[v&v]

Our long pending vacation to explore Karnataka finally materialised this year. After lot of research and referring to tlogs final itinerary was as follows

Plan : 28th Dec - Delhi Blr - By Air
29th Dec - Drive down to Mangalore
30th & 31st Dec - Mangalore - Moodbadri - Sringeri,Agumbe,Mangalore
1st Jan - Mangalore - Rest Day...
2nd Jan - Pilicula
3rd Jan - Exploring Mangalore Beaches - Panambur & Someshwara
4th Jan - Drive to Coorg (Madikeri)
5th Jan - Coorg - Talakaveri
6th Jan - Coorg - Dubbare,Bylakuppe
7th Jan - Coorg - Mysore Palace - Blr
8th Jan - Bangalore
9th Jan - Return Delhi

Bangalore Stay : Our flat
Mangalore Stay : Brother's House
Sringeri - Sri Bharati Tirtha Kripa guest house
Coorg : Club Mahindra

Now the main part was the transport. After exploring all option decided to try Zoom Car. Spoke to the customer care and came to know none of Mahindra Scorpio was available for 30,31 & 1st. These dates were booked almost 45 days in advance. So finally settled for Ford figo. Overall the experience was very satisfactory. 4k fuel bill was also credited back promptly. Figo was a charm to drive and was trouble-free for 1800 kms 12 days trip.

Agumbe : Search Rain forest research station


Sringeri


Pilicula : My bro and kids


Someshwar Beach @ Mangalore


Bylekuppe





Route driven & Condition

Bangalore - Mangalore - Drove via Hassan, Belur, Charmadi Ghats, Ujire, BC road, Mangalore. Roads were in great shape. Little patch were there at Charmadi. Repair was in progress. I really enjoyed Hassan - Belur drive. Almost no traffic and winding roads.

Mangalore - Moodabadri - Karkala - Sringeri - Agumbe - Mangalore - Overall roads are good shape. High traffic upto Moodabadri. Road via Kudrimukh national park is very narrow at many places but roads are in good condition. Last few kms were bad if i remember correct.

Road from Sringeri to Agumbe - Last 10 km is horrible. Full of pot holes.

Agumbe - Mangalore via Hebri - Karkala - Ghats was good. Road till Hebri has sections of bad road. Repair work was in progress. Post Hebri also occational patches. After that roads are good.

Mangalore - Madikeri : Mangalore - Mysore highway - Road till from Sullia is in great shape. Just before Sullia town till next 22 kms is really bad. Very bad. After that again fantastic road to drive.

Madikeri - Mysore - Bangalore - Over all good condition. Lots of speed breakers. Mysore - Bangalore has high traffic.

[v&v]

Day - 1
We started by 5am and really enjoyed the morning drive all the way to Hassan - Belur. Breakfast at CCD near Hassan. Reached Mangalore by 12.30 pm.

Beautiful NH - 48




Breakfast Break


Turn off to Belur, Left NH-48






Somewhere in Charmadi Ghats











Exploring Mangalore
Evening temple visit to Kadrimanjunath Temple and Mangla devi temple. Also spent about 2 hrs at Tannirbhavi Beach.


Kadrimanjunath Temple
The temple of Manjunatheshwara on the hills of Kadri an incarnation of Lord Shiva. A 12th century temple amongst the oldest in South India.







Natural Spring
it is beleived that this holy water is none other than a stream of Holy Ganga River flows from Kashi Kshetra (Varanasi) of North India is also called Gomukha Bhageerati Teertha.






Mangala Devi temple dedicated to Goddess Parvathi
it is beleived that "Mangalore city" was named after Goddess Mangaladevi




Tannirbhavi Beach

[v&v]

Day 2 : Destination : Sringeri Via : Moodabadri & Karkali Bahubali

Started leasurly by 8 am. First stop was at Moodabadri to see The Thousand Pillars Jain Temple.

Parking Area


Entry


Manasthambha is about 45 feet single stone structure


The Thousand Pillars Jain Temple










Next destination was at Karkala to see Shri Bhagwan Bahubali Digambar Statue.









View of Chaturmukha Thirthankara Basadi is awesome.






By lunch time we were at Sringeri. Evening we went Temple of Sri Sharadamba and darshan of sri sri Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamigal at Gurunivas. Gurunivas is across Tunga river.

