May 1st being holiday just put me in a spot of bother, wondering what I would be doing over the weekend with the Friday being a holiday. On a lazy afternoon on Monday the 27th April 2009, my cell phone rang. My uncle had just helped me clearing all the bothering for the weekend. We together planned to visit the places listed below.
1) Kollur
2) Udupi
3) Sringeri
4) Horanadu
5) Dharmastala
6) Kukke Subrahmanya
We decided to start on the 30th evening. Here is how the drive for the next 3 days went about, but before we get into the details a quick list of facts.
Car: Alto LXI June 2008
Odo Reading: 2398 kms (the car is very sparing driven)
Day 1: 30th April 2009 – 1st May 2009
Planned to start at 5 pm, however invariably we got delayed and started at 6.45 pm with the odometer reading at 2398. Set the trip meter to ‘0’ and we set off. A big thanks to our Bangalore traffic, we were delayed even further. By the time we cross the Nelamangala it was already 9 pm. Reached Tumkur outskirts around 9.45 pm were we stopped to tank up. Next stop was for dinner somewhere after Gubbi. Had couple of rotis to ensure that I don’t dose off with a heavy dinner. The road up to Arayur which is about 20 kms from Shimoga is in excellent condition. Here I took the deviation towards Kollur. From here on the roads are ok, but very bumpy and narrow. This route had quite a bit of Lorries carrying the iron ore towards Byandur. We reached Hosanagara at 3.15 am. Stopped for a pee break and continued driving towards Kollur via Nittur. After Nittur the roads are pretty narrow and steep. We reached Kollur at 5.30 am. We took a lodge and dumped all the luggage and I dosed off for a couple of hours.
We got ready and visited the temple and after darshan had breakfast. Vacated the room and started off towards Udupi at 9.30 am which is about 75 kms from Kollur. It was getting hotter as the sun got higher in the sky. We reached Udupi at 11.45 am, had a tough time parking the car near the temple. Not to mention it was seriously hot and humid in Udupi, however the temple (for god sake the temple inside is air conditioned). After the darshan, we had lunch at the temple.
Now the most irritating part was to get the car out of the parking spot. The cars, MUVs, bikes all parked so haphazardly ensured that we almost wasted an hour getting the car out of the place. With the load of 5 adults and AC operating at full blast ensured the Alto was struggling to take even the slightest of inclines. After all the irritating parking woes, another one incident was in store for us. The boot lock spring jumped out of place to ensure that the boot cannot be closed. We searched for a nearby garage who could fix it. We indeed found a garage where we got the spring problem rectified.
We headed towards Agumbe. Agumbe is the Chirapunji of South India. This route from Hebri to Agumbe has dense ever green forest. This made the frustration to just disappear. The ghat section here is pretty steep and narrow. We drove up the ghats and stopped at the sun set point. We had some yummy pineapples here; the pineapples were just too good.
1) Kollur
2) Udupi
3) Sringeri
4) Horanadu
5) Dharmastala
6) Kukke Subrahmanya
We decided to start on the 30th evening. Here is how the drive for the next 3 days went about, but before we get into the details a quick list of facts.
Car: Alto LXI June 2008
Odo Reading: 2398 kms (the car is very sparing driven)
Day 1: 30th April 2009 – 1st May 2009
Planned to start at 5 pm, however invariably we got delayed and started at 6.45 pm with the odometer reading at 2398. Set the trip meter to ‘0’ and we set off. A big thanks to our Bangalore traffic, we were delayed even further. By the time we cross the Nelamangala it was already 9 pm. Reached Tumkur outskirts around 9.45 pm were we stopped to tank up. Next stop was for dinner somewhere after Gubbi. Had couple of rotis to ensure that I don’t dose off with a heavy dinner. The road up to Arayur which is about 20 kms from Shimoga is in excellent condition. Here I took the deviation towards Kollur. From here on the roads are ok, but very bumpy and narrow. This route had quite a bit of Lorries carrying the iron ore towards Byandur. We reached Hosanagara at 3.15 am. Stopped for a pee break and continued driving towards Kollur via Nittur. After Nittur the roads are pretty narrow and steep. We reached Kollur at 5.30 am. We took a lodge and dumped all the luggage and I dosed off for a couple of hours.
