[airguitar]

Back with pictures from my latest trip. Here's the details and some initial pictures. Will keep updating the TL through the week.

Day 1 : Hoskote - Tumkur - Kadur - Sakharayapatna ( yes, I took this road ) - Chikkamagalur - Sringeri - Kigga - Sirimane - Koppa - Theerthahalli. 475 Kms

Day 2 : Theerthahalli - Konandur - Ripponpet - Anandapuram - Sagara - Ikkeri - Varadamoola - Talaguppa - Choorikatte - Honnemaradu - Sagara - Keladi - Soraba - Siralkoppa - Hirekerur - Ittagi - Ranebennur - Davanagere (byp) - Tumkur - Hoskote. 655 kms.

Some of the pictures taken at Honnemaradu

[airguitar]

Some more pictures taken around Kigga and Sirimane Falls.

Route to Sirimane falls, The falls and a sunset on the way back from Kigga near Sringeri.

Detailed TL to follow.

[airguitar]

The party

Wife and I.

Date : New year weekend, 2011.

Sringeri had to be on the list, given it was January 1 and the mandate to visit a temple for the new year.

Breakfast was had at home at an unearthly 6 AM. Until Kadur, it was the usual NH 206. We stopped at Kadur for an early lunch. Don't remember the name of the hotel, but is at the corner where you turn left towards Sakharayapatna from NH 206. This road, as documented extensively is the concrete road, that's broken in a lot places, so a frustrating drive all the way till Chikkamagalur. At one place was a Banyan tree with hundreds of bats flying around : that was a sight!


Through Chikkamagalur, right at Vastare into Aldur. Proceed on the same road, we come to the Bhadra coffee shop. Fantastic place to sip coffee watching vehicles zip by ( the other place I love doing this is at the Ossoor hotel, Sakleshpura ). I don't usually buy coffee powder on roadside places, however good the coffee tastes.

Then comes the Balehonnur bridge over the Bhadra, it's a beautiful sight. A couple of people pushing a dingy along the river. Fantastic drive till Sringeri. At Sringeri, we though we should cover the Sirimane falls and Kigga before it got dark, as the temple was open until later.

A couple of kms from on NH 13 towards Karkala, you see the board to Kigga. You take a right and drive along a reasonably good road to Kigga, where you see the Rishyashrungeshwara temple. Some trekkers use this as a base for their Narasimha parvata trek ( The Narasimha parvatha is where 5 rivers rise, including the Seetha river. I was told the local guides do the "guide job" for about Rs.250 if you get to Kigga in the morning. In any case trekking is not something I do with family members

If you have time and a gang of cronies, do not forget to visit the Magebailu falls. There is no motorable road I hear, but the falls is more beautiful the locals told me.

Proceeded along the road till Sirimane falls, which is a beauty even this time of the year. It does appear full, although apparently it's more forceful during the monsoons. You're allowed to bath, but during the monsoons, you're not. There is a viewing deck from where you can keep looking at the falls.

On the way back, we stopped at Kigga to buy some cookies and biscuits. The shop owner kept talking away about the various places around and it was getting tough to break out of the conversation

Back to the Sringeri temple, quiet and enjoyable as usual and spent the customary hour on the bridge looking at the river below. Dinner at a decent hotel ( again shoddy job of remembering it, it's been a while and I'm not taking the customary notes down ) and then head towards Thirthahalli for the night stay. Vihangama as usual.

[airguitar]

DAY 2 :Early start from Vihangama, breakfast at Kamat Cafe ( IIRC, this is the 10th time in about 8 months that I'm visiting Thirthahalli and the folks now know me ). And yes, the got some food parcels, which I've figured out is a very good idea when traveling smaller places.


Onto Sagar via Konandur. OK-sort of roads, we head to Sagar and from there to Ikkeri. A bit of history there, the temple is beautiful! Quiet and Calm, the temple is home to Aghoreshwara and the big Nandi that overlooks the place. The trees outside the temple are home to a number of parakeets and we had a good time watching their antics.

From there, we headed towards Varadamoola, the source of the Varada river. After spending a few minutes there, we headed towards Honnemaradu. Sagar -> Talaguppa -> Left at Choorikatte towards Kargal. Within 3-4 kms you see a not so distinct board to Honnemaradu and Hiremane. You take a left. The road is doable till Hiremane. Take a left at Hiremane and it's all mud road from there on : absolutely not doable on a regular car when it rains heavily, I think as it could get stuck in the slush. But being Jan and that it had not rained for a while, the road was dry and so, doable.

You can book a Honnemaradu tent stay on the islands from Bangalore : but we just went to there to just see the place first time. They offer a number of water activities including a boat ride to the distant island ( you can row the boat yourself if you like ). Expensive at Rs.500. But is a beautiful place to just sit back and keep staring into the distance.

On the way back, customary snake crossings on the tar road, no malnad trip is complete without seeing snakes basking on the roadside or crossing the tarred roads. Wife freaked out a bit, but I like snake crossings, they're so majestic.

From there, on the way back, I noticed that there was a Helipad at Choorikatte ( Sringeri has one too ). From there, we parked near Talaguppa and wolfed down the parcelled Masala dosas and Idli for lunch and got back to Sagar. 3 PM : there's a bit more time to make use of in this trip ( although had to reach Bangalore by night ). At Sagar, we decided to visit Keladi and then drive on towards Davanagere and from there take the NH 4 to Bangalore. Crazy, but wanted to do some unexplored roads till Davanagere via Soraba. Roads OK till Soraba -> Siralakoppa. The view of paddy fields was enjoyable. At Siralakoppa, the misery began, all the way till Hirekerur, Ittagi and Ranebennur where the roads were either absent or half the road was absent or diversions or cratery roads. Misery. But atleast a new road explored.

7.30 PM at Ranebennur. But we reached Bangalore after a 4 hour drive. 1 hour stop extra at Kamat near Dobaspet where we had dinner. I enjoy spending a lot of time watching the long distance buses late in the night that have stopped over for dinner, every time I drive through that place late in the night. This time was no different. Buses to Kudligi, Gangavathi, Donimale etc. BTW, these buses are often my inspiration for planning my next trip .

Reached home at around 00:30. Another enjoyable trip came to an end.

[airguitar]

I do apologize for the big break between the first post and the completing posts.

More pictures here..

[Fauji]

Hi Airguitar,

Good write up!! How come you missed visiting Heggodu? Did you also visit Humcha, which is close to Konandur?

[airguitar]

Thanks, Fauji. I looked up heggodu and could find some stuff about "Ninasam". What exactly are the things to be done/seen at Heggodu ?

[ampere]

So first long drive post marriage?
You went via Sakharayapatna and did not visit Ayyanakere?

Also in how much time can one manage to reach Vihangama at Thirthahalli? I manage CKM in about 5.5 hours. How much time over that ?

(Given the fact that it would be Bhadra ghats?)
Also one would break more to take snaps, sip coffee etc

Also I would prefer the Belur route to Kadur route.

[airguitar]

Yes, Ampere, first long drive in a while. Thirthahalli via Shimoga is the fastest : I usually do it in about 6.5 hours from Bangalore.

From CKM it could take 3 - 3.5 hours.

No sir, No Ayyanakere this time as the schedule was a bit tight. Haven't visited before : though been on my list for a while now.

And yes, I simply tried the Sakharayapatna road as I'd never done it before - not worth it.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by airguitar

From CKM it could take 3 - 3.5 hours.

But I do want to take the CKM route as it takes you through Bhadra.
Then in that case it would be a bit difficult for me. My kid does not hold on for so long.
I need to stay for a day at CKM them.

May be go one way and come back the other.