Ride through Ghats (Starting on 19April2008 and returning on 20April2008)
Route : Bangalore - Hassan - Halebid - Belur - Charmadi Ghat - Dharmastala - Shiradi Ghat - Hassan - Bangalore
It was a group of 3 guys on 2 Bullets : Me as usual on my Thunderbird, Satish & Kumar on Satish's new Standard 350
Over a weekend while having discussions about our next rides, Satish Suggested for one day ride to Belur & Halebid. Everyone agreed and initially around 5 guys were ready for the trip, but asual, at the end there are dropouts. So Finally it was me, Sathish and Kumar.
We decided to meet at Nelamangala cross on 19thApril at 6.30AM, since we would be hitting Hassan Highway. I Started on 19th April 2008, Saturday early morning and by the time I reached Nelamangala cross, Satish was already waiting for me along with Kumar. We hit the Hassan highway and was riding at a normal speed, because of Satish's new bike. We quickly grabbed our breakfast at Yediyur and went further to Hassan. In Hassan one more friend joined us for the further ride.
The road from Hassan to Halebid is very good and you can easily touch 100+ safely and we reached Halebid at around 11.00AM. The Hoysala Architecture of Halebid is treat to watch and its famous for Kamasutra carvings. We spent some good time exploring the carvings and then had the darshan of Lord.
Pictures of Hoysala Architectures from Halebid Temple
We then proceeded towards Belur and reached there by 1.00PM. Spent some good time seeing the temple, exploring the temple architecture. At 2.30 we were done covering both Halebid and Belur. Satish insisted that we ride back to Bangalore as per the plan. Since this was the first time we took the bike for such a long distance, I suggested that we ride to Dharmastala riding via ghats and then ride back to bangalore on Sunday evening. Everyone agreed and we hit further to mudigere which is a beautiful place. Mudigere Ghats was cool with steep curves and good scenaries..Enjoyed the ride and we reached Dharmastala by 6.30 PM. We got the Temple accomodation room which costed us Rs 50 and trust me the room was so neat and worthwhile. Visited the lord Manjunatheshwara and had darshan.
Pictures of Hoysala Architectures from BelurTemple
Charmadi Ghats
We got up early on sunday morning and left Dhamastala at around 6.30AM towards Bangalore. Ride in the forest region was a good expereince and we entered the Shiradi Ghat and then Sakleshpur Ghat. The ride in this strech was fun with lots of curves, but a very bad road condition. At the end of Sakleshpur Ghat, there is Tippu summer Palace which is built in the shape of Star and the name of the fort is Manjrabadh fort. We climbed up the hill and visited that fort and took some good snaps. Then started riding back to Bangalore and reached Blore by 5.00PM.
It was a first long distance ride for me in my Thunderbird and it was memorable one.
Manjarabad Fort
