[carfanatic007]

Context: I bought a Fiesta 1.6 on 6th Aug and since then I was itching to go for a long drive to feel the real, raw and untamed power of the beast which I have chose to name "Fiona" (Monster Princess in Shrek ).

The user manual of Fiesta suggested 1500km of run-in period and dealership was saying till 1st service i.e. 5000km or 6 months. I checked with them multiple times and they said car will serve you better if you don't go over 100kmph till 1st service. So I chose to wait for 1500km to finish and then go for a long drive which is not too stressful for the car.

Meanwhile there was a long weekend coming and I wanted to go to Mahabalipuram but fell sick with viral fever and couldn't go but was really desperate now to go somewhere. Checked out T-BHP and saw many day trips are possible around Bangalore and started planning for few of them. Then one fine Saturday last weekend we thought let's go to Lepakshi as many threads on the forum were all praise for the temple.

When: So 2nd October evening we decided to go to Lepakshi and a friend & his wife decided to join us next day.

3rd october 8AM was decided as the time to meet near Hennur cross and go to Lepakshi.

We packed in some food as there is no place for decent food on the way except one Kamat near Chikkaballapur.

We finally met at 9AM and started for Lepakshi.

Route: I stay in Marathalli so took the outer ring road till KR Puram's hanging briadge then continued on the flyover to Hyderabad which is NH7 and goes through Hennue, Manyata Tech Park and finally Hebbal flyover. We went below the flyover and took a right to hit the road to the new airport.

Once on this road continue straight for 80-90 km till you reach AP border. From there just 3-4 km down there is a board for left turn to Lepakshi. If you are not slow enough or alert enough you might miss it. Then there is a narrow road which is deserted at various place and road is not great.Then you would see a big Nandi carved out of a rock. Continue half a km more and turn left to go into a narrow lane which will take you to temple entrance.

Drive: Drive was awesome, mind blowing with excellent handling, chilling AC, speed and I tried to maintain 80-100kmph on NH7 as per dealership advice. However the drive on the clean, well maintained roads was very good and finally I could experience a bit of the power Fiesta has and it bought a smile to my face. I didn't felt tiresome and back support was good. Very happy with the car so far.

F.E. - This is interesting, in the morning when I started from home then ODO - 1620.6km and DTE was 184km, when I returned ODO was 1895.2km and DTE was 203km

I filled in 17.1 litre petrol for 1000 Rs @58.5 Rs/litre

So the car covered 274.6km and as DTE was 19km more and my car gives FE of 10.5kmpl so 1.8litre of fuel left from morning refill. So the F.E. works out to 17.97kmpl (274.6/(17.1-1.8))


Time Taken: We started at 8:40 AM from home, filled petrol en route, stopped at Kamat's and reached Lepakshi by 11:30-45 AM. We spent approx 2 hour there and on the way back stopped at Bhagini on new airport road for lunch at 3:45 PM where the food was bad. Finally reached home by 5:30PM. Didn't go to Penugonda fort, devanahalli fort and chitradurga dam as the day was really hot and the 2 hr visit at the temple enforced us not to get out and roam around more.

Temple: The temple actually is quite good and quite old but do take a guide else you would not know many interesting facts & stories. I had read of guide asking 100 Rs so I offered 50Rs thinking guide will negotiate but guide was ok with it. So we went with Rs 50. He was a good guide who knew english but not hindi.

Money Spent:
Rs 1000 for Fuel filled at the start
Rs 80 as two way toll tax at AP border for return in 24 hours
Rs 50 for guide
Rs 65 for cold drinks & water at Lepakshi
Rs 500 for lunch at Bhagini for 4 people

So Rs 1700 for 4 people for a day trip was pretty ok.

Bad Part of the trip: 1) It was a very hot day so we went to Lepakshi & returned
2) Saw the remains of a very horrible accident on the way back between a bike & Innova. The accident must have happened 30 minutes max before us and it was too bad to even describe. We all were stunned for few minutes.

Now let some pictures do the talking :

[jacs]

First of all, congrats on the new Fiesta! FE looks decent for a Petrolhead...

Sad to hear about the accident you saw, it happens! Good summary of details, but expecting more snaps .

[ampere]

Its raining Lepakshi! Its good. I see the place getting good coverage. Its really an amazing place to visit.

[carfanatic007]

Originally Posted by jacs

First of all, congrats on the new Fiesta! FE looks decent for a Petrolhead...

Sad to hear about the accident you saw, it happens! Good summary of details, but expecting more snaps .

Thanks Jacs, will upload more snaps

Originally Posted by ampere

Its raining Lepakshi! Its good. I see the place getting good coverage. Its really an amazing place to visit.

Ampere thanks for the directions and it is indeed a good place if someone is in a mood for a long drive over good roads and a good old temple thrown in


Btw the pic of the foot is spposedly Sita Ji's foot and the pic with the bowls built in rock is actually the color palette to paint the temple, cool isn't it?

[sachinj12]

Nice travelogue man, I am to visit Lepakshi today and I am waiting for family members to get ready

Hopefully I will at least go somewhere today

[ampere]

Thanks and Well Said Carfanic! In fact when I went to Helibid last month, the guide was saying very few "hug" Nandi exists in achitecture.

Thats when I remembered, most of it we have already seen and Lepakshi was in sub-conscience!

Mysore, Haleibid(2), Lepakshi, Tanjore, Bull temple Bangalore and Rameshwaram.

[Newpunter]

Nice. We visited Lepakshi just one day(Oct 2) before you and we started from Marathahalli too .

[ravib]

Originally Posted by ampere

Thats when I remembered, most of it we have already seen and Lepakshi was in sub-conscience!

Mysore, Haleibid(2), Lepakshi, Tanjore, Bull temple Bangalore and Rameshwaram.

Ampere, there is one more to add. There is a huge nandi in Thiruvidaimaruthur (near Kumbakonam) Mahalingaswamy temple

-Ravi

[ampere]

Originally Posted by ravib

Ampere, there is one more to add. There is a huge nandi in Thiruvidaimaruthur (near Kumbakonam) Mahalingaswamy temple

-Ravi

I have no idea. I was just trying to mention, what the guide!
May be he was trying to impress us!

But as you say, there may be many more.

[carfanatic007]

Originally Posted by sachinj12

Nice travelogue man, I am to visit Lepakshi today and I am waiting for family members to get ready

Hopefully I will at least go somewhere today

So Sachinj did you manage to go to Lepakshi, how was it?

Originally Posted by ampere

Thanks and Well Said Carfanic! In fact when I went to Helibid last month, the guide was saying very few "hug" Nandi exists in achitecture.

Thats when I remembered, most of it we have already seen and Lepakshi was in sub-conscience!

Mysore, Haleibid(2), Lepakshi, Tanjore, Bull temple Bangalore and Rameshwaram.

I am planning on Halebid next, lets see when that happens

Originally Posted by Newpunter

Nice. We visited Lepakshi just one day(Oct 2) before you and we started from Marathahalli too .

Great next time we can go someplace together

Few more pics

[sachinj12]

Originally Posted by carfanatic007

So Sachinj did you manage to go to Lepakshi, how was it?

Ended up going to Nandi hills man

Something is better than nothing. Damn.