Trip to Chikmagalur

As promised in the Hampi post, I'm writing the experience of the trip to Chikmagalur, Karnataka. Historic temples at Belur and Halebid of Hoyasala Dynasty fall on the way to it and a small diverted route towards Hassan, leads to Shravanabelagola, a Jain pilgrimage. We included these places in the trip.

Visiting all the places could have been possible in 2 days. But, we didn't want to make the trip hectic. So, we started on a Friday morning and came back on Sunday afternoon. We started early, but unfortunately, we got stuck into heavy traffic and could reach Shravanabelagola only by lunch time.

Steep stairs @ Shravanabelagola

The status of Gomateshwara or Bahubali

The Jain temple is at the top of the hill and you have to climb ~500 stairs to reach to the top. Climbing the hill through the steep stairs was hectic. We took breather 2-3 times in the middle. To our surprise, we realized that it was just the entrance, we need to climb more stairs to see the temple. The temple is small with a big statue of Gomateshwara or Bahubali. The statue is just a piece of architectural wonder. The view of the place from the top of the hill is fascinating. Tired of climbing up and down, we got really hungry and went for lunch in a restaurant nearby (No wonder the restaurant business is so popular). You can only get vegetarian dishes, mostly Jain food. however, the food quality is quite good. We started for Halebid soon after the lunch.

Hoysaleswara Temple @ Halebid

Sculptures on the wall of Halebid temple

Chennakesava temple, Belur

Sculpture inside Belur Temple

God's shoes in Belur Temple

It was slightly overcast when we reached Halebid. The Hoysaleswara temple was looking awesome under the clouds. The sculpture on the pillars and walls of the temple left us spellbound. It is difficult to find even a small place where the artists haven't left their brilliance. It is amazing to see how accurately the artists portrayed their thoughts on the stones. Mesmerized by the art in Halebid, we headed for Belur to see another wonderful temple, the Chennakesava temple. The art work is similar. The most interesting thing we found there was the pair of shoes for the god. A small baby can sleep comfortably on the shoe.

It was already late afternoon, we headed for Chikmagalur to find a hotel to stay back for the night. With some film shooting going on, we didn't find a good hotel available. Too exhausted by the days journey, we decided to stay in a very small hotel.

Manikyadhara falls

Water stream beside the road

Wonderful landscape on the way

Coffee seeds

Next morning was sunny. After breakfast we headed for Kemmanagundi. Next few hours passed viewing the lush green valley and the coffee plantation of the BabaBudangiri mountains. In the way, we went to Duttapeetha and Manikyadhara waterfalls. The specialty at Manikyadhara is that people take bath under the waterfall and leave one item of their dresses as a holy gesture.

Shanti falls

Z-point

Veerabhadra temple at the base of kalhatti falls

The unseen Hebbe falls

We reached our destination just before lunch. The horticulture department maintains the place and have a guest house here. We went to see the Shanti falls (a very small one) and headed to see Z-point. It is a handsome 2-3 km trek to reach there. You need to walk through a very narrow path. We did walk around 500 meters but soon we found that other visitors are not willing to walk further. Not finding other people interested in the trek and afraid of snakes, we decided to abort. We returned back and took lunch in the restaurant near the guest house. The lunch was not satisfactory. We didn't like the food. But, it was the only choice there. Running out of time, we didn't visit the best attraction the Hebbe Falls, as it'd have taken 3 hrs to see and come back and we were too tired to trek to see it. We headed to see the Kalhatti falls and returned back to the hotel in Chikmagalur by the evening. We headed for Bangalore the next morning with the wish to come back again and visit the unseen items.

Details of the trip:
Route: From Bangalore take NH4 to Nelamangala. From there take NH48 to Hassan followed by SH57 towards Belur. Travel further north to reach Chikmagalur.
Trekking: Kemmanagundi is very good for trekking. Z-point, Hebbe falls and Kalhatti falls are good trekking paths.
Accomodation: Chikmagalur being a town has a lot of hotels and homestays. There are some good resorts also on BabaBudangiri hills (e.g. Nature Nirvana).
Food: We used to take dinner at the Planters Court in Chikmagalur. The food is really good there.
Days required: A weekend is good enough for a hurricane tour to all these places. However, if you love to trek, take one/two more days to enjoy the scenic pleasure.
Best time to visit: Visit the place after rains. Waterfalls will look much better with more water in it. Landscape will be greener.

More information can be found at:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Chikmagalur
http://horticulture.kar.nic.in/kgundi.htm