From Mysore via Nanjangud to Begum - Bangladesh + India x 2 - CycleBlaze

December 16, 2010

From Mysore via Nanjangud to Begum

on route 13

It's quite a late start as I spend a bit of time looking around Mysore's Devaraja Market, where vendors sell fresh veg and fruit and other stuff including incense, which comes in the brightest, most vivid colours you can imagine -each one stacked neatly in small conical piles. 

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There are also wicker trays full of pretty flower heads and garlands hanging from racks. While wandering, people ask where I'm from. They want to flog me something really.

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I pace back across the main street to the hotel, have a breakfast there with two glasses of lassi, then load up my panniers and start pedalling south, out of busy Mysore, heading towards Ooty, although my destination right now is a place called Nanjangud. 

This is because my maps says there are some special temples there. 

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It's 12:30 already. I notice the couple's bikes had gone when I leave but the other is still locked up. It's a traditional drop-handlebared tourer with shifters on the downtube and toe clips. I never met the owner and wonder if we'll ever bump into each other on the road.

It's a bit busy as I knew it would be and the shoulder is handy, albeit a bit soft in places. Is there an alternative to Highway 13? Not that I know of. Anyway, it's not far to the temple place - around 15 km.

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The sunshine that came out late this morning has gone behind clouds, which threaten rain.

The are two huge structures about two kilometres off the main road. First up is a cross-legged figure with a snake around his neck that's painted and there's a high, stepped temple nearby. The main temple appears older, again carved of stone.

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The rain duly comes, so I shelter with a few others and take their portraits. One English speaker tags along as a guide once it stops and in my estimation he's after something.

He shows me a wooden structure that's right in front of the shelter and is on wheels that have basically disintegrated. He reckons this 'temple' is 400 hundred years old and there are Karma Sutra carvings along part of it, but numerous coats of paint have obliterated the details - that and the elements.

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He leads me to other wheeled temples that are huge and newer, towering something like 10 metres high, tiered with every inch carved, painted a dirge brown. Again, there are erotic details on show and the wheels are built from timber the size of railway sleepers and ringed with thick steel that must have given the cartwright something to think about.

We walk around the main temple, some hundred meters or so long and wide. Roughly square, it looks like it's made of sand, with the stone being that colour and the carving finely detailed and smooth. 

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There's a frieze along the parapet with all sorts of figures and the Karma Sutra is again a major reference point. 

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When I make to leave my guide asks for a pen. It seems a bit sad and pathetic and I tell him I don't have one spare. Maybe I should give him a tip, but there are other people gathered around who look eager for something so I mentally decline and bid them farewell with thanks.

It's 3:30 now and my energy is low as it wasn't a great night's sleep for some reason. The local hotels look tempting, but I convince myself I should get some miles in.

 My wheels roll south just to the edge of town, where they stop at an eatery where I devour a snack and sip three cups of sweet hot tea to lift me a bit. It looks like it could rain again as I set off and the road is unexciting. 

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The 13  undulates a little, but nothing very steep and just the middle and big rings are used. A milestone say Begum is next up at about 15 km and there are adverts here and there for a hotel, so that's where my bed will likely be.

It's dusk as I arrive at gone six. The charge goes down from 600 to 500 rupees. 

Tomorrow I'll see about venturing down some side roads as I feel the need to explore a bit - just heading south as best I can and see where I end up. 

Highway 13 doesn't do it for me. I can hear traffic on it from my hotel room right now.

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Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 1,778 km (1,104 miles)

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