Bangalore To Sonda: Night Drive

[GentleGiant87]

Hi All,

This would be my second post in TAI, and first travelogue. By the way my first post was posted few minutes ago in accessories thread

This would be a short travelogue without photos as I did not have a chance to click pictures !

My parents wanted to visit Mantralaya since a month or so, and were eager to visit soon. I am always ready for drives either within city or outside. I agreed to plan one soon. The date was fixed as 4th - 5th March 2017. Previous day ie 3rd March, got to know that due to Paryaya, Mantralaya is over crowded and all the rooms are booked. Hence the place was changed to Sonda near Sirsi.

We left JP Nagar at 8:45 PM towards Nice road and reached Tumkur toll at 9:50 PM. As usual, blame the truckers, the toll was crowded, we were stuck for 20 minutes and we left finally at 10:20 PM. We decided to take the Bangalore - Haveri - Sirsi - Sonda route ( 440 kms ). This was my first night driving on the highways and I was excited to the core.

I was initially skeptical about night driving but went ahead thinking I can make it, self confidence you see
Took a break somewhere past Davangere around 1AM for 10 minutes for some Tea on a road side dhaba. We reached Sirsi at 3:45 AM sharp and slept inside our car until 4:30 AM in Sirsi bus stand.
We finally reached Sonda at 5 AM.

We got a room for Rs 250 per day in the accommodation provided by the mutt, took bath and left towards the temple for Darshan. With no breakfast until lunch, my stomach was grumbling for food. We had good food at 1 PM at the mutt premises.

Post lunch, we went to Swarnavalli mutt which is 20 minutes drive from here and left towards Bangalore at 2 PM. For the return I decided to go through Shimoga, which was a bad decision due to heavy traffic in the two lane road.

Stopped at Sagar at 4 PM for coffee and then a stop at Mayura hote near Yediyur for dinner at 8 pm. We finally reached home at 11:30 PM.

Mode of Travel - My trusted Wagon R VXI
Total kms travelled - 930 kms
Total Time taken - 26 hours

Regards,
GentleGiant87

 

[hbr_in]

With no breakfast until lunch,

Normally there is no breakfast in Sonda. Was it Ekadashi on that day.

Else if you sneak in to the kitchen from backside and talk politely to the kitchen staff, you can get tasteful avalakki and tea on the regular days (till 9:30am i guess).
Taking your parents along will be added advantage.

Any reason you skipped Sahasralinga. Since it is summer, most of the Shiv lingas are visible.

 

[GentleGiant87]

Yes HBR, it was not ekadashi as such. ..we enquired at couple of houses to try our luck..but were asked to come around 8 am for breakfast, but our sankalpa timings would have got affected by this, moreover swamygalu had come, couldn't ignore this :D