Gandikota trip by Bike

When: 19,20th Dec 2015.
Destination: Gandikota, AndhraPradesh.
How and who all are: Solo Ride(Apache 180)
Odometer reading: 850Kms.
Route Map: Bangalore – Kadiri– Pulivendula– Gandikota– Kurnool– Bangalore.

Short and sweet description:

Gandikota, it is referred as Grand Canyon of India.

Earlier, I’ve come across beautiful snaps of this place. Since then, I wanted to visit this place. Finally, the time has arrived..

Coming Sunday(19th dec 2015), I’m suppose to attend friend’s marriage in Kurnool.

As Saturday is also week off, planned to ride through Gandikota and reach Kurnool by Saturday night.

Travelogue:
Day 1:

All set to burn some rubber this weekend.

As I have to cover Gandikota and reach Kurnool by night, left Bangalore early morning @5 AM,

I know, it’s crazy decision to cover Gandikota and reach Kurnool sameday.

No other option.

By 6, crossed Bangalore airport. Felt lucky for avoiding Nandhi hills traffic.

As the sun rises, as I enter AndhraPradesh, I could feel the heat.

This place is meant for heat waves and hot weather.

Quickly had a breakfast stop and continued my ride.

My route plan is Kadiri- Jammalamadugu- Gandikota.

Roads were bad in some stretches. But managed to get decent average speed.

The beautiful landscapes greeted me with a warm welcome by sunflower farms.

With a lot of pit stops to enjoy the landscapes, finally able to reach Gandikota by 1PM.

There is only one hotel “Haritha hotel “ being run by AP government. This hotel is the only option if tourists are planning to stay in Gandikota. Booking can be done through official website.

Managed to get lunch from there(as they always prepare lunch only for ppl who are staying there).

After checking with local people, headed towards View point.

It is around 1-2 km from Haritha Hotel.

From the parking lot, it’s in walk-able range.

I’m kinda surprised to see no one around the place. Felt like place is not very popular or I’m very lucky to reach at this time.

Anyway, after taking some snaps of place and while struggling to take landscape through selfie, luckily found a local guy nearby.

After requesting him to take a snap and teaching him how to take snap in DSLR,

here I got the beautiful pic of mine with Grand Canyon Of India in background .

To be frank, I felt very happy to see the perfect pic.

Thanked him lot of times as he is much better than my friends who always fail to click a single snap of me in every trip :-p.

Nearby there is a temple and a mosque.

After covering all tourist places. Left Gandikota around 5PM to reach Kurnool.

People say that, sunrise is beautiful from here. I would suggest to stay overnight in Haritha hotel and pitch tents near by and enjoy the nature.

The landscapes after Gandikota are even more beautiful.

The sunset added an extra color to the fields. Couldn’t able to stop to take snaps as I have to reach Kurnool before 8PM.

There is a ghat section

Which is under maintenance, it took me lot of time to cross that.

As I reach near to Kurnool, the traffic started getting worst.

Finally by 8.30PM, I’m able to reach Kurnool.

After meeting friends and interacting with them, dozed off very late in the night.

Day 2:

Half of the day went in attending friend’s marriage.

As I’ familiar with Kurnool - Bangalore stretch, planned to start around 2PM.

Finished lunch and left Kurnool as per plan.

As usual, the ride through highways are doesn’t strain body much.

By 9PM reached Bangalore.

                                                Happy Reading
                      \m/ Happy Riding \m/

Bangalore to Shravanabelagola trip by Bike

When: 13th Sept 2015.
Destination: Shravanabelagola  - Karnataka
How and who all are: Solo Ride(Apache 180)
Route Map: Bangalore – Kunigal – Shravanabelagola - Kunigal – Bangalore.


Short and sweet description:
                    It's all about Vindhyagiri and Chandragiri and it's beautiful temples. 
"Gomateshwara Statue", breath taking views of the landscapes with small lakes are the best part of this destination.
Perfect destination for a day trip with family and friends. 
       Travelogue:

               "Witnessing the early morning golden rays of sun through helmet visor is the best feeling which I always enjoy."
So, I've planned to leave Bangalore before sunrise. As per the plan,I've left my room around 5'o clock and took NICE road(@ electronic city) to reach the other end of NICE road(Neelamangala).

After reaching place called "Neelamangala", took the road which leads to Kunigal town. 
Even though Sun was still below the horizon, I could make out the clouds coloring with "Yellow and Orange colors". That view was spectacular. In fact, the soothing music which was playing in my earphones has made the view much more beautiful :-).

It was perfect start of the day. The cool breeze which was touching my knees made me feel the chillness of the weather. 
Unlike the other rides, could see less traffic in this stretch. That helped me to ride at decent average speeds. By 7'o clock I was in "Kunigal town" and thought of taking a break for early breakfast. 

