Lepakshi - Biggest Nandi in India

It was sometime in April 2007 and it's just 3 weeks after i bought my first car swift.I was very desperate to go on a long drive. Already the weekend was half over, and on the saturday night 10 PM, we were browsing through the net to find out a near by destination we can go to and came across Lepakshi. As I am from andhrapradesh, we used to always see the lepakshi Nandi symbol on the "Lepakshi notebooks" in our childhood. Those note books were very famous during that time for their quality and less cost. Coming back to the trip, we decided to go to Lepakshi as it is only around 120 km away from bangalore. Immediately talked to my friend Sastry who also nodded to come surprisingly. Usually, he doesn't prefer to travel long distances.

Also, I called one more of my friend Ramakrishna who was in HinduPur (this is 15 km away from lepakshi) at that time in his in-laws place. He told that he would also join us from there and asked us to call him once we reach near lepakshi. My wife prepared nimmakaya pindi (something with lemon and rice flour), which saved us a lot during the trip. We started from home at 7:30 AM.

The route:

We started from CV raman nagar in bangalore and took the following route.
Outer ring road -> Hebbal flyover junction -> NH7 -> yelahanka -> Devanahalli -> chikBallaPur -> Bagapalli -> Lepakshi

The route till chikballapur was very good, after which there was some highway work going on at that time, due to which the road became narrow at some places.Also, from Bagepalli to Lepakshi, the road which may be around 12 km is also not that good. We took a break near chikBallapur to eat our breakfast.

The temple:

It took us almost good 2.5 hrs , as we took two breaks in between to reach the place. The place is rereally worth visiting whoever is interested in visiting historical places. The temple is very huge and it stands on a big rock. There is not much crowd and it was very peaceful. By the time we reached the temple, our friend Ramakrishna reached the temple from Hindupur. Luckily, his father-in-law is a very influential person in that area and hence we got a VIP welcome at the temple by the main priest of the temple. We had special darshan and pooja. The priest's son took us around the temple to give us a guided tour of the temple. I suggest anyone going to this place to take a tourist guide who are available at the temple entrance. Otherwise, you won't be able to appreciate the place and things around the temple. I would say it is a MUST to take a guide. The temple is from the era of VijayaNagara Samrajya. Following are some of the photos we took. The date is wrong in the photos though :)

Inside the Temple premisis

Big Statue of Nagendra

The Nandi:

Once the darshan and guided tour is over, we went to see the actual NANDI that is on the main road. Lepakshi Nandi is the biggest in India. It's a treat to watch such a gigantic Nandi. Actually, you can see the Nandi while reaching the temple itself.

Biggest Nandi Statue

Sastry, RamaKrishna and Me

Near by:

We didn't find any nearby good hotels. I think, one needs to travel to HinduPur which is 15 km away from Lepakshi to get to a proper restaurent.

Once done with all the things in Lepakshi, we headed towards hindupur to our friends' in-laws place where we had a heavy breakfast and started there at 3:30 to return to Bangalore. We reached Bangalore at around 6:30 PM. Overall, it was a very really a good trip to remember. Kudos to my friend RK and his family for their hospitality.