Contouring through The Western Ghats of Karnataka

"The world is a book and those who don’t travel read only a page," says St. Augustine. Yes, who doesn’t like to travel! However, for most of us, our busy schedules restrict us to travel without plans and time constraints. Then there are travel blogs and forums that save us from all the redundant work during planning. Therefore, I sat down to write and share my plan and my experiences with friends, about the adventures that we had in July 2016. 

When someone says Western Ghats, we are reminded of the sky scraping hilltops, the rains that do not seem to stop, the thick vegetation, the clouds, the waterfalls and yes, the soothing greens. And, what better time there is than July. 

When the freezing cold moisture laden winds of the rain bearing clouds blow over your face and through your hair, chills and thrills run down your spine and believe me, you can never get enough of this. Stay with me till the end of the blog and I'll get you a taste of what I am talking about.

If you are looking for something in particular, use the search tool to navigate to that place in this blog.

We were certainly very lucky to have not been welcomed by the rains. The farmers strongly protested otherwise. Therefore, with the little knowledge that we had of the places to visit, my friend’s dad lent a helping hand in the iterations while optimizing the route. With this unnecessary preamble, our detailed route is as below.

Our three days' trip comprised of the following places.

Day 1 - Bangalore -> Hassan -> Shettihalli Church -> Sakleshpur Manjarabad Fort -> Kukke Subrahmanya -> Dharmasthala -> Charmadi Ghats -> Kudremukha Forest -> Sringeri <Halt>.

Day 2 - Sringeri -> Agumbe -> Kundadri -> Tirthahalli -> Nagara -> Sigandur -> Sagara -> Jog falls -> Shivamogga <Halt>.

Day 3 - Shivamogga -> Kallathigiri Falls -> Hebbe falls -> Mullayanagiri -> Chikkamagalur <Halt>.

Day 4 - Chikkamagalur -> Muthodi Forest (Bhadra Tiger Reserve) -> Chikkamagalur -> Belur -> Hassan -> Bangalore.

Route 1

And yes, Day 4 was unplanned. With this, we clocked 1350 Km and could cover 18 places in 4 days and 3 nights. Time was something we could spend only sparingly but you know, busy schedule. In addition, most would say few places on day 3 are supposed to be visited from Chikkamagalur, but our route demanded we do it from Shivamogga.


Now, I have an alternate route that I did in October 2016 for those of you who think that there were a few temples that you do not wish to have in your riding route. However, the temples are not a must visit if you are not religious or whatever is stopping you. Nevertheless, the routes as well as the temple destinations and shamelessly speaking, the taste of the food served at those temples are indeed exciting.

Day 1 - Bangalore -> Hassan -> Sakleshpur Manjarabad Fort -> Kukke Subrahmanya -> Mangalore via Kadaba <halt>.

Day 2 - Mangalore -> Agumbe via Padubidri and Karkala -> Kundadri -> Sringeri -> Kudremukha Forest -> Ujire via Bajegoli -> Charmadi -> Chikkamagalur <halt>.

Day 3 - Chikkamagalur -> Mullayanagiri -> Belur -> Hassan -> Bangalore.

Route 2

Well, call me crazy but these places were so irresistible that I made a third trip on my bike with another group. You know as they say, the mountains kept calling. Therefore, my third trip’s route was something like this:

Day 1 - Bangalore -> Hassan -> Sakleshpur Manjarabad Fort -> Kukke Subrahmanya -> Dharmasthala -> Ujire -> Charmadi -> Chikkamagalur <halt>.

Day 2 - Chikkamagalur -> Mullayanagiri -> Bababudangiri (diversion to Gaalikere and back) -> Hebbe -> Kallathigiri -> Kadur -> Arsikere -> Chennarayapattana -> Bangalore.

Route 3

Although the map doesn't show the route through the Kemmangundi forest, you need to take this route, the one that is shown in red color, as this is one of the best routes I have been in my entire life.

Now, I will begin with the first route and keep discussing the other routes in between. Few other spots are quite near to the routes, which I shall be mentioning while I talk about individual places. Yes, this is going to take a long time. You will not regret reading this in the end.

