Tirthahalli trip -2

After a restful night, we woke up refreshed and eager to enjoy the day! We depended mostly on the host’s suggestions for visiting nearby places, though I did have Kuppali and Sakkarebayalu Elephant camp on my list.

We decided to visit Chibbalgudde first as suggested by them. We were told that we could see a lot of big fishes and even feed them puffed rice. The place is actually famous for the Siddhivinayaka temple and we had to go through the premises in order to get to the river. The rice/puffed rice was sold in a house near the temple. After paying our obeisance to the deity, we descended a flight of stairs to get to the river. Hordes of fishes were seen just below the water surface and we could see them clambering whenever we put some rice in the water! The kids enjoyed a lot!

Watching the fishes…

View to our left..

The view in front of us. See the fishes just below the water surface ?

View..to the right..

Next, we proceeded to Kuppalli, the home town of the great poet Kuvempu. His home has been converted to a museum. Apart from that there is Kavishaila, which is a rock monument made of megalithic rocks and dedicated to Kuvempu. the visit was good though the heat was way too much and eventually the kids became cranky as it was lunch time already!

Kuvempu’s home… now a museum.

Kavishaila… the place where Kuvempu was laid to rest.

The path from Kuvempu’s home to Kavishaila. View from Kavishaila!

On our way back, we took the wrong route. After driving for quite some distance,about 10 – 12 kms, we felt that we had not come this way! There was not a soul in the ghats. The lack of directions/sign boards was glaring wherever we went. Also, there are hardly people around who can give directions, it can get esp tough if you dont know the local language. Luckily we spotted someone on the way and he gave us directions !!  We went back, and thankfully reached the home stay!! Had lunch and relaxed for a while.

In the evening, we headed to a nearby place called Bheemanakatte. Here, there is a temple on the banks of the river Tunga. We were told that we could actually go to the river bank and get into water! That was the main attraction of the place for us 🙂 We had started around 5 pm which was a bit late. This was good in a way. Most everyone else had left and we had the place to ourselves. Got into the water, splashed on each other and generally had a good time. We wanted to stay back for some more time but the sun was setting, signalling that it was time for us to head back! We were so enthralled that we thought we should come back the next day too, before finally leaving for home 🙂

A Shiva shrine at Bheemanakatte.

The Tunga at Bheemanakatte.

Bheemanakatte… The sandy bank of river Tunga. Almost beach-like!

Back at the home stay, we relaxed, chatted, played a bit. Sisters had a good time with basketball, in fact sis1 said it was the highlight of the trip for her since she played basketball after a very long time. Post dinner, we went around the place, taking in the sights. Then we sat on the swing and chatted some more. The power went off for a brief time and we were excited to see a lot of fireflies!! Unforgettable.

To be continued..