[deehunk]

Thanks to all for the advice, the girl has suffered minor injuries in the incident and no death has happened. This is why were upset with the proceedings. The legal battle is being pursued, but we have to wait.

[sada]

Back from my trip to Mantralaya yesterday. Started on Friday morning at 6:45 am and reached Mantralaya at 1:45 pm with about 30-35 min breakfast break. Total distance from K.R.Puram to Mantralaya this time was 373 kms as compared to 380 kms last time, the only difference in route being, I took the Patthikonda bypass and Adoni bypass (as suggested by GPS) this time. Though I was in two minds whether to take the Kurnool-Yemmiganur route or the Gooty-Adoni route, I chose the latter at the last minute, i.e., after reaching Gooty just because I was in no mood for the additional kilometers and there was no latest update on the Kurnool-Kodumur road condition. Adoni bypass was of great help, which connects to the Adoni-Yemmiganur route and really saves a lot of time. Started back on Sunday at 10 am and reached home at 5:30 pm with a lunch break of almost 1 hr in Ananthpur.

[roamingrao]

there was no latest update on the Kurnool-Kodumur road condition.

Kurnool kodumur road is bad - update from 1 month back when my friend drove from Mantralaya to Srisailam. He took about 45 minutes to drive the 30 km stretch.

Adoni bypass was of great help, which connects to the Adoni-Yemmiganur route and really saves a lot of time.

Adoni byepass existed earlier, was known as rice mill road. Now marked by Gmaps as a byepass.

Thanks for sharing.

Has the concrete paving of Mantralaya roads been completed ?

[praveenp]

Originally Posted by sada

Back from my trip to Mantralaya yesterday. Started on Friday morning at 6:45 am and reached Mantralaya at 1:45 pm with about 30-35 min breakfast break.

Hope you had good darshan.
Where did you halt for breakfast? Any decent veg restaurant on the way? Also, where did you get fuel re-filled?

Did you visit any other places around Mantralaya such as Bichchale, Panchamukhi?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by praveenp

Where did you halt for breakfast?

There is a Kamat at Chikkaballapur. Not that great, but that is the only one I have seen in first leg of the drive.

[sada]

Originally Posted by roamingrao

Kurnool kodumur road is bad - update from 1 month back when my friend drove from Mantralaya to Srisailam. He took about 45 minutes to drive the 30 km stretch.



Adoni byepass existed earlier, was known as rice mill road. Now marked by Gmaps as a byepass.

Thanks for sharing.

Has the concrete paving of Mantralaya roads been completed ?

Thanks for the update on Kurnool-Kodumur road condition.

Yes, concrete paving is complete and it was indeed a pleasant surprise!

Originally Posted by praveenp

Hope you had good darshan. Where did you halt for breakfast? Any decent veg restaurant on the way? Also, where did you get fuel re-filled?

Did you visit any other places around Mantralaya such as Bichchale, Panchamukhi?

Yes, had a very good darshan; infact, had been for the darshan thrice during my stay there from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning.

Breakfast was packed from home and we had it on the way, at about 100 kms from Devanahalli to be precise

Fuel refilled at Usha Kiran Service Station, Indian Oil outlet, Yemmiganur.

Did not visit any other place around Mantralaya, not even the Goshala, which is just 1.5 kms from Mantralaya. It was just the temple and the river. Never heard of Bichchale; is it a nice place? Had visited Panchamukhi in 2010 and it was not a pleasant experience in my 2-month-old car then because of the narrow, slushy roads, though I am not sure about the current road condition and did not want to take chances.

[prasad14]

Originally Posted by sada

Never heard of Bichchale; is it a nice place? Had visited Panchamukhi in 2010 and it was not a pleasant experience in my 2-month-old car then because of the narrow, slushy roads, though I am not sure about the current road condition and did not want to take chances.

Roads to Panchamukhi/Bichchale (on either side of Mantralaya-Raichuru road) is terrible and all cars would suffer. I was there in Oct and decided to hire one of the autos and it was even worse as none of them seem to have any shock absorbers.

Bichchale has a eka-shila Brindavana which has been put up by Appannacharya. It right on the bank of the river, very very close to the railway bridge next to Mantralayam Road railway station. Its very quiet and nice place (found this blog which gives a detailed account of Bichchale)

Prasad

[praveenp]

Originally Posted by sada

Yes, had a very good darshan; infact, had been for the darshan thrice during my stay there from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning.

Oh that's very nice. Where did you stay in Mantralaya? Also, while coming back where did you stop for lunch?

Never heard of Bichchale; is it a nice place? Had visited Panchamukhi in 2010 and it was not a pleasant experience in my 2-month-old car then because of the narrow, slushy roads, though I am not sure about the current road condition and did not want to take chances.

While Manchaale has the moola brindavana, bichchale is where the ekashila brindavana of rayaru exists. Details are in the blog that @prasad14 has pointed to. Even I haven't been there but planning to visit this time. As @prasad14 has said, the roads are never in good condition and hence hiring a local auto makes more sense if you want to visit these places.

[sada]

Originally Posted by prasad14

Roads to Panchamukhi/Bichchale (on either side of Mantralaya-Raichuru road) is terrible and all cars would suffer. I was there in Oct and decided to hire one of the autos and it was even worse as none of them seem to have any shock absorbers.

Bichchale has a eka-shila Brindavana which has been put up by Appannacharya. It right on the bank of the river, very very close to the railway bridge next to Mantralayam Road railway station. Its very quiet and nice place (found this blog which gives a detailed account of Bichchale)

Prasad

Thanks for all the information. I will definitely try to visit Bichchale during my visit to Mantralaya next year.

Originally Posted by praveenp

Oh that's very nice. Where did you stay in Mantralaya? Also, while coming back where did you stop for lunch?

While Manchaale has the moola brindavana, bichchale is where the ekashila brindavana of rayaru exists. Details are in the blog that @prasad14 has pointed to. Even I haven't been there but planning to visit this time. As @prasad14 has said, the roads are never in good condition and hence hiring a local auto makes more sense if you want to visit these places.

I always stay at Brindavan Gardens, known as "BG". It belongs to the temple. It was good before, but is just average now because of poor maintenance. Parking is not a problem here as the road in front is quite wide. Rent per day is Rs.200. After you enter Mantralaya, you will see the temple entrance on your left and you need to take the next left, a concrete road, which will lead you to BG on the right side.

For lunch, I stop at a hotel called "Indira Priyadarshini," which is just opposite to S.S. Paradise, Kamalanagar, Anantapur. Indira Priyadarshini is a pure vegetarian hotel whereas SS Paradise is a typical Andhra Veg/Non-veg hotel. The distance to this place from bypass would be about 2 kms.

[praveenp]

Originally Posted by sada

I always stay at Brindavan Gardens, known as "BG". It belongs to the temple. It was good before, but is just average now because of poor maintenance. Parking is not a problem here as the road in front is quite wide. Rent per day is Rs.200. After you enter Mantralaya, you will see the temple entrance on your left and you need to take the next left, a concrete road, which will lead you to BG on the right side.

For lunch, I stop at a hotel called "Indira Priyadarshini," which is just opposite to S.S. Paradise, Kamalanagar, Anantapur. Indira Priyadarshini is a pure vegetarian hotel whereas SS Paradise is a typical Andhra Veg/Non-veg hotel. The distance to this place from bypass would be about 2 kms.

Thank you for the information. This will help plan my trip better. But I definitely agree that the temple run rooms are not maintained well.

[abishek2222]

To travel from chennai to raichur preferably with good roads what are my options, Is it better to travel via andhra hoping there are no sudden bandh's and i don't get stuck somewhere. or travel the extra distance to bangalore and then to mantralaya and raichur.

Is this route map uploaded by an member earlier the best two routes to drive.

[praveenp]

Media sources say protests have erupted across Seemandhra in the wake of yesterday's cabinet decision on bifurcation of AP. We were planning to visit Mantralaya tomorrow. Not sure whether to go.

[praveenp]

I came back from Mantralaya late last night.

Day 1 (Sat): Started around 7 AM from Bangalore. Took this route: Bangalore-> Ananthpur->Gooty->Guntkal->Chippagiri->Adoni->Mantralaya.
Till Gooty it’s AH43 and you can cruise on this road. From Gooty to Guntkal the road is decent and can maintain average speed of 70-80 Kmph.

From Guntkal to Chippagiri, there are few bad patches but doesn’t really bother much. We reached Chippagiri around 1.30 PM. Chippagiri is the place where Vijaya Dasaru spent his last days worshipping Lord Gopala Krishna. We had lunch (called tirtha prasada in kannada) here and started around 3.45 PM towards Mantralaya. We took the route via Adoni. The roads here become narrower and if an HTV comes from the opposite side, you have to promptly descend from the road and make way for both the vehicles to go. Reached Mantralaya around 6 PM.

Had booked room at a lodge called Sreenikentanam, which is located within a stone’s throw of the mutt. They have a website too. Room was quite good.

Went to the mutt to have darshan. Felt blessed. We had dinner at mutt itself.

Total distance covered on day 1: 423 Kms. Total toll paid: Rs. 255 (20+65+80+90)

Day 2 (Sun): Visited mutt again around 6.30 AM. Had breakfast at a hotel called “Shri Poornabodha”. Though this small hotel looks very unhygienic from outside, the breakfast served was delicious. We checked out at 10.30 AM and headed towards a place called Kallur, where Goddess Mahalakshmi temple is located. This place is considered to be as sacred as Kollapur. We had never heard of this place before. A family whom we met in Mantralaya told us about this place and insisted we visit it once. Kallur is around 60 Kms from Mantralaya. It took around 2.40 hours to reach the destination. Extremely bad roads until you reach Raichur-Koppal highway. Most part of the bad stretch is within Karnataka. Had Darshan of goddess and decided to head towards Bangalore at 2.15 PM.

GPS suggested that we had to go towards the same bad road to hit the highway but since we had experienced the pain driving though that stretch we decided to go via Raichur town. This is where the problem started. Though the roads were not bad we had to take too many diversions, traverse through so many villages to finally reach Gooty, from where we joined AH43. By the time we reached AH43 it was around 6PM and still had around 340 Kms to cover to reach Bangalore. Can you believe between 2 and 6 PM I had covered only 170 Kms! It was very painful experience. Finally realized my mistake of not having followed GPS. From AH43 it’s again the same old route that I had taken the previous day. It was awesome to drive on this road. Stopped at Kamat, Chikkaballapur, for dinner. Reached home around 11 PM. Had covered 340 Kms in less than 5 hours.

Total distance covered on day 2: 570 Kms. Total toll paid: Rs. 255 (20+65+80+90)

Did not face any issue throughout the journey. AP was completely peaceful with no signs of protest.

[ltraju]

Hi,
I have 96' RE 350 standard. I'm planning to ride to Mantralaya on 16th Jan returning on 19th evening. Planning to start early at 3AM.

> If any of you did ride this route recently, please mention about the road conditions.

> I have done 4 hr rides but this is my first long trip (solo). Can you please give your advise for the trip?

Regards
Rajesh Prabhu

[rajivtelang]

Planning to visit Mantralaya in February. How's the situation in AP now? Can I take the usual Bangalore-Gooty-Adoni-Yemmiganur-Mantralaya route? I do not wish to get trapped on roads due to Telangana related protest. Please suggest. Thanks.