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Friday, December 30, 2011

Belur and Halebidu Trip

After completing my Kodagu- Mysore trip I had planned to make Hassan trip but main problem is it’s impossible to cover whole district within a day, so decided to shorten the route and planned for Belur and Halebidu of Hassan district, on Sunday.


 Hariprasad and Sanath


On 25th of December 2011 at sharp 0315hrs I got a call from Raviraj,  Santosh and Sanath started from Mulleriya and hRaviraj, Hariprasad and Prasahant joining them on the way, So I took my Black bird and went from house, my plan was join them at Puttige junction at Perla.

 Water evaporation 


 Raviraj

Sunrise
Around 0345hrs they reached, and continued our journey.  Our first stop was at Vittla from there we headed towards Charmadi via B.C Road and Ujire. After crossing B.C Road chill wind start to interrupt our speed, till there it was very hard to trace the tail lamp of GS150R . On the way we got an opportunity to shoot beautiful sun rise scenery. 


After crossing 11 Km from Ujire reached a village called Charmadi, from here onward on has to climb steep ghat section to reach Kottigehara which is located at the top of the Ghat section. It also connects Dakshina Kannada to Chikmagaluru District. Winding narrow road between green western ghat really enchanting to the mind.
 Charmadi ghat section
 Scenery from the top of Charmadi ghat

 My Black Bird

Around 0830 hrs reached Kottigehara and took a break for Breakfast. Everybody is shivering with cold atmosphere.  After eating couple of hot Idli, vada and Neer dose (thin dosa made out of rise), headed towards our next destination i.e. Belur.
 Village Road
En route to Belur 
 Belur temple complex
Kottigehara to Belur road is a plain straight road, road condition also reasonably good except few meters of bad stretches at some places which was going under construction.  When we reached near Mudigere Ravi was talking about lack of pick up in his pulsar. 
 So we swap our bikes till Halebeedu. Actually this pulsar tuned to lean mixture, so gives excellent fuel efficiency but does not have the grunt generally it has, once it slow down it's very difficult to bring it on normal pace. Total distance between these places is 48KM., so without much fatigue reached Belur aroundt 1015hrs.





Belur is located in Hassan District; it was early capital of the Hoysala Empire, the main attraction is Sri Chennakeshava temple complex,  with excellent architectural style  and attractive carvings. In this complex another small temple called Kappe chennigaraya temple apart from this Veeranarayana temple, Ranganayaki (Andal) temple also located inside this complex. Lamp post in front of the temple is very attractive and small Kalyani (tank) also there.


 Inside the temple


 Lamp post


 Tourist posing to the photograph
 Kalyani inside temple complex

Our next destination was Halebidu around 1145hrs we started from Belur, road condition is good and just 16km distance covered within 20 minutes. As soon as reached Halebidu fresh tender coconut attracted us and it’s very cheaper they sell it for just Rupees 5 to 10. I don’t know how can they manage. Hariprasad start to enquire about the source of coconut, vender told they are locally cultivated. at another side Santosh asking about money back guarantee because he got only coconut water and it doesn’t contain pulp insde! Bad luck .


Statue of  Nandi (Bull)
 Ganesh Idol 
Halebidu was the regal capital of the Hoysala Empire in 12the century. The temple complex comprised two temples Hoysaleshwara and Kedareshwara temple. A big Nandi (bull) statue also built there. After spending an hour came out side of the temple complex.  We decided to take lunch at Hassan so took some fruits to curb our starving and headed towards Hassan.
Halebidu Circle 
 Halebidu town
 Lake 
As soon as cross the main circle of Belur a superb huge lake was found. Here I must say one thing when I was sharing my trip experiences with my friend, she asked me “Did you noticed the big river behind temple?” ….? I hope now you definitely got the idea of how big it is.  

After taking some of the snaps we continued our journey towards Hassan. On the way a unique red colored farm was found, we stopped our motorcycle and get inside the farm after crossing some of the Jowar  field reached near that farm which consists small red coloured flowers, drip irrigation also provided for that we are unable to recongise it, 
 Jowar field 
took some snaps and back to the road. After crossing few kilometer again we saw another unique field it consist of full of violate flowers when we enquired about those flowers with some of the natives they told it was a herbal flowers used for medicine. It’s seeds cost Rs. 5000 per Kg.
 En route to Hassan.... finishing the fruits 
Around 1430hrs entered Hassan city and search for a good hotel and succeeded to found one. I and Hariprasad took typical Hassan lunch “Mudde Uta” rest of them took rise and chapattis. Lunch was very tasty, it consists Rice bowl, Sambar, Vegetable sabji, Ragi ball. Pickle, a glass of buttermilk and chili bonda. (Mensinkai bajje)
 Mudde Uta
Near Sakleshpur
After lunch took one hour rest and started our return journey via Sakleshpur, Shiradi ghat, Uppinagadi. Kalladka, Vittla route, took dinner at Uppinangadi and reached home at 2250hrs. 
Shiradi ghat is one of its worst condition, descending this road is horrible experience, we have to use even first gear, it wasted lots of time. Totally it was a wonderful trip to all of us; the total distance of the trip is 399KM.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

From my backyard.......