[Dr.AD]

A New (to us) Side of Hampi

Sunflowers? Yes, this is a different side of Hampi!

Sunflowers is not what one expects to see as the title photo of a Hampi travelogue. Most readers would expect to see the Stone Chariot. Or if not that, then the other famous monuments and ruins of Hampi. Or if not even that then at least a photo of the dreamy golden sunrise or sunset that Hampi is famous for. After all, one goes to Hampi to see those things.

However, we did not see most of those in our recent weekend drive to Hampi. Not that we did not want to see those. But just that the events unfolded differently.

One of my favorite internet quotes about travel is this: "The Traveler sees what he sees. The Tourist sees what he has come to see".

We always try our best to be the Travelers and not the Tourists. And the above quote applied well to our latest trip to Hampi. We did not see most of the famous monuments or the Stone Chariot that the Tourists go to see. But we saw sunflowers, we saw lush green farms and beautiful trees, we saw forests and we did a Jungle Safari in Hampi (which we did not even know existed till we reached there), we even saw sloth bears and some lovely little birds, we had a memorable lunch at some totally unheard of, totally down to earth shack at some remote location, and we had interesting drives that included some scenic routes as well some absolutely horrible (sometimes nonexistent) roads. And we loved every bit of this concoction. We did not do what we thought we would do in this trip, but nevertheless, we enjoyed what we ended up doing and we had a great time. This is a story of this unplanned, unexpected, a different kind of Hampi experience as it unfolded for us.

This trip started with a "conventional" plan for a typical Hampi trip. We wanted to go out early morning for the sunrise views, then explore the monuments and ruins through the day, and end the day with the magical sunsets that we typically associate Hampi with. We had even marked specific sunrise and sunsets points in our Google Maps. Now this was not the first time we were going to Hampi. Quite the opposite actually. We had been there several times before, and in a way, we had "been there, done that" in Hampi. However, thanks to my newfound hobby of photography, I wanted to go back there and revisit those sites from a photographer's viewpoint (or at least act like a photographer and pretend to have that viewpoint ). So that was the main idea. In reality, what happened was quite the opposite of that idea, for many reasons. And that somehow is the best part of this trip. We ended up having a very memorable and enjoyable experiences, in some unexpected way.

The participants in this plan were (as usual for us) a few BHPian friends, their families, and their cars. I and my better half were in my BMW 320d. BHPian robimahanta (Robi) and his better half joined us in our car. Due to some logistical challenges, Robi could not drive his power-packed M340i or the hot hatch Polo GTI, and instead joined us in our car (which was a great fun as we had non-stop car talk throughout the drive). BHPian deepfreak15 (Deepak) and his better half joined us in their Audi A3. So the plan was simple. Six people. One BMW. One Audi. One Destination - Hampi!

We started from Bangalore in the morning with a quick breakfast at a highway restaurant. After an enjoyable morning drive on the six-lane Bangalore-Mumbai highway (NH48), we exited on the newly constructed "Hampi Expressway" (NH50) at Chitradurga. This is a beautiful four-lane road with smooth tarmac and good landscapes all around. I had driven on this road back in January this year, and I was looking forward to driving on this again.

Our cars, somewhere on the Hampi Expressway:



This is a fantastic road to drive on, with smooth tarmac and good scenery all around:



Soon Deepak spotted a nice photo spot with sunflower fields, and we pulled over there for a photo (I hope Deepak will share more photos at this spot):



This road passes from very close to the backwaters of Tungabhadra Dam. There is small garden and viewpoint there:



Soon after that we reached our hotel in Hampi. It was a relatively short drive (about 4.5 hours of driving time) and we reached well in time for lunch. The road conditions are fantastic throughout, and we totally enjoyed this short and brisk drive!

This time we stayed in Royal Orchid Central Kireeti, which is in Hospet (or Hosapete as it is now called) town. This is about 10km from the Hampi monument sites. The reason we chose this hotel was the location. This hotel is ideally located for visiting the Hampi sites, and is also easily accessible from the Chitradurga-Hampi NH50 Expressway. In our multiple previous visits, we stayed at Hyatt Place. While that place is nice and offers an interesting experience, that is an hour's drive from the Hampi sites and is not very convenient to drive to sunrise or sunset points in the early morning or late evening respectively. This Royal Orchid offers a good location for early morning sunrise visits, and that was our main criterion this time. As it turned out, this is a nice hotel too. It is not a 5-star or a luxury hotel by any means. But we were not expecting that anyway. This is more like a comfortable and clean 3-star or 4-star hotel that was ideally located for our agenda. And most importantly, they have spacious and safe parking for our cars, which is always a must have condition for me in choosing any hotel. We had booked "Executive Suites" which turned out to be massive in size with spacious bedroom, a separate living room, and two bathrooms. The rooms very spacious, comfortable, clean and had modern amenities. Overall, this is a good hotel that is well located if your agenda is spending time in Hampi sites. However, if your agenda is to spend time in the hotel or have a resort like experience, then this is not the place. For that there are better places in Hampi, for example, the fabulous Evolve Back resort!

This was a Friday noon when we arrived there. Our plan was to take some rest and then drive out to the sunset point in the evening, and spend the weekend exploring various landscapes and Hampi sites. And of course, our plan included an early morning hike to the sunrise point the next day, for what I hoped would be some good photography opportunities.

What actually happened in the rest of the day (and to some extent the rest of the weekend) was a combination of some bad luck and some "comedy of errors" on our part. We still enjoyed the whole experience, but nothing went as per the above plan. More on that in the subsequent posts below.

By the way, I am just stating off this thread with my report. Both Robi and Deepak have got some fantastic pictures in this trip and I hope they will (and I request them to) add their pictures and their sides of the story in this thread too.

[Dr.AD]

Comedy of Errors

After having a heavy lunch, we decided to take some rest and later drive out to the sunset point (Hemakuta Hill) in the evening, as per our original plan. So we took a nap and at about 4pm, we decided to step out. And it was at this time that we were told by the hotel staff that due to some reasons the Hampi monuments were closed to the public from that Friday evening till Monday morning. (We were told this was NOT due to the pandemic. The situation was totally normal there and everything was open. But just for that specific weekend only the monuments were closed due to some other reason. Just bad luck with the timing for us.) This was a bummer. We had never heard of this till then and it was never in any news (I had been frequently checking all news for any such restrictions). Thankfully, it turned out that the town was not closed and all activities were permitted as usual, except for visiting the monuments. The monuments would close soon that evening and re-open on Monday morning. That would be too late for us as our plan was to return to Bangalore on Sunday.

Why I call this comedy of errors is because we spent valuable hours that Friday afternoon relaxing in our room instead of visiting monuments. If we knew of the impending closure, we could have spent the afternoon hours visiting at least a couple of key monuments. However, this was just the first of the many funny errors we made that day.

Anyways, given that we still had a couple of hours left that day, we quickly drove to Hemakuta Hill for the sunset views. At the parking lot there, a guide approached us and we took the one right decision of hiring his services; he turned to be a very good guide. He took us to a few points of interest nearby, before taking us to the sunset point on Hemakuta Hill.

At first we visited this "Krishna Bazar":



While it was hot and sunny when we arrived in Hampi, by now it had become dark and cloudy:



The Krishna Temple opposite the Bazar:


By now it started raining. Any chances of sunset views looked slim now.

A rainy view of a Hampi temple:



Soon the rain intensified. And here we realized our second error. We had brought umbrellas from home, but we had left those in our cars and were walking around in the rain with our cameras. While Robi's camera was weatherproof, mine and Deepak's were not. And it was not easy to walk back to the car in that rain as the car was parked a bit away. We felt incredibly stupid for leaving the umbrellas in the car. Anyway, we decided to somehow walk to the next point, somehow protecting our cameras from the rain as much as we could, and still taking photos from our mobile phones.

The next point was the famous Lakshmi Narasimha Temple, but we had to take a shelter under a roof before we could reach there.

Views of a rainy Hampi:



This is as close as we could get, thanks to the heavy rain:



At this point, we had no choice but to run back to our cars and take our umbrellas. We somehow managed to reach the car, dumped our cameras in the car (since they were not weatherproof), took the umbrellas, and decided to continue our explorations. We would depend only on mobile camera for the rest of the evening.


Our next stop was this magnificent Saasivekaalu Ganesha:



And as the luck would have it, by now the rain stopped, and the sky started clearing up. We were by now on the Hemakuta Hill, the perfect spot to see the magnificent sunset views. The rain had stopped. The weather was lovely now. The views were fantastic. But we had done another error of leaving our cameras in the car exactly when we needed them the most. How stupid of us! At that time, Deepak and I were laughing at our own stupidity and we were joking that the title of our travelogue would be "How Stupid!"

This was seriously quite funny. I was eagerly looking forward to some photography experiments that evening. I had even purchased an ND filter recently. For the first time ever, I was even carrying a tripod in my car. So my intentions were clear. But we always had the wrong thing in our hand and the right thing in our car that day. Earlier when it was raining, we had cameras in our hand and the umbrellas in the car. And now when rain had stopped and it was this beautiful evening, we had umbrellas in our hand the cameras in the car.

Anyways, at that magnificent evening hour on that magical hill, we had to resort back to our mobile cameras. We reminded ourselves of the old adage "The best camera is the one you have with you". As it turned out, we had a fun time walking around that hill and shooting a few photos with our mobile cameras.

I found these cactuses (or cacti) interesting enough to take a photo and share here:



The rest of the evening was spent walking around on the Hemakuta Hill. The rocks were wet and slippery, and we had fun times in carefully walking around and climbing the wet rocks without falling, and laughing at each other's agonies while walking there in the wrong footwear (by now you will not be surprised to read that just like the wrong cameras and wrong rain-gear, we also had wrong footwear). But the views and the weather were so good that we loved every moment of that evening. And luckily nobody fell down, although we came close on a couple of occasions! By the way, the umbrellas came to use as the walking sticks on those tricky rocks!

Views from Hemakuta Hill:



Next we visited a famous photography spot there. This small shrine and the tree has been photographed by many famous photographers. This looks amazing on the backdrop of the sunset colors. Our own expert photographer robimahanta has taken a stunning shot of this spot in our previous trip, and posted here.

But today, we had to be satisfied with this view:



Random photography attempts with a mobile camera:



The monkeys were having fun on the top of these boulders:



Distant view of the famous Virupaksha Temple:



Another view of the famous photography spot:



And finally some more photography attempts before we returned to our cars:



This had, unexpectedly, turned out to be quite an eventful evening. We got drenched in the rain, we had the wrong cameras, we had the wrong shoes, we had to climb on the slippery rocks, but in the end we had amazing fun. The evening on that hill was quite memorable. The weather was extremely pleasant, and camera or no camera, we enjoyed the views. We had a great time.

[Dr.AD]

A Countryside Drive

Next day, since the monuments were closed, our main plan of exploring the monuments was off the table. We were forced to make alternative plans. As it turned out, maybe this was a blessing in disguise because this forced us to explore things around Hampi which we had not seen in the past.

Our guide on the previous evening had recommended that we drive to Sanapur Lake. A quick Google search showed many beautiful photos of this lake, and we decided to make this the destination for the first half of our day.

Let's start the day with a car photo. Deepak's A3 parked in the hotel parking:



Two Extremes of Road Condition: We had an interesting experience about road conditions while driving to Sanapur Lake. Google Maps shows two routes. These two routes are polar opposites of each other - both in direction as well as in road conditions (that we discovered later when we actually drove there, since Maps does not mention road conditions). Sanapur Lake is sort of "across the river, around Hampi" from Hosapete, and you can go either via a clockwise route or a counter-clockwise route. Our gut feeling told us that the counter-clockwise road (which passes by the Kamalapur Lake) would be the more scenic one (by the way, this guess turned out to be 100% right, as we found later), and we decided to take that road.

While on our way to Sanapur Lake, we crossed this Kamalapur Lake (photo credit: robimahanta):



However, after driving a bit ahead, we saw a massive traffic jam near Kamalapur. There was a long line of vehicles waiting on the road and Google Maps was showing a long red line. A lot of vehicles were simply turning back from that spot. At that point, instead of waiting there for that jam to clear, we too decided to turn back and try the clockwise circuit instead. While those were all impromptu decisions based on our gut feeling about the situation at that time, this decision turned out to be totally wrong! A bad idea, I can say now.

