Staying in Bangalore, we have lot of places near by to visit during weekends. Thanks to Karnataka tourism for making these places special ones and comfortable ones. One such place near Bangalore is Chickmagalur. With the highest peak of karnataka, Chickmagalur is definitely a place to visit.
The planning for the trip started a month prior mainly regarding the stay in Chickmagalur. We decided to visit places like Sravanabelagola, Belur, Halebeedu, Chickmagalur, Kemmangundi with nine of us confirming for the trip - Kranthi, Sampath, Satyanvesh, Ravu Sairam, V Sairam, Govardhan, Sowmendran, SivaSree.
Being a holiday, we started our trip on 25th September 2015 at 5:30 in the morning in a TempoTraveller.
25th September (First Day)
The first place in our list is Sravanabelagola. As per the schedule, we reached the place at 9 in the morning after finishing our breakfast on the way. The Gomateshwara temple is situated on the top of a hill. There are steps to reach the top and it is not very difficult to do it. The Jain temple on the top has a beautiful statue of Gomateshwara. The view from the top of the hill is amazing with coconut trees surrounding the hill. The cool breeze made our visit pleasant on the hill. We clicked few snaps quickly and started to our next place.
The next place is Belur. The places of interest in Belur are Belur temple and Yagchi dam. The temple is a old one and it is well maintained now. The architecture of the temple is very intricate and gives a impression that this architecture cannot be replicated now. The guide we hired explained the interpretations of the statues and design of the temple. Right next to the temple there is a similar but a small temple which is a prototype for the big temple constructed then. After spending good enough time around the temple, we started to our next destination. As it was already lunch time, We decided to stop for our food.
Halebeedu, which is our next destination is also famous for a ruined temple. This is a Shiva temple and the architecture is similar to that of Belur and Somnathapura (near Mysore). The condition of the road from Belur to Halebeedu is bad. Since we have to reach chickmagalur from Halebeedu via Belur, we reached Belur and visited Yagchi dam. This dam is small one with 4 gates but water body is huge. The water sports in this water is located on the other side of the dam, so we decided to skip the water sports so that we can reach chickmagalur on time.
We reached Chickmagalur at 6 and our home stay at around 6:30. The home stay The Spectrum http://www.thespectrum.in/ is located around 10 km away from the Chickmagalur bus stand. The home stay is located in a cool, calm, serene place inside a coffee estate. We were received by the manger of the home stay and were offered welcome drinks.
We quickly refreshed and came out of our rooms for the camp fire arranged by the home stay. We could not enjoy much during the camp fire because of disturbance by another group. Around 10 we had dinner and started back to our rooms. Some of us played bluff game in the night and then went to bed.
26 September (Second Day)
The day started at 6 in the morning. We stated to Mullayanagiri peak before breakfast. We need to go to the base of Mullayanagiri and then walk to the peak. At the base, we spotted a shooting set and found out that Manchu Manoj's Telugu film is being shot there. We started walking from the base to the peak of the hill which is around 1.5 km. After a certain distance, we need to climb steps to the peak of the hill. Once we reached the peak, we literally felt that we are on top of the world. It is at a height of 6400 feet above sea level with a Shiva temple on the top. A local person said "The scenery changes every second on the peak". True to his words, we found that every second there is a change in the scenery. It is completely surrounded by the clouds. Once the clouds are cleared, the view is the best.
We spent lot of time on the peak clicking photographs and enjoying the beauty.
We reached home stay for our lunch around 2.
After our lunch, we started to BabaBudan giri. This place has a temple which has a durgha on one side and a Dattatreya peeta on the other side. Due to lack of time, we could not visit the temple. Near by, there is water fall by name Manikyadhara. Since we need to walk a distance of 4 kms. we dropped the idea of visiting the falls. But smaller vehicles can directly reach the falls.
The next place is Buttermilk falls. We need to hire a jeep to go to the falls from the main road. The road is very bad, so own vehicles are not allowed. We reached the beautiful falls and took bath in the freezing cold water.
We started back to the home stay and reached around 7 in the evening. After the camp fire and dinner, we played bluff and went to bed.
27 September (Last Day)
On our last day of the trip, we started after the breakfast and we vacated the rooms. The first place is kallathigiri falls. There is a temple just next to the falls. Its not a big falls but definitely we can take bath. We visited the temple, spent some time near the falls and started to our next place.
We went to a garden in kemmangundi and then started to z point. The z point is a must see place in kemmangundi. We need to stop our vehicle on the road and have to walk on the mud road. We need to be careful about the leeches. After walking around 2kms, we can spot Shanti falls. We need to walk past the falls and trek a good amount of distance for 45 min. The trek is not dangerous but we need to be careful. The top of hill which is Z point is awesome. This peak is surrounded by many other peaks. We spent some time for pics and stated back.
On our way back, we stopped in kadur for food and started to Bangalore in heavy rain. We reached our home at 12 in the midnight and thus ended yet another beautiful journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment