[sathya_nars]

Weekend Travelogue: Bangalore to Srirangapatna, Sangam, Ranganathittu, Balmuri falls and KRS dam (1 day)
===========================

Alright, I started planning and as usual great help from TBHPians clarifying route, etc (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...es-inputs.html).

Started on 1 Sep, at 6.20am (myself, wife and parents) in my SX4.

It was slightly raining and stopped when I reached Jayanagar. We headed towards Mysore road via JP nagar, K.layout and end of stretch.

Mysore 4 lane road was very smooth to drive. I saw boards of Wonder la and few other resorts (Eagleton?) on the way. I was hungry at 7.30am and waiting for Kamat, which arrived at 7:40am [63 kms from start point].

Here is how you'll see the hotel on your right.


Had good break fast (met my colleague surprisingly who was heading to Kerala).

Left Kamat at 8:25am heading towards Srirangapatna. The road was very good and I tried to stay within 60-80 kmph, yet I couldn't resist and started reaching 100 kmph as applicable when traffic ahead was free. For quite a distance I could go between 80-100. I saw two SX4's.

An arch on the road welcomes you to Srirangapatna. Continue ahead and after a bridge you'll see similar board on right side, take a right turn now. You'll enter gateway of a fort (Tipu's?). In few meters, you'll see Masjid on right, take this right and keep going straight. Within sometime, you'll find a left (board says to go to temple).

Take this left and on the way you'll see these:

Tipu's death place (Is it before taking left?)
[IMG]http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/3...0479gx9.th.jpg
[/IMG]

Siva temple
[IMG]http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/6...0475et7.th.jpg
[/IMG]

Ayyappan temple (opposite to Siva temple)
[IMG]http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/2...0477ri6.th.jpg
[/IMG]

Little beyond, take a right turn and you'll see a bank on right side. Keep going straight, beyond circle you'll see Ranganathar temple. Plenty of parking place available.



We reached the temple at 9:45am [73 kms from Kamat].

We had good darshan and left at 10:30am heading towards Nimishamba temple. Come out the same route and once you join Mysore road, take right (towards Mysore) and in few meters you'll see an arch on road in left side (it would say, Nimishamba temple and few other places).

Take this left and keep going inside, there will be boards guide you to temple. We reached Nimishamba temple at 10:57am [just 5 kms from Srirangapatna temple].

[IMG]http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/9...0481ju6.th.jpg
[/IMG]

Next to temple, we saw Sangam (where 2 rivers join), it was very good view.

[IMG]http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/8...0484pd5.th.jpg
[/IMG]

Again, it was very good darshan and we had curd rice prasad. We left there at 11:40am heading towards Ranganathittu Bird sanctuary.

We came out the same route to join Mysore road and took left (go towards Mysore). People said that we should take a right in 1.5 kms where we would see board of Ranganathittu. I missed to see it even though I waited a moment in the junction to take right (my wife & father also missed to notice). I went straight and enquired someone. They asked me to take U and then take left (same place where I stopped before).
I did all that and then we entered the small road that goes inside.

After few Kms, on the right side, we saw an arch that
welcomed to Ranganathittu, took right.

Finally we reached there at 12:10pm [9 kms from Nimishamba temple, including few extra kms I went].

Parking space was plenty and not many cars were there.

This is me.
[IMG]http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/9...0500gg5.th.jpg
[/IMG]

We carried mixed rice (home made) for lunch and had it there. Weather was very good, not very cool or hot. It had beautiful
park and one sample is below.



Post lunch, we started getting inside and reached the boating place. Timing mentioned as 1:30-2:30pm lunch time break for boating and it was exactly 1:30pm when we reached. I thought we would need to wait, but queue wasn't closed and people were getting on to the boat.

We went in and they just needed exactly 4 people to close last boating before closing for lunch (luck favored), we got into.

When boating was started (manual rowing), in few seconds, it was stuck in rock below it in water and our rower had to seek help of rower of other boat and he had to push our boat.

[IMG]http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/2...0521lz7.th.jpg
[/IMG]

Again, our rower had to push himself using the rowing stick and finally it started moving.

When I talked to someone in parking area (soon I reached), he said that no birds are there and hence it isn't worth it. But during the boating, I felt that it was really worth.

We enjoyed the boating throughout. We saw many crocodiles on the bank (he said that crocodiles are there in water also, we were scared) and lots of birds. He took us for a good ride taking nearer to various trees to watch birds closer. I clicked lot of photos, but many didn't come out well because boat was shaking. Some are for your eyes:

[IMG]http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/1...0534ql5.th.jpg
[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/7...0536wd4.th.jpg
[/IMG]



[IMG]http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/3...0557fo1.th.jpg
[/IMG]





[IMG]http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/6...0567ir3.th.jpg
[/IMG]

After boating, there was nothing to watch and we decided to move out. We left at 2:30pm (after refreshing us a bit) heading to Balmuri falls. The route was bit simple: come out of same route and when you see the arch of Ranganathittu, take right now (left will take you back to Mysore road). Keep going straight as road goes and finally you'll see an arch on right side of road that reads "Balmuri falls 3 kms inside" (there will be a theatre next to this arch on the road).

Take right and enter. Finally reached Balmuri falls at 2:55pm [11 kms from Ranganathittu].

It was very good and many small falls were there in a row. I saw this in many movies. Some snaps below.

[IMG]http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/8...0579xp0.th.jpg
[/IMG]





We didn't spend much time there. Left at 3:30pm heading to KRS dam. Come back on same route and once you join the main road (where the arch was put), take right and keep going. After few kms, you'll see a board the directs you on right to go to 'Brindavan garden' (KRS dam is same).

After paying in toll gate, we crossed a bridge and KRS dam was visible from here.

The view was very good and cliked snaps (zoomed max).





Then we parked car in a huge parking area (reached at 4:10pm, 10 kms from Balmuri falls) and got into Brindavan garden. We started clicking lot of photos. Some are below.

[IMG]http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/7...0614gf2.th.jpg
[/IMG]





I kept camera spare battery in car itself and soon realized that the battery is completely out of charge (it lasted since morning). Yet I could click few photos while it was charging down.

It was very good place (my 2nd visit here, 1st time in my car). We thought of staying till 6pm or later, but I was very much tired and didn't want to drive in night throughout.

Hence we left at 5:15pm, route is exactly same as the route we took to reach (except that we shouldn't enter the 2 arches).

Return journey was good except the headlight of opposite vehicles hindered my sight. I tried to switch on High beam, fog light yet nothing really helped to get good view of road overcoming glare from opposite vehicles. I still could manage to keep speeds at 60 kmph as applicable. The Philips Rally 100/90 bulbs I recently upgraded, did help.

We reached Kamat at 7:15pm, had dinner and started at 7:45pm. I reached Shell petrol pump in Hosur road at 9:45pm (149 kms
from KRS dam) to fill tank.

I kept AC on 90% of time and got mileage 16 kms . I guess this is very good for SX4. Surprisingly when I filled petrol previous day, the city mileage (100% AC on) was whopping 12.75 kmpl best ever .

Alright, now about the car:
1. SX4 made the journey easy and comfortable.

2. While going to Srirangapatna in morning, I suddenly saw a speed braker and had to reduce the speed. I came down to 20 kmph from 80 kmph in few seconds (brake along with gear shifts). I could manage it very well. But when I am on brakers, I heard 'Kkrrreeechhhhh' sound and am sure that my car doesn't create such noise (since I did it few times before). Then I realized that an Indica closely following me had to reduce the speed and the noise was due to its braking. My dad told me that it was
an aged man driving Indica and he stopped the car on the sides after that. Fortunately he didn't hit my bumper.

