Kodachadri Trek - The last few hours

The last evening of our trip was spent at Malpe Beach. Malpe Beach is about 5 km from Udupi. One can witness some of the most beautiful sunsets here and especially days where the clouds are present near the shore and are a bit scattered, the light patterns make for some of the most stunning landscapes. Malpe is also a quaint little fishing town.

A new dockyard is coming up where they have started to make mechanized trawlers for the local fishing industry. Close to the mainland of Malpe are four rocky islands

* Daria-Bahadurgad is the northernmost island
* Kari-Illada-Kallu is the southernmost island
* Daria-Gadara-Kalluthe is situated in between the two islands mentioned above
* The fourth one is St. Mary's Islands, also called thonse paar.

Regular ferries are available though your return is entirely dependent on the boatmen. They usually give it a couple of hours to drain the engine off the water and also let the engine cool down. God knows why they do that but you've been warned.

The usual fun in the beach started off and all the troubles faced the previous night were all forgotten. When you're in the midst of doing what something you enjoy doing, you never know how time canters off. Spend sometime in the company of some brilliant friends, u could practically declare that time is faster that light.

Here are some pics

Sunset at Malpe:

The bunch of amazing people:

Next day, Valentine's Day of 2011, it was time to get back to our routines. The place of farewell ironically was Mangalore Central Station, the place where all this started, our rendezvous point. Bidding goodbyes is always the hardest thing as far as I am concerned. This was particularly overwhelming. After 4 days of togetherness, fun and laughs it was particularly hard. But life as usual goes on. We bid our goodbyes, promises of doing such things again were the order of the moment. I hope this group, plus the people who we missed this time come together for another fun filled trip.

I might call myself a LoneWolf, as I do travel alone most of the times, but trips with my gang are any day an icing on the cake and I do pray we do get to do such trips again.


The Sri - Krsna Temple at Udupi

Western Ghats Sojourn - Part 3

All those places covered and I returned back a weary traveller. Not to be satisfied with such a long trip, it was time to explore Udupi itself. Udupi has quite a few places to have a look at. Religious, if you look at it that way but pretty stupendous for the neutral eye which enjoys magnificence. Each and every temple is like that in its own way, but spare me of the cliche, the Udupi Krishna temple takes the cake for that.

Every stone carving in that temple cries out for your attention and gets it too. The sacred idol, of a young Krishna is out of this world in all its rich adornment. Again I run out of adjectives to describe this from a neutral point of view and I'll leave it to you people to visit it and describe it for yourselves. Having a picture of the entrance to the temple at night for your eyes to feast on, that is assuming you think this picture is good enough.

There are a number of other temples worth mentioning. There is the Mahakali temple at Ambalapady. The goddess is so imposing that you get the jitters on the first look. But a few moments in the temple and you feel as serene as you might have ever felt. Such is the spiritual influence here. Getting itself added to my list of must see temples is the Anantheshwara Temple, located just opposite to the Krishna Temple. The Shiva Linga is truly a sight to behold.

The best part of Udupi is the Malpe Beach. While the calm and serene beaches of the Arabian Sea are world famous, few have the silent and calming influence of Malpe. Its not so very famous, famous with the locals though. A very thin crowd. So if a silent and calm visit to the beach is what you desire for, Malpe is the place for you. The icing on the cake would be to watch the sun going down the Arabian Sea in the evening. You wont get more beautiful sunsets anywhere else, other than Goa of course. Posting one of my clicks here. Don't mind if the colors are not that very highlighted, these were taken from my mobile cam.

All good and bad things, especially the good things come to an end sooner than later. After 10 wonderful days at home, I had to head back to the city of Chennai where my daily bread and butter(read work :P) beckoned. Left with a heavy heart, bidding goodbye to everyone, promising myself, the next time I come back, I'd explore these picturesque Ghats all the more and fall in love with it over and over again. What wonderful places the Western Ghats have!! God surely was in his best of his moods creating this!!

P.S: Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing about them all.

P.P.S: Next trip coming up in July, so assure yourselves of more details and pics.

P.P.P.S: Brickbats and Bouquets always welcome :)

Western Ghats Sojourn - Part 2

Next destination was Horanadu. Its the abode to the presiding deity, Shri Annapoorneshwari. "Anna" in Sanksrit means food and "poorna" means copious/full. She is the goddess of grains and the food we consume in Hindu mythology. True to the temple's name, every devotee who pays homage here is served a three course meal. The distance to Horanadu from Sringeri is about 75 Kilometers.

Here's a picture of the temple's Gopuram surrounded by the hills.

Heading to the next destination, Dharmasthala. Pretty near from here. All the ghat roads are interconnected and we can take the state highway(pretty well maintained!) to reach Dharmasthala. Home to the Shree Manjunatheshwara Temple. The temple is really ancient and locals claim the temple to me more than 1500 years old. The presiding deity looks every bit that old and exudes an aura that's characteristic of any Shiva temple.

The temple's trust is involved in many philanthropic activities, the most famed of them being the educational institutions they run at very low fees and high quality education. A mechanized kitchen provides free food for all pilgrims and there are guest houses with modern amenities. The average flow of pilgrims is about 10,000 people everyday.Every one of the thousands of pilgrims who daily visit shri Kshetra Dharmasthala is an honored guest irrespective of caste, creed, culture or status.The "Anna Daana"(free food) is perhaps one of the most impressive events that takes place at the holy temple.Free food is provided to devotees who come in thousands every day.The temple has modern machinery and makes quality food continuously throughout the day.Temple does not differentiate between the rich and the poor for the Anna Dhaana.The dining hall is known as "Annapoorna"

Here's a picture of the temple in its full glory

Next stop in my itenerary was Karkala. Its a famous Jain pilgrimage site and you can call it a miniature version of the Shravanabelagola Jain site. To mention about Shravanabelagola, its another of the famed Jain sites and it has the tallest statue in the world of Bahubali,  who was the second of the hundred sons of the first Tirthankara, Rishabha and king of Podanpur (ancient India).

When I mentioned Karkala being a miniature Shravanabelagola, this is what I meant.

The statue of Gomateshwara in Shravanabelagola is doubly big. :)

Next Stop of this now weary traveller was Kateel. This temple town (my! my! south canara sure has a lot of temples) is situated on the banks of the nandini river. Durga Parameshwari temple is the most famous here. Here the goddess is in a 'ugra' position, 'ugra' means 'angry' or in a state of agitation. A very look at the deity is supposed to purge your sins. You might have heard of people going into a trance state looking at gods and goddesses. You can see many doing that here. Not sure why it happens to many people here more than any other temple in Karnataka, barring the Mahakali temple in Udupi. The sight of the Nandini flowing by is a sight to behold.

A view of the Nandini river.

 

That concludes part 2 of my sojurn of Dakshina Kannada. Part 3 coming up next! Comments as always, welcome!