A Day Trip To Gopalswamy Betta

morbidpriest · 22nd June 2009, 15:31

We, the Wild Hogs were planning for a day trip from Bangalore and finally settled for a place called Gopalswamy Betta. Thanks to Santhosh (BHPian) for suggesting the place and agreeing to be our tour guide. I also wanted to test my new GPS receiver and going on a long drive would be just as good.

So we started on a Sunday morning at 6AM from the Raja Rajeshweri General Hospital. We reached Mysore at 8AM just in time for a fundu breakfast at a restaurant in Mysore. We started from Mysore went through the horrible roads of Gundulpet to reach the forest check post at the foothill at 9:30AM. There were sunflowers, sunflowers, and sunflowers everywhere. Now these flowers were confused on which direction to turn as there was no sun and the climate was just perfect.

I was using my Samsung i550w to track the trip right from the place we started. here are some useless details:

Max Speed: 128 KM/HR
Avg. Speed: 64KM/HR
Total KMs: 234 (As reported by GPS...quite accurate except for the meters).
Destination at: 76.5802E/11.7208N at Position accuracy:59m and Altitude:1326m and Alt. Accuracy: 88.5m

I was pretty amazed by this place Gopalswamy Betta. This is one place I would like to visit again. There is a perpetual cool wind that will make you forget your work, family, and everything that holds you back. Everywhere you turn you see green and greener mountains.

So if you are tired of your regular self and want to see green-green everywhere, Gopalswamy Betta is the right place. Oh BTW, we also visited the temple and had the free prasadam (curd rice).

I'll add more about the trip later but take a look at some of the pics.

muralisk · 22nd June 2009, 15:48

Wow!! The place looks stunning and awesome. Please post more pics and it is quite inviting. Will add this to my list.

Dolphin · 22nd June 2009, 16:16

Hey Frank, thanks for starting this thread. I didn't expect that you will mention "Wild Hogs" man. LOL.
We, a small group of friends at office call ourselves Wild Hogs, and have plans to explore interesting places whenever we get time.

And we decided Gopalswamy Hills would be our first Wild Hog trip.

Gopalswamy Betta was awesome as expected. I have been to this place many times and I just love this place and want to go back there again and again.

cuttingcrew · 22nd June 2009, 17:08

The place looks inviting and would like to visit. Please post few details like places to eat and stay.

iceman91 · 22nd June 2009, 17:29

Wild Hogs, any reference to the movie?

lovely place

gadadhar · 22nd June 2009, 17:43

This place had a bad wildfire some time around Jan 09 and green was completely lost (any the wild life too). It is amazing to see how nature has come back after the rains. Terrrific snaps. Did you see any wild life there? The green valleys are known for elephant spotting.

morbidpriest · 22nd June 2009, 20:12

OK. Here is some more details of the trip.

We could manage to get six people for this trip and we had two cars:

1. Swift VXI (dolphin's)
2. Xeta V2 (mine)

The original plan was to meet near the Raja Rajeshwari Hospital in the morning at 6AM. And the shocker was everybody reached on time! We wanted to start early because we wanted to come back just in time for the Cricket T20 finals (Yeah we still love cricket) at 7:30 PM. We later realized that that was such an ambitious plan.

We had a wonderful drive and with my Xeta, I was trying hard to catch up with Dolphin's Swift. It was really Swift. Maybe it is not above the car. Maybe it is about the driver. We reached Mysore at 8AM, a good thirty minutes before schedule. Can you beleive that? We went into the city and had wonderful breakfast at Indra's Sweet n Spice. Such a great restaurant. We had Masala Dosas, Vada-Sambar, and tea. We were languishing there for sometime and then started from Mysore towards Gundulpet at around 9PM.

