[pravdr]

dear teambhpians

finally the trip did happen!!!

many thanks to teambhpians like sushruta hvkumar and others who gave me valuable inputs for my first driving foray into karnataka.

started on 25 august tuesday 05:00 thane
returned on 30 august sunday 16:00 thane

total kms covered 2173kms
used ac for most part with defogger in the hilly mist laden ghat areas.

full luggage

honda city zx 2006
tyres bridgestone turanza had done 33000 kms already.(this was a grey area)

DAY 1

ganpati festival began on 23 aug with much less fervour than usual we had ganesh darshan at friends place on 23 and 24aug. this did not leave much time for the preparations but most of the packing was done before that.
on 24 night i had discharged most of my patients 2 of the critical patients were still recovering were shifted under the care of my generous senior colleague(by profession im a pediatric intensive care specialist)

the cellphone alarm went off at 3.30am me and my brother got ready accompanying us were my parents.after the usual strong morning tea we loaded the car with luggage checked the tyres did the walk around. already had done servicing 10days earlier.

with prayers and chants of god my brother who was at the wheel steered the car out of gate and very soon we were crossing the kalwa bridge and moving towards navi mumbai.

hit the expressway now renamed as yeshwantrao chavan expressway around 5.40am.light drizzles on the way eased our mood and light devotional music set the tone for the journey.

there was the usual crawl in the lonavla ghats, saw one asiad luxury bus which had lost control and had come down the slope onto the opposite lane with railings holding it back.post ghats the straight stretch was taken easily with the city touching 140kmph on some straight sections.

2nd foodmall with BP petrol pump and BT outlet was the 1st halt.freshened up and had some idli and coffee and shira.begun onwards journey at 7.40am

dehuroad wakad chandni chowk stretch did not have any traffic in the early hours and soon we were on the katraj viaduct.

[sushrutha]

Good to hear that you completed the trip successfully. But where are the pics ?

[pravdr]

the katraj viaduct and beyond was extremely smooth at 9.30 am near stara we took a halt at hotel mahendra executive.its conveniently located on the same side when travelloing towards kolhapur.a round of omelettes poha which was good tomato omelette and tea.toilet facilities not superlative.

we had to fill up just before kolhapur at bp petrol pump also as i had read on team bhp that there is some disparity in prices between maharashtra and karnataka.so we tanked up.

at 10.30 we started again after crossing kolhapur at 11.30 i could notice how beautifully maintained and manicured this stretch of the nh4 was. it appeared manicured beautifully lined with trees.encountered some rain in tawandi ghat. the hotels at the top of tawandi ghat appeared inviting. would like to know if anybody has stopped at these places and how their experience is.the rains were very heavy at times.

we drove on to belgaum amidst heavy rains took the first exit towards belgaum crossed under the bridge(nh4) towards KLES hospital and thenwent to ramdeo international panchvati restaurant for thalis.the food was excellent value for money but toilet facilities were ordinary.

we started from belgaum at 1.30 the beautiful nh4 was like a long winding hypnotising ribbon heavy rains added to the beauty of the drive till dharwad.we touched dharwad toll point at 3pm. just after dharwad we missed the left turn inside towards the old dharwad hubli road. we drove on 12 kms till we reached the exit for hubli.

this happened because "travel inn" the place where we were halting had put their location as located on nh4 but now this is old nh4(dharwad hubli road) at hubli exit we met a good samaritan biker who helped us right upto dharwad we followed him as he covered his eyes with one hand to beat the raindrops and held the handle with the other hand.finally we could get to the sdm dental college which is landmark as travel in is located flush next to it. at 4.15 pm we settled in our "travel in " rooms.

travel inn is a beautiful place with nice ambience and colonial bungalow feel to it. at INR 1700 the place is decent although there are some glitches like the tea and coffee maker they had advertised was jaded worn out and the filament had copper flakes coming out indicating that it was either old/not used/ or second hand purchase. apart ftom that the hotel is good with good garden restaurant with giant screen for special occassions.

