Banavasi trip details: Part I

27^th December 2010

While coming back from Shirdi, we stayed in a highway hotel on NH4 just after Pune, as we were tired of driving and wanted to prepare for along drive. We started in the morning around 9 AM for Banavasi. Road to Hubli on NH-4 was un-eventful, though it can get crowded in the mornings at some places near Pune before Shivapur. Guess, holidays had a role to play too!

From Hubli, there are three options to reach Banavasi

• Via Mundgod on NH4-SH69 (100 Km)
• Via Mundgod on NH63 –SH46-SH69 (104 Km)
• Via Yellapur – Sirsi on  NH63 – SH93-SH77  (139)

 After decent lunch as Garden Club restaurant on Pune-Bangalore road, and some asking around for directions from locals there, we decided to take Mundgod route via NH4-SH69.

Route: Hubli-Tadas-Mundgod-Malgi-Banavasi (View)

Roads are good, (generally double) except some broken parts after Tadas and Malgi. If you are taking this route, ask direction for Tadas after reaching Varur (14 KMs from Hubli) as getting direction on NH4 can be tricky as it bypasses all the towns. If you have GPS, it is easier. Would have been easier looking at the route to halt at Mundgod, considering that it was one of the places (Tibetan monasteries) we wanted to visit but lack or accommodation made us decide not to and head to Banavasi instead. After reaching Malgi which is around 55 KMs from Tadas, we depended on villagers for direction, which was surprisingly easy.  Beware – some GPS don’t work after Malgi, at least my Garmin didn’t as it failed to recognize the road! Damn!! L, defeats the purpose of why I bought this phone! Google maps and MapMyIndia maps were helpful though. Drive from Malgi was peaceful with good rural backdrop, couple of beautiful lakes to stop by. Reached Banavasi around 7 PM, a drive close to 10 hours and a total distance of 536 KMs.

We had called ahead to the tourist complex and took the direction from Banavasi entrance.  Though the direction was precise, we missed the entrance even though it had a huge gate and went straight to the temple. Needed the direction from villagers again and finally we reached the tourist complex. Looking at the route we took, it was easier than the route provided by the manager as it would have amount us to read boards in Kannada – difficult tasks, especially in dark. It was easier to ask for devasthana and then ask for guest house. After changing, we headed straightway to Khanavali for home cooked village food for dinner.

PS - After finishing the trip, I felt that taking Yellapur-Sirsi route via NH63-SH93-SH77 would have been better as the Sirsi-Yellapur route is good, would have taken the same time or less and has some beautiful waterfalls and Saharslinga too for a stop-over.