Bangalore to Chikmangalur, Belur trip by Bike

When:  14th n 15th July 2012

Destination: Chikmangalur and Belur

How and who all are: Myself(Apachian), Avinash(CBZ)

Odometer reading: 700Kms.

Route Map:  Bangalore - Nice road exit(end to end) - Neelamangala - Kunigal by pass- Channarayapatana - Hassan - Belur - Chikmangalore - Mullayangiri - Kemmangundi - Chikmangalur- Belur - Bangalore

Short and Sweet description:
    Hmmmm.... I'm not getting from where I should start.... literally I'm not getting any words to write about this trip experience. May be I can start like this...No no!! this way...no no!! Yesss!!! I'll start from here.

   Chikmangalur.... A place... no no... An entrance to heaven in western ghats. No matter when u go, no matter how you go.... but when ever u go it throws surprises from her sleeves. It tempts you so much that you don't feel like going back to home :). 

2 Bikers - 2 Days- 2 Awesome places.  A Trip to 2 places.. One stands for its Tallest Peak, another one stands for its mind blowing architecture. It's Belur.

Travelogue:
        Yeah.. It was Friday, As I was travelling every weekend from last 2 weeks (One of my trip is "Leakshi"), I was planning for a trip to make it as a 3rd trip in 2 weeks time. This time Avinash was willing to join with me. So Myself(Apacheian) and Avinash(CBZ) planned to cover Chikmangalur in 2 days. We've just googled about the places to visit in and around and got the list.

Day1:
    As per planned we left Bangalore in the early morning @ 5AM. It was too early for me, to come out of sleepiness I badly needed a coffee.. Luckily we found a Chai waala near Infy campus and had garam-garam chai(Coffee was not availabel, so adjusted with Chai :)). After that all my senses were in my control... I charged up n ready to hit the road with my beast and started Rrrrrraaaaaaiiiiii.... :)

The route was "Bangalore - Nice road exit(end to end) - Neelamangala - Kunigal by pass- Channarayapatana - Hassan - Belur - Chikmangalore. 

The total stretch was of 270Kms distance. Since it was still dark, opposite vehicles high-beam lights made me to rode at an avg speed of 50KMPH. So by the time Sun rises, we have covered only 50-60Km distance. After reaching Neelamangala we have taken a break and followed Mangalore highway. Roads were good till we cross Kunigal. after Kunigal since road widening works were going on, again our avg speed was reduced to 50KMPH. Atlast by 12'o clock we have reached Chikmangalur.

The road condition is fantastic making drive a pleasure

Reflection of Clouds in Water

Atlast Honey Bee got attracted by flower and I caught it :)

Must visit places in Chikmangalur are:
"Mullayangiri" - Tallest peak in Karnataka (1,930m above sea level),
"Kemmannugundi" - 1434m above sea level
"Baba budangiri",
"Hebbe falls",
"Kalahatti falls"

Chikmanalur <-22KMs-> Mullayangiri <-34KMs-> Baba Budangiri <-6KMs-> Kemmangundi <-60Kms-> Chikmangalur

Chikmangalur to Kemmangundi route map

But our plan didn't work out...
As we reached Chikmangalur at 12'o noon, as per localates there were no hotels available on the way and only we can find in Kemmangndi, so keeping in that mind we had some junk food in Chikmangalur itself and packed some snacks and headed towards Mellayangiri..

As we started towards Mullayanagiri, the tallest peak in Karnataka, after riding for few Kms, we coud see green fields all along, making the drive even more enjoyable. We have reached a place called KAIMARA. Here one road goes to Kemmangundi, another one goes to Mullayangiri. As I shown in the picture from Mullayangiri also there is a road which leads to Kemmangndi.Basically two roads will meet at Kemmangundi.

The Mullayangri - Kemmangundi(Left turn @ KAIMARA) stretch is a shorter and bad road route to Kemmanagund, There is a longer and good tarred road route if you take right turn @ KAIMARA. Since our intention was to reach Mullangiri first, so we have taken Left turn.

Awesomee!!! It was pure nature, nothing else... Range of green hills all around. sometimes rain was playing hide n seek with us.. Ride was so pleasant with greenery and mountain views. It was just us and the nature.

Green Grass..! Brownish Land.! Greenery Mountain.! White clouds.! Blue Sky.! all  In one picture :)

Beautiful view of a Mountain

A road leads to a resort on the way to Mullayangiri

Lush green covered Mountain

During Sunset

2 Bikers  2 Beasts are in Nature's Lap

 

As we go further we could feel wind was blowing with couple of hundreds speed !! Roads were so narrow with one side was covered with Rock moutains with green carpet on it and another side was deep green valley.. at some places it was very hard to see the road as it fully covered with Mist and Fog.. We put lights on high-beam and rode all the way to the peak of Mullayangiri.

  

There is a parking place at Mullayangiri, I straight away went and parked at the edge of the Parking area, as I got down, The wind was so strong that ... literally I might have fly away into the deep valley if I would have weighing 10-20KGs less ;). I was worrying about my Bike, Immediately I parked at some other place and started ascending till the temple which is situated at the highest peak in Karnataka. We were unable to see the mountain ranges around as it was covered with thick fog.. It was quiet disappointing for me. We have spent 10-20mins in the temple and started descending the hill. 

Mullayangiri - Entrance to the tallest peak

Artistic click

A steps to the tallest peak

Fog clears and we get a glimpse of valley

Fog clears and we get a glimpse of valley

Driving on the foggy road

My beast...

Can you see the road which passing through hilly section

A green sheet on roof

Shiva lingam

Macro Photography

Yess...!!. It's absolutely true..

As our next target was to reach Baba Budangiri, we have started towards towards that. The climate was still the same.. I was expecting good view from Baba Budangiri.. We have reached a place from where we need to take a right direction to reach Baba Budangiri and straight road to reach Kemmangundi.. We have taken a break and had snacks and fruits. Guys please carry enough water if you are travelling this wasy as you don't find any shops..not even a single human habitation.

We just immagined that,Baba budangiri might also covered with fog which will fail to give good views.. So we skipped that place and started towards Kemmangundi.

Kemmangundi is 6.5KMs far from Baba Budangiri. 
       The road which leads to Kemmangundi was worst road I have ever seen til now, with it's fully covered pot holes and muddy roads it has taken almost 2Hrs to reach Kemmangundi. Car having low ground clearance should take a U turn and return back at this point.

Mist clad valleys

A Heaven on earth :)

Green... Green.. Green... It's Green everywhere

Apart from worst roads, it has shown us heaven on earth on every turn we took...
at last we have reached Kemmangundi at 6PM expecting a good Sunset view. But, with all the fog, rain and wind, failed to impress. Otherwise impressive hill station looked covered with a sheet of white.

As our plan was to stay in Kemmangundi itself, we could see couple of guest houses. We were over joyed that we could get a room easily.. but as there were no rooms available we were in dilemma about what to do?? As it was becoming dark, it's not a good decision to ride back to Chikmangalur and stay there... Since We were not having any other choice, we have taken a bold decision to reach Chikmangalur by riding through all ghat roads during night :(

This time we have chosen a longer and good tarred road to reach Chikmangalur. After riding for 3 hrs we have reached Chikmangalur by 10'o clock. As I was feeling very much hungry, I rushed to a fast-food centre and ordered veg-manchurian.It was soo... Yuummmyyy.... almost had 3 plates ;) I don't know whether my hungriness made me to feel Yummmyyyy or the taste deserves that.. Later I came to know that Fast-food centre is famous for Veg-manchurian and no one misses that chance... Sorry guys I didn't remember the name, but I can tell you the place.. While leaving the Chikmangalur town towards Mullayangiri, there is last junction... There you ppl can find this during evening timings :)

After having dinner, we started searching for rooms.. Luckily found a room and said good night to Day1..


Day2:
    Our plan didn't work for Day2 too. As our plans were to visit Hebbe and Kalahatti falls.. the stretch to Hebbe falls was very worst, only Jeeps can go easily. Bikers can also go by that way, but it bit risky. As I was not in a mood to ride through all the muddy n fully covered pothole road, so instead of that we planned to cover Halebid along with Belur. I expected Belur has a small temple and we can finish darshan n everything in 1 Hr and we can cover Halebid too...

For sometime we are not LOVE birds ;)

We had breakfast in Chikmangalur itslef and started towards Belur which is on the way to Bangalore. Belur is 22Kms from Chikmangalur, Within no time we have reached Belur.
"Chennakesava temple - Belur(Karnataka)":
    As we entered into the Temple , The sky was heavily overcast and the imposing structure of the Belur temple was a delight to the eye and mind. With the help of government approved guide we were able to know the history of the temple..  We've paid Rs.200 to guide.


This temple is the finest example of architecture. A temple which has taken 3 generations(~103 years) to complete it, The temple is a holy house for sculptures showcasing innumerable variety of ornaments,episodes from the epics, the doorways, the birds, the animals, dancers and other figures are fully decorated as if they are full of life and vigour with variety of actions and movements. The credit of carving most of the sculptures goes to Amarashilpi Jakanacharya(Well known as Jakana) and his team :). They didn't compromise at the perfection. 

Gopuram of the Temple

Royal view of the temple

Chennakeshava Temple

Sculpture of a Dancer

This Sculpture has taken Dome decades to finish

Artistic click... I love my composition ;)

Anotehr Dancer...

Hanging Pillar...

Perfectoo...!!.. What a Carving.. Great ppl..Great work

Looks like total temple is carried out by elephants

Myself

Add caption

It almost took 4Hrs to enjoy temple architecture and capture it through my lens. 
After seeing a temple, which is very rich in its carvings,  we've started back to Bangalore with nice memories of Hoyasala architecture wonders, ride through forest and the green and mist covered hill-slopes. :)

Happy Reading
\m/  Happy Riding \m/