We were on a 4-day road trip in Karnataka. After an exhilarating Bangalore to Jog Falls road trip, we continued our journey on a spiritual and architectural trail through the Western Ghats – from Kollur to Sringeri and Halebeedu, before concluding in Mysuru. The falls were in their full glory and we really enjoyed the views. You can read about it in detail in the earlier blog.

This part of the trip was all about temples, ghats, and history – a perfect blend of serenity, devotion, and scenic drives.

Day 2: Jog Falls – Kollur – Sringeri (200 km)

Our day began at the homestay. Parth found another kid to play the ball with. While he enjoyed the yard, we packed our things, had piping hot idlis and poha for breakfast and started.

Our first stop was within 10 minutes – the other side of the main viewpoint that we saw yesterday. A hidden Jog Falls viewpoint was near the Circuit House, which offered a unique side-angle view of the four cascades – Raja, Rani, Roarer, and Rocket. We were closer to the mist and got a side view of the waterfalls.

Here was the biggest catch. The previous day, it seemed like all 4 falls were in the same line when seen from the other side. This side showed that they were all at different depths – like when you discover a different perspective while seeing the front-view and side-view in 3D. We were quite early and there were hardly any other people.

The beautiful drive to Kollur

Maps showed that we were quite close to Honnavar and Bhatkal – the coastal towns. We took the road towards Bhatkal and then a deviation which would take us to Kollur – home to the famous Mookambika temple.

The roads were very narrow but in relatively good condition (fewer potholes than Bangalore anyway). We passed through sleepy villages – the scenery was amazing. It was the perfect time of the year to travel to this region – just after the rains, there were lush green meadows on both sides, green forests and hills in the distance. There was a stream flowing next to the road. Classic Western Ghats scenery at its finest!

We entered a concrete road at the Kodachadri ghat section, had an encounter with a giant monitor lizard that scampered across the road and finally reached Kollur – the whole journey took us roughly 2.5 hours. 

Kollur Mookambika temple – faith and chaos

The temple was jam-packed with people. Even though we bought tickets for a quick entrance, it was taking forever. Crowd management was really poor and after 30 minutes of waiting, Parth and I decided to step out. It was hot, sweaty and very claustrophobic – the same condition that you need to power through for any “popular” temple these days.

This wasn’t a one-off. The last time we came here was for Parth’s Vidyarambham, it was equally crowded and we literally had to push people aside just to keep moving. I wish we could go back to the days when temples were a place of peace and quiet – where one could pray in silence without being shoved around by hundreds of people.

Anyway, we waited back in the car while my parents braved the crowd, finished their darshan and joined us. We had lunch at hotel Mahalakshmi and started our drive to Sringeri. 

The hills get serious – with hairpins

This was another 2.5 hours long. Road conditions were starting to get quite poor in this section. We climbed up the crazy Agumbe ghat section with 14 hairpin bends. This section is as challenging as roads can get – the bends are steep and buses coming rushing down – so you need to be very cautious in this stretch. We continued along small towns and villages with quirky names until we reached Sringeri. We checked into our homestay and went to the temple.

Tip: The route does not have any decent toilet breaks. Make sure you finish all your business at Kollur itself.

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A peaceful temple experience – Sringeri

The Sringeri temple is a treat for architecture lovers – a beautiful blend of Hoysala and Dravidian styles. Located on the bank of the Tunga river, it is the first one of the 4 pithams (or mathas) set up by Shankaracharya – the other three are in Dwaraka, Puri and Joshimath. The Vidyashankara temple itself was built in 1338 during the Vijayanagara kingdom – this was dedicated to Lord Shiva. Right next to it is a temple dedicated to goddess Saraswati.

At the entrance is a magnificent Raja Gopuram (an entrance tower) built in the same style as most temples you would find in Tamil Nadu. This gives an impression that the temple inside would have a similar style. However, the Vidyashankara temple is built in Hoysala style (like the temples in Belur and Halebeedu). The most unique aspect of it is the hall with twelve zodiac pillars. It is designed to be a sundial – the sun rays fall on the corresponding pillar of each month of the year. Hats off to the designers for creating something like this!

A simple delicious dinner

For dinner, we walked to Holla’s Maruti Tiffin Center – a tiny restaurant on the road which leads to the temple. You need to enter barefoot. The menu has 6 items – idli, vada/bonda, poori, tea, coffee and milk. There were only a couple of small tables with chairs – meant for the elderly who couldn’t sit on the floor. For everyone else, mats were put on the floor in 3 lines.

We had to take our places on the mat and a banana leaf was placed in front of us. Since the menu was simple, we just had to ask and they would keep filling up our leaf with the item accompanied by coconut chutney and sagu. Parth loved this experience and he ate way more than his usual limit. And that too everything on his own! The food was simple, fresh and tasty – we loved it!

Day 3: Sringeri – Chikkamagaluru – Halebeedu – Hassan – Mysuru (300 km)

Morning walk through the areca farm

Our homestay was inside a farm. In the morning, we took a walk checking out all the different plants and trees inside the property. It was dominated by areca nut palms. We also spotted cocoa pods – orange and ready! There were plenty of touch-me-nots – Parth was really intrigued by the way they reacted to touch. My mom showed us formations in the mud which looked like castles. They were formed by the rain falling around stones which created these shapes – the stones stuck on top like caps. Parth loved the idea of pretending that they were castles and sat there to play!

We had breakfast – idli and bisi bele bath – from the homestay and checked out.

Sringeri temple – morning version

We loved the temple so much that we went again in the morning to see it in the morning sun. Parth loved the temple complex because he had a lot of space to run around. We crossed over the bridge to the other side of the Tunga river and checked out the establishments there. After some more photos of the temple and with the temple, we started on our long drive to Mysuru.

Horrible roads begin

Till now, bad roads had not been a problem we had to face. But that changed completely in this leg of the drive. The state highway was in really bad condition – there were stretches with no road at all. It kept going this way for over 2 hours – it was the perfect recipe for a bad back. In fact, we decided to take a longer route to escape this bad road by getting on to the Mangalore – Chikkamagaluru highway. In what was a completely unplanned move, we passed through Chikkamagaluru town and then turned towards Hassan. This stretch was significantly better.

Ended up in Halebeedu in search of lunch

We were looking for lunch places on the way. We found one restaurant in Belur and another one in Hassan. But the washroom situation didn’t look good. There was one restaurant with very good ratings in Halebeedu – it would be a significant diversion. But we decided to go anyway – my parents hadn’t seen the temple before (last visit, we could only cover Belur).

Our 3.5 hour drive ended at the Itihakala restaurant. The lunch was a set menu with local dishes – simple and delicious yet again. It was a good decision to divert here.

I had last visited the Halebeedu temple almost 10 years back. It was nice to be back here. The Hoysala architecture was mesmerizing with so many pillars in the halls inside. The halls are nice and cool – insulated from the outside heat. We spent some time admiring the temples and the nandi statues outside.

A submerged Shettihalli church

Our next stop was the Shettihalli Rosary church – 1 hour 15 minutes away. We bypassed Hassan town and took the narrow village roads which led up to the village. The road led into the water of the Hemavathi reservoir and in front of us was a church.

The church was pretty much entirely submerged in the water. It was built in the Gothic style in the 1860s by the French (the dam came up in 1960 which led to the formation of the reservoir). It is accessible in the dry season as the water level in the reservoir goes down.

A hauntingly beautiful place – perfect for photography lovers and offbeat travellers.

Bad roads continue to haunt us

The road leading up to Shettihalli had been bad – full of potholes and mud. The road leading out of it was even worse. We were in half-a-mind to drive back to Hassan and take the highway. Google maps was determined to take us all the way to Mysuru along village roads. But we decided to connect to the nearest highway possible and then follow the road signs.

We still had to go on bumpy roads for another 20 kms before we got out on NH 373. These roads went through the smallest villages and we had to go off the road to allow a vehicle coming from the other side to pass. We hoped it wouldn’t get dark while we were stuck in this stretch – that would make things significantly more difficult.

Mysuru finally!

Maps continued to try to deceive us. But we completely ignored it and kept following the road signs all the way to Mysuru. It had been a really long day with close to 8 hours of driving and we reached the city by 7:30 pm. While Day 1 also had 8+ hours of driving, the roads had been amazing. It was exactly the opposite for Day 3.

Day 4: Mysuru – Bengaluru (160 km)

The next morning, Parth and I took the early morning Vande Bharat back to Bengaluru while my parents headed to Coimbatore. It had been an amazing road trip!

And that wrapped up an incredible journey – from Jog Falls to Kollur, Sringeri, and Halebeedu – a route that perfectly captures the spiritual, scenic, and cultural soul of Karnataka.

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