Skip to main content

Almatti - Bagalkot Heritage Drive - Day 1


Bagalkot Heritage Drive:

November, just when the cold breeze starts cooling up the environment which is the ideal time for going on long drives especially to hot regions like Bagalkot. This was yet another trip but not until experiencing the 1500years old chalukyan world, it was just like passing by the Ancient Indian world. I must say that, this was not another boring heritage drive, but most exiting trip of prehistoric India.

Though this was a pretty long drive but never felt boring, covering 1,150km in 3 days 4 nights. The experience was so long that it can’t be written in a single post so I’ll be writing in several sections.

Bagalkot Heritage Drive - Day 1 – Almatti

Day1: Bangalore - Tumkur - Chitradurga - Hospet - Kushtagi - Ilkal - Hungund - Almatti back waters - Rock Garden - Fountain Garden – Kudala Sangama
Distance covered: 521km
Places visited: Almatti back waters, Rock Garden (Silver Lake, Reptile Park, & Sunrays Park), Musical Fountain Garden

Entrance Plaza

Travelogue: It was Friday (TGIF) & we started from Bangalore early morning before the sunrise & zipped in through the NH4, awesome road should be the best one at least in Karnataka, can easily drive through 150km/h till half the way. On the way enjoyed the sunrise on NH4 & had breakfast on the way which we packed from home. Reached Chitradurga at around 10am & then the road condition started changing a bit & it was some NH13 which leads till our destination Almatti, but still no problem with the roads throughout the journey, passed by Hospet & again it was still a 4-lane NH. After passing by Kudala Sangama you pass by the Mallaprabha river bridge & just after that you have to take a left turn away from the NH13, into the Almatti road, Almatti is around 7km from the NH13.

Roads of Almatti
We passed by the Krishna river through the Almatti dam gates and then a huge Almatti gate & then entered one of the best well planned roads with Beautiful 4-lane roads with 3-line trees & footpath on both the sides & garden at both the ends, Bangalore should learn from these model roads.
Almatti Map
The road ended at a huge circle where we parked our vehicle & started to do some walk to the back waters of Almatti Dam. The view from here was not that good as it was covered with huge fence & no proper view point, so just spent 10mins over here, & already sun getting ready to go beyond the water’s.
Circle at Almatti end
Almatti Dam Backwaters
Almatti Dam Backwaters
Entrance for the Dam bridge, not open for public.
We then left the place & reached Rock Garden, the gate of Rock garden itself was so beautiful on both the sides there are huge faces of different cultures lifting the hands on the front are gents & on the other side are the ladies. It was very creative the way it was built.
Rock Garden Entrance
Rock Garden Entrance
As you enter you find the serene silver lake, there is also pedal boating available here.
Inside the Rock Garden

Silver Lake, Rock garden
As we passed by the lake we entered the reptile world & there are huge dinosaurs built with well paved walkways throughout the garden. There are many other parks like snake world, Animal world, bird world, butterfly world, & Adivaasi/Tribal World which we couldn’t cover since it was already getting dark, so we directly went to the sunrays park.
Silver lake view from the opposite side
View of Silver lake from the other side - HDR
Structures Inside Rock Garden
Reptile Park
There is actually a view point constructed to view the sunrays park. Sunrays Park was totally worth after walking around half km from the rock garden entrance, by this you can imagine the vastness of the whole rock garden, it must be around 50acres, so one needs to spend at least half day to cover the whole Rock garden. Having covered the 3 important spots in the rock garden we went to the Krishna garden which is exactly opposite to the rock garden entrance, but unfortunately it was closed as it was already around 6pm.
People of different cultures holding hand around the Indian map/flag, Sunrays park
Sunrays park view from viewpoint
On the way to Sunrays park
walkways inside the park near the reptile park
well paved walkways inside the park

Reptile Park
Pavements made for sitting and relaxing in the center of the park
Park Square
So we directly headed towards the Musical Fountain garden. There is a huge entrance plaza constructed at the entrance of the park which gives a palace look with semicircular corridor with RCC columns & arches. The corridor is 6 m (20ft) wide. The actual musical fountain is again around 500m from the parking but you won’t get bored as there are neatly designed parks & fountains (still under construction) all through the way.
Main Entrance Plaza
Main Entrance Plaza
Infront view of the Musical Fountain entrance 
Finally we reached the ticket counter & had to wait for 30mins before the musical dancing fountain started which was at 7.30pm. There is a huge circular stadium built for it with the fountain at the center. The seating was pretty well planned to give a perfect view of the event. It was quite a good pass time in the evening relaxing in front of the open air musical fountains. It ended at 8pm.
Musical Fountain
View of the Hydro power station
Musical Fountain Stadium
Almatti Dam (all gates closed)
Some facts about the musical fountain: Musical Dancing Fountain is designed on five grids circular grid having 20 m diameter at center & four elliptical grids measuring 20 m & 7.20 m as major & minor axis respectively. The seating galleries are placed around the fountain with a grade, so that uninterrupted vision is achieved by every spectator. There are four such galleries orthogonal to each other.
Just for information there is a 77acre park next to the musical fountain, getting constructed with Mughal garden, Italian & French gardens.
Entrance tickets were Rs10 for both rock garden & musical fountain & for camera it was Rs25.
By 8.15pm we started towards the hotel which we booked at Jain Yatri nivas hotel, Kudalasangama, which was around 30km. By the time we checked into hotel it was 9.30pm & had packed our dinner from home which we had at the hotel, north Karnataka hard roti’s, which ended our day 1. As we carried GPS devices with us it was not a big deal to find out the routes even at night.

