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

Along the Western Ghats

Sakleshpur Railway trekking

Green Route Trek: Trekking along the Railway Track from Sakleshpur to Kukke Subramanya.

            Ever green remains the green trek in our minds. The Railway Segment from Sakleshpur to Kukke Subramanya road junction is known as green route trek and very popular amongst the trekkers in Western Ghats. The length of the trek is some 52 odd km which comprises approx.  58 tunnels and bridges and a number of water falls all the way.  

Sakleshpur green trek

            The route offers absolute wilderness to the nature lovers. Length of the tunnels varies from few meters to 600 meters and these tunnel are unexplored eco regions with high possibility of poisons snakes, insects. Bridges are breath taking and a bit challenging.

Our Route: Bangalore -> Sakleshpur {Kannur Express at around 9:00 pm from Bangalore city}, Sakleshpur Railway station -> Subramhanya Road Station {via Donigal, yedakkumeri)

     

           It was Friday around 8:30Pm, when myself Sachin, Nishanth, Veere Gowda and Dhanshekara were at the Bangalore Railway station waiting to board  the Kannur express. As soon as the train came, we somehow managed to get a seat, It’s my suggestion as to book the journey earlier else you may land up in trouble just to get some place to stand... Believe me; you cannot travel all the way without a seat, that too during the night time.

           By some where around 3:30 Am on Saturday we were there…..   Where? Yes in Sakleshpura.

Sakleshpur Railway station 

             As soon as we got down, the station master got to know that we were on a trek and he insisted us to go to donigal (Generally trains rarely stop at donigal and also the tunnels and bridges are more from here) but it was our wish to trek all the way and we didn’t wanted to miss anything on this route…  It was pitch dark and as we forgot to get torch, we went to sakleshpura bus stand and got some food for our morning breakfast. At 5:30 Am we started our trek.  

Hebbasaale River Bridge 

                             

            After traversing for an hour, we got the first bridge across Hebbasaale River. First we were very much afraid to neither traverse on the bridge nor enter the tunnels but later on it became a cake walk for us.

Railway Bridges along the Trek

                              

           Donigal is around 7 to 8 kms from sakleshpur. 

                                       

Sakleshpur Railway trekking

               We had our breakfast after donigal station and started walking again. It was a long way to go!

Railway bridges along the trek
                           

            By 7:00 Am again we started our trek. It was very hard to cross the tunnels as we did not had even a single torch. At the time of start the trek sounded like one of the easiest treks that we will have, but this off beat trek along the sidelines of railway track threw up its own challenges. Lining on the side ways of trek was extremely thin and the walking on the rocky bed of railway tracks was extremely cumbersome.             
           Finally we retorted to placing baby steps on the concrete rails and the wooden planks of the trek. The lesson we learnt from here is to take a good torch and backup batteries when you are doing the railway track. But somehow we managed with the mobile lights. 

Sakleshpur Railway Trek

              It was lunch time by then. The walk was getting monotonous with nothing new to see other than tunnel, bridges and green everywhere. we also saw a number of water falls on our way.

  

                                     

            We did not had the correct information about the distance and more than that we had not packed anything for the lunch. Swearing and cursing, we started walking again. With the entire circus finally we did it by the evening.It was almost 5:30 when we were near subramanya road. From there we climbed a rustic and bumpy jeep.

                                  

            We reached subramanya within 30 mins and got a room for us as we could no longer stand. We all sat down to rest. There was hardly any energy left in us for the day.

           On the next day i.e.,  Sunday, after visiting the Subramhanya temple, we turned towards Mangalore. In Mangalore we went to Bharath Mall and returned to Bangalore on the same day.

           

Yearning for Yercaud

It was on 5th Aug that myself Sachin, Nishanth and V Gowda planned for Yercaud. Luckily this time Bharath  joined us with Punith. With all sorts of circus finally we did it on 11th Aug.Before the dawn we were in Bangalore railway station hoping that we would be the early birds, but Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes in the middle of nowhere you find yourself. With not much struggle we reached Salem in Ernakulam Express which leaves Bangalore at 6:15 Am. Travelling in Tamil nadu is cheap and you can reach Yercaud with just 100 bugs.

Yercaud is 30 km from Salem and around 20km of this is a Ghat section. The road is good and the greenery on both sides makes it a pleasent drive. 20 Hair Pin Bends [or HPBs, as they are called] make this journey a memorable experience. There are times when you can see atleast 3-4 levels of road below and above you. Amazing indeed. It takes just above an hour to reach Yercaud from salem.

Travelling in Yercaud can be done on foot [all the common places and tourist spots except the Shevroy Temple are in a radius of 4km]

Places to see: 

1. Big Lake (Emerald Lake)

  

2.killiyur falls

3.Sheveroy temple

4.Botanical garden

5.Lady’s seat View (One can watch the route to yercaud)

6.Pagoda point

7.Mount fort school(only Sunday)

8. Grange Resort ( Dirt biking)

                                  

Since none of us knew Tamil, it was hard to communicate or to make any enquiries. But since it’s a small place, so no worries!!!  When you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there. As our motto –

                “Our destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.

                        Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination”

At yercaud we got a nice cottage to stay.” As we have grown older, we  need  more stars in the  hotels.”A saying that I remember. I will not forget to mention the name as the service provided was ultimate. Its peeacock cottage. Contact No : 04281-223077 / 8903006611. This cottage is very near to Saravana Bhavan Elite, A place where one can afford for a healthy food.

         Though it was off-season but nothing was off… We were lucky that rains did not harm our trip. It was very cool and lovely that we can’t just express that in words as – “For my ways are strange ways and new ways and old ways, And deep ways and steep ways and high ways and low Ways”

                As we always believe "Travelling is like flirting with life. It's like saying, 'I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station"  half heartedly, finally we faced towards Bangalore on the next day.