Paadooru is my native village situated near Kaup, Udupi District of Karnataka. The blog is dedicated to beautiful landscape of KAUP Beach and my village Paadooru
Finally I made up my mind to visit kolar after so much
obstructions in past. I had plans to go by bike however it would be too much
tiring with hot sun out. If it was a four wheeler then it really makes sense
for me. So how did it start? On
19-Feb-2012, I started around 9:30 AM from majestic and reached Kolar around
11:15AM. My goodness, got bus early. I
could have taken the bus from KR-Puram however I would end up not getting seat. Same thing happened though as bus entered KR-Puram. The day was crystal clear
and non hazy which makes it ideal environment for photography.
ROCK HILLS NEAR KOLAR
So what are the spots I visited? Through the blogs I read
about Antaragange, Kolaramma temple and Someshwara temple. My primary intention
was to visit these places and later ask the locals for others. As I alighted in
Kolar bus stop, caught up an auto-rickshaw for 200 rupees to make me visit the
places. This included waiting charges too. The driver of auto-rickshaw was
polite and answered to my curious questions patiently. His name is Azim.
Antaragange is 4km from Kolar bus stop. It is in middle of rock hill. You need to
climb around 100 steps to reach there. On the way you can find lots of monkeys
so beware if you are exposing any eatables! (Better carry a long stick) As per
driver, government feeds monkeys with MUDDE (a solid food made of raagi) every
day (not sure about frequency).
ANTARAGANGE ENTRANCE
STEPPING TOWARDS ANTARAGANGE
BEWARE OF MONKEYS
The main attraction here is the water coming
out from small outlet. It is believed that water comes from Ganga
(not sure about mythology behind). There are three temples here. One is Ganesha
temple in middle of small pond, the other is shiva temple while another is
Navagraha temple. There are Nandi idols near the outlet where water comes out.
It seems the water flows round the clock and 365 days in a year. There has been
no instance of water being stopped flowing as per driver’s explanation. You
could see people carrying loads of can to fill it with the flowing water.
TEMPLE PREMISES
GANESHA TEMPLE
The
water is so sweet that you will be tempted to catch a bottle for you (I did taste
it). If you don’t have one well no problem there are vendors selling bottle for
2 rupees near by temple. Don’t ask me about the cleanliness of bottles or their
source. It is up to you to decide. If you are reading this blog definitely you
will carry from your home. I presume that some people may carry so much water
even to sell them (I saw water pouches similar to milk pouches in bus stand).
THIS IS WHERE WATER COMES FROM
PEOPLE FILLING WATER TO CANS
There
is lot queue for the water. Some even take light shower near since Ganga is considered holy. I went another way to capture
some pictures. On the way to AntaraGange there is a platform where you can take
pictures of rocky hills. There are lots of honeycombs too. So beware!
After AntaraGange, the auto-driver carried me to Kolaramma
temple. It is beautiful stone temple and very old too. The temple is protected
by Archaeological Department of India (ASI) as heritage place. You can also
enjoy beautiful sculptures on the pillars and walls. The place is well
maintained. Here are some pictures and story about temple.
CLICK TO VIEW
KOLARAMMA TEMPLE
Next we went to one more heritage place called Someshwara
temple. Similar to Kolaramma temple the place is also protected by ASI and
there are warnings about tampering with the place. The temple is very close to
Kolaramma temple.
CLICK TO VIEW
SOMESHWARA TEMPLE
The main attraction here is Shiva-Linga which is faced by
Nandi. There is a Kalyana Mantapa, Parvathi temple and a Yaaga Shaale. Outside
the temple there is a chariot as well as a pushkarini (a small pond near temple
is called pushkarini. In coastal areas, the people who do pooja in temple have
to take bath in here before entering deity’s place).
SOMESHWARA TEMPLE
MAIN ENTRANCE
Irony was with next day
being Maha-Shivaratri not much celebration was seen here. May be restrictions
by ASI? The photos speak about mythology and temple look. Again the sculptures
and architecture is mind blowing.
PUSHKARINI NEAR SOMESHWARA TEMPLE
That’s it I was getting too much hungry. The auto-driver
said, there are some beautiful temples atop the rocky hills. However I did not
have time. I could have gone there if I had a private vehicle. Nevertheless I
was satisfied to see the main places in here. Others I have made note to visit
next time probably when I bring my own vehicle.
