Visiting Chickmagaluru and its surroundings

It was really a long time since we travelled and Sush desperately needed a change. My sister was visiting us and we planned to visit some place. The long hiatus was due to member addition to the family and it was junior's first outing too. Guess, he liked it as he was super excited in all places we went. We searched many places considering him and we zeroed in on Chickmagaluru for its weather and proximity to Bangalore.

The next challenge was place to stay. The most obvious choice was to book a homestay, but location and amenities took precedence. I contacted few, told my preferences and finally settled for Coffee Bean Homestay. The host were super helpful and they had a kid recently . So they knew how to take care of kid and helped us in preparing sepbarate food for the kiddo .

So, the junket was for 3 days and we left on June 5th early morning. We didn have any itinerary as such to visit mandatory points of interest. We decided to just go with flow and depending on junior's behaviour , visit places accordingly.

We wanted to take break at Mayura restaurant owned by Karnataka Govt., but google directed us to shabby local restaurant at Channarayapatna. We had breakfast and cursory look around got to know, sharavanabelegola was just 12 kms from there. We hit the road and visited there. We didn take the steps to Bagawan Baahubali statue, but took the smaller one to the Basadi's. Spent some quality time there and reached down in 90 min. . Next, I thought we can visit the famous Rosary church as Shettihalli near Hassan. I thought it was near to the main road and we could just pass through. But due to recent rain, the road was slushy and I didn want to take risk. We just walked till the ruins and captured some insta photos. Could see some couples there. It was deserted when we went.

Next, I had option to take either Belur or Halebeedu route to CKM and I chose latter as we thought we could visit less known Belvadi Hoysala temple. We had food in Halebeedu as all were famishing and junior was awake. BTW, he does not like to sit in the car and if he is awake, its time for pit stop. Post lunch, visited Halebeedu temple and bought raw mango notwithstanding the sight of it. Next was Belvadi temple, which was equally nice compared to Halebeedu and there was absolutely no crowd. We 4 were the only living beings among intricate stone carvings. We spent more time here as it was cool and junior liked to crawl around.

There was no other place of interest and I decided to reach homestay before it gets dark. We reached, when they were serving hot coffee, prepared from coffee beans harvested locally. After a tiring day, it tasted like elixir. Checked into rooms and relaxed for sometime. We were served Pakodas in the evening and nice dinner followed it. Next day we had plans to visit Shringeri.

We got up quite early, thanks to He-Man. Oh, I call him He-Man btw. We were up and I went to get coffee to others. It was chilly outside and I went for a walk with him. Breakfast was delicious too and we left to Shringeri by 10. There was a cross cut from the homestay and we saved some miles. The roads are beautiful and it took 2 and half hours to reach. I was hoping they dont close the temple before we reach and fortunately we had ample time. We had tasty temple food and I saw dark clouds hovering above us. We left and reached homestay in the evening with pit stops to take photos of the kid.

Next day was our final day here and post breakfast we left. En-route we visited Rama temple at Hiremagaluru. Hiremagaluru Kannan, who is an Indian litterateur, priest, writer and television personality is from the same place. There are some nice quotes inside the temple. Next we visited Belur which we missed on Day 1. After finishing temple run, had lots of jackfruit and raw mango.

We decided to stop for lunch, whenever he wakes. Had lunch at Swathi Delicacy which is one of the known places in NH7. We also bought few veggies, sold by villagers outside and we reached Bangalore by 5 PM.

Some photos below,