Bharathi Teertha Kripa guest house : is just in front of temple entry. Lots of rooms and very reasonable.



Rajagopuram , was under construction. Now being inaugurated.




Temple of Sri Sharadamba


Sri Vidyashankara temple.


Tunga River




Way to Gurunivas


Guru Nivas - Darshan timing is Evening 5 pm to 6 pm


Second day ended with delicious annadam at temple complex.

[v&v]

Day 3 : Left Sringeri by 9am. Plan was to visit Agumbe and be at Mangalore by evening. Kids were adamant to visit Sirimane Waterfall. It was about 14 kms Sringeri. Road at certain place is very narrow and over in decent condition. Beautiful waterfall and we all spent a good 2 hrs and enjoyed bathing very much.

Way to Fall : Parking for about 30 odd vehicle. Tea and snacks available.










We left for Agumbe by 1130 and is about 20kms from Sringeri. So effectively 35 odd kms from Sirimane. Road were horrible all the way till Agumbe. We wanted to visit Agumbe Rainforest Research Station to checkout for the King (Cobra).

There are no markings or road to ARRS. We asked locals to find a mud track which goes to the Station. Nice location inside. Hardluck , no cobras in captivity. Spent about on hour and left. Had lunch at Hotel Mayura near Kasturi Akka's house.

Way to ARRS






ARRS : Big area with lots of people working. Guests can also stay here subject to availability. Ideal for Birding. Saw lot of foreign tourist too.






Only decent Restaurant we found at Agumbe : Lunch Break. Food was good


Kasturi Akka's House , Stay option is available. Mangudi days series was shot here



View from Ghats There is a fare chance to see Lion-tailed macaque here






We reached Mangalore by 4 pm. We had planned a small new year's eve party with friends and family.

[v&v]

Day-4 was more of a rest day. Agenda - Shopping, Movie, Ice creams... Went to see Drishyam movie (Mallu). Pabba's Ice Cream Parlour was amazing. Never eaten so much ice cream in my life. Overall a fun filled day....





Day-5 - Pilicula Zoo : is about 14 kms from city. High traffic route. 14 kms feels 25 kms. Lot to walk. We all were tired. Nellitheertha Cave Temple visit in the evening was dropped. Maybe next time...

[v&v]

Day-6 - Beach day :
Morning : Panambur
Is about 12 kms. Beautiful beach. Lot water sports activity. Even life guards were there.
We went early morning. Beach was almost empty. Must say neat beach.






















Evening : Someshwara.
Rocky and one can witness beautiful sunset. Its in opposite direction to Panambur beach. About 10 odd kms. Adjoining to beach is Someshwara Temple.

[v&v]

Day - 7 - Checkout from Mangalore & Drive to Coorg
We had three nights at Club Mahindra , Coorg. The property is quite inside from the town. Must say beautiful property. Reached hotel by 2.30 pm. Check in was smooth. I had requested a room close to Spa area so that i can click some bird pics. Luckily allotted ground floor for us. Got some great shots...

Also there were lots of activity in town & adjoining area for All India Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, on 7th Jan. Roads being relaid, cleaning activity etc..

Some pics of Resort & Birds...

Reception Area , right side




Restaurant


Studio units




Activity Zone


Lot of such tracks to walk around


Blue winged Parakeet


White cheeked barbet


Velvet-fronted Nuthatch


Yellow browed bulbul


Red-whiskered Bulbul


Verditer Flycatcher


Greater Racket-tailed Drongo


Minivet


Ashy Drongo

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[Samba]

Let me be the first one to congratulate you on this beautiful travelogue. Nice pictures with some detailed write up.

This thread reminds me of my road trip from Bangalore which i did in 2009 in my Alto. That time i was into a job in Bangalore and my parents came to meet me for a week. So for a span of 4 days we planned a trip like -

Day 1- Bangalore- - Shravanbelagola- Chikmagalur- Sringer- Aghumbe- Udupi.
Day 2- Sightseeing Udupi (Visiting krishna temple & St Marries island)and a visit to Mangalore and back.
Day 3- Udupi to Coorg and visit Kushal nagar monastery and stay the night at Coorg.
Day 4- Visit Abbey falls then to Nagerhole and Waynad via Virajpet and then Mysore- Bangalore. It was a 1355kms trip.

I was pretty surprised to see you did almost the same route i did at that time. Thanks a lot for bringing back my good old memories.

