[ninjatalli]

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.

– Robert Louis Stevenson

Prologue
So a long weekend was on the books and we had initially planned a hometown visit as usual. A friend had loaned her ~10 year Figo for the trip and all seemed set for the plan. But then a pre-owned SCross purchase worked out perfectly, and with just about a week to go before the trip. So it seemed the gods were working in our favor for once
- a good well maintained car that could take in loads of stuff (check!)
- an extra-long weekend with both of us out of work chores (check!)
- amazing weather (double-check!)
- open borders (intra-district) and fairly reduced number of cases (triple-check!)

One part of my mind wanted to do this on the Interceptor to continue the previous trip across the Chikmagalur district and had the SCross option not worked out, we might have actually gone ahead with that plan. But sense prevailed (and the second driver's opinion weighed in a lot more!) and we decided to ditch the bike this time and take the car instead.

A very rough plan was put into thought - last trip I had barely scratched the Charmady & Agumbe ghat sections and biked through Kudremukh and nearby ranges while skipping the upper north sections. So we decided to head directly to the Sharavati valley and drive down through the mountains as much as possible. In principle the direction was Bangalore -> Sharavati valley sanctuary -> Mookambika sanctuary -> Someshwara sanctuary -> Mangalore -> Bangalore

Driving Stats
Drivers: 2
Mode of transport: S-Cross 1.6
Distance: ~1250 kms
Mileage: ~16 kmpl
Speeds: 30-50 kmph in the hills / ~80 kmph in the plains
Road condition: Mix of single/dual lane state highways (across mountains) and 4/6 lane highways (in the plains)

Hits to the wallet
Hotel/Homestay(s): 4000 inr
Fuel: ~7000 inr
Food & drinks: 2500 inr

A snapshot of what's to come


Itinerary (Onwards)


Thread posts in order:
Day 1: Bangalore - Hiriyur - Shimogga - Jog falls

Day 2: Jog falls - Sharavati river valley - Kogaru - Bhatkal - Kollur

Day 3: Kollur - Kodachari - Siddapura - Mudbidri - Mangalore

Day 5: Mangalore - Bisle ghat - Mallalli - Somwarpet - Channarayapattana - Bangalore

Epilogue

Note: This is an ongoing exploration of the western districts of Karnataka. Phase 1 of this plan was executed on an Enfield and documented here. This is still an ongoing exercise and more is planned in the coming months ahead for sure

[ninjatalli]

Day 1: Bangalore - Hiriyur - Shimogga - Jog falls

This was planned to be the easiest of all days - get up and leave the city early enough and blaze through the highway roads using all the power of the 1.6 under the hood. And so we did. I had planned on gunning the engine and enjoying the power. What I did not forsee was the wife also getting on the same page. So much that over the next 2 days I kept hearing one point

"No one was able to overtake me - this has never happened before"

(yes, potential petrolhead alert!)

We decided to have our breakfast at one of the decent options on the main highway before we branch off towards Shimogga. A Kamat just before Hiriyu finally became our option. The food was decently okay, thankfully the coffee was good and the toilets were impeccably clean!



While the cloud cover was present throughout the morning, the rain was playing hide and seek with us with a mix of light and heavy drizzles, if only for short periods. The drive on mostly single/dual lane roads from Hiriyur to Shimogga passed through some lovely stretches; road condition mostly was decent with the odd pothole coming up every ~5-10 kms.



Just outside Shimogga, we decided to halt at a roadside hotel primarily for the lovely tree cover the road had. The hotel was easily forgettable - food was horrible and the tea was so sweet, I kind of got confused if we somehow had crossed the border into Maharashtra.

The plains turned into rolling hills as we passed Sagara and we knew we were getting closer to our destination once the elevations around us started going up. The rains were more frequent now but the roads had hardly any traffic thanks to a mid-week ride. About ~7.5 hours after we had left Bangalore, we finally reached the destination with our entry to Jog falls across this bridge over the drop-dead gorgeous Sharavati river, in full flow.



The bridge was littered with people taking selfies so we had to drive carefully. We wisely decided not to get down and do the same and went ahead towards the Jog falls viewing point.



The viewpoint and the hotel was visible at the extreme end of the falls, however the falls themselves were hardly visible although we could hear them loud and clear.



Till now, we hardly saw any traffic on the road; however when we landed up at the Jog falls (and our KSTDC hotel) entrance, we soon landed in a mini-traffic jam. And then we found out that even though we had picked the middle of the week, we inaverdently picked a holiday (Eid al-Adha) to visit a highly popular tourist place. The viewpoints were crammed up with people.



We took a few shots of the falls as and when the rains and mist gave us a decent view. However given the huge crowd (and the absolute lack of any social distancing or masks), we decided to head to our room with the knowledge that most of this crowd would disappear by 7pm when the gates close; and we'd have the place to ourselves.





Hotel Mayura Gerusoppa review (link): Wonderful setup offering a limited number (~50) of AC rooms (with a view of Jog falls), non-AC deluxe and standard rooms. While the AC rooms offer the pick of the lot with their slightly more secluded building and seemingly direct view of the falls, the non-AC rooms are a decent bargain if one is okay having the rooms right next to the parking lot. I'd recommend the AC rooms if you get the option; prices ranged from 2k (standard room) to ~3.5k (AC room).

The benefit of taking a room here is the extra time you get from 7pm to 7am when the tourist crowds don't have access and you have the entire place to yourselves. Try to get that during the best season (Aug-Sep) - I doubt you'll get any better options across any other tourist location across the state.

[ninjatalli]

Day 2: Jog falls - Sharavati river valley - Kogaru - Bhatkal - Kollur

It was blissful to wake up to sounds of birds chirping and waterfalls in the distant. Thankfully and surprisingly without alarms, I had woken up just before the sun came up. The rains had stopped albeit there still were a few light drizzles at times and we still had about just an hour before the gates were opened up. Till then the whole place was only for the select few who had opted to stay at the hotel overnight. To me, that was the deal for which one should avail to stay at the Jog falls KSTDC hotel.

We woke up and started going around the place. Although the rains had stopped, there was still a lot of mist around so visibility wasn't all-clear. The falls still shimmered through the mist giving us glances at the majestic water flow. Surprisingly none of the other folks were up so literally, we had the whole falls to ourselves for about half an hour. And so we did - we sat down at one of the benches overlooking the falls and just soaked it in all. In our busy lives, sometimes it helps to have such a beautiful spot to yourselves; no one else around, no mobile phones or other screens to look at, just some time with nature in its glory. As the clock ticked to 7, we headed back to the gates and we weren't surprised to already see a line of cars waiting outside for the gates to open.


The crowd at ~7 a.m. on a working weekday!

We still had another ~4 hours before checkout and nothing major to do. The restaurant didn't open till 8.30 so we decided to head out. The first stop was the British Bungalow at the other end of the falls. The drive was a short one and not surprisingly there already was a small crowd at this viewpoint.

In my honest opinion, this offers a slightly better view during the monsoon season as the mist cover is a lot lesser and the viewpoint(s) is closer to the water. One can also get to see the bridge over the Sharavati river if the mist clears up.


If you look carefully, you can see the bridge at the top left section




There are a few stalls right outside the gate which were just opening up once we were done with the viewpoints. With a quick whisking of eggs and some fresh tea, we were ready to get back on the road. Conversing with the stall owner, we got to know the best time to visit Jog falls is mid/end of August when the rains go down and the water from the reservoir is let out at pre-planned slots. Ideally, the PWD run British Bungalows would be a much better option for an overnight halt in my opinion.

We head on to down the Sharavati valley with the next destination being Bangara Kusuma falls, keeping in mind that our breakfast break reduced the time we had for the falls. The rains had started falling in full flow so the road was practically empty considering it was still early morning.

After about 30 mins of driving we soon reached the point where the (falls) river crosses the road indicating the point to stop and start walking towards the falls. Woefully short of time as we had a check-out time of 11 am (in retrospect we should have just planned to go beyond the checkout time and paid a fee for that), we gave ourselves about ~1 hour to spend at the falls.



Which once we started walking we realized was extremely less as at every turn, there was the perfect spot to get into the water and/or take a few pics. With the rainfall, the flow of water was in full burst so completely getting into the stream/river was out of the question. We decided to seat ourselves at the edge and enjoy the scenery as it is.





In retrospect, we probably did not reach the base of the falls as that would have required another hour or two for sure. However, at that moment, we were blissfully ignorant of what we were leaving on the table, happily enjoying how the day had started out, and headed back to the car.

