Day ride: Nuggehalli and Shravanabelagola

The idea has always been to do at least one ride every quarter. Having done rides at the end of July 2021 and then in Dec 2021, the next quarter was missed due to Covid and some crazy hot weather. The quarter ending June however gave ample opportunities which I chose not to take, and eventually plonked for the 30th of June, the very last day.

It had been some lovely weather leading up to it, with puffy clouds, strong winds and no chance of rain, but I stretched it too far. It rained on the 29th evening, and I expected it to rain on the 30th evening. But the plan was to be back by 3 PM, so I expected rains to not play any part in my plans. My luck had been such that through all these years I hadn’t been bothered by rains even once. So there was also the question of past performance slightly influencing future returns.

I left early in the morning, just before 7 AM. At the last minute I also ditched the rain layer of the riding jacket, because, you know, last para. The ride was peaceful more or less, but the Hassan highway was lined with an unusually high density of cops, the usual density being mostly nil. Clearly some doll was likely traveling on this route.

Pretty close to where the Kunigal bypass shows up I swore at an old zen that overtook me from pretty close and almost took the flyover before 4 cops stationed in front of the flyover to manually divert traffic screaming in at 80 kmph screamed at me to go under it. Sure, just a flyover, except that realisation soon dawned on me that they were asking me to go into Kunigal. Now, I cursed at our political class and how we are powerless in front of their atrocities, and the whole route into Kunigal and out was taken before I came to the end of the tirade. Thankfully, there wasn’t much traffic early in the morning and I also realised that the bypass was a slightly longer roundabout than just cutting through Kunigal, by around 1 km. Google maps later confirmed the same.

Swati Delicacy was reached, gossip exchanged over the heightened police presence, breakfast was had, and I headed off from there by 8:45 AM. The cloud buildup was now looking ominous and despite all forebodings I made my way to Nuggehalli. The temple was lovely as always, and the Monsoon clouds added a totally different mood to it.

I was very interested in the nitty-gritties that make up the sides of the sculptures and paid closer attention to them. The detail is always amazing. They do beg better protection though.

Rest of the images:

I hightailed from there to ‘Belagola. The shortcut I take towards the NH was thankfully freshly tarred and it made for a quick ride.

The clouds looked ominous and it looked like my run of luck would end this time. It looked clearer towards ‘Belagola and it thankfully was. This time I decided to climb up the hill. The one nice thing about ‘Belagola is that they have lockers where you can dump your helmet and other riding gear and climb up in peace.

The curious thing about the temple at the top of Vindhyagiri is the presence of so many monkey sculptures. There was one hugging a jackfruit, one hugging a melon, one that gotten too obese, a couple of them seemingly having an arbitrated argument. And there was also a gymnast.

I didn’t spend too much time on top and my usual mandapam also had someone lounging there already. I hoped to be back home for lunch and I started off from ‘Belagola with the hope of keeping my record against rains intact.

But, all nice and dry things come to a soggy end, and this was my evening of rains. I took the shortcut that leads from ‘Belagola to Nagamangala directly eschewing the usual one through Agalaya (marked in grey). The last time I took this route it made for a very bumpy ride. This time, most of the road was newly laid, but one section of 4-5 kms was without tar, but smoothened out.

Pretty close to Nagamangala, the first spell of rains hit. I stopped first under a tree, then moved on further to stop under a bus stop. After close to 10 mins, it stopped. Nagamangala was reached and there it hit hard. I stopped under a tree, found a fancyish restaurant opposite and a coffee was had in a porcelain cup that smelled of North Indian gravy. I was soaked badly, and the ditched rain layer was sorely missed. The rain relented after a while, but the storm looked like it had moved North, the direction I was riding to get to the highway. I figured I would be hitting more spells soon as I resumed riding from Nagamangala.

The NH was reached without any further rain, and I turned East to head towards Tumkur road. Kunigal bypass was reached and passed, this time with no cops intercepting my ride. The clouds had cleared and it looked like it could be an easier ride, except for one massive black one hanging up ahead which I had to pass.

Solur would be the rain marker I guessed. First, it became darker, the drizzles soon started, the rain shaft was also seen, but it looked to my right. Maybe, I will pass this today. But, the road soon curved right and the shaft was right in front. The intensity picked up, I passed a bus stop and headed straight into the storm barely 50m ahead. I doubled back, spent 10 mins in the shelter of the bus stop. At the first sign of reduction I took the service road and made it into a town where the cloud was pouring into. Solur had been reached. My guess turned out to be correct. Another bus stop was found and I waited under it.

