car trip to Hasan and Chikkamangulru

The trip route:

Places covered:

A. Belur

B. Halebeedu

C. Chikmagalaur

D. Manchethevaru

E. Mallanduru

Had a weekend and an extra day. Me and Seena were thinking on how to make best use of this time. Yes our favorite pastime traveling. And travel by our car, the car trip. Evaluated few options. Selected Chikmagalaur.

Chikmagalaur is about 5-6 hours from Bangalore. Considering that we made the plan. We wanted to cover few things on the way and reach chikmagalaur by night fall.

We start on the Saturday morning from our home. Geared up with both our backpacks. Had already done with basic car checks and tyre pressure checks on Friday. We start with some light bread omelet in the morning at home and left. Took the NICE ring road to it's end. Then through Nelmangala to the Kunigal road. Had a nice breakfast in Kichchana Halli mane. What a crispy dosa it was. Tasty food, I stopped for the second time here, it's always delicious.

Now to our first place of visit:

Belur:

Relics of an old temple and city, Channakeshva temple. Destroyed by Mughals and Muslim rulers. This 12 th century temple is a UNESCO world Heritage Site. It's among 7 wonders of India. The quality work is still visible in the remains. The temple was dedicated to lord Vishnu (Channakeshva).

Mesmerized by the quality of work and after deeply engulfed by the capabilities of people who have done with work, we leave to our next destination.

Halebeedu:

The Hoysaleshwara temple is yet a price of marvel and kind of precise work and beauty by the artisans is simply unimaginable. It was the capital of Hoysala empire of 12th century. The temple was dedicated to Lord Shiva.

These were again destroyed by Delhi Sultanate army under Alauddin Khilji.

With this our trip's first day is about to end. Need to make to our hotel fast. What an awesome start.

Fully tired we just go to sleep immediately. Next day is now:

Chikmagalaur:

First destination after morning tea: Hireko Lake. A really nice pacefull lake.

The calmness and serenity of morning is unbelievable. Spent a good amount of time just sitting here and enjoying the cool breeze.

This is the place to relax. The time stands still and you are just lost in the beauty of nature.

Then we move to our next stop. Nandi Batlu. A temple, it had a huge crowd.

Taking again the blessings, we move to our next stop which is a green hill. Its fully covered with lush green grass. Its called Manchethevaru.

The travel through hilly areas has taken a good amount of time. So it's now the time to have a really good coffee in a coffee shop inside the coffee plantations.

We close the day with this coffee. Next day we start with some local marketing and we plan to leave early so as to reach home and have some time to take rest.

Some arbitrary photos: