[pmvelu]

Car : Santro XO
Route Taken : Mysore- Elivala-Hosa agrahara -Hole Narsipura -
Chennarayapatna-Shravanabelagola-chennarayapatna-Kirkere-KR Peta-SriRangapatna-Mysore (Straight Route / Ideal Route is at the end of this travelogue)
Km(End-to-End): - 221 kms
Camera : Sony H7 Digicam

Friends,

Yesterday we(Me, My Wife & kid) visited Shravanabelagola from Mysore .
Some time back we tried to visit a temple around Hosa agrahara BUT not able to locate but saw beautiful SH - 57 with Distances mentioned for Hassan / Halebeedu/ Belur/ Shravanabelagola and I assumed that's the proper route to s.Belagola.

We started around 5.45 am and joined Hunsur Road @ hinkal Junction and went straight past Elivala .Just after Elivala, there is a Right Turn (A HP Petrol station is there at the right side here) from where the excellent SH 57 starts and the following Photos we took on the way.

Photos in SH-57:-

Sunrise:-


SH 57:-


After few photos , continued and road is all through very good with proper markings and we reached Hole Narsipura . From here , we took the right turn and Sign board Says S.belagola----> 34 kms. Road is poor in patches but it's a combination of poor road / Cement road / Highway like
road etc.

Photos taken in Hole Narsipura - S.Belagola Road:



Tractor :-


Another view of tractor:-


We went straight and this road terminated in SH-7 (Chenrayapatna-Srirangapatna). We took a left and this road terminated in SH-48 (Mangalore - Bangalore). We took a right and we drove past
chenarayapatna and drove straight and Signboard saya Bangalore - 145 kms & S.Belagola ---> 12 KMS. We took this right and this is SH-8 (ch.patna - s.Belagola) and the road is excellent and we
reached S.Belagola @ 9am (This is due to the fact that I drive around 50 kms Speed). Had Breakfast and started climbing the hill

Steep walk to Gomatheswarar Statue Photos:-

Starting Point :-



After some time :-


Even further up:-


On the Way (Inscriptions on the Rock) :-


On the way , to our surprise we saw a Jain Saint /Sadhu who is naked and walking down the hill and there were quite a few people climbing and returning back and almost everybody tried to get blessings from him and he never stopped/ never looked at anybody and he continued descending.

Atlast we were at the hilltop and the statue is really fascinating

Gomatheswarar Statue:-










A Different view of Gomatheswara :-


From the Hilltop:-


Older Woman in Dholi:-




We saw a family performing some puja. Stayed for 1/2 an hour and started descending & we saw a Older woman carried in Dholy.I just carried my 4 year kid in my shoulder and never we stopped in between as slowly rocks are getting hot and when we reached the base it's really hot.
we saw so many people (tourists) climbing up and definitely it will be very difficult for them to walk back in the rocky path .

We started back and we went to Ch.patna and took the same route back and without getting to Hole Narsipura road We continued in SH-7 towards Sri Rangapatna. And after 20 kms or so we reached Kirkere and saw a board S.belagola <---- 18 kms . So we realized we took a circuitous route and drove around 30 kms extra. We were laughing at ourselves and continued and reached KR Peta and saw a signboard S.Belagola<---25 kms. This is after driving another 15 kms or so and till now
it's around 45 kms Circuitous route. Also saw another signboard Melukote <----24kms . We just drove Straight via Pandavapura and reached SH-17 (BNG-MYS Super highway). Turned right and reached our house @ 2pm.

Onward Journey : - 121 kms
Return Journey :- 100 kms

Ideally the route should be :

Mysore-Srirangaptna-Pandavapura-(Take left in front of Pandavapura R.S) - K.R .Peta-Take Right and Shravanabelagola is just 25 kms from here. Total distance is Around 75kms from Mysore oneway)

Hope this will be of some help for our T-BHP members who plan a similar trip in future .

[Technocrat]

Nice trip log & good details included.

I am sure it will help lot of members who plan to travel by this route.

Did you face any problems?

[eclectix 1st]

Good write up & pictures.
Have never taken this route before as I dint know the state of roads over there. Thanks for a very welcome information.

[pmvelu]

Technocrat,

Even though my daughter is 4 years old, Somehow she Climbed on her own upto the Hilltop and while returning back I took her in my shoulder.It's advisable to start even early as it's rocky path all through with no proper roof and there is nothing available once we start the climb. Anyway as we already had enough experience of this kind of steep walk (we did this kind of steep walk already in Talacauvery, Palani,Tirumala - Jebali theertham) we carried Water , Buttermilk and had very light Breakfast !. Several people just walk up without anything (even water) which is not a good idea even though carrying something is definitely tougher when climbing & In fact we offered water to one old man & a Kid !. Not sure how they are allowing tourists to climb even after 11 am(That's the time we returned to the base) as for sure those might have suffered a lot while returning. (Foot wear Not allowed from the base)

Eclectix, Thanks for your time & comments .

[snaronikar]

Good write up and nice pics. Place looks certainly deserted when you were climbing. As you had mentioned in your post, it will be too difficult for anybody to visit the temple in summer and the stones would hve turned hot by noon itself. If anybody planning to visit in summer, better to do this 1st half itself otherwise the heat and other factors will play a spoil sport for sure.