The rain reduced again and I continued towards Nelamangala. The horizon looked nice and clear in front of me and pretty dark behind me. The rains hit again, but this time the horizon drew me on. I knew I just had to break on through to the other side (Sorry, Jim) instead of waiting it out each time. Again, I got that right and I turned up soaked, but under clearer skies. Nelamangala was reached, Tumkur Road was taken and just as I took the NICE road, the storm had caught up there. Thankfully, the drizzles started just as I reached home at a touch under 3 PM.

Realised that I had done this same trip around 6 years back. So much has changed since then, including the vehicle.

Day ride: Bellur and Nuggehalli

Despite having a target of one ride per quarter, I missed the one for the July-September quarter. This quarter seemed to be heading in the same direction, but then I decided to change things and headed out on the 27th December, yesterday.

The plan was to hit up Bellur, not to be confused with the more famous Belur, near Bellur Cross where the Adichunchanagiri institutions are set up, check out the two temples there from the Hoysala timeframe and then head on to the more familiar Nuggehalli temple.

I started as usual between 7:00 and 7:15 AM. Instead of hitting Tumkur Road, I took the Magadi route. This route was comfortable till Magadi after which the road condition deteriorated rapidly. The bad stretch lasted for a few kms, after which it improved a bit, with occasional patches that bumped you up. Thankfully, after some kms of this, the road became ok, and for the most part it was a good ride.

I reached the Hassan highway just before Kunigal and turned left. Being a weekday I expected a quiet ride, but it was nothing close to that. The entire city of Bangalore seemed to have descended on the highways as it was close to the long weekend, and I was kept on my toes by zipping cars. The trouble is always when you run into slow moving trucks, which is when you need to overtake them on the one lane available to you. This becomes a bit of a pain as cars are already screaming aggressively into that lane, so you need to slow down at times, take stock and choose the right moment to overtake. These right moments are a lot more frequent when the road is empty than on days like yesterday. Thankfully, I kept my head, and reached Swathi Delicacy at 8:45 AM. Swathi, however, was brimming with people. The buffer they’ve put outside for such weekends was also overflowing. I decided to stand outside and had a quick idli-vada breakfast there and headed towards Bellur.

Bellur was reached easily and I found my way to the Mulé Singheshwara temple. This is an old temple, from 1224 AD, and it wasn’t ornate in any manner. There were a few edicts, but no carvings. The most interesting part was the emblem of the Hoysalas standing on top of the temple.

Bike ride – Nagalapura

Continuing with the idea of exploring Hoysala temples that are bikeable from Bangalore, the place next on my list after Basaralu was Nagalapura. Nagalapura was put on my radar by someone who we got chatting with near Turuvekere when visiting it along with Aralaguppe. Turned out there are two temples in Nagalapura, walkable from each other.

The plan was to visit this much earlier(June 21st), but I had to postpone it after weather forecasts predicted rain. This week(28th June), S was also available, and he was at my place by 7:30 AM. The plan was to head to Nagalapura, with breakfast at Swati near Yadiyur, and then be home for lunch by 2 PM.

We reached Swati by 9 AM, finished breakfast and were off by 9:45 AM. The route involves taking a right after Yadiyur, but after reaching Mayasandra, you take a left towards Adichunchanagiri, but an immediate right at the first village. After that it’s a series of lefts and rights. Given that S had his bluetooth headphones on, we ended up using Google maps and him leading.

We reached Kedhaareshwara temple around 10:30 AM. It was set back from the main road, and was all the more pleasant for it. The gates were open and so was the temple.

Day trip – Basaralu

It’s been a while since I went to Nuggehalli. The main issue is the distances between the different Hoysala temples. I usually prefer to combine Nuggehalli with other temples, but that becomes a bit hard when you have to be zigzagging across the highway. Now, I tend to hit those around a spot. And sometimes, not stress myself and just spend time in one place. The best solution seems to be to do more rides more frequently. Just need to remember to do that.

This time the destination was the Mallikarjuna temple, Basaralu. This was at a sweet location, near Nagamangala, and on the curve back towards Bangalore. So the plan was to leave early, have breakfast at Swathi, hit Nagamangala, get to Basaralu and then back home for lunch via Huliyurdurga and Magadi. The plan kept getting postponed from early March due to one reason or the other. And I finally zeroed in on the 18th March. Only to have other errands intrude on it. I don’t particularly enjoy weekend rides, but there didn’t seem to be any other option. So the 17th it was.