As we started our second attempt of driving to Sanapur Lake, now in a clockwise direction, we got good views of Tungabhadra Dam (photo credit: robimahanta):


This clockwise route goes via narrow village streets at first, with massive potholes, broken roads and the village traffic. After that it joins a state highway that is totally under construction. When we joined this state highway, all we had was a gravel road at first, which soon changed into a proper mud path with massive potholes and totally non-existent road. Tar road was not even seen for a few kilometers. It was a big challenge driving the 320d on this road with four people on board. However, with careful and painfully slow driving, the car managed to cross this terrible section without scraping the bottom even once! 320d is a lovely car and this drive proved again how comfortable and practical this car can be even on bad roads.

The two options to reach Sanapur Lake, with polar opposite road conditions (I have marked the good and bad road options):


Anyways, after the ordeal on the bad roads, we reached Sanapur Lake and it turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax. Maybe it was the wrong time of the day to visit there. We were there mid-day under hot and sunny conditions, and the muddy water in the lake looked a bit weird. Maybe in a different season (the lakes are mostly muddy in the monsoon) and at a different time of the day, one could have a better experience here.

The muddy waters in Sanapur Lake:



Coracles in Sanapur Lake (photo credit: robimahanta):



Although the lake views were a bit underwhelming, we got some fantastic views of lush green farms and the paddy fields from there. Again very different from the usual images of dry and rocky landscapes in this area. We were discovering a lot of unexpected views in this Hampi trip. Green was the prominent color of the vistas this time, instead of the dry brown and grey that one sees in Hampi in summer months.

The green paddy fields:



Refreshingly green farms contrasting the brown boulders:



By now we were hungry and we needed our lunch. The Sanapur Lake area, although a bit remote from Hampi or Hosapete towns, has a few interesting options for food. Nothing fancy. No star restaurants here. But there are a few small shacks serving food. While driving around, we spotted one shack (Wood Stock Cafe) that looked quite appealing. We parked our cars and went in. There was nobody else other than us. It was a lovely place with cozy "sit-down" kind of arrangement and short tables. It instantly reminded us of Goa. Great ambiance! And they made some fresh hot lunch for us that was very tasty. The staff was very polite and quick in service too. Out of the blue, when we least expected it, we had a great lunch experience at this place.

Our cars parked at Wood Stock Cafe:



Lovely interiors of this Wood Stock Cafe that could easily pass as a place in Goa (photo credit: robimahanta):



In total contrast to the road conditions in the onward route (the route I marked as terrible in the map above), the continuation in the other direction (the route marked in blue in map) was an amazing experience. There we had butter smooth tarmac with well marked two-lane roads, absolutely enjoyable turns and corners on that smooth road, and really beautiful views all around (the quintessential Hampi landscapes - colorful boulders and hills). Again what was new this time was the lush green farms and paddy fields all around, in addition to the Hampi boulders. We were pleasantly surprised by the amount of greenery we saw in this drive. This road (the one marked in blue above) is so good that I would say this is a must do drive for the driving enthusiasts when you are in Hampi.

Unfortunately we did not click many pictures to show for that post-lunch drive. However, this one picture will give a feel of the kind of roads we drove on:

[Dr.AD]

Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary

This place was always on our radar for a visit since a long time. However, in our previous trips to Hampi, somehow, we never managed to visit this place. This time though, since we were forced to find alternative plans, we decided to visit this place in the afternoon. And this time, for a change, the luck was our side. We had a pleasant surprise in store. Just recently, on August 15th, they have started a Jeep Safari in this Sloth Bear Sanctuary. So we not only got to visit the sanctuary this time, but also got a Jeep Safari! Credit for discovering this Jeep Safari goes to robimahanta. He called some of his friends who told us about this Safari and also told us where to go to board the safari.

Just recently, we did a couple of jungle safaris together in Kabini and Bhadra. Those are the typical jungle places and the safaris there are the most well-known attractions. However, we least expected a safari in Hampi. This was not even on our minds when we made the original plan. We did not even know this safari existed till that day when we were forced to find out alternate plans. It was a fun experience to find this plan at the last minute, and was even more fun to do one more safari together, at the least expected location.

The safari boarding point is some kind of a visitor center. It is called Interpretation Center - Daroji Bear Sanctuary (https://goo.gl/maps/n6M94K5H4MCcn5LG9). This whole facility and the safari is a brand new thing. This Interpretation Center is worth a visit. It hosts a museum of Hampi photographs (all of them were incredibly good), has a small theater that shows films on Hampi wildlife, and has a tourist information desk. It also has a good parking and a clean restroom there. It is a very nice facility. We bought tickets to Safari here, and then boarded a brand new Mahindra Bolero Camper (the most popular vehicle for jungle safaris all over South India) and started this brand new safari experience (The "Jeep" was just a week old!).

Lovely tracks for the safari. This was a pleasant and surprising experience. I would have never expected this in Hampi:



Interesting boulder formations all around the safari tracks:



The safari took us around interesting landscapes. These landscapes, with green trees, red soil and brown boulders are very different from the typical forests we see in other safaris such as in Kabini and Bhadra.


Refreshingly different landscape in this safari (photo credit: robimahanta):



Another photo of the rocky landscapes:



As if the landscapes were not enough to enjoy this ride, we also saw many interesting birds. However, we had no time for bird photography as the safari was headed to a watch tower from where we would see sloth bears. And we had to reach there before it got too late in the evening. I thoroughly enjoyed this ride. The weather was pleasant. We had nice breeze and beautiful landscapes all around. This ride itself was a great fun. A very memorable experience for sure. After about 40 minutes of travel in those picturesque landscapes, the safari took us to a watch tower kind of structure. We climbed a few stairs to reach there, and from there, we had amazing 360 degree views of the surroundings.

In this picture you can see the steps we climbed to reach the watch tower. Lovely steps and very well built infrastructure. Very pleasant and clean place. This spot and this experience was an unexpected highlight of this trip.



And then, there in the distance, we saw these sloth bears:



A cropped close-up of a sloth bear eating jaggery. Jaggery is fed to them by the forest department, as a way to attract them them there:



On the other side, we could see all the way till the hills on the horizon:



Some interesting rock formations:



If you see closely, you can see the safari tracks in this picture. Again, look at the lush green forest and the trees. I never knew such forest area existed near Hampi. This was a totally new side of Hampi for me:



There were plenty of cactuses (or cacti) growing around the rocks there. These cacti reminded us that we were in a desert after all (although the green trees would make us believe otherwise)

Cactus, a rather atypical Hampi site:



After spending some quality time at that amazing location, soaking in the clean air and the vistas all around, and thoroughly enjoying this unexpected Hampi experience, we went back to the safari vehicle for our return journey.

A parting shot of the safari tracks and the rocky landscapes:



In our return safari ride, it was getting a bit dark, but we still had time for some bird photography on the way back. Who would have thought we would see wildlife and so many interesting birds in a Hampi trip!

A Hoopoe:



Red wattled lapwing



A brown dove (also known as laughing dove):



At several places in that area, we saw sunflower fields and the sunflowers looked great. Finally during the last leg of this safari, we got a chance to get down and walk to a sunflower field and see the sunflowers up close.

A lovely tree on the backdrop on a sunflower field (photo credit: robimahanta):



A sunflower field on the backdrop of the rocks:



I could not resist taking several photos there:



What an unexpected object for photography in Hampi:



A bit ahead, another interesting site awaited us. A tree full of nests of Baya weavers:



We stopped there and spent some time watching those beautiful little yellow birds fly around and go in and out of their lovely homes:










What an incredible day it turned out to be! Who would have thought the highlight of our Hampi trip would be this jungle safari, the sloth bears, the sunflowers, the cacti, and these lovely little yellow birds! So what if the Hampi monuments were closed? We had a fantastic day and we loved every bit of that experience!

That was pretty much the end of Hampi explorations for us this time. We went back to our hotel, had a good dinner while discussing the day's fun parts, had a good sleep and drove back to Bangalore the next day.

[Dr.AD]

Epilogue

At the cost of manyfold repetition, let me say again that although nothing went as per the plan, we still had a great time! We discovered new sides of Hampi and saw new landscapes which we had not seen before. We had a fun group too, and thanks to our friends and families for the great times! Both Robi and Deepak are better photographers than me and I hope they add some of their photos below (Deepak I believe has got some nice car photos).

Finally, to conclude this, a note of appreciation for my beloved driving companion, my BMW 320d.




While the roads from Bangalore to Hampi are fantastic, in and around Hampi, we drove on some really bad roads and on some nonexistent roads. With four people on board, the 320d managed all of this without any issue. I had to be super careful while tackling those non-existent roads, but the car managed it well. Of course, on occasion I did wish I had an SUV to drive on those roads. But once back on the fast highways, the lovely planted ride, the high speed dynamics, and the precise handling of the 320d reminded me once again of how much I love sedans and any thoughts of an SUV vanished well before we reached Bangalore. The car is always a joy on the highways, and even on some occasional bad roads!

With that, let me conclude this travelogue. Thank you very much for reading.

[Rehaan]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[livezero]

Superb travelogue and the pics Dr. AD! Hampi has a unique vibe, just like Goa, and it shows from your pics.

Sanapur lake is a beautiful place and the anti-clockwise route you mentioned via Bukkasagar Bridge was a nice surprise for us too.

Attaching a courtesy pic of the lake from our last visit.

[graaja]

What an amazing travelogue AD

You have shown a totally different angle of Hampi. Your "Traveler's spirit" is what makes all your travelogues amazing. Hampi is in my wishlist for a long time to take the family. I will make sure to spend an extra day and visit these alternate places that you have beautifully covered in your write-up.

Now eagerly looking forward to your next travelogue

[animeshc]

Lovely travelogue and some stunning pictures! The drive to Sanapur lake seems like a great find, it will be on my todo list for the next trip along with Daroji sanctuary . Thanks for sharing.

[jkrishnakj]

Yet another good read from you Dr. I read this really early morning and was itching for a drive to Hampi, that’s what your pictures and writing did to me. Loved it. Thank you.

Hampi is still a place that I’m yet to visit. Somehow never done it and wonder why.

[deepfreak15]

Thanks a lot DrAD for letting us tag along, though you do still owe me a monsoon drive. Inadvertently we seem to be making Hampi an annual event now. Like you said, each time we see a different aspect of the place. But more than the location the company is all that makes the difference. Amazing pics doc and thanks for capturing and helping us re live those moments through your travelogue. You have taken to photography like fish to water and the results are incredible!
Adding a few pictures from my side.

Finally we managed to get both cars in the same frame

Red hot even standing still

3 years later still love the way it looks and drives

Even the local fauna was trying to escape the rain







Always a good idea to hire a guide while at Hampi. Let him/her know how much time you have and what interests you and they automatically plot the best possible course. Also even if you lag behind post closing hours the guards dont bother you if you have a guide with you.

Class in session









Its amazing how far photography hardware and software has come on mobile camera's. Makes you look silly when you compare the output after spending minutes trying to get the right settings on a DSLR.









DrAD already plotting the next Hampi visit


From L-R robimahanta, yours truly, Dr AD




The safari was a mixed bag. While you do go off the beaten path, the fact that sloth bear sighting is "guaranteed" was a bit of a dampener. They are trying to promote this safari but enticing wildlife with treats is counterintuitive, nevertheless was a pleasant experience. Plenty of birds and peacocks as common as crows in a dump site.



The only wildlife I was able to capture


They say leopards roam these parts maybe with time once they get used to vehicles roaming around they will reveal themselves






Until the next time (Im sure this wont be my last trip to Hampi with DrAD)

[kaushikr]

Great travelogue, Dr.AD.

We were in Hampi on Aug15th weekend and explored Nature side of Hampi plus Hampi in monsoons. We were surprised by the bird varieties there. A new and great experience.

The image of Hampi in my mind as a dry and a hot place has now been replaced by greenery, boulders, cool mornings, rain and some wonderful wildlife.

We can relate to your images!

[sunikkat]

Such a nice travelogue Dr. AD. I am sure it would have been a fun drive in 320d in those roads.
Are there any COVID restrictions currently in Hampi? We are planning to drive down end of this month and looking forward for this trip dearly.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by livezero

Superb travelogue and the pics Dr. AD! Hampi has a unique vibe, just like Goa, and it shows from your pics.

Thank you! Yes, I agree. It has a unique vibe like Goa. Every single trip to Hampi has been memorable for us.

Attaching a courtesy pic of the lake from our last visit.

Thanks for sharing this. Looks like you went in summer months, when the water level was low but the water was clean. In the monsoon months, the water level is high but the water is very muddy.