Only AntaraGange is bit far from town while the other two is
within town limits. Many people visit AnataraGange while not much people were
seen in other two temples. The auto driver showed me one more shiva temple in
one of the streets. After that he dropped me in a hotel and I handed over the
money. He was very polite to me throughout the journey and did not complain
about the waiting time. I had some light lunch and left to bus stop to return.
KOLAR TOWN
Kolar as town is still under-developed. It seems that
development is restricted to Bangalore
only while the near by places are still backward. The only development here is
the highway widening which runs as bypass to town. The roads were in deplorable
condition too with too much dust around town. Other than that the rocky hills
surrounding the town is really wonderful to watch. The lunch was also good
since I was hungry.
Kolar is about 70kms from Bangalore (from KBS terminus). The ordinary
bus fare is 50 rupees and varies where you catch up (may be it is bit less from
KR-Puram). The road joins Chennai via Chittoor. The NH-4 runs outside the town.
While it is 6 lanes from KR-Puram to Hoskote, it is 4-lane thereafter. Seems
like highway was recently completed (the toll plaza is still not functional). For
people who travel by taxis or private vehicles, there are lots of dhabas and
restaurants on the way (KAMAT is also there).
One thing I forget every-time is pen and a scribbling pad to
document journey as and when I visit places. I bought a pen and sheet of paper
and documented inside the bus. So I started back at around 2 PM from Kolar and
got down at KR-Puram to catch ring road bus. Thereafter I traveled to HSR BDA
and reached home at 3:45 PM. The weather was hot but the memories are still
persistent.
This video was taken during peak monsoon season of 2011 (around july). We went for some work to udupi and while returning to Kaup it started pouring down. This was taken along NH-17 (Now NH-66) near Udupi. Finally my father agreed to hold the camera while I was driving. I wanted to feel the monsoon drive :-). So requested father to hold camera for sometime. Here is the video. Watch and share if you like :-).
Yesterday I traveled to Mysore in Tiruchi-Mysore train. The thing I observed in Bangalore railway station was the introduction of digital LCD display on trains. Some trains had them including the one I traveled. Roghly I saw one display board per 5 bogies (not sure). This is very good move. It also shows en-route towns which train stops. This is on par with BMTC buses in Bangalore. Hope the display lasts for long time. I am really not sure their reliability during rainy days. I suppose they will be spoiled if water enters the board. Apparently no protection from water was seen. Anyhow I welcome the new facility by raiways. Hope this will last long. And as always here is the picture. (bit obscure though)
OFF-TOPIC
The picture was taken with (1/25)s shutter. With (1/50)s of shutter, the photo was not proper with some part of display not showing up. Then thought for while and recalled the LED animation we were covering in microprocessor lab. Basically the display has refresh rate and shutter is how fast you capture the picture. Hence if the shutter is more than the refresh rate obviously the photo will not contain some part of LCD display. Consequently you need to take picture which is slower than refresh rate of the display. From the above experiment the refresh rate of train's LCD display board is
Sorry I am not expert photographer. There may be better way of doing this. You can have similar experiment by taking snap of your desktop or laptop screen [of-course being powered on :). Seen in CRT displays though]. Usually refresh rate of displays is between 50 to 75Hz. So in order to have proper picture, you need to adjust shutter less than refresh_rate. Try it out :). Any corrections to explanation is welcome
This was the time when we shifted back to Kaup from Bangalore prior to my father's retirement. The videos are pretty much old, however composed now. The clarity is not so good since most of them were shot inside the car. The video is maintained for memory. We started at around 11:00 AM from Bangalore and reached Kaup only by 11:00PM at night. We had to start late since we had to fit carrier for our car to accommodate excess baggage. We spent around 2hrs in bangalore city due to traffic mess. It was around 1:00 PM we reached Yeshwantpur. From then we took only 10hrs to Kaup inspite of taking 30minutes break for dinner at Uppinangady and deadly stretch of Shiraadi ghat. At that time, Shiraadi ghat road was tortured so much that we could hardly notice bitumen on the stretch. Adding to that, our car headlight lacked distance and hence we had to drive carefully. It always happens that the stretch between Ballupet and Gundya gets destroyed during every monsoon and repaired only by march. This is the story every year and no permanent solution is on the cards. Bangalore-Mangalore section is one of the beautiful tracks to drive due to the fact it covers plains, malnad, ghat and coastal areas. If the shiraadi ghat section is well maintained, this stretch is heaven for enthusiastic drivers.
The video is composed using KDENLIVE under UBUNTU. Help and support free software. The video is dedicated to free and open source community as well as people who love to drive along MLORE-BLORE stretch.
Everyone knows TWITTER. Even I have an account from many months. However today I have started writing something into it :-). If you have small things to share you can always TWEET in TWITTER. TWITTER is also called micro-blogging site(140 chars at once only). TWEET is the common terminology used I feel. Consequently, I have five tweets for today. Feel free to follow me ;-). My id is: nandakumar85. Feel free to re-tweet even ;-). I am open to flames also :-).
This was the first time I traveled in Shatabdi express. I believe it is the fastest train in India (citation needed). The shatabdi was bound to MAS (Chennai) from MYS (Mysore). I had to travel till SBC (Bangalore). The train usually leaves at 2:20 from MYS and reaches SBC by 4:20. This was accurate the day I traveled. There are no crossings or halts in between for the train. The next stop for train is SBC itself :-). The interiors are good with push back seats. The sitting area is wider and is comfortable. There are also eating tables attached to seats. The train men serve mineral water and some snacks. These snacks are not enough at all [for people like me :-)]. Unfortunately even outside vendors are not allowed. You may have to carry extra food with you. If you are commuting in this route by VOLVO, you can even try Shatabdi since fares are almost near (Of-course Shatabdi has more however comfortable and no traffic heck).
Horrible part was some children pelting strong stones at the window of train near Kengeri. Some windows developed cracks because of this and there were marks of the past incidents too. I do not understand why people want to harm public property. Summing up, the journey was really enjoying and pleasant.
Here is a small video of the journey.
Shatabdi (means centenary in Sanskrit) trains travel at speed of 100kmph and some trains powered by WAP-5 engines even touch 160kmph. Wikipedia page has more details on Shatabdi trains.
MUSIC: Ulrich Schnauss "Monday Paracetamol"
Hope you will enjoy the video.
Last week of 2011 we had shutdown in office. Hence we went
for a small to trip to Uttara Kannada district. We started on 27-12-2011 and
returned on 28-12-2011. It was around 600 kms of drive in span of 2 days. We
covered Gokarna, OM-Beach, Sonda, Sahasralinga and apsarakonda. Undoubtedly
Uttara Kannada district is the most beautiful district in Karnataka since it is
unexplored. Beautiful beaches, temples, the hilly regions, lot of water falls,
rivers like sharavati, kali, aghanashini, shalmali, kali, landscapes, konkan
railway tunnels, western ghats near coast is mesmerizing to watch. The beauty
is because most of the places are not explored as tourism spots.
There is not much industrialization too.
We started at 7AM from KAUP and had to reach Gokarna by 12PM otherwise temple would close and re-open only by 5PM. So we throttled our alto to the max and even touched 120kmph at times in two lane highway. Due to this we could reach Gokarna by 11AM i.e. we took 4 hours for 200kms including half an hour of break at Kundapur for breakfast. We could have reached earlier if the road was clean between Murdeshwar and Honnavar. (The potholes are really nasty)
One has to take deviation from highway towards west for about
10kms to reach Gokarna. The scene in
between is fantastic with beautiful backwaters and hills. However, Gokarna
seems to be crappy with lot of garbage around. Also foreigners make such holy
place so much ugly. At least they should realize that it’s holy place and
respect the sentiments of deities. OM-Beach is around 6 kms from Gokarna. The
look atop of view point resembles that of OM-symbol. Hence the name given to
beach as OM. Lots of tourists visit OM-Beach. Here are some pictures.
GOKARNA TEMPLE
OM-BEACH
OM-BEACH
Then we travelled towards Sonda which is around 90kms from
Gokarna. The travel from Gokarna to Sirsi is really marvelous. The first 20kms
is the ghat section named as Devimane ghat. The look from one of the spot here
is magnificient. Later part is sort of curvy road. Beautiful track to drive though.
The ghat looked like layered region. It was around 5PM when we reached Sonda.
The weather was too cold since we were right at the mid of Western
Ghats. The next day we visited Sahasralinga where you find
shivalingas mounted on Shalmali
River. I am not sure
about the mythology of the place. There is also a hanging bridge constructed
near by where you can have look of the river. We could spot only few lingas and
rest might have been submerged under water. It may be possible to have better
look in summer season and during monsoon, you will see only water.
Here are some snaps
SONDA VADIRAJA MUTT
To reach Sahasralinga, you have to travel from Sirsi
along Sirsi-Yellapur Highway for about 15kms. From there, you have a
deviation towards left to reach Sahasralinga. Its about 2kms from main
highway. Watch for signboards after traveling for 14kms.
