Folks,
Thanks for the inputs provided. I had a great trip over the Dusshera holiday. Here is the trip summary
Vehicle - Scorpio VLX Automatic
People - Me, Wifey, 2 boys (9 yrs and 6 yrs)
Distance covered in 8 days - 2121kms (other than 50 km stretch between Gadag and Badami, rest of the drive was by me!)
Day 0 - Oct 19th 2012 - Bangalore to Hospet (via Nelamangala, Tumkur, Chitradurga, Hospet). Stopped at Pavithra Idli for evening snacks. Beautiful sunset/windmills in Chitradurga. Lot of construction going on near Hospet and absolutely no sign post mentioning deviation to Hospet town. Missed the exit and went past and hence lost 30 mins in the process. Finally found our way back. Night halt at Hotel Malligi@Hospet. Pretty decent place. Enjoyed a tasty dinner in their restaurant and hit the sack
Day 1 - Oct 20th 2012 - Hampi sight-seeing. After a sumptuous and tasty breakfast at Malligi, we proceeded towards Hampi
- Places covered - Sasivekalu Ganesha, Krishna temple, Virupaksha temple, Ugranarasimha, Queen's bath, Stepped tank, Mahanavami dibba, Lotus mahal, elephant stable, Vittala temple, Bazaar
- Lunch - Mango tree restaurant. Awesome ambience and food. Totally recommend it to anyone planning to go to Hampi
It was raining in Hampi in the afternoon. IMO, that added some unique beauty to all the sculptures. Came back to Malligi and retired for the night after dinner
Day 2 - Oct 21st 2012 - We checked out from Malligi and proceeded towards Badami (via Lakkundi, Gadag, Ron). The roads from Hospet to Lakkundi are filled with beautiful sunflower farms. Thanks for the recommendation about Lakkundi. It was totally worth it. We hired a guide (for Rs 100) and he was very informative and took us to the key places
- Places covered @ Lakkundi - Brahma Jinnalaya, Kashivishweshwara temple, Nanneshwara temple, Stepped tanks
We finished the above and drove towards Gadag for lunch. Just when our stomachs were rumbling, we stumbled upon Vishwa restaurant, a Pure veg place on the road towards Ron, and it was quite a find in that location. The food was yummy and costed Rs 136 for the 4 of us. We didn't see any other vegetarian restaurants there and I should say that we were very fortunate. We then moved towards Ron/Badami. The roads were a pleasure to drive (except when driving thru small towns/villages). We reached Badami around 4:00pm and checked into KSTDC Mayura Chalukya. Pretty decent, no frills place. While wifey wanted to chill and read a book, my kids & I went to explore Badami caves, Bhootnath temple etc. We came back around 6:30pm, enjoyed some onion pakodas/tea and visited the Banashankari temple. Had a good darshan, finished dinner at a small tiffin place right by the temple, returned back to the hotel and called it a day
Day 3 - Oct 22nd 2012 - Our plan was to visit Aihole, Pattadakkal, Mahakoota temple and Badami (since wifey didn't accompany us on Day 2). We had a sumptuous breakfast at the hotel and proceeded towards Aihole at 8:30AM. The food in KSTDC was pretty decent and totally exceeded my expectations. The roads to Aihole were bad for the most part except for the last 5km near Aihole. The weather was just perfect - not too hot, not too cold, slight drizzle occassionally as well. Finished all the sightseeing in Aihole, Pattadakkal and Mahakoota. Returned back to the hotel at 2:30pm and had our lunch. After 30 mins of rest, we visited the Badami caves, Bhootnath temple etc and stayed there till sunset. Came back, had a good dinner and caught up on CTLT20 game in the room and had a nice sleep
Day 4 - Oct 23rd 2012 - Plan was to drive from Badami and reach Bananki @ Tirthahalli by night (and cover Jog falls on the way). We left Badami around 8:00AM. The route we took was Badami -> Ramdurg -> Hubli -> Sirsi -> Siddapur -> Jog Falls -> Sagara -> Ananthapura -> Tirthahalli
The roads upto NH4 from Badami were average. The roads from Hubli to Jog Falls was absolutely stunning. Windy roads with good scenery. The road from Ananthapura to Tirthahalli was literally non-existent
We had some idli/dosa at Kamat hotel in Hubli around 10:30AM. We had lunch in Sirsi at New Kamat Hotel at around 1:00pm (excellent food). I also wanted to cover Unchalli falls when I saw a sign post in Sirsi. We took a deviation on the Sirsi-Siddapur road and tried to reach Unchalli falls. The roads were absolutely stunning, probably the best I have driven on in that part of the state. However we got lost very quickly - since we didn't have GPS, don't know how to read Kannada. There was a fork and we weren't sure which way to go. There wasn't a soul in sight. On a hunch, I took left at the fork. I drove about 1-2 kms and I spotted 1 house in that thick vegetation and went and requested for directions. They told that I should have taken the right and tried to tell the directions to us. Since I didn't want to get lost again, I requested one of them to accompany us to Unchalli falls. They gladly obliged and we reached Unchalli falls by 3:00pm. It was totally worth it. The sight of the Aghanashini river taking a plunge from that height along with rainbows was simply breathtaking. We dropped that good samaritan back in his home around 4:00pm and enjoyed their malnad hospitality (tour of their arcenaut plantation, coffee to drink, snacks to eat for the way, estate grown cardamom for us to use in our cooking). Looking back at the experience, I was extremely glad for having made that wrong turn at the fork
We hit the road again and reached Jog falls by 5:30pm. It was a total let down with absolutely no water to boast about. In hindsight, I could have simply skipped it. We left Jog around 5:45pm and called Arpitha @ Tirthahalli for the shortest route and she recommended the one via Sagara -> Ananthapura. We finally reached the homestay by 8:45pm and enjoyed some awesome malnad dinner
I will try to post the Day 5 thru Day 7 updates in a couple of more days
Thanks
16th October 2012, 17:03
(1)
Thanks