From Mysore to Gundulpet and towards Gopalswamy Betta was such a horrible drive. There were oddly placed spead breakers that could wreck your car. Loose-gravel roads, lot of diversions and we took almost an hour to reach the forest checkpost gate. On the way we stopped near Gundulpet and packed lunch as there are no eateries on top of the hill. We packed pulav, chapattis, and pooris as we were told by the locals that Non-Veg food is not allowed to be carried. I'm still trying to figure out the logic behind that. But there was absolutely no check in the check post. We paid 50 Rs per car and proceeded to the top of the hill.

On the way to the hill, we stopped in some places to take some picture. Anything that described Gopalswamy Betta in the websites, blogs, and other places were all understatements. You have to be there to experience the beauty.

I found the drive a little bit difficult with steep slopes and bad roads. But within no time, we were on the top of the hill viewing a magnificient yellow-painted temple. There was such a cold breeze that will put the San Franciso breeze to shame. Just kidding. It was too cool for that time. 12:30 PM and we were feeling cold!

Since it was a Sunday, the place was little bit crowded, and the parking was almost full. We managed to push our cars between some two trees. There was a long queue to the temple and we thought we'll go trekking, have lunch and then visit the temple. It happened to be such a great decision, we realized later. When we were trekking a sudden wave of mist enclosed us with a mild drizzle. It was such a great feeling. It disappeared after ten minutes.

At around 2PM, we went back to the temple, the religious amongst us went inside for the darshan and the hungry amongst us went directly to the place where they were distributing free prasadham (curd rice). We also had the packed food we got from Gundulpet on top of a big rock. We made sure that we didn't litter tha place by carefully, packing the leftovers and dumping them in the wate bin.

We started down the hill at 2:30 PM and proceeded towards Gundulpet. I made a mistake while going down the hill. I was riding on the brake most of the time with clutch pressed. After sometime, I could smell of something burning. I quickly realized my mistake and started using the gears and the smell was gone. However, I need to check the car thoroughly this weekend to ensure that I din't screw-up anything.

On the way, we had many pitstops including the one near the Mysore palace. We took some pictures of the palace as the guard didn't allow us from that entrance. We started from Mysore at 4PM and proceeded towards Bangalore. On the way, we stopped at Maddur-Tiffany for some hot Maddur Vadas an tea. When we started from Maddur and proceeded towards Bangalore, there was heavy tarffic. Everybody want to get on the Bangalore-Mysore road during the weekend. When we reached Banaglore, the first innings of the T20 world cup was over and who cares? We had a ball of a time!

PS: Bangalore - GopalSwamy Betta - Bangalore = 465 KMS.

morbidpriest · 22nd June 2009, 20:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by gadadhar

This place had a bad wildfire some time around Jan 09 and green was completely lost (any the wild life too). It is amazing to see how nature has come back after the rains. Terrrific snaps. Did you see any wild life there? The green valleys are known for elephant spotting.

Nope. We didn't see any wild life. In fact, we were eager to see the elephants and could spot only the dung! This place had a wildfire this Jan?? Unbelievable. It was lush green everywhere.

arin_12 · 22nd June 2009, 23:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by morbidpriest

Nope. We didn't see any wild life. In fact, we were eager to see the elephants and could spot only the dung! This place had a wildfire this Jan?? Unbelievable. It was lush green everywhere.

Even I heard that in Bandipore too had same exp. Lots of tree burnt and they stopped visiting some of the place... Hope this mansoon will bring the life back. By the way how is the road there after mysore ? Is there any place to stay there ?

Red Circle · 23rd June 2009, 10:40

The reason they say not to carry non veg food is because of the temple i believe. I was thinking of a drive to Gopalswamy betta in the near future, If somebody of you is game for it let me know and we can plan it out and have a meet on the hills

Dolphin · 23rd June 2009, 11:31

Nice writeup Frank. You have covered almost everything.

I enjoyed driving the Swift.
But there was this nagging issue with the car. I was getting a grrrr grrr kind of sound from the dash, right behind the steering wheel. It was sounding as if something had come loose, a washer or a nut vibrating kind of sound. And when I drove on humps or potholes the sound increased and felt like some component is really loose behind the dash. I was a bit worried but still I carried on.

