We did this trip during last week of December 2010 (25th Dec – 2nd Jan 2011). Total distance covered – 2750Kms
Visuals:
Badami
As we reached the Rajsangam International Hotel we realized there was nothing "international" about it. Since options to stay in Badami are very limited, we were not expecting anything great either. The rooms were clean and the service was just fine. The only initial problem we had was parking…….considering our truck needed some extra space the hotel did look small
. But soon we had couple of hotel staff coming over and helping us out get a reserved parking.Post lunch (authentic Jowar roti & spicy chicken curry) we headed towards the Badami cave temples, which is about 1Km from the hotel.
Built by the Chalukya kings, Kirthivarman (567-598 AD) and his brother Mangalesha I (598-610 AD), the rock-cut Badami Cave Temples were sculpted mostly between the 6th and 8th centuries. The four cave temples represent the secular nature of the rulers then, with tolerance and a religious following that inclines towards Hinduism,Buddhism and Jainism. ~ Wikipedia
The road to the caves
Historical summary!!
The caves below & the fort above
Rock sculpture - Vishnu avatar
Cave side lake ....
Gateway to the unknown
Badami–Pattadakal- Aihole-Bijapur
Route Taken -Badami–Pattadakal- Aihole-Amingad-Kudalsangam-Bijapur
Roads between Badami, Pattadakal & Aihole are not well maintained. Very narrow single lane roads and at some places there was just enough space for the truck to go through. We had to do road shoulder driving several times to allow other vehicles to cross. Aihole to Kudalsangam the roads are ok, patched-up single lane but had very scenic landscapes. Kudalsangam to Bijapur the roads are very good.
We left Badami on 26th Dec morning at around 8:00AM. Plan was to have breakfast on the way, which turned out to be a bad choice. Though Pattadakal & Aihole are world heritage sites there wasn’t even a single decent restaurant anywhere around. The only place you can find something to eat would be the town center of Badami.
Pattadakal -
Pattadakal, the capital of the Chalukya dynasty of Southern India, who built the temples in the seventh and eighth centuries. There are ten temples including a Jain sanctuary surrounded by numerous small shrines and plinths. Four temples were built in Dravidian style, four in Nagara style of Northern India and the Papanatha temple in mixed style..~Wikipedia
Would highly recommend to hire a guide at Pattadakal to know the history of the heritage site, it’s worth listening to. Guide fees–300/-
The road to Pattadakal
Jain temple near Pattadakal
Ancient North & South Indian architecture side by side
Sangameshwara Temple
The Basavanna monolith rock sculpture
Can you spot the 2 animals?
Ancient confusion
The impressive Shikara of the Kashi vishwanatha temple
The temple complex. Notice the different styles of shikara of each temple.
Aihole
Our next destination was Aihole. Compared to Pattadakal, the Aihole temple complex is much smaller.
Early inscriptions call this town Āryapura and Ārya-vole. According to mythology Aihole is the place where Parashurama washed his axe after the killing of the Kshatriyas. Aihole was the first capital of the early Chalukyas. Here they built over 125 temples (Some temples were built even as early as the 5th century CE) in various styles and is said to be a laboratory of experiments in rock cut architecture. Pulakesi I, one of the greatest rulers of this dynasty, later moved the capital to Badami nearby.~Wikipedia
Historical summary
The 'U' shaped Durgi Temple
Temple of Ladkhan
Since the Kudalasangama & the Almatti dam were en route, we decided to stop by. But please note there is nothing much to see in both these places and can be skipped completely.
KudalaSangama area is well developed with good roads and we managed to find a Kamat Yatrinivas situated in the KudalaSangama trust campus, so some food at last
.Towards Kudalasangama
Gateway the kudalasangma complex
kudalasangma Temple
The confluence of the Krishna river and Ghataprabha river
View point of the confluence
The Almatti dam gateway
The dam and the reservoir
Entry restricted to the dam
We continued our journey towards Bijapur which was our 2nd day halt destination. Reached Bijapur by around 4:00PM and decided to visit Gol Gumbaz & Jumma Masjid even before checking into the hotel, as next day morning was an early start for the drive towards Augangabad.
Bijapur is a pretty congested city & at the Gol Gumbaz there was a mad scramble for parking space. It took us almost 20min to find a parking space after we entered the campus.
Being a Sunday the Gol Gumbaz was packed with tourists & the whispering gallery was too noisy to comprehend anything. (Apparently any whisper, clap or sound gets echoed around 7 times)
The majestic Gumbaz
Rush hour at the Gumbaz
The archaeological museum at the Gol Gumbaz
The mammoth door way !!
After the Gol Gumbaz we headed to the Madhuvan International hotel. By Bijapur standards it was a deluxe hotel. The hotel serves only vegetarian food which was pretty good. The rooms were hygienic and hotel had adequate parking space too.
Madhuvan International Hotel @ Bijapur
Day 3 - Bijapur to Aurangabad
Day 3 was the wonderful drive from Bijapur to Aurangabad.
