ಶ್ರೀ ಗುರುಭ್ಯೋ ನಮಃ: June 2010

Hi,

i'm back after a long time. just edited some part of the other blog and writing this new one. i had been on a trip to North - West Karnataka. we covered nearly 6-7 places including Shivamogga, Jog falls, Murudeshwara, Gokarna, Yana and Dandeli. i didn't like the trip so much till Gokarna as the season was really hot and it was sea side. it was a trip for 5 days but this time 4 of us had gone. Bharani, myself, Jagadish(J) and Smitha(S) - 2 of Bharani's friends. it was a good trip.

we left at around 7:30 in the morning on 22nd of may, 2010. it was going to be a long journey that day. we had planned to leave much earlier but it got delayed. we picked up J and S at 7:30 and headed towards shivamogga. we were very hopeful to see Jog falls in it's full glory first. went to shivamogga via tumkur-tiptur-arsikere-bhadravathi. here's the google map...

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then we headed towards Sagara where we had lunch at around 2 in the after noon.

after having a heavy lunch, we drove to Jog falls filled hoping that we'll see the Jog falls in its full glory. but all our efforts went in vain, when we saw that the rains were not enough and the falls was very thin and water had fully dried.... :(

felt very sad.... after all this, people advised us to first find out and then go to the place to see the falls. anyways.... can't revert it. we left this place around 4:30 and drove towards Murudeshwara. didn't have any plans to stay here but it was almost 7:30 when we reached there and all of us were tired. so we decided to halt there and then go to Gokarna the following day.

On the way to Murudeshwara it rained a little bit and the weather became so cool. but didn't estimate the terrible humidity in Murudeshwara and Gokarna..... it was terrible and just unbearable.

We found a good hotel at Murudeshwara for about Rs 1000 called Summer Breeze Inn. very decent and a nice hotel with good AC facility on when there is power. otherwise it's worse than outside.... :) had some good north indian food for dinner at RNS hotel and we were all flat in 5 minutes in our rooms. all of us were so tired that day.... only travelling.

i guess we did a good thing by staying back at Murudeshwara otherwise we would have missed these beautiful views of the beach, the Shiva and the temple. then we moved on to Gokarna from there... reached Gokarna by around 12 in the afternoon, had lunch and headed to the beach.

We spent that night in Gokarna. Next day morning, we got up late and headed towards Yana, a place formed by rocks due to erosion. The picture above shows the rock formations at Yana. One is called Mohini shikhara and the other one is called Bhairaveshwara shikhara.

On the way back from Yana, we went to a water fall called as Vibhuthi falls. it was really worth going there after the sunny trek. the height of the fall is small but there was lot of water.

These pictures were taken while coming back from Yana on the way to Vibhuthi falls. we stopped by at a small stream...

Vibhuthi Falls.

Next day we left Gokarna and moved towards Dandeli. we went there via Yellapura and Kulgi. we didnt know the route and had to ask people every 10 kms. although it was just 130 kms from Gokarna, we took around 4 hrs to reach Dandeli.

Salt making at Gokarna.

A pit stop near Kulgi as we waited to ask routes.

Hornbill River Resort - Dandeli: Our activities at Dandeli were planned from morning itself, but we reached late. the picture below is the one of our rock house at the resort.

I found these really beautiful butterflies at the resort. they were nearly 15 of them around one plant.

that's our room below.

Below is the river Kali on whose banks is the resort located. Here we had the Jacuzzi bath, swimming and diving sessions. of course, i didn't dive, i was too scared.