600+ kms in a day..Chitradurga fort and Chandravalli and Davangere and back in a day

All it started with one of my Team-mate getting married and we few decided to pay him a visit and give our blessings to the newly married couple;-);) ..So after pondering over mode of transport we decided to hit the road by ourselves,means me driving again in my trusted old Zen.. I got her ready for a long trip by getting a thorough check at Smart cars on Saturday and packed my photo gear as usual.. And yeah I was the only driver as another friends who was supposed to come with us was not able to join us as he had some urgent work..
Got up in the morning by a call of Vyas and they(Vyas and Sumeet) were at my home by 9.30 already an hour late then planned ;-) .. So we started off around 10am from my home and picked up Pandeyji near Indiranagar flyover.. Decided to fill her up at Shell on NH4 but lo-behold there was no stock.. So had to compromise with HP petrol..So by 11.30 we were on the outskirts of bangalore thanks to less traffic on a sunday morning.. After going only a few km.s everyone realized that each one is very hungry and need to do pet-puja as soon as possible..So by the we decide upon whether to have breakfast or an early lunch we've reached the Cafe Coffee day on tumkur Road.. Well after savoring few things we again hit back the road(BTW, there is a A1 Plaza right opposite of CCD but the U turn is bit far and there is Kamat also just before CCD but we somehow managed to miss it;-) )
>>>Sumeet, Pandeyji and Vyas @ CCD NH4


The Road, thanks being part of the golden quadrilateral project was awesome in most of the places.. It is even fenced in lotsa places so that cows and pedestrians won't be able to cross the road at there will.. But still there lot to be done to make it a fully safe road ..But comparatively I found this road to be much safe then Blr-Mysore road which is full of cows,bullock carts etc..Driving was easy and not stressful at all till Chitradurga.. We had a lil' scare and had to brake very hard as the road suddenly finished and there was a diversion..luckily nothing major happened except lil bit of skidding..
Anyway We've reached reliance A1 plaza on the outskirts of Chitradurga around 2pm and had a good lunch there.. the food there is not something very great but for the price it worth the money.. So after lazily finishing our lunch we decided to visit Chitradurga fort and Chandravalli (it has a cave called Ankulli Math )As the Sun was hot up on our heads we decided first to visit the Caves first instead of the fort though the fort comes before.. it was a fascinating trip inside the caves as it has well curved out steps and there were different rooms which were being made long time ago..Oh I forgot to mention that there is a Kere (Lake in Kannada) just before the caves with the backdrop of Dhavalapanna gudda which is a cone shapped hillock(will try to visit there in near future as I heard the view is stunning from there) .. >>Me @ Ankulli Math Caves<<


After coming out of the cave we made our way towards the famous Chitradurga Fort.. It was a awesome experience to view the Grand fort that I've heard so much from a friend who visited it recently..One thing that strikes immediately is that the fort is very well maintained..It was very neat and clean(yes few places one can see few litters thrown around by idiots but other then that it was nice to see the cleanliness).. We couldn't explore the whole fort as we didn't had much time(it was already 4.30 around) as we need to reach Davangere by 7.30 and we've heard that Chitradurga Davangere section is not so good...We decided to visit the Onake Ovaba kindi which was probably the most famous point of the fort.. On the way to the place we could see the Ganesha temple and then a place where there is huge pillar and Treasury house of the fort.. Every turn, every climb was providing new vistas and overall it was a nice experience.. I don't know why I've not heard much about this place before.. I'm thinking of visiting the place again and to spent more time to see the whole place.. maybe I'll club with my long planned Humpi trip..Sometime ,someday I'll sure do this trip..


It was getting dark and we had tea in a place on the outskirts of Chitradurga and so by the time we hit the highway it was 6.45pm and slowing he sun was setting on the horizon .. and yeah it was a awesome view to see the sun set that day.. Couldn't stop for a shot as we were getting late..
It required helluva concentration while driving in dark in an unknown road.. Road from Chitradurga to Davangere are still in construction phase with few stretches still to be finished.. Had to drive very carefully and slowly (I was doing around 80-90kmph on this stretch while the BLR-ChtDrg I was doing around 110-130 kmph most of the time) .. And on this stretch we've had experience of why Indian Road are not safe at all.. People were coming on the wrong directions , riding bikes, cars, bullock carts(that too in dark) etc.. at one corner suddenly comes a moron on bike driving along side the divider on our side.. He was lucky to survive I feel..I just can't imagine how can people be so careless and stupid, driving on the wrong side on wrong direction..Doesn't they care at all about their lives ?? Is saving 5 min is so important then their life???Why are they so suicidal ??Do they come into this world with a peanut instead of brains in side their heads???
Anyway after that lil' scare we reached Davangere. None of us were sure about the way to enter the city and we overshoot and taken a wrong turn.. After going lil' bit distance my sixth sense told me we are going wrong and we decided to turn back.. After that we found the right road with the help of some peple.. After searching a lot we at last found that marriage hall.. After that our next adventure of getting a gift started.. Yeah we didn't bought any gift so we thought to get it somewhere on the way..and that somewhere ended up in Archies Gallery at Davangere itself ;-) So by the time we got the present and be present at the function it was almost 9.. Yeah we didn't had much time to be present at the function and needed to leave for Bangalore ASAP.. so we started our return trip around 10pm.. The return journey was mostly uneventful.. On the way to Chitradurga I thought of getting a Pilot car, I mean to say follow a car which is doing similar speed and not very aggresive.. But in the end I ended up being the pilot car for a Alto.. This guy vey meticulously given us way to overtake and then started folllowing us.. Even if I was giving him way to overtake he was never taking the bait ..and even if he overtook in some places he immediately decreased his speed to let us go ahead;-)..
After Chitradruga the road was anyway much better as I've mentioned earlier..So was easily doing around 100kmph at night also..Another pleasing thing I found out that the most of the TRucks were very well behaved..All of them were driving on the left lane and the fast right lane was always empty.. And if a truck was trying to overtake another truck and I felt that I was nearer to overtake I flashed my headlights and they were making way by moving to the left lane again.. I found it quite surprising as I've heard only horror stories of Truckwallas.. Only pain in the neck was the Bus'es and two or three trucks and surprisingly all these buggers were either KA or TN registration vehicles.. Buses never gave any way and had to overtake these morons from the left side..
Forgot to mentions another thing, the wind at Chitradurga is mindblowing and that's why there are so many windmills.. Well it was so strong that I was worried it will cary sharp objects and hit us on face.. So most of the time kept the window rolled up on untill we left chitradurga long back..
We've taken 2 breaks on the return journey..One at a Dhava where we stopped only for tea and Pandeyji was all so enthu to eat some Tandoori Rotis and Daal that we had to give in.. Reluctantly we started Roti's and by the end it was almost 3 and roti's per head ;-).. it was good.. next stop was at a small tea-shop after Tumkur..BTW all A1 plazas/Kamats were closed by that time..
Reached Bangalore around 3 and after dropping Pandeji and Nagraj(he hitched a ride with us from Davangere as there was space) at their homes I reached home and hit the bed around 4am..
Total Dist: 602 km to and fro according to tripmeter..
Time Required :BLR - Chitradurga 3hr .. Chitradurga- Davangere-1hr 20 minA(approx).. Way back it was around 5 hr 40 min approx(with few breaks)..
Road Condition : Excellent up to Chitradurga..Chitradurga to Davangere still under construction
On the way Refreshments : near tumkur CCD Kamat and Relience A1 plaza(All these 3 are in the vicinity of each other) Another Reliance A1 plaza is near Chitradurga..