I left at 7:15 AM, and the ride was a bit more stressful than I would have liked. Hassan highway is no Mysore Road, but on weekends the traffic can get a bit rowdy. Vehicles that like to pass you close by, zipping two-wheelers, the whole charade of bad driving notorious on our streets shows up. But I reached Swathi at 8:40 AM without issues. After breakfast I was off by 9:00 AM.

Day ride – Turuvekere and Aralaguppe

The Hoysala hunt continued with two new places added to the list, thanks to Twitter. Technically, there was just one – Aralaguppe, but the place was close to Turuvekere, and a bit of digging showed me two other places there.

This time S joined me for the ride, and we left at aroud 7:45 AM from my place, me on the Bull 500, and S on his Electra. For the second half of October it wasn’t too cold. We did the usual route of Tumkur road -> Hassan Road and the usual breakfast stop at Swati Delicacy before Yadiyur. After Yadiyur, there was a right to be taken towards Turuvekere. Right after the turn we were greeted by a pristine B road. Two lanes width, just about wider than that, and going all the way in that condition to Mayasandra where we had to take a right and then a left to avoid going towards Gubbi. Turuvekere was reached at around 10:15 AM.

The first temple on the list was a Chennakesava temple, from around 1260 AD. Unlike other Kesava temples, this wasn’t too ornate. It didn’t have much carvings outside, and the ASI or PWD had also done a shoddy job with some concrete support at the top.

Day ride: T Narasipura and Gaganachukki

Aug 22nd was a holiday on account of Bakrid, and I had been itching to do a ride for a while. I woke up early, got ready to leave by 7, and was out on the road by 7:15 AM. I didn’t have a clear plan in mind. I knew I wanted to check out 3 places if possible – Gaganachukki, Sathegala bridge and T. Narasipura. Barachukki was also on the radar, but I wasn’t sure how crowded it would be. There’s a dargah there and the road could also be closed during Bakrid.

Anyway, the order is for later. I took the ORR to reach Mysore Road, and even that early it was a bad decision. Too many humps and buses make it a stressful ride, and the Metro construction on Mysore Road had also screwed up the roads. The route through Vishweshwaraiah Layout and Kempegowda Layout reaching Mysore Road near Decathlon is the better route now, the only issue being the railway crossing.

There weren’t too many clouds, there wasn’t much of a chance of rain that day, but the weather was chilly for August. I made good speed after crossing NICE road and reached Bidadi well before 8. I finished a quick thatte idli-vada breakfast there and was off by 8 AM. The advantage the bike has is that bad traffic is a lot less stressful and I was turning left after Maddur well before 9 AM. Malavalli was reached in 20 minutes and I turned right after Malavalli’s junction, but just before reaching the junction where the road from Kanakapura reaches Malavalli. I stopped after a few kilometres near a huge lake for a break of 5-10 minutes. This was the Marehalli Kere. The road after this was peaceful with hardly any traffic. There was the odd pothole or patchwork, but bikes register them a lot less than cars, the effort needed to avoid them is much lighter.

Purigali was reached and I took a right onto the Belakavadi-T. Narasipura road towards T Narasipura. This road was pristine with hardly any traffic. I was at Narasipura before 10, which felt like a good deal, and I hadn’t rushed either. I went down to the Agastheshwara Temple, which looked really old, but was closed. There was a path leading behind it which took me to some steps and down those steps was the river. In fact, there were two rivers – the Kaveri and the Kabini – merging into one. The name T Narasipura expands to Thirumakudalu Narasipura. The Thirumakudalu is from Sanskrit – Trimakuta. There are apparently three rivers having a confluence here – the Kaveri, the Kabini and a third, a lake called Spatika, which is considered mythical or might have existed in earlier times.

Some of the lower steps were slushy suggesting that the water level was much higher the past few days. They had apparently reduced the flow a tad from that day. There were a couple of men bathing, and I had to wait for them to finish before trying to do videos. Keeping the blog family friendly.

Kabini coming in from my right, then I pan to the joined rivers and pan to my left where the Kaveri is flowing from.