Originally Posted by graaja

What an amazing travelogue AD

You have shown a totally different angle of Hampi. Your "Traveler's spirit" is what makes all your travelogues amazing. Hampi is in my wishlist for a long time to take the family. I will make sure to spend an extra day and visit these alternate places that you have beautifully covered in your write-up.

Thank you very much graaja. Yes, you should definitely spend an extra day and visit Sanapur Lake (the drive is more interesting than the lake itself) and also Daroji Bear Sanctuary.

Now eagerly looking forward to your next travelogue

Thanks. I still need to find time to write that travelogue. Hopefully next week :-)

Originally Posted by animeshc

Lovely travelogue and some stunning pictures! The drive to Sanapur lake seems like a great find, it will be on my todo list for the next trip along with Daroji sanctuary . Thanks for sharing.

Thank you. I enjoyed reading your Hampi travelogue too. You should definitely visit Daroji. It is more fun now because of the safari. We were lucky that we went just after they started the safari.

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

Yet another good read from you Dr. I read this really early morning and was itching for a drive to Hampi, that’s what your pictures and writing did to me. Loved it. Thank you.

Hampi is still a place that I’m yet to visit. Somehow never done it and wonder why.

Thank you! You should definitely visit Hampi. It is a must visit place for anyone who likes to drive and explore landscapes and archeological sites.

Originally Posted by deepfreak15

Thanks a lot DrAD for letting us tag along, though you do still owe me a monsoon drive. Inadvertently we seem to be making Hampi an annual event now. Like you said, each time we see a different aspect of the place. But more than the location the company is all that makes the difference. Amazing pics doc and thanks for capturing and helping us re live those moments through your travelogue.
You have taken to photography like fish to water and the results are incredible!

Thank you very much Deepak. Thank you for joining us. It was a great company and we sure had fun.

Adding a few pictures from my side.

Fantastic pictures Deepak! Thank you for adding a few pictures of the group and some fun moments. That makes this travelogue a lot better than with just the landscape photos I had posted.

Finally we managed to get both cars in the same frame

Haha. Yes, we have been planning a photoshoot with our cars for a long time but somehow that did not happen. Glad we got this done this time. And thanks for the lovely car photos. The cars look great in your photos!

Until the next time (Im sure this wont be my last trip to Hampi with DrAD)

Haha. Sure, look forward to that. But I hope to some places other than Hampi too. As you said, it has been a funny coincidence that we have been to Hampi together so many times.

Originally Posted by kaushikr

Great travelogue, Dr.AD.

We were in Hampi on Aug15th weekend and explored Nature side of Hampi plus Hampi in monsoons. We were surprised by the bird varieties there. A new and great experience.

The image of Hampi in my mind as a dry and a hot place has now been replaced by greenery, boulders, cool mornings, rain and some wonderful wildlife.

Thank you. Totally agree with you. In my previous trips, I came back with images of dry and hot Hampi. This time, it was the green Hampi with the birds and jungle safaris to add to the memories. It is amazing how beautiful Hampi is, in different ways and in different colors, at different time of the years.

Originally Posted by sunikkat

Such a nice travelogue Dr. AD. I am sure it would have been a fun drive in 320d in those roads.

Thank you. Yes, the 320d was always fun to drive and we had fun driving it on those lovely Hampi roads. Even when the roads were really bad, we had to very slow but somehow I still enjoyed the car :-)

Are there any COVID restrictions currently in Hampi? We are planning to drive down end of this month and looking forward for this trip dearly.

Honestly, I am not very sure as there was never any clear news or any clear guidelines that I could find. I am still not sure why the monuments were closed on the weekend, and whether it is a regular thing or a one-time thing. Maybe you should do a bit more research before going there.

Anyways, we spent most of the time on the outskirts of Hampi and there, it was a very safe environment. We did not see any crowds anywhere, and we found ourselves alone (just our group) in most places. As long as you drive around on the outskirts of Hampi and explore these outside places, it is totally fine and everything is safe and normal.

[haisaikat]

Wonderful account of Hampi Visit Dr AD. The place seems to have very nice mix of both wildlife, art and history.

Of course you folks had two wonderful machines accompanying you who stole half of the show as it seems to me.

These days if we do not see a TL with the Red Machine for more than a month we start feeling restless, its our way to tour West.

Keep more of these coming.