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-   -   Badami - Pattadakal - Aihole visit to a bygone era...and Gol Gumbaz (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/208857-badami-pattadakal-aihole-visit-bygone-era-gol-gumbaz.html)

There was a plan to do this trip since a long time and it finally materialized this summer.
Although logically, summer isn't a good time to visit the northern Karnataka given the intense heat, still decided to go ahead given that air conditioning would be available throughout except while stepping out.

Before the trip, I didn't find any recent travelogues related to these areas that gave a good idea particularly about the road conditions, so this travelogue might be useful for folks planning to visit.

Summary:
Day 1: Bangalore -AH47->Hubli - NH52->Badami - 515 KM


Day 2: Badami-Pattadakal-Aihole-Kudalasangama-Almatti Dam-Badami - 200 KM


Day 3: Badami-Bijapur-Badami - 240 KM


Day 4: Badami -NH50->Hospet->Chitradurga-AH47->Bangalore 480 KM


Around 1500 KM in total.

Day 1:
Although google indicated otherwise, chose to take the route to Badami via Hubli assuming that the road till Hubli on the Bangalore Mumbai GQ AH47 will be buttersmooth as per previous experiences.

Started at 7AM, the roads were good till Chitradurga and then beyond that encountered a number of repeated deviations due to the ongoing underpass work throughout the stretch which was frustrating to say the least until Hubli. Hubli to Badami on the NH52 was pretty uneventful and reached around 5 PM.

Since the Badami caves close at 6 PM, decided to visit straightaway on the same day. There are basically 4 cave temples cut into the rocks and built by Chalukyan kings around 6th century.
It is clear after seeing the rocky hillocks why the ancient kings chose this place, gives a natural fortification and also there is a fort on top (which is out of bounds for visitors I presume).

The massive rocky Badami caves with the Fort on top.
Perfect fortification for the rulers of the period.


Cave 1


Cave 2


Cave 3


Cave 4


Some of the intricate and delicately carved statues at Badami













Boothnath Temple when viewed from the Badami cave hillock


It was a full moon that night and it looked surreal and caught well even with phone camera

Day 2: was going to be pretty packed day with lots of local visits.

Started out in the morning to Pattadakal which is around 20 KM away. The road was surprisingly in excellent shape and looked freshly laid with proper signage to promote tourism.
Pattadakal has a single archaeological site with lots of ancent temples.

About Pattadakal Temples






Aihole another archaeological site was another 13 KM away and the roads were excellent.



Covered the two places before noon and headed out to Kudalasangama which is a merging point of two rivers - Krishna and Malaprabha and after a lunch break headed to Alamatti dam via NH-50 and found it to be pretty excellent with 4 laned toll roads from Chitradurga all the way to Bijapur and Sholapur.
This is when I decided that the return journey would be through this road. During my earlier Hospet trip about 6 years ago, this road was an undivided highway with lots of potholes as I remember it, a remarkable transformation to a 4 lane highway.clap:


Krishna and Malaprabha rivers meeting at this very point called Kudalasangama.
The left and broad river is the Krishna and the right narrow river is the Malaprabha


Day3 A visit to the second largest dome in the world Gol-Gumbaz of Bijapur was in the pipeline during Day 3.

Set out to Bijapur through NH52 via Bagalkot and found this road to be ok but pretty boring 120 KM drive.

Everything about the Gol-Gumbaz in a grand scale.
The massive approach way


Seven storied gigantic minarets



Final resting place of Sultan Adil Shah and his family.


The massive mausoleum


Returned back to Badami via the much more exciting NH50 back to Badami via Aihole.

Day 4 As decided took the NH50 via Hospet to merge AH47 GQ at Chitradurga, it was quite a smooth 9 drive of 480 KM with an average FE of 23 kmpl with a lunch stopover at Chitradurga.

How is the road condition between Hospet and Chitradurga? is the 4 lane work complete or still lots of diversions?

The NH50 is a good 4 lane blissful highway throughout without any diversions from Chitradurga to Hospet and beyond all the way till Bijapur, this road is in great shape.

Its the other GQ AH47 highway that is a mess with countless diversions :Frustrati after Chitradurga all the way till Hubli. This GQ road doesn't pass through Hospet.

Excellent and crisp blog. Having done Hampi ,Badami had been on the list for some time now. It's like a sequel to the first trip. Thanks for sharing the experience with us, keep traveling and penning down such wonderful threads.