Road Trip - North Karnataka

 Road Trip - North Karnataka

It was one of our to -dos to have a planned unplanned Road Trip around Karnataka and was thinking about it for the last 1 year. Finally, the time kicked-in in 2018 October. After relocating to India in 2016, we plan to do one trip a year a week long along with my parents. In 2017, we did a much awaited North India - Golden Triangle trip and in 2018, a road trip to North Karnataka.

Nothing much we planned for this trip, except deciding that we will visit Hampi at any cost. Couple of weeks earlier, the road was planned as Joga - Chitradurga - Hampi - Aihole - Pattadakallu - Badami - Dandeli. Wanted to go for the trip without booking any accommodation but changed our mind a couple of days earlier thinking it may be risky with kids and parents. So, managed to book our accommodation a day earlier in a few places..

Day 1 - Oct 13th, 2018

Trip started at 7AM with the first destination being Joga. Reached Joga around 11:30AM with a breakfast stop at Threerthalli. As it was an off-season, it wasn’t crowded, which added to our peaceful visit. Spent around 30-40minutes, with a few photo clicks and breaks. Left Joga around 12:30 to reach Chitradurga city by evening.

Facts about Joga:

1. Second highest plunge falls of India

2. Four Falls named Raja Rani Roarer and Rocket together form the overwhelming Jog Falls. Raja is the highest waterfall which joins the Roarer at some point. Another is named Roarer because of the noise it makes. Rani slithers and falls gracefully while Rocket dives like a jet!

3. The water from Jog Falls is used in the generation of electricity.

4. Jog Falls are created by the Sharavati river and are associated with Linganamakki Dam built across Sharavathi.

Had lunch in Soraba city of Sagara Taluku in a low scale hotel and continued our journey towards Chitradurga. Enjoyed scenic drive all the way from Joga to Chitradurga. Harihara, davangere were really natury. As planned, we wanted to eat benne dose in Davanagere and took a diversion to Davanegere city from the highaway to enjoy it. Reached our hotel Ravi Mayur international by 6PM. It is rated as a 3 star hotel in many forums and it was our low key hotel which we have visited in the last few years. Had lost my patience, as the toilet flush wasn’t clean, clothes weren’t changed and I did see cockroaches in a room. As it was just a night stay, somehow we managed to adjust. Had dinner in the attached hotel which was okayish and not really towards cleanliness.

Day 2: 14th Oct, 2018

As we were advised to visit Chitradurga fort as early as possible in-order to avoid the hot sun and crowd, we were near the entrance by 6AM. Wasn’t happy with cleanliness around Chitradurga. However, the fort was well maintained and was clean too.  Took a guide to help us to finish the fort sightseeing faster. He was really informative, made us clear of all the facts of Chitradurga fort (forgot all though). Took around 3hrs to finish the fort which included visits to a couple of temples, obavvan kindi, krishna temple.

Facts about Chitradurga fort:

1. Chitradurga gets its name from Chitrakaldurga (or Picturesque castle).  Also known as the "stone fortress" (Kallina Kote)

2. Chitradurga Fort was built between the 10th and 18th centuries by the various king dynasties of that period which are Rashtrakutas, Kalyana Chalukyas, Hoysalas, Vijayanagar and Nayakas of Chitradurga. 

3. After Nayakas lost it to Hyder Ali in the year 1779, the fort was given its finishing touch by Hyder Ali along with his son Tipu Sultan. 

4. It comprises a series of seven enclosure walls in Kannada. On the upper part of the fort Eighteen ancient temples can be found and in the lower part of the fort there is one huge temple. Among these temples the oldest and most interesting is the Hidimbeshwara temple. The masjid was an addition during Hyder Ali's rule. The fort's many interconnecting tanks were used to harvest rainwater, and the fort was said to never suffer from a water shortage. This seemingly impregnable fort has 19 gateways, 38 posterior entrances, a palace, a mosque, granaries, oil pits, four secret entrances and water tanks

After visiting Chitradurga fort which was much better than expected, headed towards the hotel to pack-up and then to Hampi.  Travelled to Hampi via Hosapete. As roads were still under construction could see bidirectional traffic on the road. Had a great lunch in one of the newly inaugurated restaurants. Could see roads getting used for multipurpose - one for traffic and another for drying corn and other crops. Reached Hampi, Kamalapura, KSTDCC approved Hotel Mayura around 4PM. Didn’t do any sight seeing, however did a small evening stroll with amma and kids. 

