Janurary Wanderings


It had been a month or so before I had taken the car out of the city and was itching to go out.  Things started falling into place, with a transfer accepted to a new team within the company and a cousin visiting Bangalore for interviews.  Decided to take a week off before the new beginning and head out.

I have been wanting to visit the temples at Aihole since my previous road trips to Badami and Hampi , but that hadn’t left me enough time to visit those ancient temples from 4th- 8th Century AD.

So an early Sunday morning, took out my sturdy VW POLO 1.6 and hit the tarmac.. Bangalore – Badami is about 550kms and with a couple of food breaks, was there by 4pm. Tried locating KSTDC Mayura and soon found it on Ramdurga road across the chaos from the traffic junction and main thorough fare. Once I reached the large peaceful surroundings and having been lucky enough to get a clean room, I just put my feet up and rested a bit. Incidentally it was the same hotel, I had stayed in few years back but that time the place was rundown. Its totally renovated and is a great place to relax with huge banyan trees and quiet surroundings. Ordered some tea and went outside to read a bit and then headed out to get an early dinner with my cousin. Thali at Laxmi Vilas was just 40rs and piping hot fresh vegetarian affair for the tired driver.

After a good nights rest, started for Aihole the next morning. Surprisingly the SH was non-existent and I had to do some rally driving. It took almost 2hrs to do 35kms to Aihole. The village has temples scattered around and I found that the villagers and temples co-existed. The temples from 4th –8th century AD are well preserved by Archeological Survey of India and I must commend the villagers to have preserved a fair bit of it. Some of them were living temples with cattle, villagers around it. 



Couple of hours at the temples and some hot idlis at the wayside stall (only one there) and it was time to head back to the hotel at Badami for check out at noon.  After a good lunch at Mayura , hit the tarmac and the idea was to try and reach Karwar before sunset depending on the road conditions. 

The road from Badami to Nargund to was in bad shape and took awhile to cover the 35 odd kms but after that it was good road with an average speed of 90-100kph.  We were in Hubli in about 2.5hrs and that gave enough time to reach Karwar.. The Hubli to Karwar stretch turned out to be a surprise. Good fresh tarmac and lovely ghat sections and was able to cruise through it at high speeds and caught the sunset over the Karwar coast.  Looked around and found a place for night stay next to the Jungle Lodges office at Kodibag.
Next morning went to the JLR office and took the 11am ferry to Devbagh Beach . The beach resort is surrounded by pristine forest and log huts/cottages and wide stretches of isolated beach with the view of the other islands and hills far away. It’s a just a place for someone looking for some peace around nature. Lovely huts and great food and one can just relax on the hammock/beach or walk around.


There is a nature walk and some water sports possible also. We were lucky enough to catch some shooting being done for Discovery channel and the night ended with a nice bonfire on the beach under a starlight sky.


After an early morning walk to catch the first rays of sun hit the coast , we went on a boat ride to sight some dolphins but that didn’t turn out to be lucky outing . And post breakfast we headed out in the ferry to Karwar. Took out the car parked at the JLR office and onto Colva beach for the night’s pit stop. Colva is just 1.5hrs drive on NH12 and nice tarmac and some good hill driving. Found a place to rest and walked around the beach in the evening and night. I somehow enjoyed the quiet and peaceful surroundings of Devbagh more than the hundreds of people and shops at Colva.


Woke up at 5am and started on the long journey home. Colva-Karwar-Shimoga-Bangalore. I didn’t want to take the boring toll way and try out the narrower but more scenic route and it turned out to be quiet a treat. The ghat sections last about 200 odd kms and was just a treat to drive, though sometimes narrow(just one lane instead of two) .  Took couple of breaks for tea/lunch/coffee etc and was home in about 13hours.

In total  I drove about 1900kms in five days and was a good change before starting on a new assignment from next week.

More pics here:
Aihole
Karwar

Route :


Bangalore-Badami 

Bangalore->Nice road to Tumkur(NH4)->Chitradurga(NH4)->Davanagare(NH4)->Hubli (NH4) and take the Hubli bypass and the right there  to reach NH218->Navalgund(NH218)->Nargund(NH218)->Kulgeri (SH14)->Badami


Road Conditions: All tolled highway upto hubli but lot of diversions and road conditions and one feels cheated paying huge toll...
Nargaund to Badami road is in poor state and slow drive ..

Stay : Newly renovated KSTDC Hotel Mayura Chalukya at Ramdurga Road .

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Badami-Aihole (SH 57/SH14)
Road Conditions:Badami->Aihole is a 2hrs (35kms) drive over non existent State Highway roads.

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Badami-Hubli-Karwar
Badami->Kulgeri (SH14)->Nargund(NH218)->Navalgund(NH218)->Hubli (NH4) and take the Hubli bypass to SH73->Yellagiri->Ankola(NH63/NH67)->Right at Ankola to Karwar(NH17) ->Kodibag

Road Conditions:Badami->Nargund road is in poor condition and slow driving .
Hubli-Karwar ->Take bypass from Hubli to Karwar . Lovely new tarmac and one could cruise through the ghat sections to Karwar.
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Karwar-Colva Beach
NH17 all the way to Colva Beach

Road Conditions: Good roads and doable in 1.5hrs (75kms) and lovely ghat sections
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Colva Beach-Bangalore

Colva Beach ->Karwar(NH17) ->Ankola((NH17)->Gokarna(NH17)->Kumta(NH17)-Honavar(NH17) ->Right from Honavar(NH 206)->Jog Falls(NH 206)->Sagara(NH 206)->Shimoga(NH 206)-> Bhadravati->Tarikere(NH 206)->Kadur(NH 206)->Arsikere(NH 206)->Tiptur(NH 206)->Tumkur(NH 4)->Bypass and Nice Road

Road Conditions:Very good road conditions though some stretches of single lane ghat sections.
Lovely long ghat sections till before Sagara . Bad patches before Sagara but again really good two lane road to Tumkur. Save on toll and a lot more scenic than NH4 via Hubli/Chitradurga.  Only pain was ,lots of cattle/dogs wandering around on the highway ...
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