Blr - Sub - Dhms - Hornadu - Kollur - Mrdhwara - Gokarna - udipi - gyoor

The western ghats is surely a treat to visitors, as well as drivers. Except some bad stretches like shiradi ghat etc, everywhere else is a scenic drive, with an awesome climate and surroundings. Hope you had an enjoyable drive as well as a beautiful trip. Waiting for more details.

Thanks surya. Thanks for your encouragement.

Thanks NMP..

Yes, definetly western ghats is good scenic beauty.

contd....

Started Subrahmanya at 11:35. took the route via Gundya , event though the other route is < 6kms, I preferred this the route is good.

Subrahmanya - Dharmasthala route map

After Gundya, drizzling started, enroute to Dharmasthala after diverting right of NH-48( bangalore - mangalore highway) lot of places we are seeing people selling jackfruit and pineapple - even though it is drizzling, we stopped at one of the spots and bought jackfruit, you know how much for 20 /- 1/4th of big jackfruit nearly 30 pieces that would be nearly 120/- in bangalore.. continued after small pit stop for buying , now the drizzle converted to a big rain, for 1/2 hr it rained heavitly. By the time we are nearing dharmasthala, the rain stopped . cool. After entering Dharmasthala , to your left you will parking arrow pointing towards left, pass that and move slowly to find "Rajathadri Guest House --->" sign board to your right and proceed towards right, this is the accomodation provided by the devasthanam, per room 200/- checked in , luckily rooms are available and that too ground floor, there is lot of parking space available back side of the guest house, parked the car and enquired about temple timings, but we just missed it, it is closed and only in the evening 6 it will get re opened, so decided to have food and small nap.

Food : Next to the guest house there is canteen named "Annapooneswari", had meals, typical karnataka meals, but good and went to bed.

Dharmasthala Temple Details

Guest house where we stayed.

enroute to Subrahmanya

Dharmasthala Annapoorneswari canteen next to Rajathadri.

After having a small nap, went to temple around 5:15p.m. and stood in the queue, waiting for the gates to open. at exactly 6:00 gates were opened, and we found there is a huge crowd, I think the huge crowd is due to long closing time of the temple. It took for us 1 hr for the darshan and came out went to annapoorneswari , had light tiffin and went to bed, thinking that if I get up at 5:30a.m. then I will go to temple, or else start to Kalasa/Hornadu.

Whole night was heavily raining.

Next day I could not get up at 5:30, but my parents got up and went for darshan, I got up around 6:30 and got ready and next destination is Kalasa/Hornadu and today's stay destination is Sringeri, Kalasa is around 140 kms + 8kms to Hornadu and from there sringeri is around 70 kms

Dharmasthala Temple Gopuram.

Dharmasthala to Kalasa/Hornadu (charmadi Ghat)

At the top of charmadi ( full fog)

good write up and nice pictures..... keep them coming

Thanks Surya for your patience....

cont....

Time : 8:30 a.m.

place : Dharmasthala

Reading : 24522

Destination : Kalasa\Hornadu

The route is via charmadi ghat you can find it here Dharmasthala - Kalasa\Hornadu

Its a beautiful ghat section, previously I went through this section in jan, it was beautiful all around. Now it is more beautiful, light drizzling, cloud passing by, here are some of the photos,

please excuse, I am not a professional photographer.

Road condition of charmadi....

Top of Charmadi Ghat

Water falls ...... actually around this, there is a beautiful mountain hidden in the mist

Mist everywhere....

Climbing down the hill towards kottigehara.

At Kottigehara, take left to go to Kalasa/ Hornadu, straight to sringeri / chikmangalur.

After beautiful scenic drive, we reached kalasa by 11:32a.m. and meter reading 24613 - 91 kms in 3 hrs., This temple god is shiva and very ancient temple, some says swayambhu... ,as there is no crowd we could finish the darshan in 15 min and straight ahead to Hornadu Annapoorneswari, which is 8kms and reached by 12:00p.m., had darshan and heard that harathi at 2:00 p.m. so had quick lunch at annadam satram and came back to temple for harathi.

MAATA ANNAPOORNESWARI.... really annapoorneshwari, felt like begging and begged before her, the statue of ammavaru is really amazing and one should say dasoham to her...

I could not find their website, but could find some info in wikipedia here

Harathi started at 2:30, which is really wonderful, your both eyes are not enough to watch that event.It took around 45mins for that event and I recommend to watch whoever goes there.

Started Sringeri at 3:30p.m. and reached sringeri at 6:10 p.m. reading : 24687 - kms 66kms

Hornadu - Sringeri

One can find clear signs of route to sringeri. For about 10 kms it will be a single vehicle road which is thickly covered with trees, feels like we are going in the centre of the jungle and after that we it is again same ghat road cont. from kottigehara to sringeri.

Road Conditon: Good in terms of ghat roads....

View from Annapoorneswari temple

Entrance of annapoorneshwari temple

Jackfruit tree near Hornadu

Coffea plant enroute to Sringeri

Charmadi ghat - enroute to kalasa

Hey very detailed write up. I truly enjoyed the pics. Through these pics, I relived memories of my trip few years back