A refreshing 4 day break - Karnataka - One state Many worlds!!

          As the tagline of Karntaka tourism says, "One State - Many Worlds". Its been not so long for me to take a break from daily routine life. But its been certainly a long time to visit a place as refreshing as a cool breeze of a winter morning and as bright & soothing as the Full Moon light. The entire place looked as if the mother earth wearing a Green Tivaachi.

 

 

           All these are very small comparisons to describe about the beauty of Shimoga and the route to Murudeswar & Murudeswar itself. It was our choice of our trip for the long weekend with Eid on Friday – 9^th August, 2013. Abhibus offered best deal and SRE Travels was the only option to go to Shimoga from Hyderabad. It takes about 12hours for the journey as per schedule and it took 13 hours but that was a good bus and a smooth journey.

Day 1 – 9^th August 2013

      We reached Shimoga (Rakesh and I) by 8AM and my other cousins (Mammu and Megha) reached couple of hours before we could. They booked accommodation at Surya Complex – two double rooms. We got ourselves fresh there and started directly to Jog Falls after a delicious breakfast at Jewel Rock Restaurant. From Shimoga, it was a 3 hour journey to reach Jog Falls and we boarded a bus from Shimoga at around 11AM and we reached Jog Falls by 2 or so. Its 105 KM journey and throughout all that we could see on either sides of road was only green trees, paddy fields and streams of water. Needless to say – we didn’t get tired of that journey.

      It was a fantastic location. We took entry ticket and reached to different viewpoints to witness four delightful water streams embracing the hill from top to bottom and reaching out to their old valentine at the bottom of the valley. They were making a loud noise, as if they were warning everyone else not to come in their way - preventing their journey to reach their valentine. It sounded like one of those four streams – they called it ”Rocket” is furious on someone. As the name suggests, it’s the fastest of the four to reach the bottom of valley for the slant path it took. Unlike regular waterfalls, it was not falling from top of the hill, instead its flowing from top towards the base. Once in every five minutes or so, that place gets filled with fog blocking the entire view and just in minutes again it settles and that moment when all the fog gets cleared, again the waterfall was uncovered and that moments – it gives Goosebumps to any nature lover. Its like the most beautiful lady of the universe unveiling the veil on her face.

    After spending a few minutes on one end (where the bus drops us) we headed towards the other end of the waterfall by walk. We had to walk for about 2KM to reach there and on our way, we saw a stream passing through the paddy fields. That was a fantastic view and attracted us so much that we stopped there and played in the paddy field mud like small kids, walked through the stream and drenched in the drizzle, submerged ourselves in that stream - what not, played like anything. After an hour or so, we started off from there to reach to the other end of the waterfall and reached there.

      OMG!! what a beautiful sight that was. The Rocket was not visible earlier but from this angle it was so clear and its dangerous yet beautiful. We reached to the safest possible edge on the hill top where one of the four streams fall from and spent some time there - witnessing the fog cover and uncovering the waterfall. Then, it was our return journey time to Shimoga by bus. This return journey was not smooth. Bus headlights failed and its a night journey in Ghat road. So, the bus was stopped on a bridge and another bus came in for our rescue within 20min. We were all excited about the experiences we had that day and reached our hotel room by 11PM.

Points to note: We missed going down to the base of waterfall which was restricted at the time of our visit, otherwise its open. Food was a little expensive near Jog Falls. An Egg omlet costed 35 rupees!!

Day 2 – 10^th August 2013

        With all the refreshing and rejuvunating experiences, our souls started the next day afresh like never before to explore even more exciting places and the day didn't disappoint us. We started off to Gajanur Dam from Shimoga and had tasted "BUNS" - a delicious food item similar to Ariselu. From there, we headed towards "Sakkare Bayalu" Elephants training camp. On our way to the elephant camp, we had to walk for 2KM - yet another fantastic walking experience amidst full of lush green fields. At the elephant camp, we fed elephants and learnt to communicate with them :). Aagattu - to come forward. Dalai - To put its trunk on one's head(to bless). From there, we started back to Jewel Rock in Shimoga where we had our food and started to Murudeswar by bus. Its 109KM from Shimoga.  We had to again go via Jog Falls route only. Shimoga -- Sagara -- Jog Falls -- Hannovar -- Murudeswar. On our way, we saw many streams of water on either sides road and a good number of waterfalls. Notable among them was three waterfalls - similar to Jog Falls - in height and width comparable with Jog falls. Just seeing flow of such waterfalls itself fills much happiness and makes heart very light. We were very happy and I was thankful to God that I was able to witness something like that. After a long - yet not so tiring - journey for about 5 hours, we reached Murudeswar and the very first sight of this place was refreshing!!. We got down at main road and from there took an auto who charged Rs.40 to get us to the actual Murudeswar. When we were getting down at RNS Guest house reception, the first thing that took our attention was the Beach and the 120+feet high statue of lord shiva on the hilltop. Such a fantastic view to see during sunset time!!! We reached our rooms and got freshed up there and just roamed around and had our food at Naveen Restaurant. This restaurant has its pillars in sea waters on sea shore. We could see tides coming and kissing the pillars of the building we were in. Having food there was an unforgettale experience. We can see people playing in beach, fisherman getting into sea. We were all happy for all that the day had offered us.

