[stopOKgo]

My wife and I had been planning a drive to my hometown Sirsi for a long time. Both managed to avail 5 leaves in the last week of December and coupled with 25th Dec and 1st Jan & weekends, we had a 11 day window to explore places in & around Sirsi & the coastal belt of Karnataka.

On our onward trip, we decided to take NH-206 (Shimoga route) and also try and cover Jog falls before going to Sirsi via Talaguppa & Siddapur. We planned to start early on 26th morning at 4 am but as expected, started at 6 am. This is the route we took -

Blr>Nelmangala>Dobbaspet>Tumkur>Tiptur>Arsikere>Ka dur>Birur>Tarikere> Bhadravati>Shimoga>Anandapuram>Sagar>Talaguppa>Jog >Siddapur>Sirsi


Made short pit stops of 5-10 mts every 2 hrs or so to avoid cramps. There are decent hotels in Tumkur, Tiptur, Birur, Shimoga etc. The road conditions are generally good (NH 206 is single lane throughout except for the toll road b/w Nelamangala & Tumkur). We did run into some horrid stretches - a 3-4 kms stretch with moonface craters almost immediately after you exit the toll gate on Tumkur side, a 2-3 km stretch between Birur & Tarikere & a 2-3 km stretch between Tarikere & Bhadravati. Atleast the two last mentioned stretches were showing some signs of being repaired during our return journey!

We were taking our Palio Stile for a long drive for only the second time (after Coorg) and being a sedate driver & by virtue of taking pit stops frequently, managed an avg speed of 45 kmph Some place before reaching Sagar, a red light lit up on my dashboard. I didnt have the owner's manual nor any idea of what the sign meant. Frantic calls to the tollfree num were fruitless as they said they had to inspect the car before deciding its fate. I didnt want to cancel the trip and hence decided to move on. The sign resembled a 'holi pichkari' and I deduced that it had nothing to do with oil levels and hence not very serious. And as luck would have it, the sign disappeared after a drive of 100 kms. After reaching Blr and opening
the manual, I realised that it meant 'injection system failure' and was fairly serious. The car could be driven with the sign on but would result in lack of performance and heavy fuel usage. [The service center chap told me later that it could have been caused by water seeping into the fuel pump via the tank!!]

Anyways, we reached Sirsi and did a quick visit of Marikamba temple (& prayed for the car's safety) and retired for the day. Next day, went to my native village Kanamuski - meaning covered in forest (25 kms from Sirsi). Had a good time trekking, visiting small waterfalls, arecanut plantations etc. Arecanut harvest season is on and work was on in full swing (de husking,
boiling the seeds, coloring, grading etc).

The evening was spent listening to scary stories of encounters with bears, tigers, leapords etc. The villages around Sirsi are peculiar in the sense that a village might have just 1 house and nothing around for the next 4-5 kms. The labourers normally watch television in our ancestral house and do a 2 km trek in pitch darkness (post 10 pm) to reach their house. Their only aid is a weak torch (which they seldom switch on to conserve battery). There is another village 10 kms from this one where my cousin lives with parents. He goes hunting for rabbits, porcupines at night once in a while, for his dogs and with his dogs. He has a miner's helmet with torch for help. Apparently, a few days back, deep in the forest, he saw 2 reflective eyes and mistaking the animal for a porcupine, gave chase along with his dogs only to stop 10 mts short realising it was a big tiger!! And the tiger had not moved one bit when he ran towards it shouting, with dogs in tow, barking their mouths off. He somehow managed to escape with his dogs.

Next couple of days were spent in Sirsi visiting some temples. Also went to Swadi & Sonda mathas & Sahasralinga. The last mentioned place is famous for its 1000 Shiva lingas built overnight by a king. Although the place itself is good, its been littered with tonnes of garbage by thoughtless tourists.

31st morning we started for Gokarna via Yana. Took SH 143, which is a joke of a road, rather than Kumta road by mistake and paid for it with time. Reached Yana after 75 mts. Although the temple wasnt open, had a good time marvelling at the magnificent rocks. Came back and started for Gokarna which took another 90 mts. Performed puja and had lunch in the temple itself. <My opinion is tht priests in Gokarna are extremely greedy and try to rip you at a half chance. Be on guard> After visiting Gokarna main beach and Om beach, drove to Kumta. My cousin has a farmhouse near the confluence of Aganashini river and Arabian Sea. There is a temple on a hillock near their house and the view it offers is spectacular. In their house, the sound of the waves can be heard over the television at good volume!!