To begin with, we took off at around 5 AM in the morning like most of our long road trips. You need to take a left diversion from Tumkur Road on to the Hassan Highway. There are 5-6 toll plazas (not sure as I was pissed and I lost count). The road is brilliant, you can hit 150 - 160 kmph easily and this will take 2 hours to reach Hassan. No there are no cops. At 100 kmph, you will need 3 hours. The road is mostly two lane but for a few stretches.


Shettihalli Church-

Ruins of the Church

Just when you pass Hassan city, you need to take a 20 km diversion to reach Shettihalli Church. The road is narrow and you can take your car. The church is just walls and ruins and is said to be submerged when River Hemavathi is in full flow. Nice place to chill with friends. Just do not leave the bottles you chilled with and litter.

Manjarabad Fort-

Star shape of the fort is seen

From Hassan to Sakleshpur, it is a single road and it is not that good but the ride is amazing. We had breakfast at Surabhi restaurant in Sakleshpur and reached the Manjarabad/Manzerabad fort. Now, given that my GK is very bad, the details on the fort or any other place is on Wikipedia. The fort is in Star Shape and " fully covered in fog during monsoon ". I shall use this acronym FCFDM for that phrase for the rest of this blog. There is a 15 minutes trek/climbing stairs which parents might find tiresome, but it is worth the effort.

View from Manjarabad Fort

While climbing, the view of the road is nice for a pic but note that the road diversion to the left goes to Bisile Ghats and the right diversion is what will take you to Gundya. Gundya is a junction on Shiradi Ghats, the Ghats that you get while going to Mangalore. 


The Ghats are double lane wide roads, concrete in most places but no divider. The view and the drive is insane and FCFDM. The hairpin curves, the sounds of flowing waters can be heard throughout your drive until Gundya. The only minus is the huge number of trucks and buses that hinder your drive although wide roads will save your time. Our second and third trip schedule was however slowed down by the bad roads especially at Gundya. Huge potholes every 5 feet. However, it is said to be fixed in January.

Kukke Subrahmanya-

Shiradi Ghats - frequently slowed by trucks

Turn left at Gundya junction and in 22 km, you reach Kukke. The road has good tarmac, wider than two-way single lane traffic. Overtaking is what will help you from moving speed breakers. 

Once you reach the temple, you can see a huge mountain right behind the temple FCFDM. This is Kumara Parvata. Trekking this mountain is quite famous and very hard. Chances of getting lost are high and hence permission is required from authorities is what I have heard.

A view from Shiradi Ghats

From Kukke, you need to come back to Gundya to reach Dharmasthala, the road being bad at some places and a little narrow compared to Kukke road. If you wish to reach Mangalore from Kukke, instead of going back to Gundya to reach the highway, I suggest you take the shorter route via Kadaba that reaches Mangalore highway at Uppinangadi. The drive is amazing with small villages on the way while the route is mostly foresty.


For those of you, who wish to continue on the coast, do not mix it with Western Ghats trip as both places having visiting time in opposite seasons. However, from Mangalore you could reach Goa or Karwar, covering Panambur Beach, Malpe, TannirBavi Beach, Maravante Beach, Murdeshwar Beach, Apsarkonda Falls, Om Beach, Kudle Beach, Gokarna Beach and Karwar Devbagh Beach. There are many more to visit and information can be gained from the locals.

Charmadi Ghats-

A view from the top of Charmadi Ghats

Drive through the Charmadi Ghats

Back to the Western Ghats. To make things less complicated and confusing, I shall only talk about route one, here on wards until I complete it. After reaching Dharmasthala, you can go to Ujire. From Ujire, the Charmadi Ghats start immediately. The Ghats require an hour and a half to finish and once you reach the top you can see the view as in the image below:

At the top of the Charmadi Ghats

The small falls of a stream has crystal clear water. We collected this in a bottle and sipped it only to find, the true taste of mineral water. Until this time I had only heard them say in the advertisement of bottled water, as "finest waters collected directly from the mountains". The words were finally tested and proven.

The road is fine with a lot of hairpins and FCFDM. I suggest you switch on only your fog lamps and hazard light. Do not use headlights specially the high beam if it gets dark.
You can only see the two beams of your headlight and disrupt your view to drive. Follow the reflectors. There is one Bandaje Arbi falls that you need to trek from Samase that takes you to the top of the Charmadi range. 

At the end of the Ghats, you reach Kottigehara. From here, we took a left diversion towards Kalasa. This road is full of coffee estates and road was very bad. You can mostly drive at 40 kmph and it takes hell of a time to finish and reach Kudremukha forest check post.

View post monsoon

Kudremukha Forest-

Kudremukha Forest Check post

At that forest check post, you are issued a ticket that you are supposed to return at the other end of the forest. We reached the check post at 7:00 PM, which is a very bad thing to do. For one there is zero visibility and at night, thanks to the combined efforts of the falling darkness and the fog, you might as well close your eyes and drive. So I suggest you plan in such a way that you go through the forest when there is light as this is so far the best route of my life. You could continue with the blog with the text after the italics, as the part with the italics is just a little something I wanted to share.

At this stage, I would like to share what happened to us.  After the sun set, except on the main roads, nobody drives. Our teacher told us a story about how four of his students were told not to drive after sunset because of unexplained things that happen in these areas. They were engineers and never believed in such things. In the night, their car stopped and were helpless. Our teacher sent his men to help them out. They had to walk back and bring a mechanic to see what had happened. Surprisingly the car started as if nothing happened. Seconds after I tell the story my friend who was driving complains that he cannot change the gear. The lever is jammed in neutral and we missed a junction. We had to turn back but my friend said he would drive in reverse for the half mile to reach the junction, which is a bad idea as it is a forest and there are trucks at high speeds around corners that do not anticipate such foolish things. We decided to turn back and when the car is blocking the road, the lever is stuck again and this time it is very bad. With a truck on one side and a car on the other, no one had the balls to get off and stop them in pitch darkness in the middle of the forest. They could think we were possibly trying to stop and rob them and could run over us. We get down all frightened and move the car by pushing and after 20 mins he somehow managed to put into second gear, which was a boon for us as first gear, would be too slow a speed and third or fourth would make no sense in the Ghats. The next 35 km, we drove completely in second gear. Once we reached the temple premises, since we missed a turn again we were forced to change the gear due to the high gradient of the road. To our astonishment, we could change the gear so smoothly as if nothing had happened. Lesson learnt was never ever, ever drive the Ghats at night, if not for the unexplained things, at least for the fact that you could be easily robbed, killed by animals or for some other untoward incident. A possible rational explanation for what happened would be too much work done by the gearbox in a day especially on the bad Kalasa road.  

Now, during the second trip, the drive through Kudremukha Forest is unforgettable. It is a must drive route, at least once in a lifetime. You could start at Kalasa and head towards either Sringeri or towards Bajegoli and vice versa, the former being the better choice. It is just heavenly bliss and quite risky. You could stop at the Hanumanagundi falls, the Kudremukha viewpoint, and a couple of other streams and bridges en route and spend the night at the forest guesthouse. Trekking is also possible I heard, with permission.


Finally, we reached Sringeri and booked a room from the TTD Complex. The room was very cheap and equally bad. The view from the room was insane though. At the backside of the temple, you can visit the Tunga river and feed the fish (I'm meant literally). We then had breakfast the next morning and left for Agumbe. You could also plan a drive through Balehonnur if you want to reach Chikkamagalur as this drive is also a bliss.

Kundadri Hill-

On the way, we took an 18 km diversion to Kundadri hill. At the beginning, you can find a small falls or stream to your left that flows below the road. You can trek to some level but the stones are very slippery. This hill insanely hard to drive, as the road is a single road. Only one vehicle can go at a time. The gradient is as high as 18 deg. My car started sliding back at one point and I had to struggle to get it back on the road. Therefore, unless you are an experienced driver I suggest you not to go to this place. If you can drive on this hill, you can drive in any Ghats.

The top is a flat hill, very very windy and FCFDM. The weather changes faster than you can flutter your eyes. The edges are just pitfalls. This is a Govt. recognized place to find medicinal plants and has a Jain Temple at the top. Worth going to this place though.

Agumbe-

Agumbe is an hour from Sringeri and when once you the sunset viewpoint, there are two places where you can view the sunset. One to the edge of the road and the other at the end of a flight of stairs. Ironically, we reached this point early in the morning. Agumbe is directly exposed to the Arabian Sea by an aerial displacement of about 50 km and hence was a place of highest recorded rainfall in India in 1946.

The downhill road was partly concrete and tarmac for the remaining stretch. However, the road now is completely asphalted (which is not a smart move by the authorities) but the hairpins and curves are crazy to drive. It is said that the road takes you few thousand feet to Sea level within few kilometers and hence the gradient is very steep.

Regarding the second route, you can reach Agumbe from Mangalore via Padubidri and Karkala. This route is best for riders, as the road is very good and full of curves to give crazy cornering experience. Nice to ride but nothing great about the view. This would take you up hill to Agumbe and the view is amazing. If the sky is clear, it is said that you can see the distant Arabian Sea from the top.

Sunset view point

Sigandur and Linganamakki Dam -

A view of the Sharavathi Backwaters from the Sigandur Launch

Then we left for the next amazing destination, The Jog Falls. Details about the falls? Wikipedia. Too much to talk about it. From Agumbe, you take the road towards Tirthahalli, and reach Nagara. Here you take a diversion to Tumari, roads pass through small foresty areas and villages. Fuel is sold here in cans but quite expensive so I suggest you fill up your tank before this. Continue the road from Tumari to Sigandur. You could stop and visit the temple for blessings and food, or reach the Linganamakki Dam. I am not sure of the details but you can definitely visit the Linganamakki Dam. From here, you can take a motorized water transport from the Government or a ferry or what they call, the launch. Get your car/bike transported to the other side of the waters and then head towards Sagara. The launch ride is something not to be missed.

Jog Falls-

From Sagara you can reach the Jog falls and the road is crazy. You could stop for some pineapples sprinkled with masala, sweet as sugar. Jog falls, what can I say. I have no words. It is an experience. FCFDM. Eat, sip a little refreshing drinks, the cold weather tempts you to have some hot spicy food. Explore the falls till the other end where you can find the power generation plant.


The watch towers, the falls, four to name them, Raja, Rani, Rocket and Roarer, magnificent as they plunge from the huge height into the abyss, play the game of hide and seek with the clouds. The turbulent vortices formed in the clouds can be seen and sometimes felt on the road itself.


I believe they also have some shows at a theater and musical fountain that we never went to, though. There are guesthouses too to spend the night on the overhang of the falls that is seen in the picture above.


It was dark, we then made it to Shivamogga, and after fixing the flat, we spent the night there. From Shivamogga you could also stop at the Bhadra dam, Gajanur Dam, Sakrebyle elephant camp and jungle lodges. This was included in our plan but we could not make it.

Chikkamagalur-

We then headed and reached Chikkamagalur via Tarikere. Chikkamagalur. Too many things to say. Too much information. Too much to express. Although we did visit Hebbe and then Mullayanagiri on our car trip, I'll now talk about Chikkamagalur from the bike ride. Before I start with the places, just know that in the city, there are lot of hotels and lodges on the IG (Indira Gandhi) Road like Flora residency, Nandini residency that are budget lodges and there is Rest Inn for those who could spend a few grand. Many more on that road though. There is this place called Town Canteen, which is the equivalent of Bangalore’s CTR or Janata Hotel for mouthwatering south Indian food like the Masala Dosa, Idly so on…


Mullayanagiri-

Now, from the town canteen, head towards Kaimara Junction at 8 km from the city. You take an immediate left turn and stop at the check post. They charge you an entry fee to, guess where, Mullayanagiri (yeah man...!). This is the tallest peak  of Karnataka at 6300 feet from Sea Level.

Sign board at the Temple

From Kaimara you reach Attigundi junction. Just a few steps ahead of this junction you find the Sarpadari or the mountain trek starting point. Trek is quite hard as its only rocks and you need permission I have heard. The rainy cloudy weather with poor visibility makes it harder and scarier. You take a U-turn at the junction and head 5 km on Mullayanagiri Road towards Seethalayanagiri that is a sibling mountain, or go 8 km to Mullayanagiri.