Route taken – Bijapur-Solapur-Barshi-Yermala-Beed-Aurangabad
The roads conditions were pretty good throughout except between Solapur-Barshi-Pimpalwadi.
Would suggest to avoid this stretch and instead from Solapur continue towards Osmanabad & join Beed. That way you would continue to be on the NH. (NH11 & NH211)
We encountered heavy truck, two wheeler & sugarcane laden double trailer tractor traffic throughout, but enjoyed the drive thoroughly as the route was very scenic with beautiful landscapes. We also got to test the capabilites of the truck over extremely bad roads.
Let the pictures speak now -
Incredible India
Heavy truck traffic
Crossing Bheema river
Maharashtra welcomes
Not sure what’s in those brass pots, but saw lot of them carrying those!!
Two wheeled irritants
These trailers swayed and fishtailed so badly, terorising everyone
Bad patch in & around Barshi (around 40 kms)
The 'Dark Knight' takes a break
Lunch time at an authentic Dhaba!! – We take a break
Lovely roads and landscape
Random Landscape shots
We reached Aurangabad by around 8:00 PM & checked into Hotel Athithi. I would highly recommend this place for their wonderful service and excellent food. The rooftop restaurant at Athithi was our den for dinner on both nights.
Hotel Athithi, Aurangabad
Day 4
My personal favorite of this entire trip was Ajanta Caves which is about 100kms from Aurangabad.
We reached the parking lot of the caves by around 9:00 AM and realised that no private vehicles are allowed till the caves. The tourism development authorities run buses from the parking lot till the base of the caves which is about 3 kms from where we parked our truck.
So after parking our truck we hopped onto the 'AC' bus which runs every 5 minutes(bus ticket charge -30/-). When we asked the bus driver why the AC is not on, he promptly opened up all the windows. What a service
!!It took us about 10mins to reach the base of the caves and a half km walk led us to the first glimpse of the caves. It was a breath taking view and we spent almost the whole day in Ajanta. That one day at the caves was a journey to another era altogether.
Things to remember while visiting the caves-
- Shoes/slippers are not allowed inside most of the caves
- Lot of walking would be required to see all the caves, so be prepared
- Usage of camera flash is not allowed inside any of the caves
- Hire a guide if you want to know the history of the place (800/- guide fee)
- Carry plenty of drinking water and some light snacks if you want. (you have to buy all of them at the base of the cave complex)
Trivia
The Ajanta caves lie within a horse-shoe shaped escarpment. It is the world's greatest historical monument recognised by UNESCO as World Heritage site in 1983. There are 30 caves in Ajanta of which 9, 10, 19, 26 and 29 are chaitya-grihas and the rest are monasteries. These caves were discovered in AD 1819 and were built in the earlier 2nd century BC-AD. Most of the paintings in Ajanta are right from 2nd century BC-AD and some of them about the fifth century AD and continued for the next two centuries. These rock-cut cave monuments dating from the second century BC, containing paintings and sculpture considered to be masterpieces of both Buddhist religious art and universal pictorial art. ~www
From the drop off point to the first of the caves is a half Km walk up a steep ramp
The first glimpse of the caves
Breathtaking anticipation
Entering first of the caves
Grand view
Cave 1 – The most famous of the frescoes -Padmapani aka Avalokitesvara
2nd century BC frescoes on the ceiling
Rock cut meditation cave. This entire cave was scooped of the mountain
side.
Huge rock carving of the Bodhisatva
Incarnations of the Buddha on one single pillar
The stupa with frescoes on the pillars still visible
The result of restoration by the ASI
Birds eye view of the cave complex
For those who can’t walk all the way, help is available by way of wooden palanquins
Every cave was amazing in its own way.
Massive sculpture of the reclining Buddha
Random shots of the cave complex
It takes almost an entire day to complete the entire cave complex. You cant do it in a hurry and you will need to rest couple of times during the day. There are several steps to climb and quite a lot of crowd to deal with.
Its all worth it - 100%
After an exhilarating experience at the caves, hunger stuck us
After some awesome thirst quenchers and hunger busters we drove into the sun set towards Aurangabad……
PS- The Aurangabad to Ajanta route have enough and more dhaba’s all along and they serve some wonderful Bajara Roti and Chicken/Mutton curry. So food options are plenty and more on this route.
Day 5
This was yet another eventful day. We had to cover multiple locations like Ellora caves, Aurangabad caves, Bibi Ka Maqbara & Daulatabad Fort. The first in the list was Ellora caves.
The caves are around 30kms from Aurangabad and we reached the caves by around 9:00 AM. The main attraction of Ellora caves are Kailasa Temple.
The temple was built in honour of Shiva and named after his abode in the Himalayas. This temple holds the distinction of being the single largest monolithic structure in the world & the most awe inspiriting temple I have ever seen.
This entire temple was scooped out of a hill starting from the top and ending at the base. Can’t imagine that there are no joints in the entire scheme of construction & the temple is carved out of one single rocky hill. Just to give you an idea of the size, it’s as big as a medium size shopping mall………All scooped out of one hill.