My Beast

In the search of road-side hotels, rode another 3-4 kms and finally stopped at nice hotel. Had my all time favt. Idly :), meanwhile I was observing other bikers who were crusing on road. 
After 30mins of break, resumed my ride. 
The next stretch of the ride was smooth and by 9.30 I was in Shravanabelagola.

As I mentioned earlier, the main attraction here is "Gomateshwara Statue" which is on the top of "Vindhyagiri" hill. 
As the steps were little steepy, it took bit more time to reach the top of the hill.. 
The view of surroundings from the half way of the hill itself were beautiful. The view of pond and Chandragiri hills were at the best of it.

Climbing the hill

View of one of the pond

As I reached the hill top, I had a gigantic view of one of the temple. 
Then, proceeded towards the main temple where the statue of Gomateshwara is situated. 

Spent some quality time by looking at the lanscape views of the place and by lunch time, I started climbing down the hill.

Doesn't it look Gigantic..!!

Some artistic click

First glimpse of the Gomateshwara Statue

Mandapa inside the temple

The STATUE

Architecture

It's full of Tender coconut trees

Shadows of Clouds and landscape view

Arts on the walls of temple

The view of village from the top of hill

Some more carvings

another view of Mandapa outside the temple

That's Me... :-)

The view of temple on "Chandragiri" - benefit of having zoom lens :-P

people climbing the "Chandragiri" hill

The view of Pond 

That's Me again..!! :-)

                                                Happy Reading
                      \m/ Happy Riding \m/

Bangalore to Yercaud trip

When: 5th Sept 2015
Destination: Yercaud - Tamilnadu
How and who all are: Myself, Arun, Anjana, Mani, Sagar, Pradeep, Aditya, Kumar
Odometer reading: 520Kms.
Route Map: Bangalore – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Yercaud –  Bangalore.

Short and sweet description:

"Riding and Eating" was more than sight seeing...!! 

Travelogue: 
      
As we need to cover more than 500kms in 1 day, we have planned to start early morning @ 5.45

As per plan, our meeting spot was "Hosa road" and with the delay of 15mins all the bikers have reached the meeting spot.

Sharply at 6'o clk we have started as a group. 
As it was not much traffic, we were able to cross city within short time. 
After that the ride was perfect, everyone was touching 90-95kmph speed.
Instead of riding as whole group, we have split to 3 groups. WHich has helped us to maintain better average speed.

By 7.15 we have covered 90Kms and stopped for breakfast.
It was perfect southindian hotel with home made food taste.
I didn't remember the exact place of the hotel. but it comes right after crossing Krishnagiri.
where lots of dhabas are available both the sides of road.

By 8.15 we were done with the breakfast and started crusing towards Yercaud.
As we moved further, I could sense that, weather was getting hot. 
With a descent average speed, we have crossed Dharmapuri and reached Salem. 
As the Salem temp. was kindof high compared to Bangalore, we all started sweating and soon hydrated our bodies with tender coconuts.

One thing I like about Tamilnadu is, the availability of tender coconuts on every corner of the town. :)

As we were riding as 3 groups, 1st group were waiting at the check-point of Yercaud which comes right after crossing the Salem town ( Going through Salem town traffic is required to connect to Yercaud road.). 

Within 15mins, all the bikers have reached that spot and remaning ride was as a single group.

Remaining stretch was ascending the ghats of Yercaud. 
Riding through the snake bend roads with landscape views was best part of the trip.

Stopping for snaps in between, by 11'o clk we were able to reach "Yercaud" lake.

Lake was not so great to do boating. and with the help of sign boards, we came to know the route to ""Kiliyur waterfall".
Without wasting any time, we have headed towards Waterfalll and reached the parking spot in 10mins. 
To reach the Waterfall, 1Kms of descending on foot is required.
Thinking to burn our calories in waterfall. We've filled our stomachs once again with some snacks, packed water bottles and some other stuff and started descending to reach waterfall.

Within 20mins , we have reached the waterfall. As it was not so great to take bath, we simply sat near the falls and spent sometime.

The ascending was quite exhausted...!! :)
As it was lunch time, We headed to a hotel and re-filled our stomachs with southindian meals. 

After visiting some more view points(Pagoda point, and 2 more), we have started back to Bangalore.
The ride back was  also involved 2 more stops for eating :). With these, our stops for eating was more than the sight seeing spots :) :P

Over all, it was fun and food filled bike trip. :)

View of Ghat section roads

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BIKERS.

Anji

Sagar and Arun

Waterfall

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                                                Happy Reading
                      \m/ Happy Riding \m/