[NPV]

Imagine a day well spent driving on some beautiful roads in the midst of greenery, hills and water bodies experiencing some beautiful places en route that offer visual treats with lovely vistas.

How often does one get to experience such a day when one lives a hectic city life and a day off is hard to come by ?

Sometimes, one does get lucky unexpectedly and things fall in place rather quickly and before you realize it you’re on the road with some good company for a great day. This is exactly what happened recently. A friend was visiting Bangalore and asked if we could go out to some off-beat places on a day trip while enjoying the drive as well.

A visit to the abandoned Rosary Church at Shettihalli near Hassan has been on the radar for almost 4 years but just could not find the right opportunity for a visit. I thought this would be a good place. Also in my mind was a drive on the SH 121 between Channarayapatna and Holenarasipura, I'd heard a lot about this place from a friend who is from Shanivarasanthe. I’d posted about this on another thread and few other members had tried this route and were happy, so I thought a visit to the Shettihalli church via the SH 121 would be a good idea.

Around the same time, I read about BHPian @procrj's experience to the Mavinakere hilltop temple and Sreeramadavara Katte (Dam) and decided to include visits to these places in our trip, so the plan looked like this:


Map Link

We started from Bangalore at 6:30am and stopped at Swathi Delicacy, Yediyur for breakfast.

The beautiful NH48..


Probably the only picture of food before we gobbled it all up


After a sumptuous breakfast, we hit the road again and turned off the NH 48 (now 75) at Channarayapatna to get inside the town and take the SH 121 (look for Agrahara signage on the Channarayapatna-Holenarasipura Road).

Note:We did not carry any funky photography gear, just used mobile phones so pardon picture quality. It was also overcast and cloudy, especially at Shettihalli and did not help the cause. That said, it was a great treat for the eyes and an unforgettable experience!

[NPV]

This road has beautiful green fields, farms, hills and windmills surrounding it and the road itself is a treat to drive on. We rolled the windows down and drove at a leisurely slow speed soaking in all that the place had to offer and enjoying the fresh, pollution free air, it was heavenly!

No amount of pictures can do justice to this road and it's surroundings and we were lured by the beauty all around and stopped at several places to just enjoy the calm, serene beauty.














After some extremely slow driving and several stops on the way, we were on the SH 57 and turned right to head towards Mavinakere.

[NPV]

The temple on top of the hill is beautiful with a very nice ghat road to access the place. Views from the ghat road and the hill top are mesmerizing, glad we decided to visit this place.

Some pictures here.

First view of the temple at the top of the hill


A Gazebo next to the temple, ideal place for a small picnic
*Humble request - Please keep the place clean






This tree in front of the temple was interesting - see the hollow portion below it's roots!


Side view of the tree


About the temple






































Dizzy® gets a break










*Please note:Request everyone visiting such places to make sure you don't litter and dirty the place.
There are quite a few dustbins/trash cans near the temple, please do use them. It's really high time we started caring about public property and religious, tourist places.


After spending more than an hour here, we headed back on SH 57 towards Holenarasipura.

[NPV]

While heading back on the SH57 towards Holenarasipura, we turned right near the signboard for Stay Simple Resort, crossed the railway track and were inside the “parking lot” next to the Sreeramadavara Dam. The place is beautiful and the "Katte" had water gushing down at good speed on top of the mini/check dam.
Some pictures here:























Again, this place was a revelation. I wasn't aware that the Hemavathy River was quite a big river and an important source of water to these regions around Hassan.

After about 20 minutes, we started back on SH 57 towards Holenarasipura and took the Arkalgud road to go towards Shettihalli.

[NPV]

En route we stopped at the Hemavathi Reservoir/Gorur Dam where work on building a large arch at the entrance to the garden was in progress. Enquired with the security guard about water level and decided to skip the long walk towards the dam as water level was low.






After a quick 10 minute stop here, we drove further on the road and near a village called Kattaya, we turned left towards Shettihalli (there is a Bharat Petroleum pump here).

The ruined church was accessible as the water level was low and we took a lot of pictures here. There was a local group of revellers who drove their Maruti 800 inside the ruined church and sat down for lunch accompanied by stray dogs! We ignored the group, went about taking pictures, spent some time going around and left.

This is a great place to visit though and we were happy we could finally visit it. A photoshoot with some modeling crew were present at the bridge across the catchment area near the Church when we drove across the bridge.

Pictures now..
















Saw this island full of trees in the catchment area

[NPV]

We headed back towards Hassan and then took the Hassan-Bangalore NH 48 (75) back to Bangalore and we were back home by 7pm.

En route we stopped for a quick, late lunch at Jaladhi Family Restaurant opposite the HKS International School - thanks to DBHPian @Paragsachania for this suggestion.

A great day spent driving on a 4 laned highway, lovely 2 laned rural roads in the midst of green surroundings, visits to a Hill top Temple, a Dam, a ruined church, all in a day. We couldn’t ask for anything more!

Trip Stats:
My trusted drive Dizzy (Swift Dzire) did not disappoint and we had a very enjoyable trip.

Total Distance:480Km
Fuel Efficiency (Petrol):16.5 Kmpl

Parting shot - saw this Hanuman/Anjaneya Idol when heading towards Hassan from the Shettihalli church


Thanks for reading.

[Samurai]

Taking it out, thanks for sharing. - Support Team

[mpksuhas]

Thats an intresting route you took NPV.
A Dizzy drive after a break, as usual great narration and pics.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Thats an intresting route you took NPV.

Thanks Suhas!
The route was kind of a "mashup" with no optimization as we had enough time on our hands and also did not try many other possible roads that we could have taken as we weren't familiar with the road conditions. But the SH 121 is amazing to say the least.

[laluks]

Hey, you could have called me. I would have followed you :(
Nice trip NPV. I always wanted to go here but other priorities take over. So is another pending drive to our Grand Canyon

[NPV]

Originally Posted by laluks

Hey, you could have called me. I would have followed you :(

Ha ha! For years it's me who is following you (via your Travelogues!).

I always wanted to go here but other priorities take over. So is another pending drive to our Grand Canyon

You should visit these places, well worth it and the advantage is it can be done as a day trip!
Not sure what you meant by "Grand Canyon"

[laluks]

Originally Posted by NPV

Not sure what you meant by "Grand Canyon"

Gandikotta and thereabouts

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by laluks

Gandikotta and thereabouts

Not sure of the current water level. However, monsoon may not be the right time to visit Gandikota since increased water level may make look the canyon look smaller.

[Ddrive]

Yet again a nice trip log and photos.
A trip to Shettihalli church is a must do I believe, looks inviting.

[paragsachania]

Good crisp Travelogue there NPV and you seem to have covered most of it around this area.

I have been to Mavinakere many times when one of my cousins used to study at the JNV School here and those were the days when the Hassan - Mysore road was in horrendous shape. But I have never been to that temple till date. As of today, as you noticed, its bliss to drive.

On Gorur, try to make a trip on Independence day - This is usually when they release water and this side of the dam is in full glory.

On Jaladhi - Well, it exists since more than 16 years now at the same location where there are 3 such "Family restaurants". The first I have been there was in 1999 during my Engineering days!

Not a great place to recommend if you are a pure vegetarian but the first time we stopped with my father was in the month of May 2016 on the way to Mangalore for dinner and we ordered couple of vegetarian dishes and they turned out to be good for a place like this - Rotis as usual were served hot and crispy than rubbery .

Otherwise, whenever we are in a mood to drive late evenings, we drive till here, have dinner and make U-Turn and return back to Bangalore.

After all, we all have been to A2B and Kamats and it is always good to try something else once in a while.