We got ready and visited the temple and after darshan had breakfast. Vacated the room and started off towards Udupi at 9.30 am which is about 75 kms from Kollur. It was getting hotter as the sun got higher in the sky. We reached Udupi at 11.45 am, had a tough time parking the car near the temple. Not to mention it was seriously hot and humid in Udupi, however the temple (for god sake the temple inside is air conditioned). After the darshan, we had lunch at the temple.
Now the most irritating part was to get the car out of the parking spot. The cars, MUVs, bikes all parked so haphazardly ensured that we almost wasted an hour getting the car out of the place. With the load of 5 adults and AC operating at full blast ensured the Alto was struggling to take even the slightest of inclines. After all the irritating parking woes, another one incident was in store for us. The boot lock spring jumped out of place to ensure that the boot cannot be closed. We searched for a nearby garage who could fix it. We indeed found a garage where we got the spring problem rectified.
We headed towards Agumbe. Agumbe is the Chirapunji of South India. This route from Hebri to Agumbe has dense ever green forest. This made the frustration to just disappear. The ghat section here is pretty steep and narrow. We drove up the ghats and stopped at the sun set point. We had some yummy pineapples here; the pineapples were just too good.
From here we drove to Sringeri. No rooms at the temple lodge in Sringeri, we were scouting around for a room to stay. We finally found one, which was very average. Left with no choice we had to opt for this one. Refreshed ourselves and visited the temple. We had dinner at the temple. I have to mention that the food serving premises at Sringeri temple is huge and it can easily serve food (lunch/dinner) to 5000 people at one shot. It was time to hit the beds for a sound sleep.
Day 2: 2nd May 2009
Got up early, paid another visit to the temple and then headed towards Horanadu via Kudremukh. Here we visited the Soothanabbi Falls; I’ll let the pics do the talking for falls and the Kudremukh road.
Reached Horanadu, we took a room there for a mere 80 bucks. This is the temple trust owned lodge hence the price being so low. Visited the temple and hand yummy lunch at the temple. It was time to dose off and remained indoors to avoid the scorching sun. In the evening it was time again to venture out, visited around the temple. Had the temple pooja related things done in the evening. Had dinner and time to hit the beds again.
Day 3: 3rd May 2009
We started early in the morning by 7 am as we had to reach Dharmastala by 9.30 am max. However the schedule went haywire as the Charmadi route has been closed until June 09. We had to go through Sakaleshpur and reach Dharmastala. We reached at 11.15 am. Now the frustrating part of waiting in the queue took toll on me. A good 4+ hours by the time we came out of the temple. Time to head to Kukke Subrahmanya which is about 60 kms from Dharmastala. The roads where pretty good.
We reached Subrahmanya at 4.30 pm, took a lodge and it was time for me to dose off up to 7.30 pm as I had to drive back till Bangalore. Visited the temple for darshan and then the dinner. But at the dinner place we got delayed it was already 9.45 pm when we finished dinner.
Quickly packed up things and started off at 10.30 pm. We had a couple of breaks on the way which lasted for about 45 mins. Reached Bangalore (my uncle’s house at 3.30 am)
A drive completed after quite a break. The reason for the break coming up in the next post.
Route:
Bangalore – Nelamangala – Tumkur – Arasikere – Bhadrawathi – Shimoga – Arayanur – Hosanagara – Nittur – Kollur – Kundapura – Udupi – Manipal – Hebri – Someshvara – Agumbe – Sringeri – Kudremukh – Kalasa – Horanadu – Kalasa – Kottigehara – Mudigere – Sakaleshpur – Dharamastala – Gundya Post – Kukke Subrahmanya – Gundya Post – Sakaleshpur – Hassan – Kunigal – Nelamangala – Bangalore
Total Trip Distance – 1188 kms
Quickly packed up things and started off at 10.30 pm. We had a couple of breaks on the way which lasted for about 45 mins. Reached Bangalore (my uncle’s house at 3.30 am)
A drive completed after quite a break. The reason for the break coming up in the next post.
Route:
Bangalore – Nelamangala – Tumkur – Arasikere – Bhadrawathi – Shimoga – Arayanur – Hosanagara – Nittur – Kollur – Kundapura – Udupi – Manipal – Hebri – Someshvara – Agumbe – Sringeri – Kudremukh – Kalasa – Horanadu – Kalasa – Kottigehara – Mudigere – Sakaleshpur – Dharamastala – Gundya Post – Kukke Subrahmanya – Gundya Post – Sakaleshpur – Hassan – Kunigal – Nelamangala – Bangalore
Total Trip Distance – 1188 kms
