Chitradurga Trip

This was a nice little two nights and three days trip to Chitradurga, staying at KSTDC Mayura Durg. 

We had already visited Chitradurga earlier once in August 2009, and we had stayed at Hotel Aishwarya Fort one night, and as it was not a good experience, we moved to Hotel Naveen Regency for the next night.

Starting from Bangalore by about 7:15 am on 1st November 2024 (Fri), we reached KSTDC Mayura Durg at about 1:45 pm, after three stops on the way: For Breakfast at Paakashala T Begur (Marohalli Kasaba Hobli), at 8:15 am for about 45 min; For a Visit to Vani Vilas Sagar Dam (Maari Kanive; a de tour from Hiriyur), at 11:15 am for about 1 hour; and For Lunch at Paakashala Chitradurga at 1 pm for about 30 min. Route map here. 

Vani Vilas Sagar Dam was good; nice to see the calm water. They were doing some drilling and excavation on the opposite end of the water; appeared like construction of some pier or bridge of some sort; seems like the serenity of the place is set to be damaged! We drove by car to the upper level instead of walking up the steps; that is a good plan.

After taking some rest at Mayura Durg, we took an evening walk passing by the entrance of the Fort area, and went in to Sree Maharshi Valmeeki Museum (Entry Rs 10 per person), and Sri Raja Utsavamba Devalaya, and then taking a look at stone swing arch pillar in front of the temple, an old well on the road side there, and a few other very old buildings on that Doddapete Main Road in front of that temple. We then walked through a bylane street seeing the old calm houses, and reached up to Sri Lakshmi Bhavan Tiffin Room an old popular restaurant (sometimes referred as LTR), and took an auto to return to our Hotel and had dinner by room service.

On Saturday morning we entered the Fort at 10:30 am and after going around seeing various sections, came out at 1 pm. Many parts of the Fort ruins are not kept up well. The Palace area could not even be accessed as the bushes have grown up and blocked the way completely; risk of snakes in the area is high. As we were about to leave, luckily we had the chance to see the Spiderman of Chitradurga.. Mr Jothi Raj, getting ready at his usual spot; seems like he had just come in. We had seen his wall-climbs during our previous trip in 2009.

Had our lunch at Mayura Durg, took some rest, and reached Chandravalli / Ankali Mutt Cave location by 4:15 pm; and after spending an hour looking around the spots at the top of the steps, and then seeing the water body, we left from there by 5:15 pm.

After some rest, we started at about 7:15 pm, we walked some distance and boarded an auto to go to LTR for dinner and had yummy Masala Dosas just before they closed, and came back by 8 pm.

On Sunday morning we vacated the room and started by 9:30 am towards Jogimatti Forest View Point, crossed the entry gate around 9:55 am (Entry Rs 25 per adult, Rs 50 for car, and Rs 200 for DSLR camera). The Google Map search based destination as Jogi Matti Forest was pointing to a wrong spot, that is ~2 KM before, and somewhere inside. We drove past that and reached the actual spot by about 10:15 am. Parking and making u-turn here is a challenge. After climbing up the steps and spending some time, we started at 11 am, and started to the Zoo.

We reached the Adu Malleshwara Mini Zoo by 11:30 am (Entry Rs 40 per adult, Rs 50 for car parking, and Rs 50 for DSLR camera). Tiger was the highlight. He came close and gave a walk past the glass we stood by. After spending an hour there we started by 12:30 pm towards Bangalore. 

We stopped at A2B at Sira outskirts for lunch by 2 pm for 30 min., and reached Bangalore by 6 pm on that Sunday. It took almost a couple of hours more than what it should have, due to a very bad traffic congestion all through the route.. returning to Bangalore after the long weekend.

We had the opportunity to click a lot of pictures of Birds, Butterflies, Flowers, Fruits, Animals, Insects, Nature, and so on, throughout our trip, at the Hotel also, and at all the spots we visited.

Scroll to see more pictures below; and also our Verdict about the whole trip.. at the end of this below.

 

 

Pictures from our previous trip in 2009..

 

Please also see my Caught Special - 151 posting with some special pictures from this trip, here.

 

Verdict

Our ratings on a scale of 5 (1 is low, 5 is high).

• The drive from Bangalore to Vani Vilas Dam and to Chitradurga on Friday forenoon: 3/5 
• Vani Vilas Dam: 3.5/5
  
• Room at Hotel Mayura Durg: 2.75/5
• Food at Hotel Mayura Durg: 3/5
  
• Look around within Mayura Durg campus: 3.5/5  
• Walk around the bylanes and streets: 4/5
  
• Food at Sri Lakshmi Bhavan Tiffin Room Chitradurga: 4/5
  
• Fort ruins area: 2.5/5
  
• Chandravalli: 3/5
  
• Jogimatti Forest View Point: 3.5/5
• Adu Malleshwara Mini Zoo: 2.5/5
• The drive from Chitradurga to Bangalore on Sundary afternoon: 1/5 
  

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