Prologue

The mystique and magic of India lie in the tales from ancient times. Carved in stone are stories that take legends beyond the mythical. Religion, archaeology, mythology, even geology have defined culture, the architecture and art, akin to one’s heart. They speak to wanderlust souls about a poignant past.

I always wanted to witness that history which was fed into my head during my school days and all I used to do back then was to memorize those stories and pass the exams. A wanderlust is always hungry to explore new places and this time it was the chance to explore the glorious past of the Deccan plateau, a past which India is proud of. 

The plan was pretty much simple. I along with two of my office colleagues wanted to go out somewhere as the work at office was light and we could spare come time out travelling. After spending hours and hours on google maps, weather forecasts, we ended up deciding that we would cover North Karnataka. And what can be a better place than Hampi and its nearby areas. We three were able to get 5 days leave from office and this gave us a better chance to explore more, know the history even better.

So, after further planning, we narrowed down to the following places:

1. Hampi
2. Badami
3. Pattadakal

And the routemap was..

And let me introduce you to the riders now.

1. Vinay Kamatagi, his steed is a might RE Desert Storm 500. 
2. Bijoy Kundu, his steed is a glorious RE Thunderbird 350.
3. And lastly, me, Suvrajit Ganguly with my puny little Bajaj Avenger 180.

What we witnessed in the next 5 days of our journey was mindblowing, unimaginable and impressive work of art and architecture which simply words can not express. I would hence keep the narration in this travelogue to be at minimum and try to put as many pictures as possible. 

Day One:

The meeting point was decided to be at Tumkur road-NICE road junction, sharp at 06:30 AM and everyone was present there on time. We quickly checked all our luggage and re-ran the route through everyone so that we all were on the same page. I quickly took the first picture of the trip though.

We had tea in a nearby tea-stall and by 06:50 AM we were on our way. The first stop was decided to be on the outskirts of Chitradurga. Early morning cold breeze was gushing on my face and it was a wonderful feeling . No wonder the riders prefer to travel early morning! We were cruising at a speed of 75-80 on the wide NH7 and there was less to no traffic, which added to our pleasure.

By 10:30 AM we were at the outskirts of Chitradurga. We took the first break, and it was time for me to pull out my camera.

After the much needed heavy breakfast and a good break of 15 minutes, we took the exit to the Hospet State Highway. The road was really good, but was flooded with tucks and trolleys so it was taking us long time to overtake, hence eating up our ETA to Hospet. The road condition deteriorated after a while and with the increase in traffic, our speed fell down to 10-20 kmph. Some glimpses of the road to Hospet.

It was around 4 PM when we reached on the outskirts of Hospet. A long ride offcourse! And we were hungry offcourse too! We hence looked for one Dhaba and sat down, munching the delicious food, a bliss to the hungry stomach . Some snaps taken on the way to Hospet goes below.

Another 1 hour and we were at Hampi. It was late for us to take our motorcycles to the other side of the river because there was no bridge across, but only boats ply in between and the boat service closes by 6 PM. So, we decided to bunk on the other side, the temple side. Looked for one decent enough lodge and dumped our luggage. Some pictures to end the day with..

Day Two: Exploring Hampi

The day had finally arrived to exploring the ruins of the majestic Vijaynagar Empire. We woke up by 07:00 AM and by 07:45 AM we were ready for a long and eventful day. Had a quick and delicious breakfast and we were out to explore Hampi by 09:00 AM. And as I mentioned earlier in the travelogue, I would not waste much of time by writing the history of the place. Let the pictures do most of the talking here. So, the pictures from Hampi are presented before you now.

Day Three: More of Hampi

The first thing we wanted to do today was to experience the sunrise from the Monkey Temple hill. Though we were not sure if we would be able to see a perfect one because the it was cloudy yesterday. We woke up by 04:30 AM and were on our way to the hill by 05:00 AM. We parked our bikes at the base of the hill and began our ascent (odd 300 steps to the top). We found a sweet spot atop the hill and waited for the the sunrise eagerly. Due to clouds, we were not able to get a clear shot of the sunrise but what we saw was still worth all the pain of waking up early morning and the 300 steps ascent. Here are the pictures of what we saw.

After spending some quality time experiencing the sunrise, we came down and went for breakfast. Please note that there are no ATMs in Hampi. You have to travel 5 Kms approx. to Anegundi to get access to an ATM. We were kind of short on cash and hence planned to have out breakfast at Anegundi so that we can take out some much needed green while we have our breakfast. Some pictures of Anegundi attactions.

We went back after a heavy breakfast and got ready for another long day. Our plan was to cover the Sanapur lake (around 3 KMs) and the rest of the ruins of Hampi. The pictures of the lake and the ruins of Hampi goes below.

Woowed by the level of architecture and after the long and tiring day, it was time for us to take some much needed rest and plan for the next day. Sitting by the Tungabhadra river and munching the delicious frittata, ideas were flying around the table i.e. whether to continue as per our original plan and explore the land of Chalukyas or move towards Hospet and see the engineering marvel, the Tungabhadra dam. Some lengthy discussions and a particular someone giving lengthy lectures about cave architectures made our mind decide to stick to our original plan. So, it was an early checkout for us from the shack because we had to cover multiple places in one day.

Day Four: Exploring the land of Chalukyas: Badami and Pattadakal

We had kept our luggage ready the last night before going off to sleep. Woke up by 04:00 AM today and got ready in super duper speed. By 04:45 AM everyone was ready to check out. Any by 05:00 AM we were on the road to Badami. I knew we were going to ride into the sunrise and hence I kept my camera outside. And I was not wrong either. Here are some shots from the early morning ride.

We came across a big sunflower field shortly after sunrise and could not resist stopping by and clicking few pictures.

By 09:30 AM we were at Badami. Badami being a small town, it was very easy for us to find a decent enough lodge to dump our luggage. We got freshened up, had breakfast and made our way to the Badami caves. The next set of pictures are from the Badami caves. Hats off the cave architecture here!

We wanted to cover the rest of the Badami (the second hill range of the twin hill) in the afternoon and hence decided to make our way to Pattadikal.The road that leads to Pattadikal is not good, though it has very less traffic. A lot of potholes and the tarmac has almost been lifted at places. Anyways, we were greeted in Pattadikal with a big compound, dotted with temples. Another iconic work of architecture!

We had lunch in Pattadikal and came back to Badami by 03:00 PM. This time we wanted to visit the second hill and experience sunset from there. Some pictures goes below.

We had another awesome day and we needed much needed sleep. We had a heavy dinner and crashed. The plan was to leave early next morning and reach Bangalore by night.

Day Five: Home Run

This leg of our journey was pretty much boring and I put the camera inside this time because my soul wanted a ride without any disturbance . So, there is nothing much to write here as well. We started from Badami as early as 05:00 AM because we wanted to cover as many KMS as possible out of 530 KM to Bangalore before the sun rays go to max. Our first stop was at Hubli for a breakfast and the next stop was at Chitradurga (the later one being a longer one to settle down the soreness of the saddle ). By 06:00 PM we were at the outskirts of Bangalore. This marked the end of another awesome and fruitful trip and the memories from this one would prevail for quite some time now. 

THE END.