[mayuresh]

Bit late to write this travelogue .. better late than never.


Itinerary

(I believe there are minor errors in tracking toll figures, though thought of including it to give an idea.)


Day 1:

Pune - Belgaum ( 358km, 7 hours with about 1.5 hrs of breaks and post-sunset driving of about 2 hours, toll - 284/- )


Day 2:

Belgaum - Hubli - Yellapur ( 155km, over 5 hours with 20 mins break, toll - 111/- )

Sight seeing: Magod falls ( 17km to and fro from Yellapur, 2:45 hrs with 50 mins lunch break at Shanbagh restaurant )

If you are referring this itinerary to plan your trip, do include Jenukal Gudda near Magod falls. (It's about 5/6 km, from falls, not very sure.)

Yeallpur - Sirsi - Bakula Home Stay ( 63 km, 1:40 hrs )


Day 3:

Sight seeing at Sirsi, covering about 150kms through the day, in a locally hired vehicle:

Places covered: Yana, Manjuguni temple, Unchalli falls, Sunset point, Marikamba temple (Sirsi)

Had food at a small roadside restaurant at the diversion to Unchalli falls from the main road and evening snacks at Satkar resturant Sirsi.


Day 4:

Sirsi (Bakula Home Stay) - Sahasralinga ( 23km, 30 mins )

1:30 hrs at Sahasralinga

Sahasralinga - Banavasi (via Sirsi ) ( 44km, 1:20 hrs )

Check in at Vanavasika, Banavasi, lunch at khanavali

Sight seeing:

Vanavasika - Gudavi Bird Sanctuary and back (about 40km and 2:30 hrs including time at the bird sanctuary)

Vanavasika - Gudnapur lake (Rani Mahal, Bangareshwar temple) and back ( 17km, about 2 hrs)


Day 5:

Banavasi - Malagi - Mundgod ( 62km, 1hr)
Pass through Tibetean locality at Mundgod and break ( about 1:30 hrs)

Mundgod - Kalghatgi - Hubli - Belgaum ( 155km, 4 hrs, toll - 70/- )
Lunch break at Pai resorts, shopping. ( 1:30 hrs )

Belgaum - Karad ( 185km, 1:45 hrs, toll - 56/- )
Halt at Hotel Pankaj, Karad.


Day 6:

Karad - Pune ( 168km, 2:15 hrs, toll - 244/-)


Total round trip distance : 1321km (excluding hired vehicle distance of about 150km at Sirsi)
Total refueling : 5000/-, approximate mileage : 13.6 kmpl
Total toll : 790/-


Road conditions:

Pune-Belgaum: NH4. Excellent. Kolhapur Belgaum is particularly good.

<Rant about NH4 quality and toll charges:>

How do the roads magically improve in Karnataka and toll rates reduce as compared to Maharashtra side of NH4?

Up to Kolhapur there are bad patches on NH4, some near Satara with extremely nasty potholes. The toll on Maharashtra side is also higher (60+ on most booths). On entering Karnataka side you get pleasant smooth roads and we encountered toll booths charging as low as 15/-.

At one of the booths, when the signboard read Rs 25/-, they charged as Rs 15/- saying that although the boards have been renovated, the new charges would come into effect only in the subsequent week. That was nice to see. We hardly read the amount written on the ticket they hand over.

While I do not know, whether NH4 consistently sustains a better quality in Karnataka, I can say for sure for the section I traveled on.

Now if it is a "national" highway why should the quality and toll costs be so different across states?

</Rant>

Kalghatgi - Dharward route that bypasses Hubli doesn't look good as yet. We tried to take it on return journey, though after traveling a km or so encountered a bad patch and decided to revert.

Hubli-Yellapur, Yellapur-Sirsi, Sirsi-Banavasi - all roads are good and picturesque. It was a delight to cruise on these roads, for most part of them.

Banavasi-Malgi route which we took on return journey is in a bad shape, but after that the road to Hubli gets better. Probably we should have returned via Yellapur itself, but that would have taken about 50km longer.

Mandgod - Kalghatgi via Tibetian colony passes through a number of villages and has some bad patches, though generally can be regarded as good.

[mayuresh]

Stay and food arrangements:



Pai Resorts, Belgaum:

Had a transit stay during onward journey and lunch break during return journey here. This is on the highway, almost near Hubli side end of the city. We reached here at night and being first timers to Belgaum did not realize the exits, though thanks to GPS system could return back and reached the resort without much hassles.

Excellent ambience, big lawn to stroll on, very spacious rooms with extra bed, cordial staff. Restaurant is very basic, though renovation seems to be on.

