If you like going for long drives (of the one-day kind) - here is one good personally twice-tested route:
Big Banyan Tree-Magadi-Sivaganga.
The total distance is approximately
150 kms. The best thing - roads are very good most of the way with few roads slightly less good. The scenery is amazing, with wide open country side, lots of hills, rock formations, huge trees, farmland, ponds with waterlilies, quiet roads where you hardly cross any other vehicle, cows grazing, men having leisurely shaves in wooden-box barbershops in small villages, children waving,harvest being dried - all this made all the more enjoyable/visible because the roads are good and you don't have to keep looking down for potholes!
Before I describe route - remember - after you leave Mysore road -
no petrol pumps/repair shops until you reach Magadi - so stock up/check vehicle. There are places you will feel that you are exactly 15 feet from the Middle of Nowhere!
Secondly,
take food - not much choice anywhere.
The route - go down
Mysore Road - after Kengeri and Bangalore University, on the right side, you will see a big board with a picture of the Big Banyan Tree. Turn right and enter - keep going until you reach the Tree. Stop for tea, stretching legs etc. (Ladies, ask for toilet at tea shop - there's one behind. After this stop, as someone told my French friend, Claude, "All India is your toilet"!, if you get what I mean!!)
Watch out for monkeys here. They like attempting to remove bike parts for fun ! Then ask someone the road to Magadi - keep going down the road - at a particular place, 3 kms down, you have to turn right.
Golden rule - when in doubt, Ask! And there's nothing like asking 2 different people. Especially if the first one looked slightly tipsy!
If you want to see
Minchinbele dam - go 7 kms from Big Banyan tree, drive down to reservoir. The last stretch is fabulous, with the road suddenly opening down to the water, and Savandurga in the background! Do not enter water, it's prohibited. But great place to sit down and watch migratory birds, and have a picnic. Then you have to
come back to touch the Magadi road - if you go ahead, you reach Savandurga. Ask for turn to Magadi, which will now be on
your left.
This stretch all the way to Magadi is lovely! On the way you have the
Chamarajendra Reservoir over the Arakavathi river - if you ask the watchman nicely, he will tell you of a backdoor entry where you can go up to the water! There is a sunken temple in the river.
Magadi is a very small town, though it was the birth place of Kempegowda who built Bangalore. You will know you have reached there when you see the petrol pump on the right. If you like history, there is an
ancient 11th century temple a little ahead of the town.
Someshvara, I think it was called. Left side of road, on small hillock. Magnificent architecture mostly in ruins. I just happened to see it in a guide. It will be locked most of the time - but you can jump over the wall at the back. The local kids will tell you all its history, whatever version they know!
From Magadi, ask the locals the route to
Sivaganga - turn will be on your left, when you come back from Someswara temple, cross the town and come out - lovely stretch. Around 28 kms. Sivaganga is a nice temple town with a temple on top of a huge rocky hill you can climb up. Great view, and great exercise ! But is definitely less strenous than Savandurga which is just off the route. Take a strong stick - to help the climb - and also to ward off monkeys when you reach the top! You'll get nimbu pani and snacks at places along the way.
Then you can come back by
Tumkur road - which is very close by, ask anyone, touch highway and turn right to head towards Bangalore - great road - 54 kms, but you can make it really fast as the traffic moves well - we covered it on bikes in an hour, some less than that!
That's it. Happy biking/carring/stopping and staring !
