Bike Trip with friends is always a memory to be cherished for life. This time 3 of my friends Anil Pujar, Sunil Pujar, Dilip Rao and I (Gokool Kini) planned a 1-day bike trip to Shravanabelagola on a Sunday, 19th of Feb 2017.
Bikes: Suzuki Gixxer & Bajaj Avenger
No of people: 4
Total Distance: 351 Kms
Route Map:
We started from our house in JP Nagar at around 6.45am and entered the NICE Road (near PESIT College) and headed towards Nelamangala. Cold weather and a bike ride is an ultimate combination.
At around 8 am we took a pitstop to have breakfast at Hotel Darshan which is famous for Tatte Idli on Hassan Road, Thigalarapalya which is a couple of kms before Kunigal. This hotel is exactly 80kms from JP Nagar.
We had a delicious Tatte Idli and Wada and that just cost us Rs160. As we were clicking a couple of selfies there, we came across a board which had a few more places for tourist attractions in the surrounding area.
The board gave us quite a few more places to be visited on the way and we decided to visit Shree Kshetra Siddhalingeshwara Swamy Temple in Yadiyur and Adichunchanagiri Temple.
We then continued riding by deciding to visit Shree Kshetra Siddhalingeshwara Temple in Yadiyur. Take a left just before the start of Yadiyur bridge and the temple is just 1Km from the bridge.
Click here if you need more information regarding the temple.
Here are few pics we clicked inside the temple as we waited in the queue.
As we came out of the temple, we could see a few people taking Temple Elephant blessings and we also decided to take some blessings.
Also a couple of selfies and snaps we took outside of the temple.
It was 9.55AM and the next place to be visited was Adichunchanagiri Temple, as we continued our journey, my bike fuel level signaled reserve, as we had done 115kms from home and I was looking for a petrol pump along the highway side.
We kept on riding until we reached the junction of Jevargi – ChamarajNagar Road. Take a right at the junction and Adichunchanagiri Temple is exactly 09kms from the junction.
As we reached near to the temple, we saw the road to the temple was closed for repairs and took a shortcut that took us at a Dead Point and took the correct road by taking information from the localites there.
We reached the temple at around 10.30AM after completing 139kms from home. As we parked our bikes, we saw a Rocky Hill behind the temple and planned for a short trekk to the hill top.
The temple is of Lord Kalabhairaveshwara and was cleanly maintained. A couple of photos as we walked towards the inside of the temple.
Click here if you want more information regarding this Temple
After seeking blessings of Lord Kalabhairaveshwara, we sat for a while inside the temple.
As we came outside the main temple, we walked towards the exit and saw a board with an arrow mark which read “23 Feet Naga Linga”. Below is the pic of the Naga Linga.
Below are the main places on the Adichunchanagiri Betta:
From here we started the trekk to the Rocky Hill. Please note, we have to walk on the steps to the Hill barefoot as the steps start just after the main temple doors.
As we climbed the steps and reached Gavi Gangadareshwara Temple, we could have a top view glimpse of the main temple.
After visiting Gavi Gangadareshwar Temple, we proceeded further on to walking over the steps to reach the top.
As we almost reached the top, we have to pass through a small cave like a temple and as you come out, the top view of the temple and the town was really good.
The top view of the main temple, a temple pond, and a couple of small lakes and some backwater.
Few more pics were taken from atop the hill.
A few more pics of ours atop the hill.
After a good photo session atop the hill, we started walking downstairs and the only thing in our mind was to look for a hotel as everyone was damn very hungry. After reaching down walking till the parking space, we quickly started our bikes and headed towards the highway junction and took right on NH75 and as we rode the highway the first thing on my mind was to look for a petrol pump, which we found an HP Petrol Pump just 1-2kms after the deviation.
As I was refueling my bike we enquired for hotels / dhabas and the petrol pump guys informed that there are hotels on the highway. We had lunch in Jeeva Family Garden Restaurant.
Please note if you expect very good food, this is not the hotel you would look for.
Post lunch our ride continued to Shravanabelagola. Once you reach a small town called “Hirisave” take a left and Shravanabelagola is 19kms from the Hirisave highway junction.
We reached Shravanabelagola at 2.45pm after riding 191 kms from our start point.
As the climate was scortching hot in the afternoon and as we had to climb 500-600 steps to reach the monolithic Gomateshwara Statue, we took a couple of minutes to rest sipping some tender coconut water and taking few snaps of the market place and reading the history board of “Vindhyagiri” hill.
The temple has time restrictions and you have to walk through 600+ steps bare foot. If you have any plans of visiting Shravanabelagola, then plan for early morning or late afternoon as the steps will be damn hot under the scorching heat of the sun and also carry enough water with you.
As you climb and turn you can see the Temple Pond also known as Kalyani and the “Chandragiri” hills. Very few people visit both Vindhyagiri and Chandragiri but we planned to visit both of them.
Few pics of Chandragiri as seen from Vindhyagiri hill.
Few more pics of the ancient sculptures on Vindhyagiri hills.
Few pics at the entrance of the main temple, just before entering towards the monolith statue.
And then we entered the main temple where the monolith Gomateshwara Statue is located.
The statue also known as the “Bahubali Statue” was covered with bamboos as few workers were working on maintenance.
We had read about Shravanabelagola’s history during our school days and it was a good feeling to really visit this place now. Better Late than never.
It was an awesome time spent on “Vindhyagiri” and wanted to get down and visit “Chandragiri” before the temple gates closed as it closes at 6.00pm in the evening.
We came down to the parking lot, took our bikes and went to “Chandragiri”
The number of steps at Chandragiri is very less as compared to Vindhyagiri and without wasting any time we quickly started to walk through the steps.
The Temple pond and Bahubali statue as seen from Chandragiri.
Few pics at the temple.
I have never seen a temple over a temple anywhere else, but you find it here at Chandragiri.
Please be very careful while climbing the steps while you go to see the temple on the 1st floor as the size of the steps are very small and we can only keep our feet sideways, that small in size those steps are.
The time was 6 pm by now and the security told us they will be closing the main gates and we headed back down to the parking lot.
As we were a couple of steps away to the base we saw people sliding over the rocks to the bottom and yaaaayy !!!! we came sliding down.
A day full of trekking over the steps of the hills and we were all hungry. After having some snacks there we started at 7.00pm our journey back home. After riding continuously for 110kms we had a pitstop to have some hot tea.
Every trip I have been till now I have come across some pets to play with.
We reached back home at around 10.00Pm after completing yet another memorable Bike Trip completing a total of 351 km for the day.
Thank you Bhai log (Anil Pujar, Sunil Pujar, and Dilip Rao) for yet another awesome road trip. Love you all !!!
P.S. This is my first blog and please spare me for any grammatical mistakes.
Thanks for reading, Please stay tuned until I publish my next travel story.
See yaa ….. !!!!
Also Visit: Family Trip to Banavasi