The awe inspiring Kailasa Temple
Vijay Stamb – inside the Kailasa temple
The central structure of the Kailasa temple
Historical summary for visitors
Three storied complex
Ancient university complex – Monolith structure
Temple courtyard – Monolith again !!
Random shots of Ellora cave complex-
Day 5 – continues ……….
Some important information about Ajanta & Ellora -
Ajanta caves - Closed on Monday
Ellora caves - Closed on Tuesday
After completely getting mesmerized by Ellora caves we left to our next destination which was Bibi Ka maqbara situated within the city limits of Aurangabad, popularly known as ‘Mini-Taj Mahal’. On the way from Ellora we did a quick stopover at Daulatabad Fort, didn’t find anything interesting so continued towards Bibi Ka maqbara.
For people how have not visited the Taj Mahal (like me) a visit to this can be considered a consolation
…..View from the gate
Looks almost like the Taj !! (lot of white marble used)
The impressive doorway
Well maintained gardens
Our 3rd destination was Aurangabad caves which is situated around 2 kms from Bibi Ka maqbara. Would recommend to visit this place only if you have enough time in hand and ready for some climb & walk. These caves are very small compared to Ajanta & Ellora. So we decided to click few pictures from the bottom of the hill and skipped the idea of climbing up.
The way up ….
Closeup!!
On the way back from the Aurangabad caves we also visited a museum named “Purwar Museum”. Nothing much to see in this place too and can be completely avoided. No photography allowed inside the museum, so no pictures.
Dinner was back in hotel with some fantastic food, good drinks & excellent service.
Day 6 – Aurangabad - Kolhapur
Route taken – Aurangabad-Ahmednagar-Shirur-Kedagaon-Nira-Satara-Kolhapur.
We were headed towards Kolhapur and plan was to stop over at Ahmednagar and checkout the Cavalry tank museum. The roads from Aurangabad to Ahmednagar are extremely good and it was a wonderful drive.
Beautiful 4 lane roads all the way till Ahmednagar
Cyclists climbing the mini ghat just after Khospuri before Ahmednagar
The Cavalry Tank Museum at Ahmednagar
Timings – 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Entry ticket– 5/- per person
The museum was established by the Armoured Corps Centre and School, Ahmednagar, India, in February 1994, and the Centre and School continue to maintain it. This museum housing these vintage armoured fighting vehicles is the only one of its kind in Asia. All the vehicles still carry distinguishing insignia, formation signs and names, preserving their character ~ArmChairGeneral
Entering defense area
Tanks welcome us!!
Ample parking space (ticket counter just behind parking lot)
Mechanized minesweeper
The Centurion tank also known as the Patton killer!!
Random pictures of the tanks
From Ahmednagar we continued on SH27 and just after Shirur we took a left to totally bypass and avoid the Pune traffic. We knew the roads may not be too good, but since we had the truck we got adventurous.
This left took us through Kedagaon and Nira towns and joined the NH4 near Satara. Throughout the roads were single laned and not too bad either. Some stretches were patched up shoddily but certainly drivable. It was very scenic though.
Random shots of the roads from Shirur to Satara
lovely landscape on the way……
Kolhapur
As we reached Kolhapur, the GPS navigation system totally failed and refused to show us the route to our hotel. Infact, Kolhapur looked nothing less than excavation site
, we can actually hold an OTR anywhere in the city. All roads were dug up, no sign boards and the traffic was chaotic. This was one common thing across the city. After the failure of the GPS (Global Positioning System) we had to resort to the Indian GPS (General Public Service). That worked!!
We checked into Ayodhya Hotel by around 5:00PM and within minutes we were ready to head towards Mahalaxmi temple and kairalee refused to take his truck out
….Narrow roads, chaotic traffic & no parking spaces led us to hiring a auto to travel within the town. Best decision we took and what fun it was
……So we first visited the Mahalaxmi temple, followed by the visit to the famous Rajabhau bhel (featured in Rocky & Mayur’s – Highway on my plate) and then we did some Kolhapuri chappal shopping...
Serpentine queue at the Mahalaxmi temple
Inside the temple complex
The famous Rajabhau bhel shop…
Rajabhau at work!!
Chappal street
After some good bargain shopping at the chappal street, we took the auto back to the hotel.......
Day 7 – Off to the Party @ Goa!!
Route taken – Kolhapur-Radhanagari(SH-116)-NH17 to Goa.
Plan was to reach Goa by noon of 31st December to start partying. So after a quick breakfast at Ayodhya hotel we left towards Goa. From the hotel till we reached the state highway at the outskirts of the Kolhapur city the roads were amongst the worst we have ever seen. From there the entire route was very good and scenic .
Random shots of the road between Kolhapur-Radhanagari
Radhanagari dam
Entering Goa ………Lovely smell of the sea!!
Two days at Goa, 31st and 1st was total fun.......…..Party & Masti !!..
............
No photos & no commentary of the masti we had at Goa
2nd Jan morning we headed back home with all memories of the last 9 days .
What a trip this was !!
for reading!!
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