Trip members: Karthik and mom
Trip date: 23, 24 and 25 Dec 2017
Trip Plan : Chennai - Bangalore - Hornadu - Sringeri - Kollur - Bangalore
Day 1
Started by Shatabdi by 23rd Dec morning to Bangalore and took a cab (booked by Savaari.com) from Bangalore for 3 days. The plan was to visit Hornadu temple on same day and stay overnight at Hornadu. En-route, we had lunch at Hotel Kamat Upahaar at Kunigal. The lunch was available by 1 PM but, almost took 20 minutes to get us the lunch, the service was definitely bad.
The route we took was Bangalore -Nelamangala - Hassan - Belur - Chikmagalur - Kalasa - Hornadu. By 5 PM, we were crossing Chikmagalur enroute Hornadu. We reached Kalasa by 6:45 PM. It was dark by then. The road stretch was all very good.
Kalasa hosts Kalaseshwara temple. Kalasa is 9 kms before Hornadu on the banks of the river Bhadra. Sage Agasthya halted at Kalasa, and saw Lord Shiva's wedding from here. A Shiva Linga appeared out of his Kalasha. Sage Agasthya built a temple here and installed the Linga in it. This is the temple called Kalaseshwara.
We spent around 15 minutes here for the dharshan and back to car to reach Hornadu. We reached Hornadu by 8 PM and looked for rooms in the Devasthanam cottage. The whole place was so crowded and people were running around to get rooms. No rooms were available. We then managed to get a room at Matha Annapoorna lodge for a premium price, with no options! The room was ok - clean to come extent but hot water only in fixed timings in mornings. There is a restaurant at the ground level run by the same people who manage the lodge - serving idlies, dosas and chappathis at Rs.30 per plate - ok ok food.
We walk to the temple - 5 minutes walk from the stay. One needs to climb close to 30 steps to reach the temple. The annadhana premises comes first - serving food all the time. The dharshan queue was quite lengthy, but very fast moving. One can have dharshan of Goddess Annapoorneswari from outside itself. The golden idol is quite tall and big that devotees can have dharshan from outside itself. We went close by and had a very satisfactory dharshan - the temple priests do no force you to move fast, but, the queue was moving fairly fast and allowed to have dharshan as much as time you want to. We then had dinner at the local restaurant in the hotel and done for the day.
Day-2
Started the day with hot piping idlies and golden sizzling glazzy hot vadas at 6:45; in very foggy and cold morning at Hornadu. We set directions towards Sringeri - around 65 kms. The roads are curvy, narrow and in good condition. The route was back to Kalasa - Belehole - Kulur and Sringeri.
We reached Sringeri around 9:15 AM. Though the temple was crowded, the temple being bigger, it looked very comfortable to go around and have a pleasant dharshan. The Sringeri Saradambhal temple is one of the Sakthi Peetams. This Peetam was established by Adi Sankara. His idol is also in the main temple for performing pujas and prayers. The temple is situated by the banks of river Tunga. The dharshan timings are : morning – 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM and evening – 5:00 PM to 9.00 PM. The shrine hosts an ancient sanctum of Lord Shiva in the form of Vidyasankara.
The Vidyasankara premises hosts beautiful sculptures around its premises - depicting the various avatars of Lord Vishnu. One can also see the stone rings - a marvel!
We also visited the Sringeri Sankara Mutt on the other bank of river Tunga. The mutt hosts the acharyas. One can visit here to get their blessings and prasadams from the mutt office. Restrooms are available in this mutt.
By 10:45 we cam out of the temple, after several dharshans. We had some snack at Hotel Sri Guruprasad - looks like always crowded - for tiffen items. We the started towards Sringeri - by route - Sringeri - Agumbe - Someshwara - Halady - Vandse - Kollur. The distance is around 110 kms. We stopped at the Agumbe Sunset view point - which is located the hair pin bends climbing down from Agumbe to Someshwara.
The Agumbe Sunset view point is very popular had gives a great view of the whole valley beneath. The view point is around 30 kms from Sringeri. Parking is little difficult as the hair pin bends are all around. We spent few minutes here to enjoy the nature around.
We reached Kollur through nice roads by 1:10 PM. It was told the temple shall be open till 1:30. There were thousands of people waiting outside the temple in queue to enter the premises. The Xmas holidays effect was very much there in Kollur! We somehow squeezed inside the temple by 1:20 and managed to get direct dharshan. We also witnessed the goddess being carried in the Chariot. There are free dharshan, Rs.100 dharshan and Rs.500 dharshan (for 2). On specific day we visited, there were thousands of people in the queues. We had a very good dharshan and came out by 2 PM.
We had lunch at a local hotel - food was average. Driver suggested we get back as much as distance possible towards Bangalore. The suggested route was Kollur - Kundapura - Udupi - Mangalore - Sakleshpur - Hassan - Bangalore. Though I suggested to stay overnight in Mangalore, driver suggested to drive all the way to Hassan - he was confident of making it by 10 PM. The driver (Umesh) was excellent on the wheels all through the trip and made it to Hassan by 9:15 PM. After struggling to get a rooms across 3-4 hotels, we managed to get a room in Hotel Raama. The deluxe room is very spacious and room is clean. The restrooms were very stinky and needed some maintenance.
Day-3
The morning buffet - allowed through coupons in newspapers, is very appreciable - wide spread south Indian food - excellent masala dosas and vadais. The coffee was also very good. We checked out by 11 AM after a lazy morning and reached Bangalore post noon. We had lunch at A2B and took flight back to Chennai after a satisfactory trip.