From Seethalayanagiri, you could trek to the top of Mullayanagiri (trek down and again up to reach the top) or take a jeep that is seasonal, which costs 300 bucks per jeep and can hold 10 people. Lesser the people more the per head charge.

Check out the time lapse by my friend from Seethalayanagiri.

If you like to be adventurous, and your car is not a pussy and neither are you, you could drive to the top. The last 2 km is insanely scary and you can have the glimpse of what death feels like. Especially in monsoon. I am not even kidding. I strictly warn you if your cars are small and light, like alto, wagon R, i10. Do not take this risk. The road is very bad on the last narrow steep hairpin curve and the car would simply slide backwards. Bikes are fairly safe though.

The last stretch of the road is made from pavement blocks that is already messed up and it is so narrow that only one vehicle can pass at a time. So make sure you stop the opposite vehicle when you start the stretch, as it gets very ugly when you are stuck.

Once you reach the top, during the monsoon specially, the winds are very strong. It was almost trying to topple our car and me being skinny, I was almost blown away, almost. The visibility was so bad that I have to admit shamefully that we missed the top of the mountain. In our defense, it was fully covered and we had absolutely no idea that there was more to go. Therefore, in my second and third trips I covered the top too.

View from the Mullayanagiri Temple

It is a 15 min climb on the steps to the temple from the parking lot which is seen in the image. I cannot say anything about the view. You have to be there. The weather is quite on a roll here though, as you can see the difference between the pics above and below was taken within a span of 5 mins and I’m not joking.

Bababudangiri-


Remember the Attigundi junction where you made a U-turn? What if you head straight on the Attigundi road? Well you can find more goodies and that was a part of the third trip we made on the bike. The view along this route makes you stop at many points. So have some spare time for these stops. There are a lot of waterfalls en route and jeep services are available. They stop you to ask if you want to visit Jhari falls, Dabdabe Falls. You could also stop for Honnammana falls shown below.

Honnammana Falls en route to Bababudangiri

Finally, we reached a junction as shown below. The right road takes you to Bababudangiri mountain. The left road... we will come back.

The first stretch of the road to Bababudangiri is bad as it is asphalted and the second stretch has good concrete. You reach the gate of the Bababudangiri in the end and you can find the police station to the right and road splits again as you see in the image. You can check out the route on the signboard.

Bababudangiri Police Station Junction

The road on the right goes up to the Manikyadhara falls and you need to hire a jeep. Bikes can go i suppose. You can also inquire to visit the Bababudangiri viewpoint, Dattapeetham, Manik Dhara Darga and Deviramma Temple.

Galikere-


The road on the left takes you to Gaalikere. This is one of the beautiful roads you can find in Chikkamagalur and you can get a landscape view of the entire stretch of mountains.

En route Galikere

View from Galikere

That’s our photographer by the way. He’s missing in most of our pics for obvious reason. Almost all of the pics in this blog is stolen from him. 


Well, I do not suggest you take your car here, the road is very narrow and a dead end. You cannot turn your car back. The last part has a vertical muddy road that can be passed only by a two-wheeler.

Gaalikere is quite scary in the monsoon and it is fully covered in fog. Otherwise, the whole landscape is picturesque. This place, as the name translates to “Windy Lake” in Kannada, is almost invisible during monsoon, very windy, paradise and scary and mostly isolated.

Although, I suggest you to be little alert. A lot of black magic is done here and the locals try to scare you away. Just do not pick up an argument with anyone. We spent an hour or so and headed back to the police station and on our way we witnessed chicken being brought for sacrifice. Just saying.

Kemmangundi – Hebbe Road

Back to the Bababudangiri hill junction, we took the left road to reach Hebbe. The road is about 18 km to the forest through estates. The forest road is unpredictably bad with pits, mud and mini ponds made by flowing rivers and streams. Cars might not make it out successfully unless it has good ground clearance and heavy, especially during monsoon, the road is very slippery and muddy. Imagine these roads with almost no visibility. Very scary. The weather has its own mood swings and it could rain while being sunny at the same time. It happened.


Locals do warn you of the animals that could greet you on the way specially during the mornings and you need to be on the lookout for them. Make sure you don't take long stops in the middle of the forest road.

Mini falls, Rivers, views of mountains, forest canopy and animals. You name it, the road has it. Well it is famous as Kemmangundi forest for a reason. After 2 hours to cover 20 km and some stops in between, we made it to the Hebbe forest gate. These roads are FCFDM. You can see only the person standing next to you. 

Kemmangundi forest- Hebbe Junction

You are not allowed into the Hebbe gate as it is locked and guarded as a forest area. You need to reach further to the forest check post  and hire a jeep from the forest department.

Hebbe falls-


At the check post, we hired a jeep to Hebbe falls, a 45 mins ride one-way that costed 530 bucks per head for the whole trip. He takes you through heaven literally, briefs you about the place and leeches. Wait, leeches? Ah, who cares… yes? No. Believe me you have to freaking care about the leeches. I did not care much when I heard about them but the numbers were so huge, I did get a little paranoid. How many? Five leeches per second. I am not even kidding. It was like those horror movies where some creepy crawling insects that flow over you. Millions and millions of it.

Hebbe Forest trek path with millions of leeches

In my strong opinion, buy leech protective shoes in Chikkamagalur. If you are not that scared of them, you can carry a few cigarettes, limestone and turmeric and apply to that point where it sticks to you… it’s hard to pull it out once it attaches to you and has suckers at both the ends. So if you pull out from one side it attaches again from the other end. Yikes. Do not split them into two. Then your problem is doubled. I have heard applying salt at the attached point causes them to let go and die slowly. Buying a pair of Leech-proof socks and shoes available at Chikkamagalur is a good decision.

Heavenly jeep ride on the off-road trail to reach the Hebbe falls

Now about the falls, once he drops you at the estates, there is a 20 mins trek to the falls may be lesser during non-monsoon periods. You need to follow the path seen and cross the river 3 times and then reach Hebbe. The river has very slippery rocks with good current flow that might challenge easy trekking. A long stick to support could be of great help.


The walk through the forest is nothing different as seen on discovery channel or Nat Geo. Well it is almost a Tropical Forest and a Deciduous Rain forest.

River crossing - three times to reach the falls from the estate.

Once you reach the falls, which you do from the right side, the thundering sound of hundreds of gallons of water plummeting from 551 feet above in two steps and the consequent strong winds. You can barely hear your friends talking. 

Hebbe Falls - Upper step of the falls is fully covered

The falls is safer to play in post monsoon. However, during monsoon you need to have an eye out for leeches. You cannot get too carried away by the view. Oh and there is a jeep waiting for you to head back at the end of the whole trek once again and the journey through heaven to reach the check post. 

Distant view of the Hebbe Falls

You can get a distant view of the falls on the way back. It is seen in the above picture. Now, at the check post, if time permits, you can go to Kemmangundi viewpoint. There is good food available we heard.

Kemmangundi-Hebbe Forest Office junction

Kallathigiri falls-

During monsoon, I strictly suggest you take the road from Kallathigiri to reach Hebbe forest check post. The view on the side of the road is beautiful. On your way to Hebbe, a small diversion takes you to the Kallathigiri falls. There is a small temple at the other side of the falls. 

The water is freezing cold. I could not feel my legs after 10 mins in the water and my friend was brave enough to take a bath. No, he did not suffer pneumonia thankfully.

First stage of the falls above the temple

You can trek to the top of the falls I have heard and supposedly there are seven stages of falls. One stage is seen in the pic but neither did we have time nor the information that that was possible. The road from here to Hebbe is again, insane.

Muthodi Forest-

After the overwhelming Hebbe Falls experience, during the first trip, we did the Mullayanagiri adventure, reached Chikkamagalur city and spent the night there, tired from all the drama. Few leeches wished us sweet dreams but we said that it cannot happen if you stayed. As much as the stay was unplanned, so was our next place. The Muthodi forest of the Bhadra Tiger Reserve.

Muthodi Off-road Jeep Trail

25 km from the city through Ghats, great as usual, we reached the Range office at around 8:00. The first safari begins at 7:30, second one at 8:30 so we had to spend the 30 minutes enjoying the wilderness. 400 bucks a person for the safari, it was a typical off road jeep drive. Slipping through the muddy roads, we spotted peacocks, wild buffalo, few birds, elephant foot prints and the driver suggested we head back to safety, away from the elephants. No luck with the tiger though.

