benakanagudda

Benakanagudda a misty hill in Chikmagalur. being a traveler. I always wanted to visit the places, which are less explored, which is less polluted and not much commercialized.

A plan was hatched and since I am associated with one of the meetups known as Bangalore explorers.

I planned to create a meetup and visit ballarayanadurga. Since I had heard a lot about that place and was eager to explore in this monsoon. a plan was made and the itinerary was created and the plan was to visit sakleshpur and ballarayanadurga.

So the weekend was fast approaching and I had booked an accommodation(homestay) at Benakanagudda home stay in Chikmagalur near Mudigere.(Aldur).

7 members finally agreed. A Qualis was booked and we started early morning on a Saturday. Being the organizer I woke up everyone and we were in the vehicle at 5.45 am and we had hit the road and crossed, nelamangala by 6.30 am and we headed straight to sakleshpur via Hassan.

when everyone was hungry, we stopped at a near by hotel. We had idli, which was not up to the standards. then we further started to move ahead and reached Sakleshpur by 10.30 am and thru mudigere road we reached magajihalli waterfalls.

Magajihalli falls pictures by Vicky

The waterfall was near hangal and a nice waterfall maintained by the villagers and local homestay.
Since the water fall had less water due to deficient rains.
the flow was less. The waterfall from around 15 feet and force were quite ok.
The best part is it's being maintained neatly by the local villagers. when I pulled up the local guy for conversation, He gave me further information about the sacredness of the place. Which he mentioned the temple being next to waterfalls and weird sounds come at midnight even during full moon day and Amavasya. When no villager dares to enter that place at midnight, even, today!.
So when I told the same thing to our fellow travelers(Lakshmi, lucky and Deepika) decided to do more exploring on full moon day.

After the visit to the falls, we further headed towards Nanya Byraveshwara temple.


This is a temple which is worth a visit. Located near Byrapura. The Lord kalabhairaveshwara is worshiped here. the beauty of this temple is. It is more than 1200 years old and has been recently renovated.

Nanya bhairaveshwara temple near mudigere pictures by Vicky

The temple is one of the beautiful temples near Mudigere adjoining the forest.
The temple is next to the baalu forest and entry to the forest is prohibited.

This is worth a visit for nature lovers as it is in the midst of nature and at a height of more than 2000 feet, Road is motorable and gives you the feel of being in nature.

The bus does come once in a while.

The nearest small town is hangal.

Nearest hotel. devaladakere

Nearest Railway station Chikmagalur.

Nearest Airport  Bangalore.

How to Reach By Road Bangalore Sakleshpur hangal devaladakere byrapura.

Devarunda 

Devarunda is a near by small sleepy village near Mudigere, Which has 2000 years old Shiva temple. 

Established by Mayuravarma of Kadamba dynasty.

The temple was renovated by Hoysala and Vijayanagar kings.

The Devavrunda(means group of devatas who stayed here) that's why it has mythological significance.

Accommodations are available for devotees of the temple.

After visiting the sacred temple we headed towards lunch at devaladkere.

The only Vegetarian hotel was available in that place, he was kind of enough to serve all of us the best food.

The food was really great and yummy. The hotel name is brahmins hotel, devaladakere.

The person serves breakfast and lunch. He also serves dinner. if ordered in advance. don't forget to try the mixture, he prepares, Its really delicious.

Benakanagudda

benakanagudda homestay was our destination for the night. I had never heard about this place and was wondering, how it could be. So we headed from this place to Benakanagudda. I had a thought, it could be a small home stay at the plains.

So we started to head towards, that homestay. Ravi our driver was bit skeptical and we found a road towards the benakanagudda homestay.

(Which actually turned out to be another homestay)

The map was showing 6 km from our location, so we decided to trek to homestay. Since there was a lot of time.

We inquired about the homestay and we found out that locals were not aware of homestay. We believed the google map and started to walk and meanwhile our driver headed towards the location and he found out that the homestay was different from what we had. The best part was there was no signal to contact the homestay. After 1 km of circus and inquiries with one or 2 persons available there, we found out that. the homestay was further ahead after that hill. The roads were pretty bad after the rains.

After 5 km we found a board and we had actually come in a wrong route to that homestay. 

Finally, we reached Benakanagudda homestay. 

We retired for the day, The hosts(Mr. and Mrs. Poornesh) of the homestay were very friendly and made us comfortable.

We had dinner and during the bonfire, we pulled them to the conversation. He then mentioned about the nearby places Biligiri peak and Benakanagudda. he mentioned about the hill benakanagudda and told us that the view is great. So after consulting everyone from my team, It was decided that we will see Benakanagudda, next day morning.

We woke up early morning and after hot Chikmagalur coffee headed, towards Benakanagudda, We had walked few meters. I saw a green stick which was lying on the road, while few people had crossed it, 

When I closely observed. It was a green snake and it was not afraid of human beings and it did give some shots for us.

The green snakes are really shy, We were lucky enough to see it on the road and it was not afraid of us and it was there for almost 15 mins and after that, it vanished into the trees.

Green snakes are not venomous and 16th July was world snake day. We were lucky to see a snake next to us on World snake day.

Then we continued our journey to the Benakanagudda hill. The start was good through a muddy trail. Then came the actual trail.

The hill was too steep to climb and it was slippery in many places since it had drizzled and I should appreciate poornesh and our trekkers they were able to climb the hill in 2 hours flat. The hill climb had a mix of mountaineering, trekking and forest trail. 

The hill view from the half way.

The weather was stunning and the climate was misty with intermittent rains often.

The trekking to the top took us almost 2 hours, through the shrubs the slippery path.

The view from the top is breathtaking and great. The view is absolutely stunning from the top and with Poornesh who guided us through the hill and streams and a forest trail. It was really great and an awesome experience.

From the hill top clouds were and the view is just great.

It took us almost 5 hours to reach the base after the trekking. When we reached the home stay, the experience was an awesome experience.

An unforgettable walk through the misty clouds and a memorable experience of Benakanagudda.

This unknown and unexplored, little-known hill is a nature beauty and good for exploring unknown places in Chikmagalur.

This hill is located almost 45 km from Chikmagalur. 

Benakanagudda homestay contact person Poornesh 

9611856504, 9448346139

benakanagudda.homestay.com

poornesh was helpful and gave us the best information about new places near by. The place is best to explore for a weekend.

If you love nature and like to be in the midst of nature then Benakanagudda is a must visit.

Are u visiting Chikmagalur then Visit Benakanagudda

This hill is within 50 km's of Chikmagalur. A  Great weekend getaway near Bangalore.

How to reach benakanagudda.

Bangalore to Chikmagalur then Aldur after 20 kms take a right turn to benakanagudda hills and homestay.

Mr poornesh is well versed about the local places.

Near by places Khandya Markandeshwara temple.

Muthodi forest.