3. My eyes were burning since morning, I didn't know exact reason. Hence I kept on changing the cabin temperature between 24 & 26 deg C. For sometime, I switched it off and lowered down the windows. Good wind helped. Besides this issue, it was very good experience.

Throughout the journey, luckily none of the places was crowded at least when we were there. It was good journey overall, we enjoyed it.

(Please forgive me if picture quality is not good, mine was 2 MBpixel camera in a handycam).

EDIT: Looks like I took wrong links of photos from Imageshack, I intended thumb nails, but I am seeing only the links. Apologies for that. Let me check if I can post photos again.

[akroy]

Nice Account Satya, yes you did take wrong links for photographs...

I suggest you choose 800 * 600 option initially and post the pics, we can see pics while reading your travelogue at the same time...

BTW, nice mileage for a 1.6L car, amazing !! This is where Maruti rocks...

Abhi

[sathya_nars]

Oops! It doesn't work (I tried to insert image). I will post all pix again. Please tell me onething: after upload, there are many links given which one to take? (Earlier I took Thumbnail for forum 1).

[esteem_lover]

Take the direct link

[sathya_nars]

Checking if it works..

[sathya_nars]

Few more.

[sathya_nars]

Cool, it seems to work now (Folks, let me know if you can see all).

BTW, I have used same links as original post. I guess this got something to do with formatting or so. I typed them in notepad and pasted here. Something went wrong that time.

@MODS: how else should I make it work?

[HKP]

Lovely car and a good travelogue.

My BIL has booked for the same color SX4, just eagerly waiting to get hold of that. I was surprised to hear about the mileage, thats a good bonus for owning such a high end car.

/HKP

[-GT-]

Good travelogue and pics.

Great to get that kind of mileage for SX4. I guess that is the mileage you get for Wagon-R.

[skandyhere]

good report, sathya. thanks. mysore and places around do make for a good trip, but the only (although a major one) grouse is that driving on the mysore road just doesn't feel like a long trip. traffic is irritatingly frequent and the landscape too is fairly populated all along, that makes it seem like it's a suburb of a town all the way to mysore. i personally like my drives to be along sparsely civilized roads with plenty of vegetation to keep company.

yet, the places are great. and thanks for the details in description.

[sathya_nars]

Originally Posted by skandyhere

mysore and places around do make for a good trip, but the only (although a major one) grouse is that driving on the mysore road just doesn't feel like a long trip. traffic is irritatingly frequent and the landscape too is fairly populated all along, that makes it seem like it's a suburb of a town all the way to mysore.

I fully agree with you. I liked Hosur-Krishnagiri stretch which feels like highway, really.

People told me that Krishnagiri-Chennai is very good and they went at 150-170 kmph too , I am yet to drive in this road (of course, not at this high speed).

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by sathya_nars

People told me that Krishnagiri-Chennai is very good and they went at 150-170 kmph too , I am yet to drive in this road (of course, not at this high speed).

Yeah you are spot on and you can do speeds above that also.

Only thing you need to watch out for nitwits like these !!

[rahul_intlad]

Nice pics there sathya and nice to see you making full use of the car.Hope to see many more of such travelogues from you.

RJ,I too have had a similar encounter once the only difference was the road was a bit more narrower and it was a bit of a blind curve,I was trying to overtake a truck and all of a sudden I see this biker coming in the opposite direction.Initially I was just shocked and had never in my wildest of dreams expected someone to do something like that,fortunately I managed to stop in time.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by sathya_nars

I fully agree with you. I liked Hosur-Krishnagiri stretch which feels like highway, really.

People told me that Krishnagiri-Chennai is very good and they went at 150-170 kmph too , I am yet to drive in this road (of course, not at this high speed).

You can cruise at 170 on that road. At the tbhp meet, atleast 3 cars touched 200+ including mine .

[Lukeskywalker]

One nice outing there sathya, from what you describe the usual mad crowds one expects on a saturday seem to be absent.
By the way I was on Mysore road too around the same time in the morning on Saturday, on the way to Kgudi.