The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page - St. Augustine: BAHUBALI

Route : Bellandur - Nelamangala - kunigal - Shravanabelagola - kunigal -Nelamangala -Bellandur

Round Trip : 339 KM

Time : July 26th 2015; 6:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Riders :
Me on Thunderbird 350
Sathish on Thunderbird 350

Places to Visit:
Shravanabelagola (Vindhyagiri & Chandragiri hills)

I should say: it is one of my dream place from many months. Many times thought of visiting this place, recently released Bahubali movie made my thoughts stronger. Finally today got the chance to visit with Sathish. We have already planned to go for a trip 3 weeks back, but my project is at last stage and I had been working on weekends too. Finally my project is finished and we ready for the trip. Sathish ready for any place, so I suggested my dream place for stress relief ride after 2 months of continuous work.

Yesterday only I got it serviced my bike, it is very inconvenient to go to bike service every 3K KM or 3 months duration. I wish feature bikes need servicing only after 1 year gap or 10K KM like in new cars. In rainy season we must do bike wash frequently, otherwise lot of dirt accumulates at the counter sprocket.

Brief History about Gommateshvara statue:

Gommateshvara Bahubali statue located on Vindhyagiri hill is the main attraction and also the Jain temple on Chandragiri hill (both hills are in walk-able distance). Bahubali statue built by the Ganga dynasty minister and commander Chamundaraya, it is a 57-foot (17 m) monolith. It was built in around 983 A.D. and is one of the largest free standing statues in the world and Asia's biggest monolith.

Based on reviews I understand, no Shoes allowed to top of hill and so we have to decided to go early and come back by afternoon. Started at morning 6 AM and joined Sathish at Marthahalli. Small drizzle started exactly when we started but blues are clear, so we have not worried much about rain. using mobile GPS we have successfully reached to Tumakur highway, from here on-words no GPS needed as clear sign board available. We have stopped for a small break at the tumakur road toll gate. We have witnessed group(10+) of Super bikes thrilling rives. After a 10 mins break, we have resumed the ride and decided to stop at Kunigal for the famous Thatte idli.

We don't find a decent hotel on the highway near kunigal, it seems we have to go inside the village (10km diversion from Highway) for Thatte idli. We had breakfast near yadiyur and then continued ride without any breaks. At 9:30 AM reached to final diversion at Hirisave and stopped for few mins, next is 20 KM village route. Though its village route, well maintained and mainly no speed bumps and lot of curves. Reached destination by 10 AM.

For bikes special parking space available and car parking is on road side's. No parking fee for 2-wheeler but seems collecting for 4-wheeler. Parking is exactly adjacent to the big pond which is between the two hills.Walked into the main hill and we can see the line of carved steps to the top of the hill. Dropped our shoes at counter (3/- for pair) and with socks moved on to hill climbing. In summers generally it will be so hot that we cant walk on bear foot. good that hawkers selling socks and hats and also "dolis" available to carry old people to the top of hill.

Doli service:

We started climbing and taking pics randomly, steps are so steep at some places. we stopped for a minute at two places and reached to the first stage of temple in 20 mins. Still the statue is not visible and we are confused weather are we on the right hill or not. From here, we can see the opposite Chandragiri hill clearly and there is no statue on it either. later we understand there is lot to go further. We have seen some ancient sculptures writings protected by glass protection from Govt. though we don't understand anything from it, captured into few snaps.

Map details:

600+ steps:

Inscriptions:

After entering into the main temple compound, we can see the top of the Bahubali statue, now we are happy. Not much crowded on weekend also. Priest's still doing poojas and tourist busy with photography. No entrance fee for temple and camera. We both also took the priest blessing and then started our photography. Really master piece of art made by the kings era, now-a-days we cant see such a well crafted design being made. Each curve is well crafted like machine made design. we can see the broad and pumped chest looks so powerful and yet face looks so peaceful doing the meditation. Statue is really Marvaless and everyone should see this . After 30 mins of photography at 11:30 AM we have decided to leave. Drinking water facility is available on top of the hill (not sure how much hygienic).

Mighty Bahubali :

We had tender coconut (20/-) near the shoe counter. Coconuts are so fresh and with full of water, after drinking about 2 mins, we looked each other wondered how much more water inside, dude believe or not we finished it very hard even with full thirsty. There are many shops selling small Bahubali statue models and thought of buying one. All models are actually made with machine press with some kind of stone clay not the hand made. small piece is around 30/-. Near the bike parking, old lady selling the hand made stone models, but those are not small ones. I have bargained and brought below one for 100/-.

We have decided to skip the Chandragiri hill and started return journey. Thought of having food near Grand Adigas, but we reached there by around 12:30 PM and we are not so hungry, so we decided to have lunch in Bangalore. Took another break to have some corn. Traffic near Yeswanthpur entrance is very bad, better to take NICE road next time. luckily we escaped the heavy traffic and reached Marthahalli around 3 PM and decided to have food at home only. We signaled bye-bye to each other and landed at home with in 10 mins. That's how we finished yet another great BAHUBALI ride.

Random pictures at different places: