6th August 2009, 21:58
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| BHPian  Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| 'Xing'ing around ! - 5am to 5am, 823kms. Synopsis of the trip:
Other than Kulahalli and Bagali, I have been to the other places during my college days, when I was scooting around on a Bajaj Chetak. But that was almost a decade and a half ago... and I just had some vague memories from the previous trips. My plan was to start off as early as possible on the morning of Sunday 2nd Aug, drive to Huchangidurga first, and then to Santhebennur, pass through Shantisagara to Hallimallapura where Kiran would join me. Post lunch we would set off towards Davanagere, visit our friend's house. Then we would go towards Kulahalli, Bagali and drive back to Bangalore overnight. All the places covered are within a 75kms radius from Davanagere.  On the music system..."kausalya supraja rama poorva sandhya pravarvathe..."  Close to Nelamangala. Stuck behind a truck. On the music system MJ's "Speed Demon"... on the speedo for the next 20 minutes "@20-25kmph”...  Ahhhh... the Tumkur road toll booth. Such a welcome sight!  I was looking forward to having breakfast and coffee at the Kamat Upachar, but the median break has been closed off. So stopped at the Cafe Coffee Day to pick up a Cappuccino...  I will not take any more foggy-hill pics, I will not take any more foggy-hill pics... Maybe one last pic?  After biker gangs... we have the skater gangs! (This scene is from a blocked off section of the incomplete highway near Tumkur, so it is safe for the kids to skate here.)  Since I was alone, you'll see a lot of Xing pics ;-)  Nice...  Reached Anagodu (After Chitradurga), took a deviation into the country roads and drove on for around 25-30kms and reached Huchangidurga...  The cloudy weather was perfect for walking around the hillside...  Nice place!  The ruins of what must have been a magnificent structure once upon a time...  Ok, I need to walk up till there now...  A doorway to the clouds...  The fort is much bigger than what I remembered it to be...  Up & up...  Looks very spooky...  You can see remains of the moat that once surrounded the fort...  Green Carpet...  The palace compound inside the fort...  Views from the top...    Unless steps are taken to repair and preserve the ruins, there won't be too much left of the fort...  The road below...  The King's palace once stood here. You can find a broken Shivling (probably from a shrine within the palace) and some stone cannon balls strewn around...  There is a temple inside the fort frequented by people from the surrounding towns and villages...  Three Musketeers. These kids play a noisy drum-like instrument during the pooja/arathi and ask around for tips.  Contd... |
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6th August 2009, 22:09
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| BHPian Join Date: May 2009 Location: Bombay
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6th August 2009, 22:12
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6th August 2009, 22:17
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6th August 2009, 22:30
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6th August 2009, 22:40
| #6 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| A Sunday trip... More Pics of the fort...    Took one last look at the fort before heading back towards Anagodu...   He wants ‘Scooty’ to do something else also   The road to Santhebennur is lined with paddy fields on both the sides...  Tiller!  Tractor! The attachments to the wheels are for preparing the rice fields for transplantation of paddy saplings…  Cute...  The Santhebennur Kalyani - built by a local chieftain Hanumappa Nayaka in 1658. It is around 330 feet on each side and around 80 feet in depth. The tank and the Musafir-khana beside it were built as a rest-stop for travelers…  Parrots...  More Pics...    Brothers or best friends? And what were they watching so keenly??  Now I know who were the objects of their attention!!  Interesting designs. At first I thought they were lions with their heads missing. I took a walk around the structure to see if there was atleast one intact ‘lion’… then I realized that they were actually frogs!    The Musafir-khana besides the tank (travelers' pit stop from the ancient times)...  Next, I headed towards Shanthisagara. Arecanut Plantations along the way...   Shanthisagara is one of the biggest fresh water lakes in India...   The hills around the lake offer some good trekking opportunities for beginners...  What looks like a bridge is actually an aqueduct carrying the waters of an irrigation canal across the valley...  Reminded me of the Windows XP desktop!  One hill has a Mosque and the other has a temple...  Contd... |
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6th August 2009, 22:57
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6th August 2009, 23:00
