It was a lovely weekend road trip with awesome places, good terrains to drive, some great food, beautiful company of wife and the mighty Innova Hycross doubled the joy of travel.
Bhpian lobster recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
After buying the Innova Hycross, we wanted to go on a long drive to experience highways, village roads, ghat sections and night drive to test its capabilities.
Our recent trip to Sakleshpur fulfilled this. It’s a short road trip over a weekend, only wifey and I on our new Hycross GX (O) Blackish Ageha. Though intention was to test the capability of Hycross, it turned out to be a trip which passed compatibility test between wifey and I, it brought us more closer, trip provided good time and space to understand each other well and rekindled the romance to be precise. Such trips are really necessary especially for people living in cities like Bengaluru where life is like an assembly line of the factory.
Also, Hycross won our hearts without missing a beat, this is the first Toyota car I am owning, Toyota for sure know what customers want. No wonder they master reliability, quality and satisfaction. Hycross performed extremely well in all kinds of terrains, ghats and night drive.
Filled the petrol previous day, checked the air pressure and got the Hycross ready for our early morning drive:
Started from Bengaluru on around 6am, drove through NICE road, Tumkur road and joined Mangalore highway near Nelamangala:
There was not much traffic, I traveled on this route many times in Duster before, generally its foggy till Yediyur during early mornings. In my point of view, Mangalore highway is not safe, it has vehicles/people crossing at multiple places, has road humps which can put high speed vehicles into risk, too many curves and too many restaurants so people brake abruptly watching the restaurants, hence better be in safe speed limits.
Hycross beeps once after crossing 100kmph and continuous beeps after 120kmph, which is annoying at times for spirited drives, but also good to keep safe speeds. There are numerous restaurants on this stretch and some are really cool.
We took a short break at Harsha Grand for breakfast and coffee:
Highway condition while crossing Hassan town is pathetic and dangerous, expect reckless driving by trucks and containers. Next stop was at Manjarabad Fort near Sakleshpura. Its a star-shaped fort constructed in 18th century, fort design is influenced by French architecture. It is located at a height of approximately 3250 ft above sea level.
https://karnatakatourism.org/tour-item/manjarabad-fort/
People say we can see the Arabian sea from the top on a clear day, but we couldn’t see though. One can’t see star shape of the fort unless seen from the top through drone or helicopter.
Overall it’s a nice place to visit and for some cool pictures:
Drive from Manjarabad fort to Eka Resort through coffee estates and small villages was awesome, Hycross turned many heads due to its amazing color and sheer size.
Finaly we reached the Eka resort, it seem to be an old and popular resort in this region. This resort is inside a 50 acre coffee estate, so the location is great, serene and peaceful. It has got nice cottages, a beautiful swimming pool overlooking the coffee estate, large party area next to pool, SPA, outdoor badminton court, volleyball space and enough parking for 5-6 cars. Staff is polite and attentive.
However, resort lacks upkeeping and amenities needs maintenance. Property was all ours because there were only couple of other guests, so lot of privacy and service attention. Lunch buffet was arranged well even though there were only few guests, food was tasty. Overall its an average resort, ok for a casual weekend drive.
https://www.ekaresorts.com/
Nice and spacious cottage:
Pool with coffee estate in the background:
Lawn and walking trail:
Inside the coffee estate:
After the lunch, we visited Bisle ghat view point. Hycross sailed effortlessly through the ghat sections and it was a pleasure driving through those heavenly spots. Bisle ghat is a paradise for nature lovers, there is a view point that overlooks the beautiful Dodda Betta, Kumara Parvatha and Pushpagiri along with a few others peaks in the range. We can also view the stunning beauty of cascading waterfalls, covered in dense forests, you can hear the sound of water, birds and wind. We can just sit there and get lost watching that captivating view. We couldn’t see sunset may be the point was a bit off the view point due to sun’s path in November.
Returned to the resort by evening, had a strong coffee, later took only a light dinner and retired for the day recalling the satisfying drive of the day.
Next day, finished the breakfast by 9am and checked out of the resort. Next destination was Shettihalli Rosary Church. It was built in 1860s by French missionaries, its a magnificent structure of Gothic Architecture. Church was submerged under water in 1960 after the construction of Hemavati Dam, it became a famous tourist spot, also known as floating church. Church gets semi-flooded with water during the peak of monsoon and only one-third of the structure can be seen above water between June and October. It’s a must visit place if you drive around Hassan/Sakleshpur. 
New church:
It was very hot outside but thanks to excellent A/C in Hycross it was chilling inside, we continued our drive towards Hassan. Since it was just noon, we decided to cover Belur and Halebeedu temples as well.
It was about lunch time, we stopped at the Hoysala Village Resort on the outskirts of Hassan. It is a luxury resort located right on Belur road. We had a great lunch at their Kokam restaurant and visited the resort facilities with a guide. Spawning across 7 acres of lush greenery, they have retained lot of old trees, the resort blends heritage with modern luxury.
https://www.hoysalavillageresorts.com/
Belur is about 40kms from Hassan, after the stupendous lunch, we headed towards Belur. Belur and Halebeedu are twin cities located 17 km apart. Hassan-Belur-Halebeedu roads are very bad but Hycross made it like a cake walk. It swallowed potholes like non existing and reminded me of Duster’s magic carpet ride, so I didn’t mis the ride quality, which is most important for me on long drives to keep us fresh and untiring.
Belur and Halebeedu are famous for their Hoysala architecture temples. Belur was previously called Velapuri and Halebeedu was previously called Dwarasamudra and these were at their peak of development during Hoysala ruler Vishnuvardhana`s rule. It took 103 years to complete and Veera Ballala II, the grandson of Vishnuvardhana completed the task itseems.
Velapuri (Belur) was the early capital of the Hoysala Empire in the 11th-century, before they built Dwarasamudra (Halebeedu). The historic Channakeshava temple in Belur is dedicated to Lord Vishnu and Hoysaleshwara temple in Halebeedu is dedicated to the god Shiva.
We had some snacks and coffee at Halebeedu and started the return journey to namma Bengaluru. It was almost dark by the time we left Halebeedu. The awesome throw of Hycross head lights made it very comfortable to drive at night. Brightness and throw of headlights were the biggest issue in my previous cars. 
Return traffic was moderate, we drove nice and steady, reached Bengaluru a little late after dinner time, so had Domino’s pizza on the way and reached home before midnight.
It was a lovely weekend road trip with awesome places, good terrains to drive, some great food, beautiful company of wife and the mighty Innova Hycross doubled the joy of travel. It was a much needed break, but determined to practice it frequently.
Here is my Hycross ownership review: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-…ml#post5940836
Wear seat belts and drive safe !!
Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.
