Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola

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Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 1/28 by Chaitra Nayak

Sunday, July 03 2016.

Very recently one of my friend had visited Shettihalli and I was so amazed by the pictures that I had listed the place in my in my ever growing travel list. I was in office when I suddenly made up a random plan and decided to visit the Shettihalli Church. I reached out to a friend of mine about this trip, who immediately said OK, provided if his neck pain would subside by then. So basically the plan was not on until Saturday evening. I had already looked upon the distance and other stuff. I must say Gowrav Shenoy's blog on all the more excited to visit the place. Sheetihalli Church made me all the more excited to visit the place.

Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 2/28 by Chaitra Nayak

It finally happened. We started our journey at 8:30 AM on a Sunday . There wasn't a lot of traffic and my friend being Bangalorean , knew all the inner routes (also his car and he drove throughout the day).

Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 3/28 by Chaitra Nayak

We stopped by Hotel Swathi Delicacy for breakfast. The place comes to the left, after kunigal (other side of the Bangalore-Mangalore highway). It's a good place for breakfast. There are toilets and a small park for children to play around.

Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 4/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 5/28 by Chaitra Nayak

The roads are smooth and it's a single stretch until Hassan. Well, here is a funny part. Google maps showed us a left where there is no road. We asked the nearby shops and took the previous left which later joined the other road -the maps showed us at first.

Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 6/28 by Chaitra Nayak

The last 20 km is pretty narrow as it's very difficult to overtake and the last 10 sec to the church is very rocky. Also, make sure to close all your windows or you might get water splashed all over you.

Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 7/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 8/28 by Chaitra Nayak

It took us about 4.3 hours to reach and we step out to watch this beauty. It's all in ruins but if you watch closely, the roof of the church still has carvings left. It was very windy as it had rained a few hours ago, few places were moist and I almost fell. There is greenery all around. There is also a bridge by which you can reach the farm which is on the other side of the church; I was sad as we couldn't go there because it had started drizzling by then.

Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 9/28 by Chaitra Nayak

We spent about 30 min walking around and taking pictures. There is nothing much you can do here but the place is really good. It's said that the church submerges if the water level gets higher.

Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 10/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 11/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 12/28 by Chaitra Nayak

Here are few more pictures of the church with various filters and panorama

Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 13/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 14/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 15/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 16/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 17/28 by Chaitra Nayak

It was 2 PM and we had few more hours to kill. So we decided to visit Shravanabelagola as it was not that far away. Yet again my friend just said OK. I really wonder what I would do without Google Maps. It took hardly about an hour till we reached the place. We weren't hungry and decided to have lunch afterwards. After freshening up we started our journey towards Gommateshwara. It is located on Vindyagiri Hill and is considered to be the world's largest monolithic stone statue. It is also known by the name Bahubali. There are about 600 steps to climb.

Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 18/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 19/28 by Chaitra Nayak

I thought it would be easy but I was wrong. It was so tiring and I hardly remember the number of pit stops I took. At that moment, remembered this particular dialogue from Kung Fu Panda 2 - "Ah my worst enemy, Stairs". I was half dead by the time I reached and yet again I would see stairs everywhere until finally, I saw Gommateshwara.

Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 20/28 by Chaitra Nayak

I was at peace. The view from top is breathtaking. My friend sat to meditate. It started to drizzle. I did not care and started to walk around the place. Within few minutes there was sun coming out and was amazed at Mother Nature. Going down the steps was my favorite part.

More pictures below -

Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 21/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 22/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 23/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 24/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 25/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 26/28 by Chaitra Nayak
Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 27/28 by Chaitra Nayak

We headed towards Bangalore around 4:30 PM. What a beautiful journey. We stopped by Malgudi Café to have snacks. There was huge traffic as we entered Bangalore! We took the nice road towards PESIT College and I reached home around 8 PM. All in all a good happy day.

Photo of Shettihalli Church - Shravanabelagola 28/28 by Chaitra Nayak

There are total of 5 tolls. We took the 2 way ticket.

Toll 1- 30/-

Toll 2- 62/-

Toll 3- 62/-

Toll 4- 55/-

Toll 5- 50/-

Nice road toll- 120/-

Trip first published on Chaitra Nayak