 

Day 3 – 11^th August 2013

       The day started off with a beautiful sunrise witnessed from the balcony of our room with a cup of tea in my hands. Though its not the best of the teas I have tasted, the time and location added the needed flavors to my experience. Our rooms in Murudeswar were just on the shore of sea. Literally, if we jump from the balcony, we will be in sea (rocks are there, otherwise I may have tried it :P).

       We started off to temple for darshan of Lord Shiva at the temple and went to the 20 storeyed gopuram of the temple. There was a lift operating to take us to the 20th floor from where you can see amazing view of Lord shiva statue and beach. There are four view points in four directions but the two mentioned (Lord Shiva and Beach) are absolutley fabulous to watch. From there, headed to have our breakfast at Naveen Restaurant. After having a decently heavy breakfast, we returned to our rooms to change our clothes for playing in sea water. But we decided against it since we might get affected by the sun and salty winds at sea coast. So, we stayed back and played cards - Judgement game. Rakesh, a serious debutant to the game, outplayed everyone else in his third game. But, we had great fun playing cards in the balcony with the sea view.

        At 3PM, we started to roam on beach and walked for about 2 to 3  KM to reach to a small temple (can be seen in below picture of beach). While the water of sea tasted very salty, there is a small stream adjacent to that temple and its water tasted very sweet (Report courtesy: Rakesh :) ). We assummed that stream to be a part of the Sharavati River. This trip also taught us a new lesson that not only two rivers in India flow towards west to enter into sea but Sharavati also travels to west and merges into Arabian sea. Best part about this beach was - we went about 100 meters into the water and still the water was just about 2-3 feet deep only. While I had taken my way to shore, my other companions had some good fun there in the water for sometime there. Sand of this beach - I felt - was so soft when compared to other beaches I visited. Its so soft that it acted like a mirror to reflect the sky when the sand it just wet. (Diary milk Silk) After walking, exploring, playing so long the evening, we returned to rooms and got afresh. We had another good dinner and with all these loads of fun, excitement, the day concluded.

 

 

Day 4 – 12^th August 2013

As per the plan, we will be leaving to Shimoga from where I had to start back to Hyderabad by evening. And we started by 8AM from Murudeswar - we got into a mini bus / tempo to reach to Hannovar. (25 Rupees was the fare) From Hannovar, we got direct bus to Shimoga (bus to Mysore will go via shimoga) at 9.50AM. We got down at Tyaverakoppa Wildlife Sanctuary at around 2PM. There we went for Tiger-Lion Safari (50 rupees per head and 50 rupees for camera). Since its rainy season, there is a danger of bus getting stuck in middle of safari with Tigers around, so they kept tigers in a cage and it was a normal saffari only. Deers, Samba were spotted and the bus stopped near the cages of Tigers & Lions. Tigers were calm and they were giving poses to camera. Lion - the king of forests, was lazy and dull - as expected while Lioness was playing around and giving poses for snaps. We were able to see them so closely from couple of feet distance - though they were in cage. But Bannergatta national park (Bangalore) safari was so cool (which I went couple of years ago) where the tigers walk freely around and we pass by them on road. After we were done with the safari, we returned to see the regular zoo animals and the exciting part in it was with Cheetas. While I was capturing a video of a cheeta by resting mobile camera on the fencing and the cheeta jumped onto me. It was a shocking experience. Overall, it was fun and good. From there, we started back to Shimoga and had a heavy lunch at 4PM to conclude our stay at Shimoga. We boarded the bus to Hyderabad by 6PM. It was all good in the end.