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!!!

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.

Ikkeri Karnataka

Recently I made my last trip in Karnakata. The place we first visited is Ikkeri. The place is around 3kms from Sagara which is in Shimoga district of Karnataka. We reached the temple around 9 in the morning and it was slightly drizzling. The view was very beautiful. I could just stand in the rain and watch the beauty of the temple over there. Its all green everywhere with only pujari chanting in the temple.
Here are the few snaps attached to it.

 This is the main temple entrance.... Its very unlike to other south indian temples.

This is the outside view of the temple.

 The temple walls with sculpture and they are high enough.

 The greenery in the temple surroundings.

 The Nandi statue right outside the main temple.

The sculpture on the walls of the temple.

The high entrance on one side of the temple. There are three entrances to the temple. The sculpture is unique for each entrance of the temple.

To know the history of the temple, read the wiki link.

Tungabhadra Dam

Tungabhadra river is one of the prominent river in South India. One of the dam is constructed on this river near Hospet. The view of the dam from the nearby hilltop is amazing.

The construction of the dam was started before Andhra was formed in 1942 t imeframe. It was completed in just 2-3 years in those days.There was not much of technology in those days but still it was done on such a massive river.  Attaching the engineer description for reference.

The river is surrounded by hillocks on one side giving the dam a more pleasant look. There is a beautiful government guest called Vaikuntam which was constructed during Madras State. It is one of the oldest and elegant guest houses available.

The image of the foundation stone is here :)

There is a beautiful park just beside the dam. Its mostly for attracting tourists. The dam is worth visiting when you are on the way to Hampi and Bellary.

The musical fountain in the park is good. Though the place is in Karnataka, you will find lot of population who speak Telugu and songs also being played in the same language.

That was my visit to Tungabhadra dam and the historical place Hampi. Karnataka state is worth exploring.
I will come up with few more trip later.
Till then adios!!!