SAHASRALINGA
After Sahasralinga our next stop was at Aghanashini River
near Kumta. The beautiful landscape attracts everyone. I took some snaps and we
moved on. We again saw the beautiful Sharavati river in Honnavar. The rail
bridge built across the river is longest along konkan railway route (spans for
2065m). Few kms from here is the apsarakonda falls and beach. The view from
atop of the hill near is eye-catching. There are also good hang-outs atop. Due
to lack of time we skipped this place. However I took some manual shots with
0.5 second shutter. Here are some pictures.
APSARAKONDA
Apsarakonda can be reached even before Honnavar if you
are traveling from Udupi. It is about 4kms from Sharavati bridge. There
are two routes. One leads to the small falls where you have a temple and
other leads to Kasarkod beach. The signboards are not clear though.
Both roads are very much narrow that there will be deadlock if two buses
travel face-to-face. The road leading to falls is quite narrow and
steep. From Kasarkod beach, you can climb up the hill to have
magnificent view of apsarakonda beach.Kasarkod beach area is also very good and worth visiting.
APSARAKONDA
SHARAVATI RIVER BASIN, HONNAVAR
KONKAN RAILWAY BRIDGE ACROSS SHARAVATI RIVER, HONNAVAR
Undoubtedly Uttara Kannada is beautiful spot to visit
especially during monsoon. It is because of beautiful nature and sea being
close to western ghats, UK
receives heavy rains during monsoon. Especially places like Bhatkal and Gokarna
receive more than 500cms of rain a year.
It was around 5 PM when we left Apsarakonda. On the way
back, we again had glance of beautiful Maravanthe beach near Kundapur. It was
already around 6:30 in evening. We could not get down here due to poor light.
The quote from Wikipedia says:
“One of Karnataka's most beautiful beaches. It is about 55
kilometres (34 mi) from Udupi. NH-17 runs right next to the beach and the Suparnika River
flows on the other side of the road, creating a spectacular scenery and
considered only one of its kind in India. The river Souparnika, which
almost touches Arabian Sea here, makes a U
turn and goes eastward to join the Sea only after a journey of more than 10
kilometres (6.2 mi), which is a geological wonder”
I never knew about last point the author has mentioned.
Really marvelous. It looks as if river is teasing the sea or nature is showing human civilization that I have better design etc... so many things. The picture is pretty much old not the one taken during our
travel.
MARAVANTHE BEACH, BAINDOOR, UDUPI DISTRICT
The road from Udupi to Honavar is OK but not even at many
places. From murdeshwar till honavar there are really big pot holes in between.
So be careful if you are driving. They are really nasty!! The road there after
is also good. The road between Kumta and Sirsi is a state highway and has been
completely relayed barring few hairpin curves where drainage work is under
progress. The first 20kms is ghat section road while later part is curvy road. The
road from Sirsi to Sonda is also good. The roads leading to apsarakonda,
OM-beach and sahasralinga are very much narrow as stated earlier. Be careful if you are driving
for first time or else you may end up in a valley. For experienced drivers it
will not be problematic.
Most destinations bare Rs.10 maintenance fee. Sahasralinga,
apsarakonda and OM-beach do have them. Due to lack of time we could not visit
some of the places like Yana, some falls. Also
jog-falls and gerusoppa is very near to Honavar and Sirsi. We skipped due to
the fact that it was not monsoon season. Mid-way we also skipped Idagunji,
Murdeshwar and Kumbhasi temples since we were getting very late.
Some tips from my side (non-exhaustive)
1) Make sure you have proper travel arrangements like camera (with fully charged battery) with large storage. I can assure that your storage will be over taking so many snaps :-).
2) Have some prior knowledge about the places so that you can explore more.
3) If you own car, drive yourself!! These are beautiful tracks to drive. Have proper solid and liquid reserves along with you. [not alcohol :-)]
It was around 8:45pm when we reached Kaup. The memories were
still hogging me. It is difficult to understand the design of nature. We missed
many places however we have made note of them to visit again. Request to
visitors is not to garbage such beautiful places.
I am still amateur photographer and I hope pictures have
given some impression to readers about the places.
Lastly, a small video of our trip. I have used Ulrich
Scnauss “A Million Miles Away” music for the video. This is the third time I am
using the music.
Watch and Enjoy