We reached back to our room within the timelines and checked out. Surprisingly, compared to yesterday, the tourist inflow today was quite limited so we quickly had a short brunch at the restaurant and also loaded up some filter coffee in our flask.

There was no clear-cut plan but the idea was to keep going ahead towards Bheemeshwara temple and waterfall. It was then I noticed we had about 1/4 of fuel in the car so we had to stop at the next petrol pump that we pass by. About a few kilometers ahead we noticed a turn towards Lingamakki dam (remembering the linkage to the Rajni movie Lingaa) and having nothing else to do, we headed towards the dam. The route soon took us to some quaint old school PWD quarters, probably of the staff working in the hydroelectric power plant at the dam.

Unfortunately, access to the dam was not allowed so we had to do with a distant view of the dam and the reservoir behind the dam.



Our next point was the Bheemeshwara temple and falls, finding this was by chance, and the photos and online videos looked nothing short of amazing. The route across the wildlife sanctuary was extremely scenic with a minimal human presence that was spread far and wide across the ghat sections.

The small village of Kogar had a few shops open but as we were quite close to Bheemashwara temple, we decided to continue ahead and soon reached the point where an offtrack route branches off the main road towards the temple.

There was a jeep waiting at the junction ready to ferry people for a small fee of 100Rs per person but as he wanted us to wait till he got more passengers, we decided to walk the ~2 kms distance towards the temple falls. A great decision as the trail route branches right next to a bubbling waterfall that turns out to be a full flow stream by the time we reached the bottom-most point of the trail.

https://youtu.be/EvAIWsNnL-4

And soon we realized that the down trail was only 50% of the route, the temple is located at quite a height that had to be climbed up. Thankfully the Jeep had got more passengers by then and had caught up with us and the driver grinning with all 32 teeth asks us if we want to join him now. We gladly accept and climb aboard with some 5 college students who were all excited with their "Bro! Look at that view" and "Maga, this route is deadly" dialogues throughout the ride.

The jeep drops us at the base of the temple; there's a short walk and a climb up some steep stairs right next to the waterfall



While the location is to die for, the seemingly religious choice of the coloring of the handrails kind of puts one off the natural beauty of the location but one can't really be occupied with it for too long.



The temple ruins are fantastic in its bare bone setup but there are clear signs of some renovation efforts that have been taken up recently although currently there weren't any signs of current work going on. A clear reference is this wonderful OTR thread (Sharavathy Valley OTR) by @Samurai done about 10 years ago - if you ask me the original structure as seen in the below image is much better than the partially 'renovated' setup we have at the temple there.


Source: OTR thread (2010)


Source: OTR thread (2010)

The view in front of us is to die for! If we had carried some food with us, we probably would have just set ourselves up for an hour or two at that point but alas the stomach ruled that decision completely. It was close to 2 pm and the last proper meal we had was the eggs at Jog falls early in the morning.



We climbed back down and the jeep ferried us back to the main road. At this point, we were at a quandary. Our original plan was to drive as much as possible through the ghats which meant we had to go back to Kogar and take the forest route to Kollar (for the nearest petrol pump in that direction). The other option at hand was to drive another 50 km west towards the city of Bhatkal and fill up the tank there. We asked the jeep guy about it and he mentioned except for the lone pump at Kollar, the only other option was to buy bottled fuel at the shops, an option that I was not comfortable at all.

So with a sigh, we decided to head towards the relatively safer option of Bhatkal and went ahead. A decision that didn't weigh too long on us as the route was still amazingly pretty, with small falls and streams turning up at every corner.



This pretty lil stream actually had a bridge under the road but the flow was so strong it had branched out a side path parallel to the road which gave us a nice moment to cool our heels right sitting in the car.



After roughly an hour's drive, the locales underwent a sudden change from mountains to flat terrain; a clear indication that we were quite close to the coast. A point that was revalidated by the fact that our phones started getting back into network coverage.



We soon reached Bhatkal, filled up the tank and our tummies, and headed towards the temple town of Kollar for our day's halt. Neither of us really had any interest in the Mookambika temple which is a famous pilgrimage site for Keralites (a fact that was reconfirmed by our hotel manager that >90% of tourists are from Kerala). But we were sure that we'd find nice accommodation at a reasonable price and that was something that pulled us towards that town over any other homestay/resort options on the road.

