Uthara Kannada

We planned a 3-day plan to the above place from 30^th Oct to 1^st Nov 2010. Friday evening 29^th was the VRL sleeper bus from Jayanagar 4^th Block, Bangalore at 8:15 PM. Five of us, Myself, sis Shilpa, bro Sumanth, friends Suma and Sulakshana started off. The journey to murudeshwara was tiring as we had got the last few seats inspite of being Upper, it threw us up helter n skelter hundred times not allowing us to catch sleep. Overnight journey ended up next day morning at 8:30 in front of Murudeshwar gate. Shetty uncle waited for our arrival, we freshened in his residence and left to temple a small distance from his place. Infact the tall shiva s staute is visible from his house right there without any diificulty.

Shiva s statue is the biggest attraction of this temple. Even more is the beautiful beach right behind him. We followed a very small queue to get the darshan and climbed the lift to reach on top of the gopura which reaches the 18^th floor. We get the best view from the tiny windows in all four directions. One side is the temple entrance, right next is the Netrani Island view, behind is the view of shiva statue and the last view is the beach where you find people enjoying a motor ride and sports of other sorts. From there we headed close to the statue and entered a cave right under the huge statue, the cave depicts a story of raven. We enjoyed clicking few pics in the postures very similar to story happening behind us in the cave. We were informed that there is prasaada distributed from12:30 so we collected the coupon and had to spend close to 2hrs for the lunch (We had missed breakfasr so naturally very hungry). We strolled in the beach and took plenty of pics in crazy postures. Pretty early to lunch time  we were outside the dinning hall waiting for the bell hee hee.

We hired a Omni to visit our next places on the way to kumta. We first visited Edugunji temple of Ganapthi, close to 15mins drive from murudeshwar. Odd time we went to learn that we had to wait for another hour  for darshan. We continued for 20mins more to reach Apsara Konda falls(acc to sumanth its ambu theertha heeee). A very small approx 10mt falls with a temple and garden, beach view on top of it. Worth walking a while to reach this garden which welcomes you with a beautiful top view of the beach and adjacent paddy fields. Shilpa, Sumanth and Sulakshana conducted several rounds whistling from this place and finally got satisfied that their art was appreciated by nature by sending back echoes. We geared up to dhareshwar around 30mins drive. A temple with a pond and a school of welcoming fishes in it. Dhareshwar beach was a nice to throw yourself and enjoy. We did the same till the sun said bye for the day. We changed in a near by fishermen house and reached our IB near Gibs high school in kumta after having dinner in panduranga hotel.

Our day 2 plan was to Yana. My long time desire at last came true this day. We started at 9 from our room. Had breakfast in panduranga and packed few idlis for lunch assuming that there is no lunch available in yana. Took an hour to reach this place. The vehicle climbs almost to the top leaving a distance of just 2kms for you to trek. Initially small rocks welcomes you to its world. The moment you face the huge two rocks of mohini shikara and narashima shikara, u are spell bound. The bigger one being the Bhairaveshwara shikara has a calm temple and this rock takes you into itself to show you its beauty. All you hear is the creaching bats through the walls of the rock. And burst of light gushes inside the caves at several places leaving you in great difficulty to take pics inside the cave. Mohini Shikara is not allowed kinds with very less allowance to enter for about 50mts and you are out. Not to forget the drink we had atop offered by a petty shopkeeper. Also sold his patented recipe for Rs80 half a litre. It’s a local drink made of seed called punarpulli with few spices, salt to make it a great appetizer.

We were back near the vehicle by 12:30. Ample time so planned on spot to go to Unchalli Falls. A 35km ride from yana towards sirsi. It’s a WOW!!! Experience. Its beautiful sight to watch this falls. A walk for about half a km to reach a view point and few steps more to take a closer look of the falls. The falls seems unexplored for its still so neat and in full glory. The water gushes with so much force that the fog wraps the falls in its mist for few seconds leaving us in surprise as to where the falls gone.  

We quickly rode back to kumta and reached Baada Beach, another beach which was so clean. It rained lightly and by the time we reached the kanika parameeshwari temple it rained rats n cats for few mins. We had dinner in Varad international and catched bed in the same IB.

Last day was a pure Gokarna trip but got extended till Karwar. Our return journey was booked from gokarna and so we planned to first finish karwar and then come back to gokarna. From kumta left around 9am to Mirjan fort 7kms from kumta towards gokarna. A lovely fort with llots of beautiful places to shot. The driver gave me tough time by driving really really slow in those broad highway NH-17 huh. Reached karwar by 11 around. Climbed on top or Shadshivgad Fort to take the view of karwar and its numerous tiny islands. DevBhag beach is close to the highway and the very karwar closes soon after crossing kali bridge.  We left to gokrana after having lunch and reached the gokarna temple by 3pm. The temple was as expected closed so loofed around for an hour to realize that the beach adjacent to this temple is actually not OM beach. Rather this was a very dirty beach to even imagin with close to 30% foreign crowd. We quickly reached OM beach which is 9kms from here and its like awesome… The most beautiful place in these 3 daysss. A 30mins ride by speed boat takes you to paradise beach and on the way you get to watch dolphins acrobats around incase you lucky. Since we fell short of time unlike other days we said no to this ride. Also coz we wr told by the boatsmen that in the evening the dolphins trips towards ankola and hence the chances to catch sight of them is thin. We again drove back to gokarna temple for darshan at around 5:15pm. The darshan timings being 5 to 8:30pm in the evening.

Our return bus Shreekumar was taking a bath when we reached a hotel for dinner. Had light dinner and jumped to our seats and slept tight till next day morning around 7 in blore. Reached majestic at 8. And to office by 10:30 to find my manager back from Endhoven with  chocolates :D