Day 3 Update ( Halt at Dharwad ) Day 3 Update :-
Current Location : Dharwad ( KUWSB Quarters )
Route travelled :- Murudeshwar-Gokarna-Ankola-Yellapur-Dandeli-Dharwad
Total Distance travelled :- 308 kms
Total time taken :- 11 hrs
We had got so engrossed in capturing night shots of the statue of Lord Shiva ( some of which I have posted above ) that we just didnt realise that we hadn't visited the actual temple. We realised it late at night and hence we made plans of doing an early start, see the sunrise if possible and to visit the temple. Thus, our day 3 started at 6:30 AM and we directly went to the temple. We could see the sunrise from there as well and it was expectantly a wonderful sight. We also went up the Raj Gopura to the topmost point ( it stands 249 feet tall ). There's a lift that takes up to the top and there's a Rs 20 ticket for it. We captured some lovely shots of the place from the top. Have a look ( sunrise and view from the top ) :-
We had breakfast at the Naveen beach restaurant ( the idlis were very tasty there ), came back to our room and we eventually bid adieu to Murudeshwar at 9 AM. Very soon, we were on NH17 and we headed towards Gokarna. We had a short break at Kumta primarily to check out some handicrafts shop that Kumta is well known for. Once you cross Kumta, keep looking out for the Gokarna cross sign ( its well marked out ). Its approximately 50 kms from Murudeshwar. You then need to drive a further 10 kms from the highway to reach Gokarna. The initial stretch was very bad after which it got slightly better. Once you enter the town of Gokarna, you would be stopped and charged 10 Rs for parking. But there's no planned parking area there. We parked our car by the roadside and walked to the temple. Some pictures of the road leading to Gokarna :-
We left at around 1pm from Gokarna and headed towards Ankola which is not very far. There's a Kamat Upachar drive-in restaurant right after you cross the town of Ankola. For people going onwards on NH63, this is a good place to reacharge yourselves since there's no decent restaurants on the entire stretch of NH63. We had our lunch at Upachar and started at 2:30 PM from there. NH63 turned out to be really good and it was very smooth all the way upto Yellapur. You need to be a little careful though at the winding curves and not get carried away by the excellent quality of the road. There was an accident that had taken place between a car and a truck just minutes before we crossed that place. Luckily there werent any casualties/injuries but the car was badly damaged. We had a short stop at Yellapur and at 4, we started from there to head towards Dandeli. You need to take a left 5 kms after Yellapur, which is a road leading to Haliyal. The road passes through dense forests and its an awesome stunning scenic drive.
Just before Haliyali, there's a left you need to take for Dandeli. Its close to 17 kms from this turn and its a little patchy road. We passed through a sunflower plantation and got sone nice shots of it. Have a look :-
We reached Dandeli at 5:30 but we soon realised that we should have had done some research around how to reach the sunset point. We ended up circling around the town a bit and having enquired at the Jungle Lodges, we realised that the sunset point alongwith the caves were a further 10-12 kms from there. We got a glimpse of the Kali river though and it did look perfect for rafting especially for beginners like us. It was too late anyways to plan for any activities there ( thats for next time ) and we returned back towards Haliyal. There's a road directly leading to Dharwad from Haliyal and its a lovely newly laid road. It didnt take us long for Dharwad. The reason for having a pit-stop at Dharwad was that my wife ( Shreya )'s dad has his quarters here and he had planned to join us for a day to Badami. After a hot water bath followed by a tasty heavy meal, I was feeling to drowsy to update this blog yesterday night.
Thus, here I am at 9 am on day 4 getting all set for the onward journey to Badami. Thats it for now. |