Hampi Road Trip (Dec 2020)

Day 1 - Pune to Badami

We left from Pune at 5:45am. We took a halt at Sai International fast food joint near Kolhapur for breakfast. Our next halt was at a small village at Karnataka-Maharashtra border. We saw a neat monument and took a stop to explore. It was the Duradundheshwar Shrine. It was a really small and cute village with a pretty houses. 

Monk at Durdundheshwar Shrine

Cute kids at the village

Pretty houses at the village

We did a quick stop at Medakavi. It is wonderful, rundown fort but badly maintained. It seemed like being used as a toilet for the village!

We reached Badami by 4:45pm and directly went to the Agastya lake to watch the sunset. The place was too beautiful and serene.

Bhootnath Temple at Agastya Lake

 

Then we checked into the hotel Heritage Resort in Badami, had a quick bath and ate sumptuous dinner.

Day 2 - Morning - Badami Caves

We went at 6am to the Badami caves. Then the Shiva temples. Both were like a mini trek. It was awesome, truly awesome! Note: Most the temples I will be talking about in this blog are ancient temples which dont have the deity (murty) any more. They are not a place of worship as the murty is missing. They are a form of superior art from the ancient times.

Read the story behind Badami Caves here

Upper Shivalya, dated 700 AD. The trek here is a different experience altogether. A must-do on your list.

Then we had yummy Udupi breakfast before heading out to Hampi.

Day 2 - Evening

We left from Badami at around 12. Badami to Hampi is a 3.5 hour drive. On way we stopped at a farm where red chilli 🌶 was being harvested and dried. The people there were so sweet. They asked if we would like to share their lunch! I had a bite of their bhakri, brinjal sabji and a chutney made of that red mirchi! It was yummy!

Hampi is full of big boulders. It’s a wonderful place! Few kms from Hampi itself you start seeing those boulders and keep wondering how this place will be!

We went to a place where we took a Coracle ride on Tungabhadra river. Speciality of this ride was that we could see some of the ruins and the hills Anjaneya, Matanga and Rishimukh from the ride.

We stayed at Hotel Hyatt in Hampi. (This hotel is not recommended)

Day 3 - Hampi

We rented cycles and saw around Hampi on cycle. We cycled from 8:30am to 2pm! The places of interest in Hampi are spread across quite a bit. We had learnt that going to these places by cycle was a better option than walking or driving car. It was a great decision. But do note, the roads have lots of ups and downs so some basic fitness will be needed to cycle. Another tip is to take a guide - the place takes life when associated with right information and stories else it might seem like just beautiful stones! :)

We visited:

Virupaksha temple, Royal Enclosure - Historic site from 1500 AD with remnants of the royal complex where the king of Vijayanagar empire lives, other ruins from 1500 - supari market, gold market, pan market, Hazara Ram temple which has entire Ramayana story carved on the walls and pillars of the temple, Narasimha Shrine and Shivalinga which is called Badavalinga as its 12 feet in height, Shri Krishna temple.

Pushkarni at the Royal Enclosure

Carvings of Ramayana story on Rama temple

We were dead tired and had lunch at a place called Mango Tree. 

Banana Coconut Parota!

Then we left at 3pm and visited Vithhal mandir which has creative architecture such as a moving stone chariot & musical pillars. The Vitthal murty from this temple is supposedly now in Pandharpur.

Vitthal Mandir with musical pillars and a guide demonstrating how the natural rainwater fountain works

Then behind that Vitthal mandir was river Tungabhadra where we dipped our legs in the river and watched sunset. It was like a natural jacuzzi which took away the day’s tiredness!

Serene moments at Tungabhadra river (PC: Dipti Joshi)

The entire city was made of limestone with a lot of intricate work done on the stone! Each temple, monument has a lot of carvings. Most of these temples are restored ruins- they are not operational as real temples. That’s because the Moghuls invaded the area, and stole those murthys from temples and destroyed a lot of other structures.

Hampi, known as Vijayanagar, was the world’s second richest empire in the world during 1500 AD, under the king Krishnadevraya. What exists now are the ruins, which are so pretty and a must-visit if you haven't been there.

Day 4 - Hampi to Belgaum

We wanted to trek up the Matanga hill today, but we all were tired. Instead we wore pretty dresses and did some good photo shoot!! 🤗 We also spent some time today to eat well! We also explored the market and did some shopping. (Yeah we finally did some girl-things on the trip!)

We halted overnight at Belgaum in hotel Fairfield by Marriott and left for Pune the next day after having breakfast!

Tung Trek

Tung fort is a part of Western Ghats, near Lonavala. You can find more information about Tung Fort here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tung_Fort

Some details about the trek can be found here: https://www.tripadvisor.in/Attraction_Review-g297654-d3243464-Reviews-Tung_Fort-Pune_Pune_District_Maharashtra.html

We did an impromptu trek to Tung fort. This blog post is to share the experience and tips.

We had heard Tung is a difficult trek. Well, it’s kind of difficult as most of the climb is a steep climb. There are some big boulders which some might struggle to climb. Kids would need help. We visited at the end of October, that’s like the end of monsoons. So some stones had moss on them. Moss gets slippery when it’s wet. 

However, the trek is not something which you should be scared of. If you take basic precautions like you don’t be too adventurous around the edges, or you don’t be careful and jump around, then it’s a very much doable trek.

We started very early as we like to avoid crowds. Also, the weather is better if you climb before it gets too sunny. The downside of this was that some of the big boulders with moss were moist due to the morning dew, which made some parts of the climb difficult. In one of such a patch we simply removed our shoes and climbed bare feet. Bare feet gave a better grip.

The drive to the base village is super awesome. However the road is very bad. I feel the best thing to do is to carry bicycles in your car, park the car just before the road gets too bad and then cycle to the base. This kaccha road seemed like perfect place to cycle, surrounded on both sides with a lot of greenery.

The top of the fort is very small. The _buruj_ walls are broken. I could not imagine how to control kids who tend to run around exploring the place! Hence I would not recommend the trek for kids without proper supervision.

At the top there is a small Tungai devi mandir. We did the trek on Ashthami, so it was a good day to take devi darshan.