Malnad Trip

This tour came as a surprise as I was almost ready for a 3 day trek near Dharmastala. My cousin Amit who is persuing Medical had been to Bangalore to spend his prefinal year holidays. Alongside., my other two cousins Abhay(he is doing his final year LLB) and Varun( right now he is into his articleship of his CA course)were planning a weekend trip. And myself, Im kiran doing my final year of Engg was in good mood since my semester exams were over.We guys all met up together and planned out this trip. This is my first ever blog. Suggestions are welcomed.

We planned to leave Bangalore on Jan 9th 2010.

Kausalya supraja rama poorvsandhya pravarthathe.. uttishta narashardula karthavyam daivam ahnikam.. Amit was ready with his Indica Vista car at 5:30AM with his stereo playing suprabhata.We had almost finished packing our cloths for our trip.


As predicted we started off at 6AM early in the morning. It was a cool day,We got packed ourselves with our jackets and started our journey by heading towards Nelamangala. Our first destination was Yediyur which is about 100km from Bangalore.We reached Yediyur at around 8AM and had the darshan of Siddhalingeshwara god.And then we headed towards Hassan.Hassan is about 90km from Yediyur and the stretch is quite good. We had even got all the necessary food items to fill up our stomach.We stopped our car on the way to Hassan and tresspassed into a banana plantation farm and had our Breakfast.

It was around 10:30, we were in Hassan.There we relaxed a bit and had a cup of tea. According to our plan,Places to cover around Hassan were Belur and Halebidu.Halebidu is 40km from Hassan.The stone carvings here are a must to see.According to the local guides., the Beluru and Halebidu temples are assembled from different blocks which means .,We can dissemble it into descrete blocks and join them again.

Our next stop was at Belur which is about just 15km from Halebidu.We visited the Belur channakeshawa temple and then started our journey again.

We then headed towards kalsa via Mudigere. The roads which connect to Kalsa via Mudigere and kottigehar are in bad condition.The drive from kottigehar to kalsa is quite decent and is filled with scenic beauty. We encountered many coffee and tea plantations on the way. These are a pleasant to watch.We even entered into a tea plantation and spent some time.

At around 6pm we reached Horanadu.The temple was closed at that time.They informed that the temple is gonna open at 7pm. We then headed to Padmavathi temple which is just a few steps away from the annapurneshwari temple. On returning,we then had the darshan of Godess Annapurneshwari. Its advicable not to miss the food which the temple offer to the devotees.The dinner here was quite good.The temple trust also provides free boarding facilities.

Next day, we woke up at around 4:30 in the morning, took bath and got ready. We again had the darshan of Godess annapurneshwari.. And after a morning tea we geared up for our journey again. Our next destination was Sringeri which is about 85km from Horanadu via kuduremukha. This strech is mindblowing and a feast to nature lovers..The green route with heavy fog was really awesome. The hoardings put up on this way suggest that this area is filled with wildlife., but we managed to see only wild dogs, wild buffaloes and wild men...lol ( Hehe...just kidding..saw a forest officer walking down the road).We can even encounter some small waterfalls in this range. We stopped our vehicle and refreshed ourselves with fresh water.

It was around 9AM in the morning, we reached Sringeri.We then had the darshan of Shaaradambe and left to Agumbe.
Agumbe is about just 25km from sringeri. This place is world famous for sunset.But we didn stay till evening as we had plans to continue our journey towards Kollur and then to murudeshwara.

Kollur is about 85km from Agumbe. It was 1pm in the afternoon, we reached kollur and had the darshan of Godess Mookambika. The temple was about to close. But we were quite lucky to get the darshan here. The temple also offers food to the devotees. Since it was the time of jannuary, all these places are usually flooded with Aiyappa swami devotees. There was a huge queue.,so we opted to have our lunch outside in a hotel..( which later turned out to be a bad decision.. .).. I advice the first timers to not to miss KODACHADRI which is just about 35km from kollur. Its a one day trek spot. You can google it for other details.

Since we had plans further.., we skipped kodachadri and went ahead. We headed towards Murudeshwara..its about 65km from Kollur.

Murudeshwara is a temple of Lord Shiva surrounded by Ocean. You can even enjoy a moto ride on the ocean by shelling out some 300 to 400 rupees. We waited for the sunset and took some cool snaps and then continued our journey towards Gokarna. Its about 80km from Murudeshwara via kumta.

It was about 8:30PM when we reached Gokarna. Gokarna is a nice place to hangout with. We had our Dinner and then went in search of lodge.This place attracts foreigners all the time.And hence..,Lodging in this particular place is bit costly.. But Kamat Lodging offered us a room for just 150 rupees.

We woke up at 6:30am and headed right to the beach and spent some quality time playing with the tides. We even spotted two dolphins here. Then we went to the temple and touched the AATMA LINGA and even visited the Ganesh Temple.. It was 9:30am and we had our breakfast in a hotel. There are about 5 to 6 Beaches around Gokarna.We asked the local people abt which one was the best to visit. Many suggested OM beach and Half-Moon Beach.. We headed to OM beach which is just 8km from Gokarna. This beach is worth visiting.. We enjoyed a lot here..(Hope even u will.. :-) ) . .

Our next place on the list was UDUPI..,We had our lunch in Kamat in Honnavar..And On the way to UDUPI, we even visited IDUGUNJI Ganesha Temple.
We moved on. It was about 5pm in the evening, we stopped our vehicle near Maravanthe Beach...The speciality about this place is that there is a river one side and a beach on the other side of the road. Entrance to this beach is only allowed for 3 months since there will be high tides. We were quite lucky. We enjoyed a lot on this beach.. I suggest for first timers to not to miss this beach. We even played volley ball with other guys who also had came for a trip from Bangalore..

Later we visited Aanegudde Ganesh temple and finally reached Udupi at around 9pm. It was the time of PARYAYA.. There was procession going on at that time. We then had our dinner in the temple and then went out in search of lodging.. We managed to get rooms in Geeta Bhavan which is near to the temple.It was quite cheap there.

We were ready by 7am and had the darshan of Lord Krishna. We continued our journey again. We inquired the locals about a place called PAAJAKA which is the birth place of MADHWACHARYA. Paajaka is about 13km from udupi. From there we headed to Kateelu..Its about 40km from Paajaka via Bellmannu. There we had the darshan of Durga Parameshwari. Our next destination was Dharmastala..which is 75km from Kateelu.

It was 1pm in the afternoon when we reached Dharmastala. We were lucky since we got the darshan of Lord Manjunatheshwara in just 15min. We had our Lunch there and left for Kukke Subramanya. Kukke is about 62km from Dharmastala. We reached there at 3pm, and had the darshan of kukke shri subramanya and Adi subramanya.

We were totally exhausted. We even had plans to visit Madikeri. But we skipped it at last. We headed towards Bangalore via Hassan. To reach Hassan we followed the sakleshpura Ghat.People.., this strech is streneous since the road is too bad and there will be heavy trafficking of Oil and Gas Tankers... It took almost 1:20 hr to cover up this stretch. On reaching Hassan.., we stopped for a tea break . . Since we were totally exhausted we were expecting to reach home early and lie on our beds...

It was about 10:20pm.., We inhaled the polluted air and were stuck in traffic...These signs indicated us that we were somewhere near to Bangalore...It was about 00:00am when we reached back home.. Overall.., this trip was a good experience and helped us to spend some quality time after the exams... :-)