Tariff (AC) - 1350/- 50% discount in the restaurant for resident guests on every purchase, including small items like mineral water etc.

The resort


The lawn. It feels really refreshing to take a stroll here at night.


City side entrance


NH4 side entrance. You can see the flyover which is NH4.




Bakula Home Stay, Sirsi:

Good rooms. A cute small dressing area adjoining the bath.

This place is about 7km from Sirsi town. Typically, someone from the resort staff will pilot you on his bike once you reach Sirsi town to help reach here.

Tariff: 1400/-, extra bed 300/-
Food: Lunch 70/- and Breakfast 50/-, Sweets 30/- per person

Food is excellent authentic Kannada food in ample quantity. They told names of various items, though could not remember many of them. Some of them were Tamli, Hashi etc. It's a fixed menu. I think they bring the food from Sirsi town.

Mr Hegde, the owner, will be invariably present there in the morning, accompnaying the guests at the breakfast and helping out with the travel needs etc.

We hired a Van for outings around Sirsi, that costed Rs 1800/- for the day.

Some complaints:

Child bedding provided was thin and of no use in even mild cold. Had it removed as it was unnecessarily occupying space. Provided the feedback to the owner. Nothing could happen immediately. Given this the extra person charges were unreasonable.

The fan regulator burned the moment we started the fan. The electrician came and just removed the regulator leaving only full speed fan option. The water heater didn't work, though was fixed by evening after complaining.

Notwithstanding these, overall stay and ambience was very enjoyable.


Parking


Way to the rooms



In front of the rooms


Eating area


He too is a resident of this beautiful place...


The earlier night to seeing him, we realized his existence when by mistake our car's safety alarm went off. He did not take too kindly to the loud sound. Probably we disturbed his sleep at the wrong time and then he was understandably upset, meowing for some time complaining about it!

Mr Hegde, invariably calls him when all guests assemble for breakfast. Being Kannada trained, the peacock understands "Ba .. Ba .." and responds and slowly walks to the breakfast area. He too gets his share of breakfast there ... biscuits .. idli and what not!


The cottages:




The surrounding



Downstream...





Vanavasika, Banavasi:

Very basic looking rooms, suites are equipped with a sofa set. Baths are small.

Tariff 850/-

Food arrangements at Khanavali (eatery) in Banavasi. Savitri Akka's Khanavali was where we were taken for all meals. The environment is homely and food is excellent authentic local food. Purchased some of the home made pickles and chutneys from them.

Lunch/Dinner - Rs 50 and Breakfast Rs 40 per person.

Vanavasika. The grass in the front would be gone and replaced with probably tiling in some time from now as a renovation project has been undertaken.


We got this good looking suite in the corner of the building


Since we were the only guests that day, we had the privilege of using this porch as our parking.


Some snaps of the suite:



You'll find the room equipped with some of these items which seem quite unique. The soap, shampoo, talcum powder and moisturiser - all natural hand made items and that copper plated jug.




Hotel Pankaj, Karad:

Had a transit stay during return journey here.

Probably the best you can get at Karad. (We faced severe problems last time at Sangam, which we used to prefer till now.) Getting hot water is usually a problem as seen in last two stays at Pankaj.

Tariff - 1900/- (non AC) incl breakfast, extra bed, taxes.

[mayuresh]

Yellapur, Magod Falls and missed Jenukal Gudda ...

We went via Yellapur on the Belgaum - Sirsi route. Perhaps the only sizable town once you leave NH4 at Hubli. So convenient for lunch break. Besides the main attraction here was Magod Falls.

We would have liked to cover Jenukal Gudda, though did not get precise directions. Unfortunately there were no English signboards anywhere and other tourists we met at Magod did not know about this point. There was language problem conversing with villagers. "Ille" is what some of them said when asked about the place. Probably I wasn't pronouncing it right. On reaching Sirsi, everyone we spoke with insisted that we should have visited Jenukal Gudda.

Had lunch break at Yellapur at Shanbagh reaturant. Pretty basic small town restaurant. You get a decent thali which seems most common item with no wait time.


The falls view. This wasn't probably at its best, though you can imagine, it must be looking much better during monsoon.




Diversion to Magod Falls from the West Bound State Highway from Yellapur. At this point, a sign shows Jenukal Gudda to be straight from here, though there is a route from the falls side as well.


Way to the falls. Not in a very good shape as we go closer to the falls.


Parking


A good nap in the entry-ticket vendor's backyard...


