Kollur & Agumbe - Karnataka

After Murudeshwar, our next destination was Kollur - Mookambika temple. Believed to be one of the powerful goddess. We were traveling on the highway 206 and the roads are pretty horrible.
On the way... view of the ocean from highway.

After taking a diversion on the highway, our journey was pleasant with many bends.
Could see clouds passing through the western ghats range...

Finally we reached the temple around noon. Precisely that was the time when temple will be closed. We had to do some timepass till it opens. We went to a nearby water stream and enjoyed there.
Pics of the same here :)

 Temple entrance...

After the darshan, we decided to go to Davangere while covering Agumbe. We were very hungry and went to a small hotel. We ordered for Dosa's and it was damn yummy. Try any hotel on that route and one can enjoy the food over there. Its not at all sweet incase someone is wondering, as coastal area food is sweet compared to other areas.

We reached Agumbe just after sunset and the place was chilling already. There was fog everywhere and we couldnt see anything. We wanted to stay there for a while but we had a train to catch. On the way we had a terrible experience with leeches.
That ends my Karnataka trip. It was wonderful!!!

Eco Friendly Ganesha

This year I had the opportunity to celebrate Ganesh Chaturdhi at my in-laws place.
Previous day my husband made eco friendly ganesha idol with clay and grains.
Here is the pic...

 Another angle :)

He has a great artistic hand and I just awed at his talent.
One can see more of his works at sriks

It happened like this....

I knew this would happen some day in life :)
Bells would ring...
relatives would join...
friends would enjoy...
parents would be happy...
relationships would be added...
status would change...
And all of this happen just because of one thing... and its Wedding!!!!

it happened on 27th August and I m glad about it :)

Murudeshwar - Karnataka

Our next destination was Murudeshwar. It was getting late and we decided to stay over there for the night. We had to go through the tough ghat roads for hours together to reach Murudeshwar from Jog falls. The journey was exciting with many bends and lush greenery. There are not many villages through the route and consisted of small houses. People lived very simple in those places.
Here are few snaps of the ghat road section.

 View of the river from the ghat road section.... This is the same river from the jog falls. I am really not sure of the river name :(

We reached around 10pm in Murudeshwar and it was totally occupied with all the tourists. We found it difficult to find accommodation. We stayed in a 3 star hotel at the end putting aside our budget limits. The waves sound was awesome from the room we got. 

Here are few snaps of the place. 

This is the view from our room. It was a terrific sight. 

Early morning sight of the beach.

stones and waves :)

temple, shiv ji and our hotel standing together. This is the view from the beach :)

In the water.

Shiv ji...

That ends our Murudeshwar trip and we started to visit another place, Mukambika temple at Kollur.

Jog falls - Karnataka

Our next destination was Jog falls, in Shimoga district. This place is around 30kms from sagar towards the western ghats section. Our journey was pleasant in the ghat roads and all through the 1 hour it was drizzling. There was complete greenery and road side vendors were selling pineapples which was most commonly grown. One can savour it and continue the journey.
The best time to visit Jog falls is to go during the months of July to September. Its good to reach the falls before 5pm. Once it gets dark it would be impossible to catch the view of the falls. There would be dense fog and  would have to wait for hours for the fog to get cleared.The falls consist of 4 streams.The detailed description is given in the wiki pages.
Here are few of the pics of the beautiful falls... [to view images with bigger size...click on the images]

the four streams of water falls

just another view....

Another water fall beside the four streams...

with base seen...

The dense fog covering the falls. It was drizzling all through our stay there... and it was just amazing
Karnataka is as such amazing place for exploring and spending weekends. Planning is required to cover places as such.

Sigandur - Karnataka

As part of my Karnataka trip, our next place was Sigandur. This place is about 30kms from Sagara. The place is formed by the backwater of a river. Its surrounded by thick forest and is the abode for many wild animals.
There is a famous temple called the Chowdeshwari temple. Assumed to be much powerful goddess and re-incarnation of Durga maatha.
Here are few of the pics taken in my frens camera.

 This is on the way to Sigundur temple.

 Ferry to be taken to reach the temple place.

Small islands formed by the back water. The distant seen land is where the goddess dwells.

The temple entrace. Photos are prohibited and it was raining continuously. So we couldnt capture many pics over there.
The uniqueness about this temple is that, one can wish any number of wishes infront of the goddess. The pujari will bang with some music instrument and pray to god.

The journey to the temple was excellent with greenery all over the place.