we lazed around reflected on the drive from thane on nh4.had early dinner 9pm (thats early by my mumbai standard time of 10.30pm) then everybody went to sleep dreaming about JOGFALLS which was our destination on day 2

[pravdr]

Originally Posted by sushrutha

Good to hear that you completed the trip successfully. But where are the pics ?

dear sushrutha

iam new at using teambhp so still learning.

still figuring out how to include my pics which are more than 1mb in size and soon will post some video links too.

also figuring out how to edit my posts.

PIC 1 on way to belgaum from kolhapur
PIC2 on way to dharwad from belgaum amidst heavy rains

[pravdr]

Originally Posted by pravdr

the katraj viaduct and beyond was extremely smooth at 9.30 am near stara we took a halt at hotel mahendra executive.
=====================
had early dinner 9pm (thats early by my mumbai standard time of 10.30pm) then everybody went to sleep dreaming about JOGFALLS which was our destination on day 2

PIC1 ON WAY TO BELGAUM
PIC2 ON WAY TO DHARWAD THROUGH HEAVY RAINS

[sushrutha]

Nice teaser pics.
Instead of adding 1MB files, resize the files(either with mspaint / ms office picture manager or someother tools).
Please check the announcement section for adding photos.
Thanks

[pravdr]

PIC 3 showing my icebox case which i use to keep cool the colddrinks and electrolyte solutions.it stays well for 24 hrs.if you get a hotel where there is a fridge/minibar in the room you can resfreeze the ice packs and you can have cold water colddrinks for subsequent days of travel.

PIC 4 difficult early morning conditions on lonavla stretch day 1

PIC 5 ist halt at 2nd mall on expressway

PIC 6 katraj tunnel

PIC 7 lovely tracel inn at hubli

PIC 8 lovely another nice corner at travel inn hubli

[pravdr]

the day started with fresh bright light with some sunshine at travel inn in hubli. we decided to have breakfast at travel inn itself. being an off season and odd day the choice was limited to omelettes and bread preparartions but no idlis or vadas can you imagine.
soom we wound our way thro hubli traffic till after a lot of turns we came to a point where the yellapur road bypasses the nh4 underneath and starts a beautiful journey towards yellapur .
with less traffic and pleasant weather the road to yellapur was cut in les s than an hour.it had some lovely thickly wooded forest sections.
the junction towards sirsi at yellapur on left side beckoned us into thicker forests.this section was a dream run although the road was not as smooth as the yeallpur hubli road it more than made up for beautiful twists and turns and rustic village scenery.the forests in some areas were very thick.
at sisrsi we took halt in beautiful hotel panchvati.the restauarant here has amazing collectioon of religious photos motifs mainly i think of sringeri mutt.
we filled air at ioc sirsi and started towards siddapur which is the base town of jog falls.

on the way heavy rains came down on us.and visibility became poor this made me think about jog falls are we going to see them or will mist cause an impediment.we proceeded with hopes in our mind and prayers on our lips to see the magnificent creation of nature that is jog falls.
siddapur arrived amidst heavy rains dampening our hopes.
we proceeded towards jog falls and soon came to the point where we have to cross the bridge to the touriost area the flow of water in the sharavathi was not very huge.
as we entered the parking area lo behold we saw rani falls all of us quickly parked the car and went to the observation deck.

