[darklord]

Originally Posted by darklord

Hi friends, I plan to drive to Kollur from south Bangalore next week.

Originally Posted by adi_gt

A--snip--OK

Originally Posted by ampere

snip--option--snip

Thanks to the gentlemen quoted in particular and to the contributors of the Bangalore-Kollur route query thread in general for making our drive a breeze. I was not really sure this was a photologue worthy of sharing as a separate thread in Travelogues section, but I have been nudged in this direction.

It is not as informative as I would have liked since I wasn't planning on posting this here and paid sloppy attention to detail.

Anyway, consider this as my belated thank you.

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We did a trip to Kollur and Murdeshwar in June. This time, we drove to Kollur from Bangalore. Route taken was Bangalore-Channarayapatna-Ariskere-Bhadravati-Shimoga-Ayanur-Hosanagar-Nagara-Nittur-Kollur as was suggested in the aforementioned thread. Started at 5 a.m. from Bannerghatta Road and reached Kollur a little after 2 p.m., with a lot of breaks en route.


The excellent Bangalore-Hassan Highway:



Breakfast:



SH-7 near Gandasi:





Railway cross near Birur:



Lots and lots of butterflies near Shimoga Safari Park. The ones I was able to photograph:



SH-26 near Ayanur:







It started to rain while we were passing through Ripponpet.....



.....and continued with us in Hosanagar...



....en route Nagara...



...en route Nittur...





Thankfully though once we reached Kollur, rain stayed away and the weather turned pleasant:



Being a weekend and due to some auspicious occasion, the town was crowded with pilgrims and we had a bit of a difficulty in finding accommodation. Finally, found accommodation near the temple itself, Beena Residency. After resting for a bit, went to the temple in the evening, which had one of the biggest queues for darshan that I had encountered in Kollur. After darshan, we had to wait a bit for dinner as all the restaurants were full.

The next day morning, we went to the temple again for the main purpose of our visit, i.e., vidyarambham (learning initiation) for my niece.

Temple:



Saraswati Mandapam where the ritual is performed, lots of children began their studies that day:



Lunch:



Post lunch, the plan was to visit Murdeshwar, a pligrimage/tourist center 60 KM from Kollur Mookambika temple. As a few of our relatives had met up with us in Kollur, we hired a Chevy Tavera for the trip. The going rate was 1800 for the trip with a 2 hour layover in Murdeshwar. The route was Kollur-Baindur-Bhatkal-Murdeshwar.


Setting out:



The Gates of Kollur:

[darklord]

Cutting through Mookambika Wildlife Sanctuary:



SH-27, near Areshiroor:





Baindur town:



NH-66 four-laning in progress:



The sea and the sky:



Shiroor town:





Bhatkal town:





Murdeshwar Temple gopuram:



The beach:


There was a weekend crowd at the Murdeshwar Temple as well, but relatively thin as compared to Kollur. We had a fairly easy darshan.

The massive Shiva statue (123 ft) from inside the temple:




The gopuram (237.5 ft tall) has a lift that takes you to the very top, charges a nominal amount (Rs. 5, IIRC).

The view from atop the gopuram:







A different view of the statue:



After spending a pleasant couple of hours, we returned to Kollur:




Tomorrow, we return to Bangalore.

[darklord]

The next morning, we left Kollur at 10:45.


Parting shot from Kollur:



The roads were good, the background even more so:





A small stream:



There was a clearing in the jungle which gave us a good view...


....but that window of opportunity....


....lasted only 5 minutes:



And that fog continued with us for some time:



Kollur-Nagara road:



In Nagara, right by the roadside (GPS: 13.820943, 75.034679), we came across this:


Nobody else was interested in seeing an old fort braving the drizzle, so I went alone to explore.

Shivappa Naik's Fort, Nagara:



The gate lay open, welcoming the invader:



Ruins of the palace (I guess):

[darklord]

There was absolutely no one around, no guards, no guides, no tourists. It was an eerie feeling, being lonely in what would have been a bustling place once. I didn't spend much time and returned soon.

Hosanagar-Ayanur road:



Ayanur-Shimoga:



After lunch in Shimoga, we continued on. Shimoga-Bhadravati:



Bhadravati Bypass:



Somewhere near Kadur:







A pleasure to drive:



Arsikere-Channarayapatna:




It was nightfall by the time we reached Channrayapatna, but we made good time and reached Bannerghatta Road by 9:30 p.m.

What had passed was hectic three days, but all of us enjoyed the time off and ended up feeling refreshed rater than drained. The only regret we had was that we had skipped Kudajadri Hills yet again, but we resolved to rectify that soon.

[GTO]

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

[Omkar]

Crisp and great travelogue.

A goodread for sure. The place looks amazing and so do the pictures! being in such a picturesque environment is really a soul refreshing experience altogether.

Originally Posted by darklord

Nobody else was interested in seeing an old fort braving the drizzle, so I went alone to explore.

I would have done the same!

Now coming to the car, the Swift Vxi is just perfect for travelling with a small family. I've had some amazing experiences on long route travels with the Swift, and the car is just brilliant and sheer pleasure to drive.

I'm sure the beautiful scenery and the drive must have gotten you close to Nirvana sort of a feeling.

Keep travelling, looking forward to more travelogues from you in the future.