Day 3: Visit to Hampi, 15th Oct, 2018

Hampi is the town of ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire. It was once supposed to be the richest in the world, being second to the Roman empire. Hampi is located near Thungbhadra river. Sadly, today, Hampi is in the list of “UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Danger”

Our day started with an early visit to Pampa virupaksha Temple. This is the only temple which is not ruined by the attacks on Hampi and observes daily pooja rituals. Since we had a guide, he took us around the temple neatly. Also, fed a baby elephant to begin with. Had pooja in the main temple, visited amba. Also, went to the back side of the temple which shows the inverted temple tower. It didn’t fascinate me as it looked like a window through which light falls is structured such a way to capture the inverted shadow of the tower. Also, visited the Tungabhadra river. Visited monolithic Nandi and just enjoyed far sight of Hemakuta temple. Quickly visited kadaleku ganapathi (Ganapathi whose tummy looks like Kadalekalu) and Sasive kalu ganapathi (Ganapathi whose tummy looks like saivekalu). Visited Lakshmi Naramsimha temple and Badavi linga. Ugra narasimha/lakshmi narasimha is the largest statue in Hampi. Narasimha is sitting on the coil of a giant seven-headed snake called Sesha. The heads of the snake acts as the hood above his head. The original statue contained the image of goddess Lakshmi, consort of the god, sitting on his lap. But this statue has been damaged seriously during the raid leading to the fall of Vijayanagara. Even the damaged portion of such a large statue of Lakshmi carved on his lap is missing. The Badavilinga Temple is a shrine that has not escaped the destruction that had befallen Hampi several centuries ago. However, the good part is that the Shiva Linga stands intact even today. The inner walls of the shrine, surrounding the Shiva Linga, have also escaped any severe damage.

 After these, we made our choice to go to our hotel to have our breakfast, which was against our guide’s suggestion but we were quite satisfied with it. Once done, I visited vijaya vittala temple.. The temple is built in the form of a sprawling campus with compound walls and gateway towers. Vittal temple is a temple of lord Vishnu.

The temple was originally built in the 15th century AD. Many successive kings have enhanced the temple campus during their regimes to the present form. You can even see the remains of a township called Vittalapura that existed around this temple complex.. The stone chariot within the temple is an iconic structure of Hampi.

Another main highlight of the temple is the musical pillars. These pillars when tapped emit notes of music..Unfortunately, due to heavy use of musical pillars by the tourists  and to prevent these pillars from further damage, heritage has banned touching of musical pillars completely.  We reached the temple via auto rickshaw from the car park. Fascinated to see the vittala bazaar street, however it’s very disappointing to see only ruins. Interestingly, I had a quick chat with a boy who was selling buttermilk near the car park, who gave us an interesting fact of profit, i.e, 500 rupees a day. After visiting this temple, he moved towards elephant staple and lotus Mahal. Structure of elephant stable. This area looked like a major attraction place and is least destroyed. This long building with a row of domed chambers was used to ‘park’ the royal elephants. Adjacent to these mahouts chambers can also be seen. This place is really scenic. Near to it there is a Lotus Mahal, also called summer mahal. This is one of the monuments which were not harmed by the attackers as it had islamic touch. This used to get used by the women of the royal dynasty to mingle and enjoy the recreational activities. And also by the kings and ministers. At the left of Lotus Mahal, we can see only the foundation of the sandalwood palace. The palace was completely made of sandalwood and got burnt by the islamic Kings after their conquest. 

As we moved out of this place, we could see the famous Maha vanami Dibba. This is the first thing we see in the Royal Enclosure. 

King Krishnadevaraya constructed this in commemoration of the victory over Udaygiri (now in Orissa). 

The king used this platform to watch the army march-pasts, war games, aquatic sports, shows of the royal animals, musical performances and also the most important Navarathri celebrations, the nine day-nine night state festival.

 

At the left of Mahanavami dibba, one can see a stepped tank which was basically excavated by the Archeological Survey of India during 1980-1983.

 

With all these, we feel proud of our rich Indian history, at the same time it brings tears as we learn that it has all been spoiled by the attacks. By the time we visited these, it was midday and I wanted to have lunch and take a rest for a while. We took a good nap and then started another evening sightseeing at Anjanadri temple which is around 20mins drive from Kamalapura.

 

In the evening we planned to visit Anjanadri Betta. Left our hotel at 4 PM and decided to climb the betta. As my mom has weak legs, she decided to stay back near the entrance and we all climbed together. Boys and Satty went ahead, followed by my dad and myself. It has around 525 steps and takes around 20-30 mins to climb. 