Hotel Mookambika Palace review (link): For a town that has just one primary reason (temple) for tourists to arrive, the place is filled with homestays and small hotels littered in all directions around the temple. While definitely not the best and certainly not the cheapest, this had decent covered parking, nice clean rooms and decently helpful staff. The wifi range of the hotel is pretty low so if that's an area of importance but apart from that, the hotel turned out to be a good enough halt for us.

[ninjatalli]

Day 3: Kollur - Kodachari - Siddapura - Mudbidri - Mangalore

We woke up early and took a bath before heading to the temple. We then got to know the temple has a dress code!!! As per the temple website, no shorts or burmudas for men, plus they go top-less. As for women, the list was even longer which kind of indicated only sarees or salwars were allowed. We decided to see how it goes and headed to the temple. While they were more lenient on the ladies, men still had to take their tops off when entering the inner circle/section of the temple. Also no photographs were allowed inside the temple complex, so we didn't take any.


Source

What we found more interesting was the Souparnika river flowing right next to the complex. With wonderful mountain ranges on all four sides, the overall scene made for one pretty sight for sure.



Kollur was a quaint and compact town located right in the lap of the Mookambika wildlife sanctuary with deep forest cover in all directions. With the monsoon cloud cover providing the perfect view all around, the place would have been ideal to get a cuppa (of filter coffee) and sit down right there with our novels. If we had nothing else to do, figuring out a place with a nice balcony and a view like that would have sufficed for us.



But a plan, we definitely had. And the plan was to head towards Kodachari peak which was about an hour's ride from Kollur. We checked out from the hotel after a nice breakfast at a nearby restaurant and moved ahead.

The road snaked around the Kodachari hills, climbing all the way up. And then the rains started pouring. In all glory. So much that we literally crawled up the climb at a slow pace. We passed the Sri Falls, a small bubbly falls that passed right adjacent to the road, something we were now getting used to quite frequently.

<add video>

By the time we completed the climb and reached the point where one of the road/trail heads up Kodachari, the heavy showers of rain made it clear that Kodachari had to be dropped from the plan. We stopped at a roadside stall when co-incidently the rains also took a break and that allowed us to get our camera out.





A call back home gave us some interesting updates - Uttara Kannada district (and Maharashtra) had been experiencing heavy rains and flooding situations. The rain forecast was grim for the areas around us (Shimoga district) and the rains had gone up a lot more over the last 12 hours, and by then it was pelting continuously non-stop.

So we made a few more calls and took a decision right there. We had two options - the original plan was to head towards Hulikal and then snake through rural roads around Mani reservoir towards Agumbe and Kudremukh later. The current plan made on the spot was to head down towards Siddapura if the rains didn't relent.



A point that became increasingly clear as we passed Nagara and headed on towards Hulikal - rains hadn't stopped (except for short 5-10 mins gaps) since we left Kollur, all the rivers and waterbodies had started swelling up all around us. We try to take a short halt whenever the rains stopped just to get out and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.



And then there were sections when we'd pass through mist-y areas with very limited visibility as we experienced just when we started the descent from Hulikal towards Siddapura.

Mist-y roads ahead

Thankfully the road was in decent condition so we didn't have to worry about potholes that weren't visible. Also while the mist was present as we started on the descent, it soon disappeared as we went down the ghat turns. We soon reached the base and took the slight detour on the road heading towards Varahi powerplant. Our next stop was the base forest area that housed the Abbi falls along the Varahi river.

Just a few kilometers before we reach the gates of the power plant, a right turn over a bridge leads a trail into the forest. The Varahai river is in full flow thanks to the rains in the ghats. We do a few customary pics thanks to the empty road.







The trail in the forest looks inviting so I take the car inside for a short distance. After a point I don't see the purpose as the falls were only about a kilometer ahead and I really didn't want to get to a point where the road is too soft that might get the car stuck or reach a point where I scrape something under, so I do a turn and park the car next to the bridge.







We continue on the trails - the tranquil surroundings is amazing with the sounds of birds and other animals coming through once in a while. After a point, we decide to get off the trail into the forest towards the sound of the waterfalls. We take a tiny route basis a small stream that is heading downhill clearly towards the falls/river.



We reach a point where we see a tributary to the river is in full flow. But the falls are still a bit more upstream. We spend a while over here, but the fear of leeches (our feet were in ~0.5 feet of running water and mushy soil) makes us move on ahead towards the falls.