The new year was ushered in only at 7 am for me. I slept peacefully despite fireworks and a party next door. Visited Idagunji & Murudeshwar that afternoon. Murudeshwar is truly beautiful what with all those magnificent sculptures and the world's tallest gopuram at 249 ft!

2nd mornign we started at 6 from Kumta. Went to Jog falls via Honnavar. Managed to catch a glimpse of Sharavathi river valley from a view point. Jog falls was almost running dry when we visited. Came back to Blore via the same route. Although we reached Nelamangala at 5 pm, it took us till 8 pm to finally reach home in Indirangr!!

All in all, an immensely satisfying trip. Hope you find this info useful. Thanks for reading through.

Distance covered - 1375 kms
Petrol usage - 78 lts
Mileage - 17.65 kms/ltr with AC on 20% of the time.

[ravibhat]

Thats very good trip, Does KanMuski come near Vaanalli ? The places you have visited worth every penny spent.

Did you take via hegdeKatta - Devanahalli - Yaana Matti Ghatta road ? Also did you take short cut road to Gokarna from there via angadibail / hillur to gokarna cross in nh17 ? how much bad road you had to travel ? Please give more more detail about road condition. THanks in advance.

Load more pictures please which would attract more members.

Regards,

Ravi.

[stopOKgo]

Thats correct Ravi. Its around 3-4 kms from there.

Btw, all I know is I took the road to Kumta from Sirsi and after 2-3 kms, there was a fork - one being the main road to Kumta and another which said Yana. I ended up taking the second one and regretted after it was too late to turn back. Almost the entire stretch is screwed up. The only indicator of a road is that thr r no trees on tht area!

Btw, I wanted to add more pics context wise with captions. But all the pics got bunched at the end of the post. Is there a way to achieve it?

[ravibhat]

Thats nice to hear, when you start from Vaanalli and you cross Hulekall and within few kilometers you get FORK type right turn cross to HegdeKatta which is same road you took to Yaana from Sirsi - Kumta road. You can save at least 10km here.

Last year that raod was quiet ok so this time they didn't do any maintanance then.

From Yaana how you proceeded which route you took ? how is last 3 km road to Yaana Temple which is newly laid ?

Regards,

Ravi.

[theMAG]

Which camera were you using?

[phamilyman]

Lovely. Nice pics too. Though you could share more of beaches and of Yana!!!

And omigosh that mileage - I'm telling you all the Fiat haters will come and start off in this thread I see it as a testament to your driving style Kudos!

[stopOKgo]

Originally Posted by theMAG

Which camera were you using?

Hi, I hv a 3 yr old Sony DSC W7 and I guess its beginning to show its age

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Lovely. Nice pics too. Though you could share more of beaches and of Yana!!!

And omigosh that mileage - I'm telling you all the Fiat haters will come and start off in this thread I see it as a testament to your driving style Kudos!

Thanks dude. I ll upload more pics. Btw, Bada beach in Kumta is again very good though underrated n less touristy.

Rgd the mileage, I was taken aback myself. More relieved than happy that its paying off. Btw, despite the bad roads, the car held up pretty well. Definitely above avg suspension I would say.

[mojorising]

How did you cure the fuel injection problem?

[stopOKgo]

Originally Posted by mojorising

How did you cure the fuel injection problem?

On my return leg, the LED kept coming on, every once in a while. I took it to the service stn first thing after returning & I was told that it was caused by adulterated fuel & some faulty wiring. No damage caused though.

[AudiFan]

A 1200 KMs trip in my Legender.

Last week, I planned a 4-day trip in my new Legender; it had clocked 1600 KMs by then and completed its first service.

Prior to the trip, I had taken the vehicle to Madhu's to check about the wheel alignment as I felt slight drag while driving on NICE road. To my surprise, both wheel alignment and balance were off and had to spend Rs 6500 to get them right. One more let down from Toyota I feel. Yes, I had upgraded the tyres to Geolander AT but I was under the assumption that Nandi Toyota would have taken care of alignment and balance while upgrading the tyres.

