13th July, 2016
This will be my second partial solo trip after Lakshadweep, which totally turned my world upside down and changed the way, I look at life.
As per Geroge pepan’s suggestion, I booked the ticket today through KSTDC for Jul 22nd. Along with George pepan and mema, padpanabhan uncle and his wife will also be there in the same bus. I will be boarding at Badami House ,N .R Sq. Opp. BBMP at 10:00 PM. The trip name is JFT C 110 Deluxe. We are planning to cover Jog Falls and Sigandur Choudeshwari Temple. The total cost is 1810. Next day, that is Saturday, will be 1 day tour of the places and Sunday morning we will be back.
[DAY 1 ] 22 Jul 2016 – The journey begins
Started home at 9:00 pm. Reached corporation circle signal at 9:12 pm
Auto fare : 57 , 4.5 km and then walked towards KSTDC office, next to Ulsoor gate police station. when you are walking from the corporation circle, cross the road and first the church, then the Ulsoor Gate police station and then the KSTDC office, comes on the right
( Pictured above is our bus, after we reached our first destination )
About the bus
Bus was non a.c., but comfortable recliner seats. BUS started from Badami house ( 12.966190, 77.586592 ) at 10:20 pm – thanks to a late couple.There is no separate luggage compartment. Baggage is kept overhead. Carry back pack or really small air bag, otherwise it won’t fit. The driver drove pretty smoothly. Comfort is between that of normal long distance bus and a normal sleeper. If you are okay sleeping on recliner seats, journey should be pretty comfortable. The roads although unlike the ones in Tamil Nadu are not that broad and smooth, but they are okay 🙂
NOTE
Make sure you carry a flannel ( thin blanket) with you during night journey. One jerk kept the window open most of the time, and luckily I didn’t die of frostbite
[DAY 2 ] 23 Jul 2016 – Natural beauty emerges
Reached Old Madhura Hotel, Sagar, Karnataka 577401, 14.166544, 75.030731( https://goo.gl/maps/CVp4mrkZCem ) 6:30 am. Although it was supposed to be twin sharing, I luckily got a room all to myself.
[exif show=”created_timestamp,location”]
About the hotel
Rooms were in the first floor. The main room as well as the restroom was decent ( see photo above) But not cleaned often. There was dust and hair ( here and there) Fortunately, the rest room was in good condition. Just like Lakshadweep, rest room do not have, bath towel or soap. So carry them with you next time.
After the morning activities, I locked the room, returned the keys and came down. There was a small hotel where we were supposed to have breakfast. I had 2 idly and vada and it was tasty and it costs 45 Rs. While I was having breakfast, a cow barged and freaking out most of the people in the hotel. I finished my breakfast before 7:45 and decided to take a stroll in and around the place, since we were told that the journey would resume only at 8:00 AM towards Chowdeshware Temple
From google maps, I found out that, there was a lake nearby and decided to give it a visit.
[exif id=”77″]
Google maps, was right and I found the lake very serene and beautiful, especially since it was the morning time. There were several birds flying around looks for an early catch and whole environment was very surreal. On the banks of the lake was another sight to behold – a temple and a mosque sharing a common wall !
On my way back towards the bus, I found that the streets were mostly deserted, other than a car or a two wheeler which passed by and everyone tend to move really slowly, including the vehicles.Most of the houses belonged to a different era and were constructed in an old sytle. And most of them had the year, in which it was constructed ( see below ).
Towards Chowdeshwari Temple
Our next pit stop was Sri Sigandur Chowdeshwari Temple,Valagere, Karnataka 577453, ( 14.076439, 74.872167)
As evident from the map above, it consisted of the following
- Journey in our bus, till the barge launch.
- Get down, and board the boat, cross the lake.
- Disembark the boat and board a bus or jeep and go to the temple
Some visuals from around the boat launch
Heavy duty boat
People, cars and even buses board and disembark the boat with so much ease !
Embarking the boat
[exif id=”91″]
If you observe closely, you can see that the vehicles, go in the reverse direction. And when they embark ( in reverse ) there will be just enough space for those people in that tightly jam packed area. I mean, you require some out of the world skills to achieve this. The ticket price for 1 person from one bank of the lake to another is Re 1 !!
As I told earlier, we started around 8:10 AM from the hotel, and reach the temple by 9:45 AM. Fortunately we didn’t have to wait a lot for either the boat or the bus. I didn’t feel anything special about the temple, so I decided to take a step back ( a lot of steps actually ) and decided to check around the areas around the temple. And my intuition did not fail me. The whole area was covered in thick lush green and with the drizzling rain and the sound of different birds, made it all the more awesome. The only issue was that, I had no idea, how long it will take for the folks to finish the temple darshan and head back, considering I had kept my phone in the my bag, in the bus, at the other side of the lake. But this was a risk, I was willing to take – prayed to God and ventured on. Everything about the forest surrounding the temple was special. I wanted to spend more time in that solitude but I felt intuitively that it was time to head back.
[exif id = “88”]
I headed back to the temple entrance and it was the exact time, when people were coming out from the darshan. I thanked God for his perfect timing and providence. I joined the group, pretending as if I too had darshan ( so that I don’t hurt their feelings – these are serious stuff in my country 🙂 ) and then headed back to the bus, and then the boat and then back in our bus
Jog falls, here we come
We might have started around 12:30 and reached jog falls at 2:30. We had lunch at the Mayura hotel – I had egg fried rice and it was very tasty. People who had mini meals, had not apparently liked it. The kitchen was very neat and they served the food pretty fast. Once we have our lunch, we were told, that we have time till 4:30 to see around Jog falls, which I felt was too less, considering it was already 3:15 PM !