Anjanadri Parvatha aka Anjanadri Betta. This is where Lord Hanuman was born according to Ramayana. The Hanuman temple marked within has a beautiful statue and it is worth climbing the hill to visit this temple. Standing on the peak and seeing around, you can have the best glimpse of 'Kiskinda' or the place where river tungabhadra twists and turns through the boulders of granites.

At the top, I spent some time resting and taking photos and visiting the temple. Fascinated to see 25kg stone floating in the water. Though we thought climbing down the hill is easier, it was equally difficult due to shivering legs. Once we reached down, had some tender coconut and returned to our hotel. We had a good dinner and slept early with the intention of waking up early to drive towards aihole and pattadakal. 

 

 

Day 4: Visit to Aihole and Pattadakal, 16th Oct, 2018

Early in the morning we left our hotel at Kamalapura and travelled towards Aihole. Reached Aihole by 10:30AM. Had a good breakfast stop in between. Aihole wasn’t neatly maintained. We had to ask directions with a person who seemed decent and told us the way. But, he followed us and said he would share his knowledge which was less than 30sec and forced us to pay some money. Reached Meguti temple via tiny streets and climbed a few stairs. Met a few guys who work near the house. After Meguti temple went to Huchamma Ghadi and Ravana   ghadi. Then we visited Durga temple which was nice. From there travelled to Pattadakal. Streets of Aihole were under repair and were very muddy. Attracted to the luxurious Pattadakal temple. It was pouring, since we had visited many such places and wanted to have our lunch in Badami hotel, finished sightseeing quickly. Reached our Badami Court hotel by 3:30PM and quickly checked in and finished our lunch. After a good lunch, we had a sound sleep. In the late evening I decided to go sightseeing. Went to Ishwara Mahakoota temple (aka Dakshina Kaashi)  and then visited historic Banashankari temple. This is one of the temples which we often read in school books. Had devi darshana and totally spent around 1.5hrs and then returned to our hotel. Had our night dinner in the hotel and went to bed early

Day 5: Visit to Badami caves, Dandeli, 17th Oct, 2018

Visiting 3 layers of Badami cave temple, the road connection to it was very bad. I think it was under complete restructuring. Didn’t enjoy the cave temple as I hoped much. Though we had guidance to visit Bhoothnath temple, looking at the states of the road via walk/vehicles we cancelled. Came back to our hotel and had unlimited breakfast. Once all is done, check out from the hotel to travel towards Dandel via Dharwad. I really liked Dharwad city, it reminded me of Udupi/Mangalore. Bought enough sweets to distribute. Reached one village at around 1PM which had authentic lunch, had good traditional lunch and travelled towards our last destination Dandeli via scenic streets. By the time we reached Dandeli, I realized my blunder of Hotel booking, which was poor, in front of a busy bus stop. I was completely against staying there and started calling other options for overnight stay. After around 15 mins of continuous call, I found a homestay called Nature's Nest. Had to let our deposit go-off in our earlier booked lodge. Traveling to homestay, though it wasn’t very nice, decided to get that occupied. It was raining in Dandeli, due to which it was all muddy here. Room was okay, but the parent's room had some water gushes. Had evening coffee, some games and a good night's dinner there. In the evening other few families lso came in which soothened our feelings of loneliness. We always wanted to do wildlife safari in Dandeli, having heard of another family going for the same in the next morning, we also decided to join by following them. 

Day 6: Dandeli to Udupi, 18th Oct, 2018

In the middle of night, there was a power outage without any backup which disturbed mine and my parents  slept fully. Got up early, packed all our stuff and went to Dandeli wildlife by following another vehicle. Didn’t inform them  that we are checking out as we ourselves were confused about coming back to resort for breakfast or not. However, as a best option, we packed all our stuff and carried it with us. As we followed the other vehicle, we thought he was not in the direction as it felt too far than the info we received. However, the other driver was in the right place. When we reached the entrance of the wildlife safari it was around 5:50 AM and we were one among the early birds. Paid and booked an independent vehicle for us and carried our safari journey. Excited to spot some animals. But unfortunately, didn’t spot anything except a few deers and also felt the jungle wasn’t that dense. Had a far sight on 100% dense western ghat. Entire wildlife journey took around 2.5hrs. From the safari we decided not to turn back to the resort as we had already travelled towards Udupi. Called up our lady owner and informed her the same. Also, requested a lady to show some discount and adjusted our morning deposit. From there, travelled towards Udupi, with breakfast and lunch at Maravanthe beach. Reached Udupi house around 3PM.