Kodachadri

Along the western Ghats -  Ascending Kodachadri..

Trek route:  If you are going from Shimoga, traverse on the road reaching kollur. On the way, you will hit a small village called Nittur; you need to continue on the same road till you find small mud road towards your left with a sign board of Karnataka forest Dept. and this place is called Karakatte Gate (Kari Ghat Gate), just 14 Kms before kollur. 

Karkatte Gate 

Trek starting in below map with point marked A.



If you are travelling by public transport then you can get down at Karkatte Gate and start your trek. If you are travelling by private vehicle then you can travel till "Hotel Santosh". Distance between Main road and Hotel Santosh is around 5.5 Kms. one can find basic food here. Actual trek starts from this point. Distance between "Hotel Santosh" and "PWD guest house" is about 4 Kms.  Initial part of this stretch is much steep. You need to trek inside forest where, you will find a lot of leeches in post monsoon. Most of the times you will come out of the forest and again your trek trail enters to the forest. After trekking 4KMS you will find the temple on the top with few houses and a PWD Guest house. From PWD Guest house there is a common path till peak. Distance between kodachadri peak (Sarvagnapeetha) and PWD guest house is around 1.2KMS.

On the way to Hotel Santosh

Best time to trek: From October to February.
Food, Accommodation & Transport (Jeep) :
                                  Nagendra Bhatt  - 9449500806
                                  Sitaram Bhatt     -  9632847302
                                  Ramesh                -  9481009983

Kodachadri around 14 Kms from the famous temple town of Kollur is in Shimoga district. At the height of 1343 meters above sea level, its majesty stands along the splendid evergreen forests. The place is around 115 kilometers from Shimoga town.

Nodi Swami navu irodu heege !!

We started the journey from Bangalore in a train to Shimoga town ( TALGUPPA EXP departs from Bangalore @ 23:00  and reaches Shimoga @ 5:00 Am), from there we took a bus to Kollur(Private bus service start early morning ) and alighted at a point in the ghat called Karakatte Gate (Kari Ghat Gate / Karikatte Gate) and started our trek. This is approx. 1.5 kms after Sigundur cross towards Kollur. Take left from Karakatte gate.

March-fast 

The initial walk through the ups and downs of the forest path is bit easy. After walking through the plains for almost an hour we reached an inhabited area, with a malayalli hotel there, where you can get puttu and kadala (steam cooked rice cake; we usually call it as kadubu and chana). We rested here for almost half an hour and headed to climb up. 

Commercial break

Initial ascend, though steep, was through the shades and was less sapping.

 After one and half hour climb, then it was a walk through the mountain side, covered with grass, almost green everywhere.

It was an astonishing view.

We finished our packed lunch here and for the next half an hour it was an easy trail. We caught our first glimpses of the hill top. It was just 10 mins of climb up hill but that became a real climax.

By this time the clouds were just above us and it started raining. All of us where inexplicably tired, but still managed to drag on. In the end, we managed to reach there but at last the hell broke loose and it was so heavy rain that we were almost drenched. With not much circus, we reached the destination, were there is a temple, a guest house and a couple of houses of the local priests.

PWD guest house was not in good condition during our visit and we stayed in one of the priest’s house where, we had booked our accommodation. Later we had the dinner as the rains did not provide us an opportunity to go watch the sunset. So went to bed praying to be able to get up in time for the sunrise as the rain did not allow us to see the sunset.
At around 6:30 in the morning, we got up and rushed up to watch the sun going up. It was indeed a race with the Sun., with enough time to spare to catch glimpses of the beautiful sunrise...

We paid a visit to Sarvajna peetha dedicated to Jagadguru Sri Shankaracharya. It is said that the Jagadguru had visited this place, meditated here and he also established a temple on the hill of kodachadri and another at Kollur dedicated to Sri Mookambika Devi.

Sarvajna-Peetha

 A small temple called Sarvajna peetha, built with stone is dedicated to Guru Adi Shankaracharya at the top of Kodachadri. There is a cave with idol of lord Ganesha, famous as Ganesha Guha on the way to Sarvajna peetha. An iron pillar of about 40 feet length can be found in front of Moola Mookambika Temple near peak of Kodachadri and it is believed that this is the trishula used by goddess Mookambika to slay a demon called Mookasura as per tradition.

On the way to Sarvajna-Peetha

Overall the trek was one of the hard and most exciting trek, I ever had.

ApsaraKonda falls & Kasarkod Beach

Apsarakonda Falls

Apsarakonda falls is on a Hill containing many small and big caves, Waterfall with beautiful temples.  This place is not yet known to outsiders and that is one of the main reason it looks like untouched beauty.