If you don't mind you can have a look at the pics from my trip. https://plus.google.com/photos/10523...07868247934465

Once again thanks for sharing.

[deepakhon]

Ice creams at Mangalore - the best ice creams I have eaten anywhere. I remember we used to frequent Ideal Ice Creams during our college days. Wonder whether we still have all that.

[W.A.G.7]

A beautiful travelogue! So many birds inside the club Mahindra resort alone?!! Nice places to see in KA also; I never knew some of these places existed. Thanks for sharing the travelogue. If you can share, how much did the bill for the Figo come to finally? Would you suggest zoom cars as vfm for a short stay?

P.S: The ice-cream looks really nice, wish I could have one right now, sitting in my office!

[NPV]

@V&V - Nice travelogue, excellent pictures, Thanks for sharing.

On the way from Sringeri to Agumbe you could have visited Kundadri hill - good place to view sunset and there's a small Jain Temple as well on top of the hill.

Mangalore - the Pabba's folks also own Ideal Cafe, an excellent place, did you go there ?

Originally Posted by deepakhon

Ice creams at Mangalore - the best ice creams I have eaten anywhere. I remember we used to frequent Ideal Ice Creams during our college days. Wonder whether we still have all that.

Yes, Ideal Ice creams is still around, they also own Ideal Cafe and Pabba's.

[v&v]

Originally Posted by Samba

Let me be the first one to congratulate you on this beautiful travelogue. Nice pictures with some detailed write up.

This thread reminds me of my road trip from Bangalore which i did in 2009 in my Alto.

Thank you Samba. Ya quite similar. I think i will need another 3-4 similar trips to cover prominent places in Karnataka.

Udupi i too had visited earlier in 2010. Malpe beach is simply awesome. We stayed at Paradise Isle for 5 nights. Will never forget that experience.

Nagerhole was deliberately left for some other trip. Also told the road condition not great.

Originally Posted by deepakhon

Ice creams at Mangalore - the best ice creams I have eaten anywhere. I remember we used to frequent Ideal Ice Creams during our college days. Wonder whether we still have all that.

My kids went to Ideal too. Must say Caramel Custard and Zaffa drink were distinctly unique...

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

A beautiful travelogue! So many birds inside the club Mahindra resort alone?!! Nice places to see in KA also; I never knew some of these places existed. Thanks for sharing the travelogue. If you can share, how much did the bill for the Figo come to finally? Would you suggest zoom cars as vfm for a short stay?

P.S: The ice-cream looks really nice, wish I could have one right now, sitting in my office!

Thanks WAG7. Zoom car costed me Rs 21500/-. They refunded 4k. So 17.5k for 12 days was cool. IMO its VFM if you plan for week days instead of weekends.

Me too had same feeling while positng the ice-cream snap..

Originally Posted by NPV

@V&V - Nice travelogue, excellent pictures, Thanks for sharing.
On the way from Sringeri to Agumbe you could have visited Kundadri hill - good place to view sunset and there's a small Jain Temple as well on top of the hill.

Mangalore - the Pabba's folks also own Ideal Cafe, an excellent place, did you go there ?
Yes, Ideal Ice creams is still around, they also own Ideal Cafe and Pabba's.

Thanks NPV. Is Kundadri hill called sunset point. We had to skip due to time limitation. My kids were daily visitors to Ideal Ice creams

[guyfrmblr]

Excellent travelogue. You have captured places around my native very beautifully .

Originally Posted by v&v

Pabba's Ice Cream Parlour was amazing. Never eaten so much ice cream in my life. Overall a fun filled day....

Originally Posted by NPV

Yes, Ideal Ice creams is still around, they also own Ideal Cafe and Pabba's.

Call me an old timer, I still prefer the old Ideals at Hampanakatte . Of course ice creams are good at Pabba's and Ideals Cafe but to get the authentic Ideals feel, the old Parlour is the place to go. I always visit this old Parlour whereas my family members insist Pabba's/Ideals Cafe.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by v&v

Thanks NPV. Is Kundadri hill called sunset point. We had to skip due to time limitation. My kids were daily visitors to Ideal Ice creams

I don't think so. Sunset Point is the one at Agumbe just before the ghats begin (descend) to Someshwara. That place is best avoided due to crowds, vendors, litter can't enjoy peaceful sunset there.
There's always a next time! And a reason to go back.