[NSK123]

Day 1

We (My Parents, Wife, Son, Daughter) started our journey @ 4:30 AM in the morning to beat the traffic and had a smooth journey till midway. However, we had many stops due to family & kids and reached Thirthahalli around noon. Post lunch we started towards Shankaranarayana temple via Agumbe the route here is very scenic and very enjoying to drive. Due to sharper hairpin (HP) bends, big buses & trucks are not allowed in this route. The 10 KM stretch of getting down the hill & route to the Shankaranarayana temple is awesome.

After this we went ahead to Anegudee Vinayaka Temple, had the blessings of the lord, started towards Koppa via Agumbe negotiating all the curves & HP bends again. But by this time it was night & I felt driving in night is much easier since one can notice vehicles easily while negotiating the curves. By the time we reached Koppa it was almost 11 PM and we called it a day & stayed in one of our relatives house.

Day 2

As the day begin, we headed towards Sringeri and someone told us that if we have meet Sri Bharati Tirtha Swami we have to reach the place by 11:30 and we were left with 30 minutes. Koppa to Sringeri is around 30 KM with lot of HP bends. This is when I realized how good the gear ratio of Punto is. We reached Sringeri in 25 minutes @ a speed of 70 KMPH in a hilly area. Now I can vouch for short 2nd gear of Punto which is much more drivable in city & fabulous while driving through hill station as well when compared to other cars. After taking blessings from swamiji, we visited the Sharada temple and we halted there for the next days wedding.

In the evening we changed our plan and visited "Gurukula" @ Hariharapura. An amazing boarding school supported by RSS where the kids are taught in all the dimension of life like Agriculture, Science, Arts with no annual examinations held. They have dedicated teacher for a set of children who also progresses along with the students. So for the entire tenure, a guru-shishya relationship/ bond is built. When they reach their 10th standard, they take the public exam and take the higher studies (I really missed to take some photographs of this place).

Day 3

This was the wedding day of my cousin and spent almost entire day enjoying with relatives. Luckily, when the vehicle was parked, I noticed that the front wheel was punctured & got ample of time change it. In the evening we started towards Horanadu and instead of taking Jayapura - Balehonnuru route, we were mislead by the sign boards and took some shortcut and the route was pathetic. End of the day we reached Horanadu, had darshanam, booked a lodge and called it a day. The beauty of the goddess Annapoorna, is something which I can never forget. People who have visited can vouch for it. See it to believe it. On the way to Horanadu, you get a special "Masala Soda" @ "Halli Mane" (meaning village house)… just 2-3 KM before the place, you will see lot of advertisements about it. This is one amazing soda I had ever tasted. If anyone visiting Horanadu, its definitely worth tasting it.

Day 4

We were so attracted to the beauty of the Annapoorneshwari, we visited the temple again in the morning and had the opportunity to see the complete pooja with less crowd. The morning pooja was amazing and we enjoyed it. From Horanadu, we started towards Kalasa lord Shiva's temple. It is believed that, people who visit this place will have "ondu guluganji jasti punya" than visiting Kashi (meaning an ounce more "punya" than visiting Kashi). From there we traveled to Chikmagalur and called it a day.

Day 5

We started early in the morning from Chikmagalur to Mullayanagiri (the highest peak in Karnataka). The route is very good and very very scenic. I had trekked to this place some time in 1995 and to my surprise now they have asphalted the entire route till hill top. I guess this is the highest motorable road in "Karnataka". This place you won't get anything to eat. So we have packed our breakfast and had it on the hilltop. What an amazing way to spend your morning there !!! The best part was, we never asked anyone for the route. We could successfully use the Nokia OVI maps & Google map (as backup) for the route.

From here, we started to Baba budan giri another scenic hill station and visited "Manikyadhaara" falls as well. The Datta peetham here was closed for renovation and we couldn't visit it.

After this we headed towards Kemmangundi. This is probably the worst ever route I have seen so far. The distance of 25 KM was covered on 2.5 Hr with a speed of 10 KMPH with a mileage of 9 KMPL. What more can be said about this route? Car bottom was scraped in 2-3 places. Many places I had to get down from the car to see "WHICH POT HOLE IS BETTER". Did all this to see what??? Nothing is there in Kemmangundi. The moment you enter the so called "city/ town/ village", there's a barricade and they collect RS.50 as entry fee. To see what? Rose garden, Z-Point. This is place best suited for trekking and definitely not for a drive.

From Kemmangundi, with "unhappy face" we started towards Bengaluru and had to go through the Kallatti falls (a 3 KM deviation). This was another nice water fall we enjoyed before our return journey to "NAMMA BENGALURU"

Entire journey was 1201 KM stretch with an average of 17.6 KMPL. For Punto MJD this is less but I can definitely blame it on the Kemmangundi route. On the Toll roads with a speed of 120 KMPH, it delivered an average of 20 KMPL. Highest speed was 130 and the lowest was 10.0000

Route Map Legend: A/M - Bengaluru, B - Thirthahalli, C - Shankaranarayana Temple, D - Anegudde Temple, E - Koppa, F - Sringeri, G - Horanadu, H - Kalasa, I - Chikmagalur, J - Mullayanagiri, K - Bababudan Giri, L - Kemmangundi

[ravibhat]

Nice places you have covered and good photos to support. i am waiting for more pictures.

Ravi.

[abhinav.s]

Very straight forward way of writing!

You have covered quite a few places and amazing pics as well.

Plz post more pics if you have them!

[Fauji]

[quote=NSK123;2216085]Day 1


Koppa to Sringeri is around 30 KM with lot of HP bends.

Good write up and pics NSK. Just a small correction.

Koppa - Sringeri has lot of curves but no hairpin bends. The road condition being good, is a pleasant drive

[lohithrao]

Wow sakath photos esp the Punto posing n the hill(Kemmangundi), nice write up too! keep it going!

[NSK123]

[quote=Fauji;2216381]

Originally Posted by NSK123

Day 1


Koppa to Sringeri is around 30 KM with lot of HP bends.

Good write up and pics NSK. Just a small correction.

Koppa - Sringeri has lot of curves but no hairpin bends. The road condition being good, is a pleasant drive

I agree to both the points. No HP bends & a pleasant drive.

[NSK123]

Some more photos attached

[Madan Gopal]

Lots of beautiful places covered & also well captured in these snaps.
I feel a difference in the clarity & details that can be seen in these photos - do you use a SLR camera ?

[NSK123]

Originally Posted by Madan Gopal

Lots of beautiful places covered & also well captured in these snaps.
I feel a difference in the clarity & details that can be seen in these photos - do you use a SLR camera ?

Yes Madan, this time I had my new "Olympus E-PL1" Micro four third camera. This is a mirrorless camera with professional quality. Captures the details very will. Actually the images you see here are reduced to 1024x768.

[mallumowgli]

Those are vow photos. Yes, have heard a lot about the E-PL1 camera. Great work, NSK123
Thats a wonderful trip you had

[RROD]

Wow, every time I see these wonderful photos, it just reminds me how beautiful our Country is.
Awesome Photos and love the Ghat sections!!