Belur, Halebidu and Shravanabelagola

Last Saturday I had been to Beluru, Halebidu and Shravanabelagola. Left to Halebidu from Bangalore at 7 Am on 08/09/2007.
Halebidu is 230 kms from Bangalore. Which is an old star shaped temple built by 'Hoysalas'. It has amazing carvings on the walls.
Beluru is 17 kms from Halebidu. Again, this is another temple built by Hoysalas and comparatively less destroyed then Halebidu. Stories say that this temple was covered by sand during the destruction caused by 'Malik Kafur'.

Shravanabelagola is approx. 90 kms from Beluru and it is famous for a huge monolith of lord 'Gommateshwara'. The statue is located on a hill called Vindhyagiri,. We have to climb 500+ steps to reach the top.

Route : Bangalore -> Nelamangala -> Hassan -> Halebidu -> Belur -> Shravanabelagola -> Nelamangala -> Bangalore
Duration : One day
Trip Meter : 500+ Kms.

Photos:

Link to Beluru Photos.

Link to Halebidu Photos

Link to Shravanabelagola Photos

Beluru

Halebidu

Shravanabelagola

Mullaiyanagiri

This is the fastest trek ever I did. We, a group if 6, left Bangalore by 11.30 PM of last Friday (31/08/07) and were back at Majestic by 8.30 PM the next day. But the experience was wonderful.

We reached Chikkamagalur by 4.45 in the morning. It was amazing to see a hotel open in the bus stand at those morning hours. We had the breakfast of idli and uppittu at 5.30 AM. Asked the cashier about transport to the starting point of trek. He suggested us to hire a vehicle as the first bus in that route starts only after 7.30.

We came out and hired an old Ambassador to take us to 'Sarpadaari' (Sarpa Daari - Snake route), which is the starting point of the trek to Mullaiyanagiri. We started the trek at 6.15 in the morning. There was no rain, but the mist was so heavy that all of us got drenched within 15-20 mins of walk.

The climb is steep right from the beginning. There are multiple routes, but none of them are confusing. Just take the most used and clear path which takes you uphill. After 60 - 70 mins of trek we came across a huge monolithic rock and took rest there for a while. After the rock, there is a small statue of Nandi. These are the 'landmarks' to ensure that we are on the correct route. Visibility was limited to 10 mts. max due to heavy fog.

After climbing for an hour again we reached the twin caves just below the peak. Had our second breakfast there. The caves are located just below the peak. We reached the peak at 8.30 AM, after 2.15 hrs of trek.

The wind was blowing as if someone is spraying pressurized air mixed with water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. There is a temple at the top. Please remove your footwear before entering the compound. The family which is looking after the temple aslo provides breakfast and lunch on request. We spent nearly an hour on the top. It was chilling and the wind was blowing at high speed.

We were being pushed aside by the wind when we started descending towards Seethaiyana MaTha. We took another route where we had to descend through 200 +/- steps and walked around 3 kms to reach the Seethaiyana MaTha. This route opens you to a wonderful , greeting card image like valley.

We reached the MaTha by 11 AM. We had called the Ambassador guy from the peak and asked him to come to the MaTha by the same time. From here we went to Baba Budan Giri to visit the shrine of the saint, Manikyadhara falls and reached back to Chikkamagalur by 2 PM. Took the Volvo bus at 2.30 PM back to Bangalore.

Team size: 6
Expenses: 825 per head.
Summary : Bangalore -> Chikkamagalur (Bus, ~250 Kms / 6 Hrs) -> Sarpadaari (Car, 15 Kms) -> Mullaiyanagiri Peak (Walk, ~4 Kms) -> Seethaiyana MaTha (Walk, ~3 Kms) -> Baba Budan Giri (Car, ~20 Kms) -> Chikkamagalur (Car, ~ 35 Kms)

Photos:

Link to my picasa web album.