Later the next day, while coming to office, I made a quick trip to Garuda service center on Kanakpura road to get the car checked. Ahmed the experienced mechanic there on hearing the issue opened the bonnet of the car and there it was! The rod that holds the bonnet up when opened had come out of the bracket that holds it and was dangling making all the sound.

Such a simple thing. If only I had opened the bonnet and inspected, it would have saved me from having that something is wrong feeling in my mind throughout the trip.

Anyway, issue resolved and went to office with a smiling face.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arin_12

By the way how is the road there after mysore ? Is there any place to stay there ?

Maybe Morbidpriest doesn't mind me answering your questions.

The road after Mysore towards Gundulpet for the first 25-30 kms is not so good. It has a lot of unscientific speed-breakers and, diversions (some new bridges are being constructed).

But once you complete this stretch of 30km, the road is very good upto Gundulpet. Later again from Gundulpet to Gopalswamy temple the road is in a bad shape.

Any place to stay?? I think you mean on the hill, right? On the hill you only have a government guest house and that can can be booked in Bangalore and Bandipur.

If you mean someplace near to Gopalswamy Hills, you can stay in Gundulpet. It has a couple of good places to stay I think, resort and hotel kinds. Or you can also book cottages in Bandipur.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Circle

The reason they say not to carry non veg food is because of the temple i believe.

Yes, this is the reason. But still people manage to sneak in alcohol and non-veg stuff up the hill.

hellstar · 23rd June 2009, 11:52

Those hills never cease to amaze , the wildfires had wiped these hills cleans of the green grass cover , but thats what usually happens during summers and the rains bring back all these greens ... lovely sight .

The best time to visit this place for the mist and lovely views is a couple of days after heavy rains in December - jan . And yes at the top there is a guest house belonging to the forest department. Booking can be done from the Mysore DCF's office i think.

You should be able to see wildlife on this hills in the morning and evenings , but the traffic is stopped after 1900 hrs in th evening, except for occupants of the forest guest house. I have seen elephants , sambhar deer, barking deer and once even a porcupine here . There are stories of the leopard who visits the surroundings of the forest guest house very often.

rjstyles69 · 23rd June 2009, 13:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by hellstar

Those hills never cease to amaze , the wildfires had wiped these hills cleans of the green grass cover , but thats what usually happens during summers and the rains bring back all these greens ... lovely sight .

You mean like this eh

?

Name: DSC_3150 Medium.jpg
Views: 17445
Size: 83.1 KB

A Day Trip To Gopalswamy Betta-dsc_3146-medium.jpg

A Day Trip To Gopalswamy Betta-dsc_3151-medium.jpg

hellstar · 23rd June 2009, 14:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

You mean like this eh

?

Attachment 151461

Attachment 151462

Attachment 151463

very very close , but not yet there- i believe that no photograph can capture the true feel of that place.

lovely photopgraphs riju ...!

princezahed · 23rd June 2009, 22:53

I had been to Gopalswamy betta 3 years ago when it used to be quite an unknown destination. It is just an awesome place to be. Words cant describe the feeling and place. We had been there around 4pm and it felt like it was night. Dark, cold freezing winds and lush greenery. Still have pictures from that trip.

22nd June 2009, 15:31	#1
morbidpriest Newbie Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 11 Thanked: 0 Times	A Day Trip To Gopalswamy Betta We, the Wild Hogs were planning for a day trip from Bangalore and finally settled for a place called Gopalswamy Betta. Thanks to Santhosh (BHPian) for suggesting the place and agreeing to be our tour guide. I also wanted to test my new GPS receiver and going on a long drive would be just as good. So we started on a Sunday morning at 6AM from the Raja Rajeshweri General Hospital. We reached Mysore at 8AM just in time for a fundu breakfast at a restaurant in Mysore. We started from Mysore went through the horrible roads of Gundulpet to reach the forest check post at the foothill at 9:30AM. There were sunflowers, sunflowers, and sunflowers everywhere. Now these flowers were confused on which direction to turn as there was no sun and the climate was just perfect. I was using my Samsung i550w to track the trip right from the place we started. here are some useless details: Max Speed: 128 KM/HR Avg. Speed: 64KM/HR Total KMs: 234 (As reported by GPS...quite accurate except for the meters). Destination at: 76.5802E/11.7208N at Position accuracy:59m and Altitude:1326m and Alt. Accuracy: 88.5m I was pretty amazed by this place Gopalswamy Betta. This is one place I would like to visit again. There is a perpetual cool wind that will make you forget your work, family, and everything that holds you back. Everywhere you turn you see green and greener mountains. So if you are tired of your regular self and want to see green-green everywhere, Gopalswamy Betta is the right place. Oh BTW, we also visited the temple and had the free prasadam (curd rice). I'll add more about the trip later but take a look at some of the pics. Attached Thumbnails Attached Images
	() Thanks

22nd June 2009, 15:48	#2
muralisk BHPian Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Hyderabad, Bangalore Posts: 711 Thanked: 13 Times View My Garage	Wow!! The place looks stunning and awesome. Please post more pics and it is quite inviting. Will add this to my list.
	() Thanks

22nd June 2009, 16:16	#3
Dolphin BHPian Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Bangalore Posts: 132 Thanked: 45 Times	Hey Frank, thanks for starting this thread. I didn't expect that you will mention "Wild Hogs" man. LOL. We, a small group of friends at office call ourselves Wild Hogs, and have plans to explore interesting places whenever we get time. And we decided Gopalswamy Hills would be our first Wild Hog trip. Gopalswamy Betta was awesome as expected. I have been to this place many times and I just love this place and want to go back there again and again.
	() Thanks

22nd June 2009, 17:08	#4
cuttingcrew BHPian Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 98 Thanked: Once	The place looks inviting and would like to visit. Please post few details like places to eat and stay.
	() Thanks

22nd June 2009, 17:29	#5
iceman91 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: melbourne/banga Posts: 1,961 Thanked: 34 Times View My Garage	Wild Hogs, any reference to the movie? lovely place
	() Thanks

22nd June 2009, 17:43	#6
gadadhar Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,342 Thanked: 1,116 Times View My Garage	This place had a bad wildfire some time around Jan 09 and green was completely lost (any the wild life too). It is amazing to see how nature has come back after the rains. Terrrific snaps. Did you see any wild life there? The green valleys are known for elephant spotting.
	() Thanks

22nd June 2009, 20:12	#7
morbidpriest Newbie Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 11 Thanked: 0 Times	OK. Here is some more details of the trip. We could manage to get six people for this trip and we had two cars: 1. Swift VXI (dolphin's) 2. Xeta V2 (mine) The original plan was to meet near the Raja Rajeshwari Hospital in the morning at 6AM. And the shocker was everybody reached on time! We wanted to start early because we wanted to come back just in time for the Cricket T20 finals (Yeah we still love cricket) at 7:30 PM. We later realized that that was such an ambitious plan. We had a wonderful drive and with my Xeta, I was trying hard to catch up with Dolphin's Swift. It was really Swift. Maybe it is not above the car. Maybe it is about the driver. We reached Mysore at 8AM, a good thirty minutes before schedule. Can you beleive that? We went into the city and had wonderful breakfast at Indra's Sweet n Spice. Such a great restaurant. We had Masala Dosas, Vada-Sambar, and tea. We were languishing there for sometime and then started from Mysore towards Gundulpet at around 9PM. From Mysore to Gundulpet and towards Gopalswamy Betta was such a horrible drive. There were oddly placed spead breakers that could wreck your car. Loose-gravel roads, lot of diversions and we took almost an hour to reach the forest checkpost gate. On the way we stopped near Gundulpet and packed lunch as there are no eateries on top of the hill. We packed pulav, chapattis, and pooris as we were told by the locals that Non-Veg food is not allowed to be carried. I'm still trying to figure out the logic behind that. But there was absolutely no check in the check post. We paid 50 Rs per car and proceeded to the top of the hill. On the way to the hill, we stopped in some places to take some picture. Anything that described Gopalswamy Betta in the websites, blogs, and other places were all understatements. You have to be there to experience the beauty. I found the drive a little bit difficult with steep slopes and bad roads. But within no time, we were on the top of the hill viewing a magnificient yellow-painted temple. There was such a cold breeze that will put the San Franciso breeze to shame. Just kidding. It was too cool for that time. 12:30 PM and we were feeling cold! Since it was a Sunday, the place was little bit crowded, and the parking was almost full. We managed to push our cars between some two trees. There was a long queue to the temple and we thought we'll go trekking, have lunch and then visit the temple. It happened to be such a great decision, we realized later. When we were trekking a sudden wave of mist enclosed us with a mild drizzle. It was such a great feeling. It disappeared after ten minutes. At around 2PM, we went back to the temple, the religious amongst us went inside for the darshan and the hungry amongst us went directly to the place where they were distributing free prasadham (curd rice). We also had the packed food we got from Gundulpet on top of a big rock. We made sure that we didn't litter tha place by carefully, packing the leftovers and dumping them in the wate bin. We started down the hill at 2:30 PM and proceeded towards Gundulpet. I made a mistake while going down the hill. I was riding on the brake most of the time with clutch pressed. After sometime, I could smell of something burning. I quickly realized my mistake and started using the gears and the smell was gone. However, I need to check the car thoroughly this weekend to ensure that I din't screw-up anything. On the way, we had many pitstops including the one near the Mysore palace. We took some pictures of the palace as the guard didn't allow us from that entrance. We started from Mysore at 4PM and proceeded towards Bangalore. On the way, we stopped at Maddur-Tiffany for some hot Maddur Vadas an tea. When we started from Maddur and proceeded towards Bangalore, there was heavy tarffic. Everybody want to get on the Bangalore-Mysore road during the weekend. When we reached Banaglore, the first innings of the T20 world cup was over and who cares? We had a ball of a time! PS: Bangalore - GopalSwamy Betta - Bangalore = 465 KMS. Attached Thumbnails Attached Images
	() Thanks

23rd June 2009, 10:40	#10
Red Circle BHPian Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 74 Thanked: 16 Times	The reason they say not to carry non veg food is because of the temple i believe. I was thinking of a drive to Gopalswamy betta in the near future, If somebody of you is game for it let me know and we can plan it out and have a meet on the hills
	() Thanks

23rd June 2009, 11:52	#12
hellstar Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,072 Thanked: 44 Times	Those hills never cease to amaze , the wildfires had wiped these hills cleans of the green grass cover , but thats what usually happens during summers and the rains bring back all these greens ... lovely sight . The best time to visit this place for the mist and lovely views is a couple of days after heavy rains in December - jan . And yes at the top there is a guest house belonging to the forest department. Booking can be done from the Mysore DCF's office i think. You should be able to see wildlife on this hills in the morning and evenings , but the traffic is stopped after 1900 hrs in th evening, except for occupants of the forest guest house. I have seen elephants , sambhar deer, barking deer and once even a porcupine here . There are stories of the leopard who visits the surroundings of the forest guest house very often. Last edited by hellstar : 23rd June 2009 at 11:58.
	() Thanks

23rd June 2009, 22:53	#15
princezahed BHPian Join Date: May 2005 Location: Bangalore -> Coorg Posts: 281 Thanked: 55 Times	I had been to Gopalswamy betta 3 years ago when it used to be quite an unknown destination. It is just an awesome place to be. Words cant describe the feeling and place. We had been there around 4pm and it felt like it was night. Dark, cold freezing winds and lush greenery. Still have pictures from that trip.
	() Thanks