Day trip: Kambadahalli and Hosaholalu

Despite having done a bike ride to and from BR Hills a few days back, having the whole week off meant that another was always on the cards. This time S signed up. I had come across the Jain Basadi of Kambadahalli from @drvivekm‘s instafeed. Googling revealed that this was one of the oldest structures standing in that area, having been built around 900-1000 AD. Most of the Hoysala temples tend to be a few centuries younger. The oldest would be the ones on top of Chandragiri in Shravanabelagola. It’s also been a while since I went there!

Anyway, the start was later than my preferred pre-7:30 AM. Winter and S having to ride all the way from beyond Indiranagar meant that an early start wouldn’t be feasible. We left from my place at 8:25 AM and rode down to Swati Delicacy near Yediyur for the breakfast stop. Despite being heavily crowded we managed to find a table, and I didn’t  have to fight for an own table as is the case when am on solo rides.

Post breakfast we rode down towards Hirisave and took a left where it said Bindiganavile. There was also another board saying “Kambadahalli 19KM.” These days when roads get widened and people end up losing the old sign boards and milestones, it was a welcome sight! The road alternated between awesome, ok, okayish, to watch-out for potholes without ever degenerating to a bone rattler. We reached the road from Belagola to Nagamangala and took a right there. A road went to the right which announced Kambadahalli at 1 KM, but we did not take that. The next right had an arch with Jain insignia and icons all over it. This was our turn. Within a Km of this turn, the Jain structure loomed on our right.

The first structure you see is the pillar. There were inscriptions on it, but we could not date it. This might have been a later addition too. Later meaning from the Hoysala period.

Day Ride – Lepakshi

After much “being on the radar”, the Lepakshi ride was finally agreed on. Anand had already been there some months back and knew the way. There really isn’t much knowing the way required, though. You head straight North on the Airport Road from Bangalore, avoid getting into the Airport, and keep going North. Cross the border into Andhra, and take left where a board with an arrow left says “Lepakshi”. Go on for 16 km on that road, and you see the Nandi on the right. Go on a bit further, turn left where everyone else does, and you have the Veerabhadraswamy Temple.

Well, this is pretty much what we did. We left from my place at 7:45 AM, me on my Bullet Electra, and A on his Classic 500. I expected an arrival at Lepakshi at 10:30 AM with a half hour for breakfast. The Goraguntepalya railway overbridge is now ready, so timings should be predictable. The breakfast stop was at the fancily named “The Indian Paratha Company”, which was reached at around 8:45 AM. The place was crowded, and seating was in the morning sun. The Paratha came on time, but we spent 20 minutes waiting for tea. What was expected to be a 30 minute stop, took 1 hour. Really good food, but service needs to go a long way!

The ride along NH7 is plain boring. There is no other term for it. You get your speedometer to 80-90 Kmph, and stay there on the four lane road and keep watching the odometer ticking. There are neither trees nor curves to keep you interested. We reached the turn-off from NH7 by 10:40 and the Nandi before 11 AM.

The Nandi is carved out of a monolith and thankfully we got a few shots before the crowds streamed in. I figured it might be smaller than the one at Bull Temple road or the one at Chamundi hill. Turned out, I was wrong on all counts. This is the second largest Nandi in India, after one in Aimury, Kerala.(Not completely verified accounts I believe. Some claim it’s the largest.)

Apart from size, the carvings showed a garland of bells, and what looked like two ghosts on the body.

Day ride: Nuggehalli. Once more.

I realised all of a sudden that it’s been a long time since my last ride. Considering that we are into the last quarter of 2016 I hadn’t done even a single one in 2016! The last one was late December 2015, and to Nuggehalli. This time I decided to do the same route again. I like the temple with its carvings and the road is just awesome to ride on. There will be a time to explore other regions, but a comeback ride after 8 months is probably not the time for that.

The plan was to do it last week, but the weather looked dodgy with a good chance of rain. Just as it was clearing, a bandh happened and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find stuff to eat. I postponed it to the day after Ganesha. Except that this became a Mandya Bandh, and considering that I was planning to pass through large parts of the district, if not the city itself, I decided to play it safe and shifted it to the next day, September 7th. The weather promised a partially cloudy day with no chance of rain. Just the thing to expect on a September day. It was expected to be cool, though not as cold as winter. In short, perfect conditions for riding.

I set off at 7:45 AM. Fuel was done along the way, and so was air for the tyres. The weather was absolutely splendid. Clear blue skies with puffy clouds left over from the Monsoons, mild temperature, not biting cold, the kind of weather expected and the kind that makes you love riding.