The plan was to leave Bangalore pretty early for Shravanabelagola. But we overslept and we were able to leave for Majestic only by around 7:30 am.
We took lemon rice and curd rice along with us for the journey.We boarded a bus bound to Hassan. A co-passenger advised us to get off at Chennarayapatna from where he said several buses would be available to reach SVB.
We reached Chennarayapatna in just under 3 hours. As we were entering the CRP bus stand, we spotted a bus leaving for SVB. SVB is around 10-12 kms from CRP. There were lush green fields on either side of the good road connecting CRP and SVB.We could see the giant statue of Gomateshwara atop a hill even as we were a fair distance from the bus stand.
The town of SVB is a small, rather tidy one. We passed a pretty garden on our way up the hill.Leaving our slippers, we began our trudge up the hill. We soon realised how out of shape we were ! Gasping for breath, and legs paining, we finally managed to reach the top. The view from up there was pretty good.It did not take us very long up there. The rock sculpture of Gomateshwara was pretty impressive, although I must admit, I had expected it to be much bigger.The temple surrounding Gomateshwara was pretty impressive too, as temples go. There was a lot of rock up there ! It was just as well that it wasn't too hot that day !
Contrary to our expectations, we found that climbing down was not very easy ! We were thankful when we eventually reached the bottom.
Raghu Hotel appears to be the biggest restaurant in SVB. We had lunch there. The food was pretty ordinary but the service was excellent. The staff were extremely courteous asking repeatedly if we wanted second helpings !
There appears to be a good shuttle service between CRP and SVB. We had to wait for just over 10 minutes before we got a bus back to CRP.But we had to wait for a pretty long time at CRP to get a bus for Bangalore. Most of the buses were full.I had a tea at the bus stand hotel while we were waiting.We finally did get a bus which was relatively empty and we boarded it.
We reached Bangalore by around 7 pm.