The beautiful Yellapur - Sirsi road

[mayuresh]

Outings at Sirsi

We decided to hire a local vehicle to visit places around Sirsi (namely Yana, Manjuguni temple, Unchalli falls, Sunset Point and Sirisi's Marikamba temple). It was a Maruti Omni and can't call the ride exactly comfortable, particularly off the highway. But there weren't too many options available on that day.

Driver (Vinayak) was a very nice person, pretty friendly and well behaved. Accompanied us at every single point, despite the walking required at these points, instead of waiting in the parking. To the extent possible, tried to guide us about various points, though neither his nor our Hindi was so good, it was probably the only common language we knew.

At one point, when language became an obstacle in a certain piece of conversation, he quickly took out his mobile and called his relative in Pune who knew Marathi and through her we could converse! A nice, caring gesture on his part.

Can share contact if someone needs for travel arrangements in Sirsi.


Yana rock formations and temple

Native pronunciation: याणा

The route taken by our driver, was quite different from what we saw in the map. We did not have to go to Sirsi town starting from Bakula Home stay. In fact we did not come any close to any of the main roads on the way to Yana.


At Yana there are two ways to reach as following picture shows. There is no motorable connection between the two. We came via the upper route in the picture. Not only that it took less distance from our home-stay's village, the walking distance, too, was less from this side. We walked about 1.5km, while the route coming from lower side, which is what you'll see in Google maps etc will take a km or so more of walking - that's what our driver told us.


Rock formations






You can go around the temple and see the rocks from within. You are not allowed to wear footwear on this route and the other side of the steps shown below is a little steep. You need to be careful, though most people should be able to manage to complete this round. You can of course back out and return via steps. Whole round will take about 15-20 minutes.

Steps to go around the rock based temple


Views from within






Manjuguni Temple

This temple is called "Tirupati of Karnataka". We were lucky to reach right when the morning Aarati was about to start. I do not know the names of percussion and other instruments used there, though it was a nice experience to the ears to attend this Aarati.

I was trying to videograph the Aarati and did not realize that I was blocking the passage between the main idol and the one small idol outside the temple facing the main idol. The ritual is that the line of sight between the outside and main idol should not be blocked. Some devotees pointed this out and I readily moved out of the way.

After Aarati, Prasad is served here and our homestay host called up the driver on the mobile and insisted (nearly forced) us to have lunch here. But there was a good one hour to go before the Prasad would be served and we decided to make do with any small restaurant on the way to Unchalli. We realized, why our host was insisting on having lunch in the temple itself - there weren't good restaurants all the way till Sirsi afterwards.



(Collage)

[mayuresh]

Unchalli Falls

Native pronunciation - [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]उंच[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]ळ्ळी[/FONT]
After Yana and Marikamba, it was the turn of one of the best waterfalls in the region - Unchalli.

It was lunch time and there weren't too many restaurants on this route. It would have taken a couple of hours to go to nearest restaurant which was in Sirsi. So we decided to settle for some Sambar-Rice at this small restaurant. This is right at the turn to Unchalli from the highway.

She appeared out of nowhere and hurriedly headed straight to the cooking area! We were told she comes here daily for her dose of "bun"!


Turned back after finishing her quota, glancing at the guests once and walked away!


The walkway to the falls. It's about 2.5km of walk and it's steep. The view points are placed at 3 different levels. The walk is steep and you'll particularly feel that when returning. Particularly having walked for about 4 kms at Yana, this was a bit tiring, yet very rewarding...


The Valley. River Agnasini.


We spent quite some time here. The weather was changing continuously and we could witness various shades of fog and sunlight from various view point levels - from no visibility at all to shiny sunlight. This was a few months after the monsoon was over. Can just imagine how it must be during the monsoon...





And finally, were lucky to see this...

[mayuresh]

Sunset Point

Did not get its correct spelling. It's called Bhimneri / Bimneri Gudda or something. Did not find references on the web with these names. But this is what the driver told its name to be.

The visibility was poor that day and we couldn't actually see the sunset.

Way to the sunset point


Sunset point. Views reminded us of Mahabaleshwar, hill station in our neighborhood.



Marikamba temple, Sirsi town

Sirsi appeared to be a nice sleepy small town, a Taluka place. Since we did not wait at the sunset point till sunset due to cloudy weather, we reached Sirsi when there was still time left to see the town and and our driver was kind enough to take us for a ride through the the town. The main attraction in the town was of course the beautiful Marikamba temple.

Had a snacks break at a small yet noticeably clean "Satkar Restaurant". Were pleasantly surprised when the owner greeted us in chaste Marathi! Had similar experience at one or two places in Banavasi later.





Temple opposite to Marikamba temple

[mayuresh]

Sahasralinga

Sahasralinga is well known for the Shivalinga carvings in the river rocks.

