30th July 2009, 11:09
| #1 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 107
Thanked: 3 Times
| Hyd-Goa Road trip Via Badami This trip was originally planned as TBHP-Hyd’s road trip to Goa during the weekend of July 24-26. But it fizzled out soon enough because of non-participation by the regulars. I had by then roped in a bunch of my friends and colleagues for this tour. We decided to go ahead because this would be first visit to Goa for some of our gang. I wanted to make most of this road trip and added Badami and Bijapur as overnight halts while driving to and from Goa. The Bijapur stopover did not happen for the reasons I will elaborate later in this travelogue, but visiting cave temples at Badami turned out to be icing on the cake. I am still wading through the work at office that piled up during last week. So, I intend to finish this travelogue in 2 or 3 installments. Summary of the tour Timeline: July 22-27, 2009 Participants: 11 males, one Hyundai Verna and one Toyota Qualis Route taken: Hyd-Raichur-Badami-Belgaum-Amboli Ghat-Goa-Karwar-Hubli-Gadag-Sindhanur-Raichur-Hyd Total distance: ~2000 KM (incl. some 250 KM within Goa) to be contd. Entrance to the cave temples at Badami  A view in the cave temple dedicated to Mahavishnu  Me trying to strike a pose at Majorda beach (note my TBHP-Hyd T-shirt)  |
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30th July 2009, 11:14
| #2 |
| Senior - BHPian  | Good start Nag. Let the piled up work wait and finish off the travelogue!  |
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30th July 2009, 11:29
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| Senior - BHPian  | |
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30th July 2009, 11:36
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| Senior - BHPian  | Quote:
 Nag, great to see you back from your tour. I was expecting a travelogue and nice to see you decided to start one. Expecting a blow by blow details of your fun trip and for bits and pieces that cannot be described here ( Hope the advice worked...LOL) we can do the PM route. Finally, let also loads of pictures contribute to your story | |
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30th July 2009, 11:43
| #5 | |
| Senior - BHPian | Quote:
I was indeed on leave on those 2 days, as I'd fought for it getting sanctioned. Since there was nothing to do, I got my medical checkups done! | |
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30th July 2009, 11:53
| #6 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 1,666
Thanked: 340 Times
| There are symptoms appearing that this thread might get hijacked too  Venu sir and mobike: there's always a next time. I hope Nag completes the instalments rather quickly here. Waiting to see all those photographs. Just been once to goa, that too an official tour.  Nag, come up with all those load of photos asap.Last edited by Fordmanchau : 30th July 2009 at 11:55. |
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30th July 2009, 12:26
| #7 | |
| Senior - BHPian | Quote:
Nag, Rukavat ke liye khed hai. Please continue | |
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30th July 2009, 13:57
| #8 |
| BHPian Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 107
Thanked: 3 Times
| part-I: Badami Guys, you will have to wait till next installment for the details of Goa part of tour. This part covers only Badami. Among the group of 11, 6 are coming in from Guntur. So we decided that the group from Guntur will start at 6 AM and drive (in a Qualis) directly to Raichur where they will be joined by Hyd gang (5 of us in a verna) for lunch, and both groups will drive to Badami for overnight halt. Guntur gang realized a tad late that there is a Solar eclipse on July 22 morning. Hence, they were advised by their family members not to start till 8.30 AM. 5 of us from Hyd decided to go ahead and wait at Raichur for the others. We made a delayed start at 9.50 AM from Sainikpuri (because I decided in the last minute to invite the others for breakfast at my place with dosas and coconut chutney) and crossed airport on NH-7 by 11 AM. For reaching Raichur I picked Gadwal route over Mahabubnagar- Makthal route, for no particular reason  . For reaching Gadwal you take a right from NH-7 after pebberu and tarvel for 10 KM. The distance is almost the same for both routes, but the road between Gadwal and Raichur is a single road that is favoured by 7-seater autos and tractors, and obviously was a pain for a sedan. We reached Raichur at 2.30 PM (it took us almost 2 hours to do 55 KM between Gadwal and Raichur). We enquired around and settled for "just lunch" at Hotel Kubera. The chicken biryani (almost as good as Hyderabadi) and curd rice were good. We phoned up the gang from Guntur to find that they were trying a new route to reach Raichur (Guntur-Macherla-devarakonda-jadcherla-mahabubnagar-Raichur) and are not expected before 5 PM. We decided not to wait, and started for Badami at 3.30 PM. The route thru Lingsur-Mudgal-Hungund was good with sparse traffic. We lost our way after Hungund because we misread the KSTDC sign boards, and driven in circles for 30 minutes before we found the direct route to Badami. We reached badami at 7.30 PM, and negotiated with 3 hotels (Hotel Rajsangam, Mookambika deluxe and Anand deluxe) before we settled on Anand deluxe who offered one 4-bed room and three 2-bed rooms for Rs. 1700 for that night. We quickly freshened up and bought "medicines" and food for dinner and started the session at 9 PM. The Guntur gang lost their way from Raichur mainly due to their know-all navigator, traveled upto Sindhanur, tried "various" direct routes and finally reached Badami at 12 midnight. They were too tired to try any "medicines" and we called it day immediately. Next morning we started exploring Badami after a sumptuous breakfast in an Udupi hotel. As we planned to reach Goa by evening, we decided to skip banashankari temple, bhootanatha temple, etc., and went straight to cave temple complex. It's sad to see the state of approach road to the cave temples. It was narrow and dirty and is swarmed by pigs of all sizes. Its amazing how the govt. and locals manage to destroy or take the sheen of wonderful heritage structures all over India. Any ways, when we reached the entrance of cave temples the sight was awe-inspiring. There are 4 cave temples overall - one for Shiva, one for Vishnu, one for Mahavishnu and one for Jain Thirthankaras. These cave temples were built by Chalukyas who ruled most parts of Karnataka and A.P. between 6th and 8th centuries. Vishnu is the deity of Chalukyas, that explains the grandeur of cave temples dedicated to Vishnu. The sclupture was, as expected, truly amazing. All cave temples were built by carving the same hill. The cave temple complex overlooks a huge lake (Agastya Theertham) and the temples of bhootanatha and Mallikharjuna. We hired a guide who was very professional and loaded us with a lot of info about the scluptures and history of the place. Overall the experience was mind blowing. Some of us have already started thinking about visiting the place again for a tour of the temples at Aihole and Pattadakal (a world heritage site) too. Now time for some pictures.. NH-7  Images from Cave Temple complex           |
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30th July 2009, 14:08
| #9 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 1,666
Thanked: 340 Times
| okay we can wait for the Goa details, if you keep feeding us with the photographs .Nice set of photographs sir!!. The pics of the cave temple really looks fascinating . |
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30th July 2009, 18:16
| #10 |
| Senior - BHPian | Awesome pictures of the cave temple. How far is it from Hyderabad? And, that NH7 looks really inviting |
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30th July 2009, 22:51
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| Senior - BHPian | |
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31st July 2009, 00:06
| #12 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 1,666
Thanked: 340 Times
| No updates even after 12 hrs!!!  Come on Nag sir jee where are you?? |
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31st July 2009, 12:19
| #13 |
| Senior - BHPian | Nag, please wake-up ! Your back in Hyderabad and not in goa. Need the story to continue ASAP, can you put your work on the back-burner? |
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2nd August 2009, 07:59
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| Senior - BHPian  | |
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2nd August 2009, 12:02
| #15 |
| BHPian Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 107
Thanked: 3 Times
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