A short walk back parallel to the main trail and up-stream adjacent to the flowing water brings us to the magnificent falls that are smaller in size and in a layered manner, with each level being about 1-3 feet tall at most. Ideally this place would have been perfect to get into the pools of water formed at each level but the force of water again is so strong that we don't dare get into the middle flow of it. The rains which had given us some leeway till then starts pouring as we reached the falls, which signals to us the increased risk factor of a flash flood flow that could easily whisk us away towards the downstream rapids.





After spending a few more minutes at that point, we decide to call it a day and head back towards the main trail that would take us back to the car. And more important dry clothes. We check for any hanging leeches and thankfully find none, although we do see several all around near the falls.

A short halt an hour later at a Shiv Sagar restaurant made easy pickings of our hungry stomachs and then all we had was about a ~3 hour leisurely drive back to next halt which was Mangalore. At this point we still had more than half the day available and unfortunately not much of an option as down here the rain was completely absent and it was all sunny. We then decided to do a detour to Mudbidri to visit the 1000 pillar Jain temple - Saavira Kambada Temple.







The architecture and the intricate workings on the pillars is beautiful; especially a lot of them have very varying designs, some of them extremely intricate. The temple itself is supposed to be built in early 15th century; however the surrounding setup seemed not to be in that great shape to be honest. But it certainly has its patronage on special days I believe as we saw a lot of lighting setup and CCTV (!) cameras strung up all around the temple.





We finally decide to call it a day after spending 15-20 mins at the venue. Just as we head back to the car, I see this beautiful oldie (Morris?) parked in an apartment next to the temple. Looked to be in decent working shape.



And thus our first half of the trip ended, albeit much too early on the 3rd day afternoon itself. The wife wasn't complaining, she was back home. I on the other hand wouldn't have minded one more day of traveling in the ghat trying our luck with the rains. Ah well, you can't win them all I guess.

[ninjatalli]

Day 5: Mangalore - Bisle ghat - Mallalli - Somwarpet - Channarayapattana - Bangalore

After a day's rest at Mangalore, the plan for the way back home had to undergo a few changes. Landslides in Shirdy and Charmady ghats made those a secondary choice; plus I had the whole day available and was traveling alone so I wanted a much more scenic route if I had an option.

So Bisle ghat is what I opted for. The route to the temple town of Subramanya was a nice idyllic drive through rolling hills as the elevation kept on gradually rising as I reached Subramanya. I completely missed the tiny lane that turns out to be the Bisle ghat road and instead went ahead and reached the main town. A few local map references from taxi drivers and the sorts got me back on the right road and on we went ahead.

The route for the next 30 - 40 kms is mostly a single lane with deep crevices on either side so if a vehicle arrives in the opposite direction, both the vehicle have to slow down and carefully pass each other. Within a few kms of driving, I soon encounter two mini jams, both caused due to a bus and later a truck that had got stuck in one of these crevices and needed support to be brought back on the road.

The route passes through some lovely waterfalls at every turn which then turns out to be a messy place to pass by as there were always a few vehicles parked aside with folks taking photos and videos. And a few adventurous ones trying to even get wet in the (smaller) falls.







Once I pass over the ghat, my next point was the deep Mallalli falls that was located at a 15km detour from my normal route. I had picked to visit this falls primarily because I could reach the falls by road without much of a trekking requirement.



What I didn't pay attention was to the fact that it was a weekend (Sunday) with relatively reduced rains and this was a massive tourist(y) location that had it's own parking lot, an army of paid parking attendants, and a few makeshift vendors selling Maggi and other snacks to attend to the large tourist inflow.



As I had already driven an additional ~2 hours to reach the venue, I still decided to climb down to the viewing point and then climbed back and headed home. If anyone is planning to head to these falls, please avoid public holidays and weekends, and hopefully you'll see some moderately less traffic.

Instead of going back the same route, I head towards Somwarpet, and then took a route that joined back the highway at Channarayapattana and finally reached home just before dinner time. Whatever time I had spent going on the detour towards Mallalli falls, I surely made up for some part of it on the 6/8 lane highway till Nelamangala.