Name of this river is Shamala, we were told. On Yellapur Sirsi road, about 20 km before Sirsi, you'll see a prominent sign on the right, showing route to Sahasralinga. We'd have ideally liked to cover it during our onward journey to Sirsi, though it somehow did not fit in the plan. So we visited this place after checking out from Sirsi, before proceeding to Banavasi at a pleasant time of 9 am or so.

She likes being clicked at every place once!


On the banks, before getting downstairs to the river



Besides the religious / historic importance of place, the place is generally very pleasant. Many people get down into the river here. There are fish that start examining your feet once you descend into their territory. I didn't quite enjoy their constant probing of the feet and came out of the water after taking a few close snaps.







I think that's a lone Hanuman among several Shivalingas.

[mayuresh]

We reached Banavasi around afternoon after checking out from Sirsi and visiting Sahasralinga. Actually both places are on two opposite sides of Sirsi. Had lunch at the Khanavali after reaching Banavasi. There are several places that can be visited from Banavasi. With the available time we chose Gudavi bird sanctuary and two places around the Gudnapur lake - Bangareshwar temple and historic Rani Mahal. We left the big Madhukeshwar temple for next day morning as we wanted to be fresh and recharged enough to see the place with better quality of attention.

Bramhakumar, who looks after Vanavasika, agreed to guide us throughought the tour.

The website http://www.banavasitourism.com/ gives a lot of information about Banavasi and surrounding places. You may also download the "guidebook" (a pdf document) from this website. It is elaborately written and is very useful.


Gudavi Bird Sanctuary

I am not an expert in bird watching, nor we were equipped with binoculars or camera suitable for such places. The place was mostly full of just one species - white ibis. Some of the other species were spoonbill, snake bird, cormoran.

If you are a seasoned bird watcher, you may like to spend more time here. Our guide told, some tourists easily spend a couple of days here.

The place is around 20km from Banavasi and the route is not very straightforward. Better to take a guide along with you.

There is a round track of about 1.5 to 2 kms with a number of observation towers on the way.

Way to the sanctuary:
With Vanavasika staff member accompanying, you get the privilege of a special parking space etc here. (Well, not needed really.)







Rani Mahal

About 2/3 kms from Banavasi on the Sirsi route, there is Gudnapur lake on your right. You won't miss it when taking Sirsi-Banavasi route. Rani Mahal is site of an ancient structure - rather its remains beside the lake. The room/structure at the center is usually closed, though on request, (again thanks to Vanavasika person arranging it), they will open it. There are several idols representing different religions in this room.

Historic references about the place are available on the Banavasi tourirsm website mentioned above.

The area:






Inside the building:








Bangareshwar temple

[mayuresh]

Madhukeshwar Temple, Banavasi

This is a big and historic temple and main attraction of Banavasi. It is good to go here with a local guide. Vanavasika staff would happily assist in getting a guide. We were a bit unlucky. The guide who was supposed to come and who was informed on the prior day did not turn up.

Seeing without guide meant, we possibly missed the archeological, mythological and historical details that would have made the visit much more fruitful. Nevertheless, it was still a very interesting place to visit, one of the most important ones we visited during the trip.

Route from Vanavasika to the Madhukeshwar temple, through the village. The temple is hardly 15 mins walk from Vanavasika. Visiting in the morning is a good idea. You get the sunlight in convenient direction for photographs.


A big "Rath" outside the temple. This is very old and doesn't look in a good shape. We were told it is taken out from this enclosure once in a year. Inset, one of the Ganapati carvings on the Rath.


At the entrance





The quintessential Ganesha idol


The main idol


One of the side temples


Beautiful columns, inset design on the ceiling


My knowledge of mythology fails me here. This was actually a photo frame in above temple. Have never seen something like this before. Does this depict Lord Shiva being defeated by a goddess? What's the story behind this?


Some of the skyward views





Some of the idols






Again I lack authentic information on this. These idols probably portray the Gods on various "Vahans" (vehicles). (All these are spread out at different places in the temple. I have collated them together.)







Divine reptilia?


Some carvings (two of them collaged)


Some writings. Recognize the script? (Two of them collaged)

[mayuresh]

Tibetan establishment Mundgod

Mundgod was not really on the agenda, though when passing by Mundgod on Sirsi-Hubli road, with ample time left to reach the transit halt at either Karad or Kolhapur, we decided to just pass by the Tibetean establishment.









A picture worth thousand words ... State of public transport infrastructure at small places. This was on Mundgod - Kalghatgi route.

[GTO]

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