How to reach:

• From Honnavar there is bus facility to Apsarakonda but not frequently. Better to hire a vehicle if you are planning to visit in public transport because days are long when it's hotter and you're waiting for a bus at these places. There is a signboard after Kasarkod to reach Apsarakonda. You have to take turn from this signboard and the road which leads to Apsarakonda. Road leading to this place is under construction. Currently there is a mud road heading to ApsaraKonda.
• If you are planning on public transport then, From Honnavar catch a bus to society stop (Kasarkod beach/ ApsaraKonda stop) and traverse 1KM to reach this place.
• From Bangalore it takes 10 hours to reach Honnavar. From Bangalore you can catch KSRTC Volvo buses for a decent journey.

            Located just 5 kms from Honnavar is a small attractive waterfall known as ApsaraKonda, which means the pond of an Apsara or a nymph. Here the water falling from a height of 10 meters has formed a small waterfall. A high hill, a fine view of the sea and the sunset from the hill and a huge natural cave are the attractions of the place. It is a visual treat to watch the sun go down in the Arabian Sea from the Apsara Konda hillock. The place truly exudes heavenly beauty.

View of Kasarkod beach from Apsarakonda falls

            There is a beautiful temple - Umamba MahaGanapathi and Ugra Narasimha Temple and a branch of Ramachandrapura Matt, Hosanagar (A Religious Matt of Havyaka Brahmin Community). Temple premises is calm and serene. Back side of the temple there is a beautiful but small water fall"Apsarakonda falls". There is a sign board near temple to reach the falls. Just 5 mins walk from the falls you will reach the hill. There is a viewpoint in the hill.  The ApsaraKonda hillock verily offers a feast to the eyes that see. You can see beautiful view of Kasarkod beach, pond and surrounding lush green paddy fields from this viewpoint.

Gallery :

Dudhsagar

Date : 28th - 29th sept 2012

Place : Dudhsagar Falls

       

        On kind of a whim, we met up with some old college friends & we decided to go see Dudhsagar. It was so much fun and was just what we needed.

                  

        Is God’s gift for us to enjoy the splendor of Rainbows, gorgeous landscapes, Sweeping view of mountains, pitch-dark and rayless tunnels, diminutive streams making soothing jingle or  the myth of the Dudhsagar !..

        Finally the day of journey dawned. All of us were in continuous touch with each other during the days leading up to the trip, finalizing minor details like where to stay, trips up and down the Ghats, food and so on.. It was almost 1:00 PM on 28th September; we were seated in the Intercity Express to head towards Hubli. On the way we had so much fun that the distance and the time of the journey was just nothing. We had fun about everything, like, News Media, Daily horoscopes, and even about our past lecturers and friends. Not to forget, we also had ಬೆಣ್ಣೆದೋಸೆ (Butter Dosa) which is almost synonymous with the city of Davangere and has found its own well-deserved place in the menu cards of all well-known restaurants in Karnataka. One of our College mate Vikram got us Hot and spicy Dosas at Davangere railway station. With continuous fun and excitement to see Dudhsagar, We reached Hubli by 9:30 PM. Had our dinner and boarded the Vsk link Express at 11:00 PM. It was around 3:30 AM, we landed at Castle Rock railway station and the team decided to rest for half an hour. By that time Nishanth made some preparations, like charging the camera battery at the Castle rock Station Waiting room. 

        Yes!! We started at 4:00 AM; it was pitch dark with around two torches in hand five of us i.e., Dhanshekar, Punith, Veere Gowda, Nishanth and myself Sachin, were busy walking on the tracks of Barganza Ghats (Dudhsagar Railway Route).

        It took around 45 minutes to reach the first tunnel as we were on a very slow pace, capturing whatever we saw on our way!

        We stopped at the entrance of the first tunnel and lit the bon fire as it was too cold and we enjoyed there till it was around 5:30 AM.  

        One can see a number of waterfalls on the way, all the waterfalls here are just series of cascades through the jungle.

        There are around 6 to 7 bridges, but not as challenging as the Sakleshpur-Subramhanya Road (Green trek route) stretch.

        After traversing a few miles,one can see "Welcome to Goa " hoarding beside the track.



        We had packed a lot of stuff to eat like Biscuits, Chocolates, Cream bun.etc. on our way and munching all these and enjoying the beauty of nature, we had almost covered half of the trek.

        At around 7:30 we reached a point known as Caranzol and finished our Breakfast there.



         From Caranzol, Dudhsagar is around 6.8 kms.



         It took us 2 hours to reach Dudhsagar...  

