Just cruise

Since the very initiation of getting my bike was inspired by Shiva at MM Hills i thought of commencing my bike touring by visiting MM hills.

Place of visit: MM Hills, Gopala Swamy Temple ( KRS), Rangathittu bird sanctuary

Malai Mahadeshwara hills (MM hills also called Mahadeshwara betta in local language, Kannada) belongs to Chamarajnagar district in Karnataka state. A well known place because of the forest brigand late Veerappan. This place was the hide out area for Veerappan for so many years. The famous Malai Mahadeswara temple is seen here. The surrounding is totally hill area and the temple is situated at the center of 7 hills.

MM Hills

This place can be reached from two main cities, Bangalore and Mysore.

From Bangalore, people have to travel towards Mysore. They will reach a place called Ramanagaram (52 Kms from Bangalore), then after 10kms from Ramanagaram, they will get a place called Chennapattana. Continuing in the same route, people will get a place called Maddur after 20Kms from Chennapattana. In this place (Maddur) people have to take a left turn (ask the local people for help) to move towards Malavalli. If you miss this turn, people will travel towards Mysore. After 24kms journey from Maddur (taking left turn), people will reach the place called Malavalli. From Malavalli, people have to travel towards Kollegal which is 35 Kms from Malavalli. Continue the trip towards Hanur (24Kms from Kollegal) and then to Koudalli (16 Kms from Hanur).

Koudalli is the ground level region before starting the hill journey of the MM Hills. From this place, Malai Mahadeswara temple is 30 Kms in ghat/hill section. The total distance from Bangalore to MM Hills (Malai Mahadeswara Hills) is 200 Kms.

People travelling from Mysore have to come to a place called T.Narsipura (Thiruma kudalu Narsipur), also called T.N.Pura. Distance between Mysore and T.N.Pura is 30kms. From T.N.Pura, people have to move towards Kollegal which is only 31Kms. From Kollegal, the route becomes the same for that detailed above while coming from Bangalore. i.e., from Kollegal to Hanur (24Kms), from Hanur to Koudalli (16Kms) and to MM Hills to reach the Malai Mahadeswara temple (30Kms). The total distance from Mysore to Malai Mahadeswara temple is 130Kms.



Gopala Swamy Temple ( KRS )

This place is recent addition to the tourist spots in Mysore and yet to be commercial. During the construction of KRS Dam lot of villages were submerged inside water and one of those temples which went down in water was the above temple. Few years back as the water level in the dam goes down this temple surfaced again and attracted lot of visitors.

And now they have dismantled the whole temple and re-constructed at the back waters of the KRS Dam. The temple is still under construction and very few tourists found and its very quite as of now.

Once you reach Brindavan garden its hardly 5km and easy to find it out.



Rangannathittu bird sanctuary

Migratory birds (like Storks, Pelicans, Cormorants and Herons) arrives in Ranganathittu bird sanctuary as large flocks starting December, lays eggs on the islets and moves out with the little ones in August. Best time to visit the sanctuary is around Feb - March when all the varieties are around and active. Boats are available here to take the visitors for a ride along the river and islets. To reach Ranganathittu, travel along Bengaluru - Mysuru road. Past Srirangapatna, take the road going to the right (connecting Srirangapatna to Mysore - Madikeri road). A couple of kms along this road take another right to the sanctuary. Ranganathittu is a paradise for ornithologists as well as bird photographers. Apart from the migratory birds, one can also spot Kingfishers and Peacocks here as well as crocodiles lying lazily in the river.



Summary:
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Date:
27th & 28th Feb 2010

Route: Bangalore - Mandya - Malavalli - Kollegal - MM Hills - kollegal - T.Narasipur-Mysore - Bangalore

Total Distance covered: about 596 km