Bangalore to Chikmagalur (KA) drive during Christmas 2018

Spent Christmas weekend driving in the hills of Malenadu and visited the following places with Chikmagalur as the base.

1. Deviramma Temple, Chikmagaluru
2. Annapurnashewari Temple, Hornadu
3. Kalaseshwara Temple, Kalasa
4. Amba Teertha, Kalasa
5. Vasishta Teertha, Kalasa
6. Mallikarjuna Temple, Hirenallur
7. Hoysaleshwara Temple, Halebeedu
8. Veeranarayana Temple, Belavadi

𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬:

Bangalore - Chikmagalur: Nothing new here to update. Great roads and the distance can easily be covered in 4 hours of sedate driving

Chikmagalur - Mudigere - Kottigehara: Apart from the patchy roads in Hale mudigere and some culvert construction in Mudigere - Kottigehara stretch, roads are decent 2L roads

Kottigehara - Kalasa - Hornadu: Good to very good twisties. Distance on 48 kms covered in about 75 minutes.

Kalasa - Vasishta Teertha: Just follow gmaps and take the road behind the kalaseshwara temple to reach the bridge.

Kalasa - Amba Teertha: Take the mud road next to prince of kalasa and follow the mud trail to amba teertha. Its almost 3 km of nonexistent  to very bad roads and doable only in a hatchback or SUV. Sedans will find it very difficult to negotiate the furrowed surface as large stretches are hardened mud tracks.

Chikmagalur - Kadur: Decent 2L roads with a small bad stretch around sakrepatna

Kadur - Hirenallur: Beautiful tarmac 2L road on which you can do tripple digit speeds without any effort.

Halebeedu - Belavadi: Decent 2L road with lots of trees and farms all around

Belavadi - Kalasapura - Kaimara - Chikmagalur: Decent 2L stretch dotted with small villages. Do watch out for the occasional speed breakers and mad red bus drivers

𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐩 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬:

Hirenallur has been on the to do list for a while now and finally managed to find some time on Sunday evening to drive down to the temple. Chikmagalur - Sakrepatna - Kadur is ok roads with some bad sections after sakrepatna. Kadur - Hirenallur is beautiful tarmac with fields and trees all around. That section of the road is so good that at one point I was doing 110 kmph and I didn’t realize I was going that fast on a 2L road for many minutes. The temple as such is a relatively small but decently maintained example of Hoysala architecture. More details can be found https://www.teamgsquare.com/2013/10/hoysala-mallikarjuna-temple-hirenallur.html

No introductions needed to the Halebeedu temple. This again was one of the temples that has been on the list for a while but we stayed away because of the crowd. 24th Dec morning wasn’t really a good time to visit as the temple was jam packed with busloads of school kids and tourists. Somehow managed to distance myself from the chaos around me and soak in some of the beautiful carvings engraved on the wall and ceilings. Someday I plan to get there before sunrise and spend a lot of time with all the stories carved in stone.

Some pics from the trip.
1. Veeranarayana Temple, Belavadi. 

2. Enroute to Belavadi Temple. 

3. Hoysaleshwara Temple, Halebeedu - awe inspiring facade. 

4. Hoysaleshwara Temple, Halebeedu. 

5. Mallikarjuna Temple, Hirenallur. 

6. Fog enroute to Kalasa. 

Text & photo credit: Ravinder Janakiraman.