        As we had the first glance of Dudhsagar falls, all our energy spent so far was recharged; this falls is crushing, irresistible, appealing. We sat at the base of this glorious falls and soaked our weary legs in the cooling waters; there was a silence in everyone’s mind at least for few minutes as we watched the prodigious falls.

        The stairs down the falls is broken But don't worry, the stairs carry on up past this fall, following the mountain stream that tumbles down the hillside but we can manage to get down, which leads to a pool at the bottom of the falls.

        As we finished our lunch at Dudhsagar falls, and moved towards the railway station, there was a goods train waiting for us, we approached the Station master and requested the Loco Guard and got permission to board the Loco. 

        We can almost see the splendid view of Dudhsagar falls admits the jungle on our way till sonalium railway station as the falls was playing hide-n-seek.

         Finally we reached Kulem railway station and boarded a passanger train towards Goa.On our way back, we got an oppurtunity to click some of the pics of train passing through the tunnel.

        It was a wonderful experience, and cannot be just explained... Here is a video of train passing through the tunnel.

One Day Many Worlds!!!

Date : 26th Aug 2012

Places : Heritage city Mysore, Somnathpur,  KRS Dam, Curse city Talkad, Banaras of south T.Narsipur

                It was still Dawn when all the dons were on a junket towards mysore and surrounding places. This time it was 7 of us i.e., Nishanth, Bharath, Dhanshekar,Naveen, Umesh, Koushik and myself Sachin.We were on Kanakpur road by around 6:15 Am and all of us met at the kanakpur road shell petrol bunk as scheduled.

Our Route : Bangalore (Banshankari 3rd stage) -> Kanakapura {Approx 50 Kms} -> Malvalli {52 Kms} ->T.Narsipur {40 Kms} -> Gargeshwari {2 Kms} -> Somnathapura {10 Kms) -> Mysore {30 Kms} -> KRS Back waters {20 Kms} ->Bangalore{110 Kms}

                By 7:00 we were near kanakapura and we finished our breakfast. By almost 7:30 we were back on track and reached Malvalli by 8:30. We had almost an hour break at malvalli and 9:30 or 10:00 we started  towards T.Narsipur. The roads are not in good condition after Malvalli but we enjoyed the ride since the condition of roads didn’t bother us much As we Indians are adjusted with such a kind of roads as A leopard cannot change its spots we cannot expect all our roads to be in good condition. 

                Our Plan for that day was to visit only Gargeshwari temple but as a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, similarly places were stacked up one by one later on the way.  By 11:00 or 11:15 we were in Gargeshwari temple and Somnathpur is just 30 mins drive from T.Narsipur. Believe me T.Narsipur is A place for everything and it has everything in its place.

                             

         

             Somnathpur has the famous Chennakeshava temple. The history of the Chennakeshava temple is inscribed on the stone slab at the main gateway of the temple. At the temple, the outer walls are decorated with a series of star-shaped folds and the entire surface is covered with carved stone plaques.

Somnathpur Temple

             The walls above the plinth are also carved with exquisite figures of gods and goddesses, taken from the Hindu puranas, and meticulously arranged in vertical panels. These stone slabs are meticulously arranged, each slab interlocks with the other.

                     

                The sad part of the temple is Damaged pillers and sculptuors, every portion of the temple is vandalized by the invaders.The main Diety i.e,. lord keshava idol itself is damaged and the other idols have been in the damaged state or it has been re-installed.

         

                                                   
                                        

             After Somnathpur we finished our lunch in Mysore and moved towards the KRS Back waters.

KRS

                                 
        It seemed very far from Mysore but as one goes near to the Krs backwaters, Distance lends enchantment to the view. It was the first time we visited this place though we have been a couple of times to Mysore.

                The KRS backwaters was an awesome place to be! The weather was just right and it was fantastic. I couldn't believe that we were in India itself.  

                                       
    

                The dam and the backwaters converge and the place is ideal to spend some time in the evenings. One can also pitch up tents and stay at the banks.

                                         

               

        The best view of the KRS backwaters can be seen at a distance of 30 km from Mysore city. Go straight ahead from the KRS entrance and take a left turn.Taking the near by villagers help for direction is advisable. Just ask for Venugopalaswamy temple as the landmark.

KRS Side view

          We spent almost 2 to 3 hours here and on our way back to Bangalore, we visited the historical Ranganath swamy temple at SriRangpatna.


ಹೀಗೆ ಉಂಟು !!  :

  

 

      

Information  about Somnathpur :

 http://ifornature.blogspot.in/2011/02/somnathpura.html

http://shreshar.blogspot.in/2011/09/temple-of-art-and-architecture.html