Trip to CHIKMAGLUR (Belur-Kemmangundi-Baba Budan Giri-Mullayanagiri-Manikya dhara)

Thanks to two days off in last week 1-2 Oct 2008,we took an off on friday as well to make it an long week off.
Plan was to start on 30sep night but as we were four families it was a tough to make it.
So we started on 1 st evening.
We booked an quails + we had one car (verna).So we settled with two family in each car.Let me introduce my friends …kaustubh ,raghu,venkata and there families.


Although idea was to start at 5 PM from Bangalore but it was 6 by the time we left Hebbal and to add to our inconvenience it was loads of traffic on the way to neelmangla vai jalahali .

It took us around 2.5 Hrs to cross neelmangla and we stopped at some outskirt dhaba for the dinner.
It was a decent one if not good ,named Farm restaurant around 3 KM after neelmanagla.


Then we started for Hassan ,and by 12 we reached Hassan .
We had done a hotel booking there ,we simply went of to our rooms and decided for a start at 7 in the morning to BELUR temples .
And just like always we started at 8 AM and I feel that a decent time to start when three couples out of four had babies and I have two.


We went to belur via Halebid (about 17 kms from Belur).Both the temples are done by Hoysala dynasty and are pretty old ~900 years.
To sum up halebid was a treat to watch from outside and belur temples from inside.
For the first time in my traveling Experience we did an Guide but not by me,it was done by my colleague Raghu. Although it was not an bad experience .

The temples were simply awesome I wish we could have spent some more time there .


After belur we started for chikmaglur .we were not sure on reaching chikmaglur how to proceed further .
There were two options ,one was to stay and chikmaglur ,have rest and then move ahead for further spots another was keep moving and see what we can cover on the day left .Finally we went with second option.

And we raced towards kemmangundi ,not very sure were to go first ,as there were many points we were looking forward to ,it was 1 in the afternoon at this time.
And on the way we decided to first finish with Mullayanagiri …it road was decent enough with great view ,green all around.

It took us around 1.25 Hrs to reach at the top ,but it was worth it.
Three of us except kaustubh decided to track up to the peak around 500Mts ,and it was awesome experaince .My wife was also interested enough to come with us ,but she has to handle our small kid (3 month old …..his first long trip).


We spent some 20 minutes on top and then back .
We then headed towards Baba Budan Giri ,but were not lucky enough to see the cave inside the peak ,and it has been closed since some time due to some fights among the Hindus and Muslims both of them claming it as there sacred place.

But reaching there we came o know there is another place to watch for MANIKYA DHARA.
We had spicy mirchi pakoda out there ,it was gr8 as we had not done any lunch that day and it was 5 Pm that point of time.
We noticed a strange thing at this place ,there was a small fall out there ,and it was mentioned on the boards that drop your cloths here if you are taking bath or else a fine of 50 Rs. I couldn’t relate some rationale to it.

At 6 we left back for chikmaglur.
We were at chikmaglur at 8 searching for hotels,after looking for couple of them we setteled for Rajmahal lodge ,although first choice was Soundarya residency but the deluxe room were not availbale out there.

Although we had a plan to sit together and have fun ,but most of us were so tried after the full day out that we preferred to have food at our rooms and go to bed.

The food @rajmahal was disaster.....so i have to look for something else afetr having it and then i looked out for fish curry in some nearby restaurent ,which was one of the best i have had,simply wonderfull.

The plan for next day was to start for kemmangundi around 9 ,but this time we were too late and started at 11.

On the way to kemengundi we droped at Kalathi falls.Its an small fall ,but good for bath.
I was the one to start having it and withing minutes all of us were enjoying the waterfall as cool as ice ,but it was real fun

There is a small temple out there between two rocks overall its a nice view.
We then left for kemmangundi but we spent quite a time at kalathi falls,it was 3 by the time we reached kemmangundi.we were dying for food at this point if time to our disgust we have to wait for 30-40 minutes to have rice with sambar with no other option available.

It was 4:30 and next target was Hebbe fall ,but somehow it didnt clicked,one major issue was personal vehical were not allowed,and we rushed back inside to kemmangundi to checkout what is available there .

There was one beautifull place called Z point and one has to track to reach there .as it was around 5 in the evening and we didnt had proper gears like ,shoes and torch as it was confirm that by the time we wil return it will be dark ,so we returned back .
So we missed two important places ,Hebbe fall and Z point but with an resolution that we will be back here soon to conqure them.

it was 6 and we started back to bangalore.With two breaks one for tea and another for dinner we were @bangalore at 2 AM on sat morning.

So overall it was just wonderfull.