THE VISIBILITY WAS CRYSTAL CLEAR AND ALL 4 FALLS COULD BE SEEN MAGNIFICENTLY WITHOUT A SPECK OF MIST.

i really thanked the gods for sllowing us to see a magnificent spectacle.

although the flow of water was not as is seen in some piocs on net and teambhp but the visibility more than made up for it.we could also gauage what it must be when the water flow is optimal.

the roar and flow of water increased with increasing rains.although our jog falls did not appear like a niagara the whole spectacle opf natures creation of the jog gorge was amazing. it made us feel humble before the almighty nature.

the clear weather show lasted for 1 hour and it started raining very heavily the falls flow tooo picked up.in next minutes a natural curtain of white fog coming from the sharavathi valley enveloped the whole falls.
the visitors who came in late could not see a thing!!!

we took the occasion to have some coffee. it was raining cats and dogs and we decided to make a move as the wether in sharavathi valley during such downpour can be daunting.

the sharavathi valley was full odf fog with visiblity reduced to a few meters. we had ana incident when the car skidded a bit and went on to the shoulder of the road to avoid an oncoming tourist bus.

the shoulder of the road had become like a edge of the crater.soon we started descending the ghats. the famed view of sharavathi in this weather eluded us.however the descent took us to a lower and safer level where visibilty was much better.

soon we reached honavar where we had some snacks at kamat where i tasted bun roti first time.from honavar the famour NH17 with moon surface started. especially horrible sections near sharavathi bridge near honavar.

it was craterway but the diversion and some clever driving brought us to the murudeshwara junctionwe rapidly exited the NH17 and arrived at rns residency where we would be staying tomorrow as rest day.

[pravdr]

many pics of the jog falls on 26 aug 2009.

the last pic ios captioned the show is over .the fog came over from the left side and within minutes left the entire area draped in white.nature at its most unpredictable best.

for 1 hour we enjoyed a clear view of jog falls that was our bonus.

[pravdr]

Originally Posted by sushrutha

Nice teaser pics.
Instead of adding 1MB files, resize the files(either with mspaint / ms office picture manager or someother tools).
Please check the announcement section for adding photos.
Thanks

hi sushrutha

im learning fast. added day and new pics

regards

pravdr

[pravdr]

after the hectic day of jogfalls rns reidency came as a seaside oasis.

suprisingly due to off season we were the only guest at the hotel!!!

we got interconnecting rooms on 4th floor with grand corner views of the sea.

the morning was spent at naveen seaside restaurant which is built on stilts inside the sea.afternoon and evening was spent in visiting the murudeshwara temple and the tallest gopuram which has lifts running inside it.

the rns shettyland is a mythological delight with the tallest shiva statue in the world and depictions of mythological inceidents which i thought was fascinating idea.

the evening was spent in marvelling at the illuminated image of the shiva.

intermittent rain the evening brought cheer and chill. we had xcellent thalis at naveen seaside restaurant for INR28 which was amazing. we retired early but the chitchatting continued till 11pm.

inbetween we did a puncture repair which ultimately turned out to be shoddy work for INR200!!!

next day we had planned kollur sringeri and halt at udupi.

[pravdr]

started from murudeshwar
as told on earlier day the puncture repair person did a shoddy work on my flat tyre . when starting next day morning i changed to my spare tyre and decided to halt at some highway puncturewallah.

we had quick bfast at naveen beach restaurant and off we were to kollur.

we halted at puncturewallahs place a few kms on NH17 from murudeshwar.

already he was doing brisk business with the state of nh 17 in monsoons.he charged me INR100 less than the 200 bucks at murudeshwar.
off we we were again on the nh17 which was extremely bad in patches . we hit a ultrasmooth section before baindur cross.we filled up our tank at baindur as the rets of our adventure filled journey was to take us right upto sringeri through some inhospitable roads and dense forests. being new on any route i always fill up my tank.

turn to kollur

we turned left at baindur to go to kollur via the beautiful environs of mookambika wildlife sanctuary.

we went thro some wonderful dense patches of foilage with intermittent rain and sunshine. we started our ascent to kollur. we reached an arch like structure. it was the welcome arch of kollur devasthan.

we dropped my parents at the gate of temple and went further behind the temple into temple parking lot and appraoched the temple from there.

