Karnataka – Kemmanagundi, Mulayanagiri, Belur

Day13

We started our day lazily after an excellent morning boat ride at Bhadra Reservoir and breakfast. We had driven towards Tarikere to take Chikmagalur route and then at Lingdahalli took a right diversion to take the beautiful ghat roads of Chikmagalur and Bababudan giri hills. Enroute you would find Kalahati falls which is nice and then the nice hill station of Kemmanagundi, which is a must stay. It’s setting is awe inspiring but the accommodation are difficult to get as the only options of horticultural dept’s bungalows being renovated this year.

This is a nice hill station with colorful mountains with various shades of green all around. A Hebbe Falls trip from here and some treks to Z points are a must do for the people who have the time. We couldn’t visit those and kept continuing our drive. The road became the worst in our whole journey and Xylo was going at 10kmph but the whole pain of taking such a road was worth every bit when you look around. I have seen some most amazing landscapes of colorful grasses of all shades starting from green, yellow, orange and red and the mountains in the backdrop. The scenery is simply jaw dropping and we were mesmerized with the awe inspiring landscapes all around.

Continued our journey to Baba Budangiri and Mulayanagiri and these places are nothing special comparing to the beauty of this whole road, we were in a dilemma if we should take this road as we knew the road is in pretty bad shape but didn’t regret the decision once we covered it. The sunset from Mulayangiri an experience to remember with stunning views of the surrounding lake-rich coffee country and the weird shaped mountains with thousands shades of green touching the colorful sky at the backdrop.

We continued our journey through Chikmagalur to Belur and we stayed at KSTDC, Velapuri which is a nice and extremely good value for money hotel but again without any service.

Car Odo Reading:

JLR Bhadra – 45060
Tarikere – 45083
Lingdahalli – 45098
Kalahati Falls- 45108
Kemmanagundi – 45121
Mulayanagiri – 45165
Chikmagalur – 45185
Belur – 45214

Kalahati Falls:

Kemmanagundi – Chikmagalur – The most scenic road I experienced in Karnataka:

The beauty continues along the road to Mulayanagiri:

The sunset from Mulayanagiri:

Day14

This day was reserved for enjoying Hoysala art of Belur and Halebidu. Both are awesome, to me Halebidu was more impressive especially the western walls but what I understood from the guide was that Belur was the completed temple where as Halebidu was incomplete. The Hoysala architecture and their work with stones some 600 years back is simply amazing. The best time to visit them to avoid crowds and for better photo opportunities are in early morning or evening, though evenings are certainly crowded. Again I found spiritual activities are performed inside the temple which I certainly don’t like in an archeological monument of this stature. The way they depict the Ramayana stories or the events of that age on stone would make you speechless, an amazing fusion between art and engineering. If you can spend some time, I would recommend to take a guide (charge Rs. 200) and that would make the visit more meaningful.

Car Odo Reading:

Belur – 45214
Halebidu – 45232
Belur – 45249

Belur Temple: