we clicked when we went from Melkote to Madikeri via K R Nagar. This was just before K R Nagar town on the Mysore - Hassan highway in March.