Many blogs had complained about the quality of the road to Koratagere from Dobbspet we hence decided to try out an alternate approach. We consulted Google earth and decided to proceed up to a village called Nelahalu which is on the eastern side of the National Highway and is accessed by electing to turn on to the right at the median on the National Highway at 90 Km stone, and entering the Service road and proceeding about a kilometer or two to the north to reach Nelahalu.
(A motorbike turning into the road to Tovinakere from Nelahalu)
At Nelahalu a road branches off to the east to Tovinakere which is exactly 10 km from Nelahalu. On proceeding another kilometer along the same road we encounter a village called Jonigarahalli and just beyond the village a road veers off to the left to Siddarabetta. Siddarabetta is about 8.5 km from Jonigarahalli.
After Jonigarahalli village the road branching off to left to Siddarabetta
The advantage of this route to Siddarabetta from Bangalore is that one travels on a very good road - the National Highway 4(48) for most of the distance. The road from Nelahalu to Tovinakere is quite bad at places but is mostly in quite a serviceable condition. One has to negotiate only 10 km of bad road and that too till Tovinakere and then again the road from Jonigarahalli to Siddarabetta - a distance of 8 km is in very good condition.
Just to test out the condition of the road from Siddarabetta to Bangalore via Koratagere-Uradigere-Dobbspet, we chose that route for our return trip and we felt that we had enjoyed the other route through Nelahalu-Tovinakere-Jonigarahalli better and felt it was more comfortable. I have to mention here that on the Bangalore-Nelahalu-Siddarabetta route one travels about 8 or 9 Km more but this is offset by the road being very much better.
We made the trip by a motorbike and hence has mobike riders as target audience. I specifically say this because mobikes are exempted from paying any fee or waiting in a queue at all toll stations enroute. Car owners may have to shell out a payment of 25 rupees thrice, adding to a total expense in tolls of about 75 rupees.
I was joined in this trek by my former colleague Karthik who works for the Geological Survey of India as a photographer. He is junior to me by almost thirty years and has a greater agility and fitness to negotiate the hill slopes, and at crucial times, he was very helpful as he carried my knapsack in addition to his own.
We left my friend's house at Rajajinagar precisely at 6:30 a.m. with the kilometer reading at 83000. About 5.5 ltrs of petrol was filled and our first stop was at Kamat Upachar at a reading of 83044. This Highway Restaurant comes about 1.5 km before Dobbspet.
The restaurant was of average quality and for a plate of Masala Dosa and a plate of two idlis and a vada and one coffee we paid roughly 90 rupees.
An adjacent building with an attractive facade sported the name 'Fleurs - Clean Toilets'. We were pleasantly surprised to find this announcement, but inside the ugly Indian had violated the wash basins with paan spittle and had not taken care to wash off the stains. There were empty mineral water bottles strewn about too.
At the 90 km stone (uprooted by vandals?) we crossed the median and entered the service road to Nelahalu. Karthik had heard of a Narasimhaswami Temple at a place called Seebi in the vicinity of Nelahalu (about a mile further up along the highway). He was keen to visit the temple and offer prayers there. We hence spent about 20-30 minutes there before heading along the road to Tovinakere.
Distant view of Siddarabetta at the rear
Continued in Part 2 ...
1 comment:
A very interesting and informative blog. I appreciate the initiative taken by Mr. Deepabellur
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