I had heard/imagined lot of things about Chikkamagalur, Bababudan giri, Mullaayyana giri and other places. When we landed in Chikkamagalur, we had no idea what to see and what to expect. One of our contacts in the city said that since the roads to some of the 'tourist spots' are not very good, it is better to hire a taxi and visit them. Thre were about half a dozen "Tourist spots" and he said that it would take a full day to see all of them. I have visited many 'Tourist spots' in my life and my experience is that always the route to the place is much better than the place itself! The so called tourist spot, though sometimes is very good, mostly turns out to be a crowded place with hundreds of vehicles parked haphazardly in the vcinity and shops selling food stuff, trinkets etc dominating the place.
We decided to visit just one famous place called 'Mullayyana Giri' close to Chikkamagalur and then proceed to Arasikere via Belur. Mullayyanagiri, though very beautiful, fitted my imagination of a 'tourist spot' perfectly!
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| The outskirts of Chikkamagalur captured during my early morning walk |
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| The 'Mullayyana Giri' range. You drive almost till the peak through something worse than city traffic on the winding narrow road, park at a dusty crowded parking lot and climb to the peak. About 300 steps. If you can forget what you just read and only concentrate on what you see around, it is beautiful and breathtaking. I can't do that. Since I knew that the end would be crowded, I got down from the taxi on the track seen at the bottom of this picture and reached the peak climbing 'off track'. Turned out to be a very good decision though I was out of breath, and I thoroughly enjoyed the short trek! |
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| The 'Kurinji' flower which comes into bloom once in twelve years. This was a bloom year but there was no bloom. Only stray flowering plants. In full bloom the hill range is supposed to look like the picture below, which I picked from the net. |
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| View from the 'off track' climb |
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| The parking lot below the peak. (From the net) |
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| View from the top. |
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| One of the 45 'Madanika' sculptures in the Belur Temple. |
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| A part of the panel. These type of panels form the bottom two rows all around the temple. |
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| The three of us in front of 'Halebeedu' temple complex. |
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| 'Halebeedu' |
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