[ninjatalli]

A few additional videos on the main falls that we visited

1. Jog falls - when the mist cleared up a bit

https://youtu.be/XIfpExBcvNA

2. Jog falls - when the mist covered up again

https://youtu.be/kayhyneE_D4

3. The amazing Bheemeshwara falls right adjacent to the temple

https://youtu.be/bfuY25l3s44

4. The beautiful Abbi falls that almost tempted me to jump in

https://youtu.be/Ea0KZPTlXqM

5. The missed opportunity - Bangara Kusuma falls (the main falls is still further upstream)

https://youtu.be/Q83rsiXCuEY

---------------------------------------------------------

And there ends my second ride across the western districts of Karnataka, this time majorly across 1 district (Shimoga). That kind of covers three in total, the other two being Udupi and Chikkamagaluru, done last time. And still with my heart yearning for more!

So when is the next date with the ghats of Karnataka? Hopefully (if things work out) next month itself. And this time I'm surely going for the Interceptor over the S-Cross.

[Eddy]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing.

[MSAneesh]

Amazing travelogue! Your superb pictures and videos made my read as if I am experiencing it. Western Ghats in the rain...what glory!!

[ampere]

Beautifully done! The Someshwara WLS offers lot many view points. Another good time to visit these locations is just after monsoon. Where you are not subjected to the pouring rain, but can see all the waterbodies full to the brim.

Varahi power is a nice under ground hydel (4x115 MW) inside a hill at its base with pen stocks sourcing water all the way from the top where the reservoir situated.

There are so many interior roads and each is a discovery in itself

[papr23]

Congrats for the SCross 1.6 purchase, Ninja! Brilliant car and looks so easy on the eye.
Touring in the Malenadu region during the rains is an absolute bliss and so are your pics & clips!

[AtheK]

Wow such beautiful photos, and memory for a lifetime. Good you did not take the interceptor, though riding for some is fun in the rains, I am of complete opposite view. I would rather be in a car and get drenched when I want, then getting drenched all the time.

Congratulations on the car, she sure is a beauty.

[nkrishnap]

Brilliant Travelogue. Had planned a long trip through these routes, unfortunately had to call it off.

Would have loved to travel this route for the fantastic greenery it offers all along.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by MSAneesh

Amazing travelogue! Your superb pictures and videos made my read as if I am experiencing it. Western Ghats in the rain...what glory!!

Originally Posted by papr23

Congrats for the SCross 1.6 purchase, Ninja! Brilliant car and looks so easy on the eye.
Touring in the Malenadu region during the rains is an absolute bliss and so are your pics & clips!

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

Brilliant Travelogue. Had planned a long trip through these routes, unfortunately had to call it off.

Would have loved to travel this route for the fantastic greenery it offers all along.

Thank you, guys!

Originally Posted by AtheK

Wow such beautiful photos, and memory for a lifetime. Good you did not take the interceptor, though riding for some is fun in the rains, I am of complete opposite view. I would rather be in a car and get drenched when I want, then getting drenched all the time.

Congratulations on the car, she sure is a beauty.

Thank you.
If I was alone, I'd would have opted for the Int650, no question about it. Rain or no rain, that's a nobrainer decision for me

Originally Posted by ampere

Beautifully done! The Someshwara WLS offers lot many view points. Another good time to visit these locations is just after monsoon. Where you are not subjected to the pouring rain, but can see all the waterbodies full to the brim.

Varahi power is a nice under ground hydel (4x115 MW) inside a hill at its base with pen stocks sourcing water all the way from the top where the reservoir situated.

There are so many interior roads and each is a discovery in itself

Thank you. That's the hopeful plan - do some of this and probably Bisle ghat route (again) in September. And if on a bike, those road options become even more better (methinks).

Is there a proper option to get access to Varahi power station for civilians? Had read online that one needed approvals from higher levels; even the security guys at the gate check at the base village were questioning us and only allowed us to go ahead when we told him we'd be heading to the falls instead.

[poised2drive]

Beautiful Beast, Surreal Weather and Fantastic Photographs - Perfect recipe for an awesome travelogue.

While I was going through your travelogue, my colleague glanced my screen ( not that I like when others do it) and stopped to appreciate the pictures - truly captivating

[temala]

Wonderful Photographs! and amazing Travelogue

I did a trip to Kukke / Dharmasthala / Mangalore / Udipi / Gokarna but how did I missed this route which looks just awesome.

Thanks for sharing. I have already started my planning ...