I suggest you take the 7:30 safari as the animals are out in the morning for a drink and nature calls, specially near the water bodies. The home-stay at the Muthodi forest is quite reasonable at one grand per home-stay that can easily accommodate five people. We could get Rice bath to eat which is by far one the best rice baths I have ever tasted. I ate more than twice of my normal breakfast quantity. 

We spent a little more time in the forest, walked down a few steps behind the office to view a river that had decent currents. The leeches wished us good morning between our toes and we headed back to the office and then to Chikkamagalur.

With this, our first trip came to an end and so did the happiness on our faces, each face bitter than the rest. We headed back to Bangalore, stopped at the bakeries in Hassan for which it is famous and ate at a dhaba for dinner. In case you want to head back from Kemmangundi, the road via Kadur, Arsikere is also beautiful but two lane roads without dividers. You can reach Hassan Highway at Chennarayapattana and drive back to Bangalore. The mountains are still calling and I shall continue to visit them for eternity.

I still relish every moment I spent in this trip and hence I have written a poem on our first trip. You can view it in the poem tab at the beginning.


Although this ends our adventures, our hearts still begin to race when we recollect and watch the videos and the pics we clicked.To give an idea of what I am talking about, you could watch the video of the consolidated version of all places or of the individual ones on our YouTube channel Trippy Engineers where we shall be uploading them shortly. 

Here is the video. I suggest you view this directly on YouTube with a quality of at least 480p or above and with headphones for better experience.

If you wish to inquire any information on the above places or need help while planning or share your views and suggestions, you can write to me at abhiram.bharadwaj95@gmail.com

Or reach me on    or on   .

Stay tuned for more on this blog. If you appreciate literature do check out my poem in Kannada in the other post on our July trip. 

If you are curious about the background of our adventures, here’s some information on it.

Our car during July trip. It was messier than it appears in the pic. 

Muthodi Forest Jeep Ride

That’s us - from the left – Akash, Anand, me on the right with Rakshith on the jeep and Abhiram LG behind the camera, also Bharath who could join us only at Hebbe falls due to his busy schedule.

View from Galikere

And that’s me. Cool landscape... huh? 😛

That’s my bike gang. From the left – Abhiram LG, Rahul, Suhas and me.

List of places in this blog.

1. Shettihalli Church
2. Sakleshpur
3. Manjarabad Fort or Manzerabad Fort
4. Kukke Subrahmanya
5. Dharmasthala
6. Charmadi Ghats
7. Dabdabe falls
8. Hanumanagundi Falls
9. Bandaje Arbi Falls
10. Kudremukha
11. Sringeri
12. Agumbe
13. Kundadri
14. Tirthahalli
15. Sigandur
16. Jog falls
17. Shivamogga
18. Kallathigiri Falls
19. Hebbe
20. Mullayanagiri
21. Chikkamagalur
22. Muthodi
23. Bhadra Tiger Reserve
24. Hassan
25. Kadaba
26. Padubidri
27. Karkala
28. Kundadri
29. Bajegoli
30. Ujire
31. Gaalikere or Galikere
32. Kadur
33. Arsikere
34. Shiradi Ghats
35. Mangalore
36. Gundya
37. Kumara Parvata
38. Uppinangadi
39. Panambur Beach
40. Malpe
41. TannirBavi Beach
42. Maravante Beach
43. Murdeshwar Beach
44. Apsarkonda Falls
45. Om Beach
46. Kudle Beach
47. Gokarna Beach
48. Karwar Devbagh Beach and Tagore Beach
49. Kottigehara
50. Kalasa
51. Linganamakki Dam
52. Jog falls
53. Bhadra dam
54. Gajanur Dam
55. Sakrebyle elephant camp
56. Kaimara
57. Attigundi
58. Seethalayanagiri
59. Dabdabe falls
60. Bababudangiri
61. Manikyadhara falls or Manik Dhara
62. Kemmangundi
63. Dattapeetham
64. Manik Dhara Darga
65. Deviramma Temple
66. Balehonnur
67. Bisile Ghats
68. Lingadahalli