Day 2 – Aihole Pattadakal Badami to be continued…. 


Labels:
Location: Dam Inspection Rd, Karnataka, India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Micromax Canvas 2 A110 Hands on Review

Micromax Superfone Canvas 2 A110(Jet Black/Calm White): After using it for a week, I felt pretty good about my decision for going with a new brand like Micromax over the mighty Samsung Galaxy S Duos and Sony Tipo Dual. Particularly not sure about its reliability but the build quality looks pretty decent. Below are my ratings for the phone aka Phablet. Build Quality (8/10): The build quality was above my expectations keeping in mind of the price tag, from front it looks just like a Galaxy high end smartphone like SIII or Note II. It has a matte finished back cover which is good for protection towards scratches and there is a metal casing all around the phone, which adds up the beauty of the phone. One more advantage of this phone is it has a touch home button instead of a hard button as seen in iPhone and Galaxy phones. Camera (5/10): [8MP autofocus (Tap to Focus), dual flash, supports up to 3264x2448 pixels, Panorama] Don't fall for the specs as it is said...
113 comments
Read more

Trip to the Misty Hills of Kudremukh

Trip to the Misty Hills of Kudremukh: About Kudremukh: Kudremukh National Park is the second largest protected wildlife area in the Western Ghats (around 600 sq.kms). Three important rivers of Karnataka, the Tunga, Bhadra and Netravathi are said to have their origin in this area. Mist covered roads in Kudremukh All these can be reached within 80km. We first started with sringeri, which is famous for its Vidyashankara temple built in1342 AD. Reached Sringeri at 11am. There is a bridge Sri Vidya Teertha Setu across the Tunga river which connects from Vidyashankara temple to Sringeri Mutt. We had prasadam (lunch) at the mutt. There is one more temple called as Sharadamba temple which has lovely architecture built inside and photography is banned inside. The whole temple area is kept very clean and it was a pleasant experience to spend time in the temple complex. We then left at 12.30pm towards Kudremukh. Vidyashankara temple  Vidyashankara temple  Vidyas...
Post a Comment
Read more

5 Places in Maharashtra you must visit atleast once

5 places in Maharashtra you Must Visit At Least once Maharashtra is a state best described as a land of cave temples, hilltop forts, and Mountains. Best time to explore them are the monsoons and post monsoons, definitely not in summers. These 5 places in Maharashtra are a must visit, 5. Lavasa The first planned hill station in India and probably the most controversial for the deforestation reasons. Even the road from Tehghar dam till Lavasa is spectacular with forest cover and green valleys. Best time to visit is during monsoons and post monsoons. Best time of the day is after the sun goes down with the entire city lighted up, and the musical fountains adding more flavour to the evening. Lavasa City during night For more information on Lavasa CLICK HERE 4. Lonavla-Khandala Unlike Mahabaleshwar, Lonavla is a monsoon hill-station. Best time to visit is during monsoon and post monsoons (July-Dec) when the entire hill range turns into lush green grasslands and num...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lalbagh Flower Show Jan-2012

Lalbagh Flower Show 2012 - 100th Exhibition Event :            January 20 till 29, all roads lead to the Glass House in Lalbagh Botanical Gardens. Around 10 lakh visitors are expected to visit the gardens and see a visual treat, thanks to the Mysore Horticultural Society. This flower show is the 100th exhibition of the Mysore Horticultural Society that was started by the then Superintendent of Lalbagh GH Krumbiegal in 1912. Major Attractions this time include Buddha Stupa, Floral dance forms, Floral Flow, Florance Flora Show and Diagonal floral Lines. Buddha Stupa Early Hours crowd at the Glass House GH Krumbiegal Visited the show on Sunday noon (22nd), on that day it recorded a whopping 100,000 visitors, making it difficult to capture the rich colors at the show. I could somehow manage to get a few colorful pics. It was more beautiful and creative than the previous flower shows held here. Entered the Glasshou...
7 comments
Read more

Masinagudi Jungle Trails : A Road Trip to Nilgiris

Masinagudi Jungle Trails : A Road Trip to Nilgiris - II All set and packed for a long road trip to Ooty, left Bangalore late at 8am. What to pack for a long road trips?? Click here The motive of the road trip was to voyage around less explored and adventurous places, rather than popular and easily accessible tourist destinations. To avoid Mysore traffic, we tried to explore another route from Mandya through Somnathapura to Nanjangud, but it turned out to be more tiring and longer route. We reached Bandipur forest check post only by 2pm. Driving through Bandipur forest is a pleasure, with good road conditions, greenery around and spotting wildlife was more exciting. In an intention to spot wildlife, and to maintain silence in the forest, we were driving steadily at 15kmph speed without using horn. We could spot a lot of deer herds, elephants, black bear, boar, Grey Langur monkeys and peacocks.  Peacock spotted on the Bandipur Mudumalai stretch Elephant...
Post a Comment
Read more