Distances
Trip date: 23, 24 and 25 Dec 2017
Trip Plan : Chennai - Bangalore - Hornadu - Sringeri - Kollur - Bangalore
Day 1
Started by Shatabdi by 23rd Dec morning to Bangalore and took a cab (booked by Savaari.com) from Bangalore for 3 days. The plan was to visit Hornadu temple on same day and stay overnight at Hornadu. En-route, we had lunch at Hotel Kamat Upahaar at Kunigal. The lunch was available by 1 PM but, almost took 20 minutes to get us the lunch, the service was definitely bad.
The route we took was Bangalore -Nelamangala - Hassan - Belur - Chikmagalur - Kalasa - Hornadu. By 5 PM, we were crossing Chikmagalur enroute Hornadu. We reached Kalasa by 6:45 PM. It was dark by then. The road stretch was all very good.
Kalasa hosts Kalaseshwara temple. Kalasa is 9 kms before Hornadu on the banks of the river Bhadra. Sage Agasthya halted at Kalasa, and saw Lord Shiva's wedding from here. A Shiva Linga appeared out of his Kalasha. Sage Agasthya built a temple here and installed the Linga in it. This is the temple called Kalaseshwara.
We spent around 15 minutes here for the dharshan and back to car to reach Hornadu. We reached Hornadu by 8 PM and looked for rooms in the Devasthanam cottage. The whole place was so crowded and people were running around to get rooms. No rooms were available. We then managed to get a room at Matha Annapoorna lodge for a premium price, with no options! The room was ok - clean to come extent but hot water only in fixed timings in mornings. There is a restaurant at the ground level run by the same people who manage the lodge - serving idlies, dosas and chappathis at Rs.30 per plate - ok ok food.
We walk to the temple - 5 minutes walk from the stay. One needs to climb close to 30 steps to reach the temple. The annadhana premises comes first - serving food all the time. The dharshan queue was quite lengthy, but very fast moving. One can have dharshan of Goddess Annapoorneswari from outside itself. The golden idol is quite tall and big that devotees can have dharshan from outside itself. We went close by and had a very satisfactory dharshan - the temple priests do no force you to move fast, but, the queue was moving fairly fast and allowed to have dharshan as much as time you want to. We then had dinner at the local restaurant in the hotel and done for the day.
Day-2
Started the day with hot piping idlies and golden sizzling glazzy hot vadas at 6:45; in very foggy and cold morning at Hornadu. We set directions towards Sringeri - around 65 kms. The roads are curvy, narrow and in good condition. The route was back to Kalasa - Belehole - Kulur and Sringeri.
We reached Sringeri around 9:15 AM. Though the temple was crowded, the temple being bigger, it looked very comfortable to go around and have a pleasant dharshan. The Sringeri Saradambhal temple is one of the Sakthi Peetams. This Peetam was established by Adi Sankara. His idol is also in the main temple for performing pujas and prayers. The temple is situated by the banks of river Tunga. The dharshan timings are : morning – 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM and evening – 5:00 PM to 9.00 PM. The shrine hosts an ancient sanctum of Lord Shiva in the form of Vidyasankara.
The Vidyasankara premises hosts beautiful sculptures around its premises - depicting the various avatars of Lord Vishnu. One can also see the stone rings - a marvel!
We also visited the Sringeri Sankara Mutt on the other bank of river Tunga. The mutt hosts the acharyas. One can visit here to get their blessings and prasadams from the mutt office. Restrooms are available in this mutt.
By 10:45 we cam out of the temple, after several dharshans. We had some snack at Hotel Sri Guruprasad - looks like always crowded - for tiffen items. We the started towards Sringeri - by route - Sringeri - Agumbe - Someshwara - Halady - Vandse - Kollur. The distance is around 110 kms. We stopped at the Agumbe Sunset view point - which is located the hair pin bends climbing down from Agumbe to Someshwara.
The Agumbe Sunset view point is very popular had gives a great view of the whole valley beneath. The view point is around 30 kms from Sringeri. Parking is little difficult as the hair pin bends are all around. We spent few minutes here to enjoy the nature around.
We reached Kollur through nice roads by 1:10 PM. It was told the temple shall be open till 1:30. There were thousands of people waiting outside the temple in queue to enter the premises. The Xmas holidays effect was very much there in Kollur! We somehow squeezed inside the temple by 1:20 and managed to get direct dharshan. We also witnessed the goddess being carried in the Chariot. There are free dharshan, Rs.100 dharshan and Rs.500 dharshan (for 2). On specific day we visited, there were thousands of people in the queues. We had a very good dharshan and came out by 2 PM.
We had lunch at a local hotel - food was average. Driver suggested we get back as much as distance possible towards Bangalore. The suggested route was Kollur - Kundapura - Udupi - Mangalore - Sakleshpur - Hassan - Bangalore. Though I suggested to stay overnight in Mangalore, driver suggested to drive all the way to Hassan - he was confident of making it by 10 PM. The driver (Umesh) was excellent on the wheels all through the trip and made it to Hassan by 9:15 PM. After struggling to get a rooms across 3-4 hotels, we managed to get a room in Hotel Raama. The deluxe room is very spacious and room is clean. The restrooms were very stinky and needed some maintenance.
Day-3
The morning buffet - allowed through coupons in newspapers, is very appreciable - wide spread south Indian food - excellent masala dosas and vadais. The coffee was also very good. We checked out by 11 AM after a lazy morning and reached Bangalore post noon. We had lunch at A2B and took flight back to Chennai after a satisfactory trip.
Distances
- Bengaluru – Kalasa – 307 kms
- Bengaluru – Hornadu – 314 kms
- Kalasa – Hornadu – 7 kms
- Hornadu – Sringeri – 65 kms
- Sringeri – Kollur – 111 kms (via Agumbe)
- Kollur – Bengaluru – 497 kms (via Mangalore - Sakleshpur)
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