| #8 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| A Sunday trip... Kiran came to the main road to meet me and I followed him to his relative's house...   While lunch was being prepared, we went to their paddy fields to take a look at the planting...  More Xing pics...  Planting paddy is back-breaking work...  Walking on the Edge...  After lunch, we headed towards Harapanahalli and then towards Kulahalli...  More Wind-Mills...  After a couple of kms of extremely bad roads, we reached Kulahalli...  The Maddaneshwara Temple...   From inside the temple there is an entrance into the underground Tunnel-Complex. We hired a couple of local kids as guides to take us into the caves / tunnels...  The entrance...  These tunnels were probably built as hiding places or as an escape route by some local kings long ago. It is a labyrinth of tunnels, doorways, narrow passages...   There are some places where you can walk, there are some places where you need to stoop and there are places where you actually have to crawl. It is pitch dark all through...  Some of the passages seem to be flooded by ground water...  And it is damp all along. Certainly not recommended for anyone with claustrophobia...  Me!  We spent a good amount of time exploring the caves and tunnels...   Oye! I think I am stuck!!!          Contd... |
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6th August 2009, 23:22
| #9 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| A Sunday trip... This is how dark it actually was...  A crab in the water in one of the passages...      After about 30 mins we emerged at the other end of the tunnel-complex...   It was quite late in the evening by then...  There are lot more structures to be explored in this village; on the agenda for the next trip with Sangeetha.  PT classes in the village school...  Our Guides...  Went into the temple again for Darshan...    Till date I have been chased by dogs, this was the first time I got chased by Geese!!!  By the time we reached Bagali, it was quite dark. This is actually a 30 second exposure pic...  Just walked around the place and took some pics with a promise to be back here soon...     We reached Davanagere, met up with our friend and headed back towards Namma Bengaluru at around 11pm...  Since I was feeling a little tired, we stopped for a Chai, decided to get an hour’s sleep before proceeding, lowered the seats, set the alarm on the phone and got an hour’s shut-eye...  Are these red wheels or am I seeing things??  Reached Nelamangala by around 4.00am and it took us more than an hour to reach the city limits from there, thanks to the early morning traffic jams. Got a couple of hours of sleep before freshening up and heading off to office to start the week. Now that I have a better idea of the places to see + the road conditions etc. I'll be planning an encore trip along this route with Sangeetha shortly... The idea is to do a 2 day weekend round trip, covering these places + some other spots worth visiting. |
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7th August 2009, 08:28
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7th August 2009, 09:34
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| Nice pics, very nice pics.  There is fun to do lone trips. This trip reminded my lone trip to Wai. |
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7th August 2009, 10:34
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7th August 2009, 19:46
| #13 |
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7th August 2009, 22:45
| #14 | |||||
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| Thanks! @akbaree @ASHISHPALLOD @NevGin @?ushk@r @simply_sunny001 @Indizen08 @gostel @NRKUMAR @MuraliR - Thank you all for your appreciation & comments. Quote:
 @akbaree ; with regards to the context behind these places : Why did I put these places on the itinerary? - During my college days in Davanagere, a group of us friends would take off to nearby places over the weekend. I must have visited most of the interesting places within a 150kms radius from Davanagere at some point of time. But there are no photos & no travelogues and memories tend to fade over time. There are also places which I had never heard about in those days, but got to know about them very recently, thanks to Google! Most of these places are not popular since they are off the main roads and may not be of interest to casual tourists. I am sure if all TBhpians could dig up places from around their home-towns etc. there would be a big list of little known but very interesting places worth visiting. Quite a few times, while reminiscing about the days gone by, I would remark to Sangeetha that "You should see this place... it is like this.. like that...". Since Davanagere and the places around are within comfortable driving distance from BLR, I was planning to do a 2 day trip to all these places. But things would have changed over time... Since anyway I had to go to DVG, I wanted to check if the roads to these places are in good condition ? are these places still ok / safe to visit ? etc. Some historical context for the Huchangidurga/Uchangidurga fort: Quote:
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This place was recently featured in a TV program on a Kannada channel. Since it is just a few Kms from Harpanahalli, I asked my father about this place. He was posted at Harpanahalli for a couple of years in the 90s and he knew about this place. And the prospect of checking out tunnels & caves etc. was quite intriguiging. Bagali temple. Quote:
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7th August 2009, 23:20
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