inside we took ladoo prasad. there were lots of devotees with traditional kerala sarees in line.not knowing from where the line began and ended i de4cided to circumambulate the shrine. the darshan would have taken a long time and we had the reach sringeri before evening.

with heavy heart i decided to forego the noon post aarti darshan and vowed to return back with a south indian friend of mine taking prior tips on how to plan the darshan.(there was some language problem that i had here as i had to converse in english but apparently very few temple staff could give me proper guidance about when and how to approach the queue and also i cd not know whetehr we have to remove shirts and stand in line . a few men were wearing shirts but few were not wearing it.)someone who reads the travelogue can pls explain all this to me?

towards someshwar
we left kollur after having piping hot coffee at a corner shop and turned towards the road to someshwar.on the way were various diversions to shimoga and down to the coast.the forest road here is an excellent alternative to bypass the nh17.

towards someshwar we went and passed through some very dense forests and very bad roads.the shoulders were crumbling and deep polls of red water collected in potholes had to be dealt withe carefully.

agumbe ghat
we turned left towards agumbe ghat.it was the first time i was negotiating this awesome road so we were pretty excited. the hairpin bends were exciting but overall we negoatiated it very well.there was one patch in agumbe ghat which was supersmoooth and for those few kms we accelerated till we reached the hairpin bends.

it was fun to watch malgudi days house go by in the enveloping mist.it had a surreal look to it.

towards sringeri

we broke open into sunshine as we took the right turn towards sringeri. we arrived at sringeri mutt. we went down to the banks of tunga river.

took darshan of sharada mata.the atmosphere was cool and divine.

descent from agumbe to udupi

we started from sringeri early around 5.30pm as we had to reach udupi. the situation at agumbe had deteriorated it was zero visibility.so we began our treacherous drive down the gaht with my brother watching the edge of the road low beam and songs turned off.

it was quite and xperience to hear the tyres crunch the gravel when the windows are open.

it was also amazing to see experienced drivers zip on this route thro dense fog!!!!

a little distrance down two luxury buses had a head on collision fortunately they backed out and lefta small place for the vehicles to pass through.

some time later the scream of ambulance sirens told us help was coming for some injured people from manipal. all this was happening in dense fog and fading light.

overall it was a challenging drive. bt the real challenge lay ahead for us.

in darkness we arrived at hebri junction and asked for directions twoards udupi it was pitch black and there were no signboards.one signboard had a picture of striped tiger and told us to be aware that wildlife was lurking in these jungles. finally we followed a zen on what seemed like a crater riddled destroyed road for a few kilometers.

approaching udupi

thereafter as we exited someshwar sanctuary the road improved but it was a dark road with no shoulder indicators no markers so it was a tough drive all the way to manipal and udupi.the last few kms in udupi traffic were agonising as we were least expecting to run into traffic jams here.

what a developed place manipal has become!!!!

finally we spotted the karavali hotel our abode for the night across nh17 and were relieved.

pic kollur in kodachadri hills enveloped by fog and dense clouds

pic gold stambh(pillar) in kollur mookambika devi temple

pic dense fog in agumbe ghat

[MX6]

That would be the longest gap in a travelogue. 5 months. And suddenly this space is all exciting. I'm already yearning for monsoons here (at the beginning of summer). Your archaic photos of clouds and rains in coastal karnataka is blowing like a zephyr here. Bring it on.

[pravdr]

Originally Posted by MX6

That would be the longest gap in a travelogue. 5 months. And suddenly this space is all exciting. I'm already yearning for monsoons here (at the beginning of summer). Your archaic photos of clouds and rains in coastal karnataka is blowing like a zephyr here. Bring it on.

dear MX6

my apologies to all regarding the long gap.however will try to make the best of the new winds that are blowing to cool down summer heat.
there is monsoon always after summer!!!!

regards

pg

[pravdr]

pic 1 horrible stretch of nh17

pic 2 beautiful stretch before baindur lasted for a few kms it was an oasis in a moonscape of nh17