Back to the trip now, us 4 friends decided to explore ancient and historic places in and around Sirsi, a bustling town some 440 kms from Bangalore. It was my first long drive in my Legender and I took off a bit apprehensive. Early morning traffic was bit sparse and allowed me to settle down quickly and by the time I reached NICE toll off E-City, I was almost well settled.

The Pune Highway was full of cars given that it was the weekend but the density reduced after Nelamangala, It was only then that I could really feel the performance of the Legender; I quickly forgot about the size of car I was driving and was able to thread in and out of traffic, albeit not as swiftly or effortlessly while driving my Q3. What I quickly noticed was the effort required to steer the Legender: for one used to single hand on the wheel type of driving, it takes conscious effort to place both hands on the steering wheel.

Till Chitradurga, I maintained a speed of sub 80 KMPH, and stayed on Eco mode. I noticed the need to floor the accelerator to floor to pull away from stand-still or crawling speed and can gently ease the pedal as RPM’s build up. Post Chitradurga, I switched over to Sport Mode and the difference was instantly noticeable; the Legender felt like I was driving a sedan and the throttle response was amazing. I found that the FE was almost the same 9.8 KMPL with both modes as per the MID.

I stayed on sports mode for the rest of the trip. DPF regeneration kicked on for the first time after covering 250 kms, and the next one came around 360 kms. It was unobtrusive, and it was just a chance that I noticed the indication else I would not have realised it.

We had booked our accommodation at Ibbani Jungle Lodge at the outskirts of Sirsi town. At check-in we were told that we can take our car right up to our cottage which were located about 20-30 m below the reception level across a steep and narrow path-way. I got to test the Hill Decent system here; I was on 2 WD mode and engaged the DAC, realised that it’s not biting so I had to brake, engage 4 WD and then engage DAC. The steep downward road was barely of 150 m but I was glad I had a chance to test out the DAC and it worked like a charm. It was exciting to hear the swishing noise that was probably from brakes.

Cottage at Ibbani Jungle Lodge.



The next day we drove to Yana, the scenic rock formation about 60 kms from Sirsi. The roads were a pleasure to drive and the route very scenic as we took the road that leads via Manjuguni, a sleepy hamlet famous for the temple of Sri Venkataramana (Balaji). The temple we were told is 1200 years old but maintained very well. Partook lunch provided by the temple authorities.

1200 years old Manjuguni Temple.



We missed the turn to Yana as a bus parked across the signboard, and the road from there on was very rough and probably gave me a chance to test the performance of Legender on such dirt tracks. I felt very pleased with the performance and suspension; we were all comfortable, even the guys sitting at the back did not feel the ride to be tiring or rough. The new road connecting Yana has taken out the trouble of last mile trekking and cars can drive up to the entry gate of Yana and one has to hardly walk down for 500 mtrs from there to reach the rock formations.

The rock formations at Yana are beautiful and one has to see them in person to grasp their magnitude, one befuddling rule there however is that one has to walk through the caves bare foot!! Given the rough terrain and dirtily maintained floor across, the visitors struggle to walk through the rough pathways and elders especially desist from entering the caves after having put so much effort to reach Yana. Hope the forest department under whose aegis this natural wonder falls under shall revise this rule soon.









Had omelettes and tea at a roadside stall on the way back from Yana.



By now I had adapted to driving the Legender and never felt its bulky dimensions. I did feel a mild discomfort in my right wrist after driving the entire day; I guess I need to strengthen by wrists a wee bit!!!

I'd conclude by saying that I enjoyed the 1200 kms drive over 4 days and I hope I will get to enjoy more and more miles of driving pleasure over years to come. Here is the list of places we visited in and around Sirsi and Shivamogga along with few images:

Sirsi Marikamba Temple
Sahasra Linga
Sode Mutt
Manjuguni Sri Venkataramana Temple
Yana caves
Banavasi
Chandragutti
Talagunda
Balligavi



Sahasra Linga- 100’s of lingams sculpted on the rocks across river Shalmala





Sode Mutt Parking area



Banavasi Madhukeshvara Temple – The lingam here is Honey coloured, hence the name



Chnadragutti Fort and Renuka Yellamma Temple



Balligavi – Birth place of Shantala. Queen of Hoysala King Vishnuvardhana



Kimmane Golf Resort- Shivmogga









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