Background

The fantasy of driving to Western Ghats during monsoon was in my mind for quite a long long time. I had picked up the dates before Independence day to avoid the vacation crowd at toll booths and tourist spots. The plan was to head to Kundapura and head north to Gokarna and return to Bangalore. Since my mom prefers a pure vegetarian restaurant, I had chosen Adigas Beach Village Home Stay. I spoke to the concerned person and he told me that since renovation was going on, he cannot promise me on my dates. I altered my plans to include Hampi instead of Kode beach and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. With that I booked my stay and made payments for a day at RNS Guest House, Murudeshwar and a two night stay at Sanskruti Resort, Gokarna. I had also booked a two night stay at Ananya Comforts, Hospet.

Our travel plans almost got jeopardized during the first week of August with record rains in the ghats. At one stage, I had clicked on cancel booking on the MMT site but stopped mid-way getting enticed by the lush greens of western ghats. I became part of HVK forum in Facebook and started following the Goa threads in Team-BHP to understand the ground situation from fellow driving freaks. The synthesized digest of both the forums implied that my intended route via Shimoga-Jog-Murudeshwar was clear and I decided to go ahead with the escapade.

10th August, Saturday

Weighing the adverse weather and the uncertainty with the roads, we started early at 530 AM. There was relentless drizzle since we started from home and even the usually crowded Bangalore exit and Nelamangala tolls were empty. As planned we reached the Kamat Upachar, Sira a little before 800 AM. We were back on the road by 845 AM and left the Bangalore-Pune highway at Hiriyur. We maintained good pace and were on the periphery of Shimoga by half past eleven, decided to break early for lunch at Shimoga and went inside the city. We saw a huge crowd soon after entering the city and were told that the river Tunga is flowing above the bridge. We shifted to backup plan and decided to go to Sagara for lunch. So we took the Shimoga bypass and saw a huge traffic. The same Tunga was flowing above the danger mark over the roads engulfing several houses. With the help of localites, we motored through knee deep flowing water. It took us close to an hour to cross Shimoga and I filled up the car’s tank on the outskirts of Shimoga.

Monstrous Tunga – See the houses at the back

We stopped for lunch at Sagara and the food quality was strictly average, the only bad food in our entire six day trip. We reached Jog falls in pouring rains. We were mesmerized by the fall and hypnotized by the sound it made. Before we could blink, it was all fog. We went to the secondary view point after that. The views were equally enthralling.

From the primary view point

Fog about to steal the splendid sight

Only in monsoon, you get a show like this with complete green

Raja, Rani and Rocket at their mighty best

Secondary view point – very less crowd here – view from the top of the falls

Imagine the flow when they open the gates of Lingannamakki dam

By now the cataclysmic rains had begun and I had to drive down the ghats. The drive was extremely laborious with the visibility reduced to 50 metres. Fortunately I had a two wheeler for company. Even now I wasn’t sure who was helping whom but we both made sure we kept same pace throughout the next one hour. I had turned on the music at high volume to avoid negative thoughts like landslides. After an hour of deluge, the intensity finally dropped and I decided to take a few minutes breather by a bridge. Man !! A journey to be remembered for lifetime

Waterfalls everywhere

Phoenix getting much needed rest amidst sea of green after heavy downpour

We were on the outskirts of Honnavar soon and with that came the first milestone of the trip, a 500 KM drive. We reached Murudeshwar, our destination of the day little past 6 PM.

RNS Guest House – Basic Air Conditioned Room. Our rooms were in second floor

Hypnotizing view from the balcony – Worth a twelve hour drive?

Equally mind-blowing view on the other side

Magnificent symmetrical gopuram amidst the night skies

We went in for a quick darshan and were the last for the day. We had our dinner at RNS cafe. Just then we realized we were on a peninsula, surrounded by water on all three sides. I hit the bed straight with the sea waves playing lullaby.

11/08/2019 – Sunday

We woke up next morning to the tunes of rains and sea waves pounding on the shores and decided to take a walk.

Colossal in dimensions

In an unruffled posture

Poetically designed

Meticulously worked

Gorgeous location with sea and mountains on either side

Dexterously Built

An elephantine Nandi

Depicting a scene from Mahabharata – Krishna and Arjuna

There is an artificial cave at the top of the hill and that elucidates the legend of the place. Each one of the images are life sized sculptures with great precision.

There is a lift that takes you to the top of the Gopuram (18th floor) and from there you get a bird’s-eye view of the complete surroundings.

Coastal border is seen with the ghats in the background

Lord Shiva in imperturbable surroundings – Worth the trip?

Monochromatic Beauty

We finished one more round of darshan and checked out of Murudeshwar. En-route to Gokarna, we decided to visit Idagunji Ganesha Temple built around 4th-5th century AD. The image of Ganesha is in dvibhuja style (standing on a stone slab). The importance of the temple is attributed to a legend, occurring at the end of the Dwapara Yuga before the onset of Kali Yuga.

Narada requested Ganesha’s mother Parvati to send Ganesha to bring an end to the demons who were involved in destroying the earth.

Built in Kerala Style

Post darshan, we headed towards Gokarna and it started raining heavily. We reached our resort for lunch. The resort had an in house restaurant and even though very limited amount of varieties were available, the quality and taste was top notch. In the evening, we went to Gokarna beach. We heartily played for couple of hours.

Gokarna Beach: I wouldn’t say it was a spotless beach but definitely playable.

We had a hearty dinner in the night and that’s when we came across the news about the outflow of TB dam flooding Hampi monuments. We were taken aback because we never imagined our trip to Hampi would have problem. We retired for the day in a grim mood.

12/08/2019 – Monday

We woke up leisurely in the morning. For the breakfast, we had Aloo Paratha, Idly and Upma. Again the food was delicious. We had a photo session at the resort.

After our darshans at Sri Maha Ganapathi temple and the popular Mahabaleshwar Temple, my daughter and I went to Gokarna beach for playing. Over the lunch, topic was only about Hampi. For alternates we discussed all the way from Goa to Mangalore to Mysore. Considering all the safety aspects, we settled to return back to Bangalore the next day. In the evening we went to Ohm beach in pelting rains. But then as we got down at the beach, rain slowed down and we had a great time at the beach as it was secluded and pristine. My daughter sat down in the waves for good fifteen minutes. By then we were almost exhausted and left for the resort and did the packing for the next day. Since the next morning would be our last day at the place, we had asked the hotel for change of menu and the chef gladly obliged. With that we retired for the day.

13/08/2019 – Tuesday

We got up in a pensive mood with the thought that the trip was going to end prematurely. Keeping up with the norm over the last few days, I quickly checked the Facebook HVK forum for any new updates on the route. We were supposed to take the Gokarna – Kumta – Sirsi and reach Haveri and take the Pune – Bangalore highway to reach home. Accidentally I came across a post on Hampi with the contact of a guide. I called him up and he said that the place was absolutely fine. Then spoke to my father in law who is an avid temple blogger and got to know that he has a very reliable contact at Hampi. I spoke to him and he assured me that the monuments were devoid of floods from that morning and at worst we may be asked to walk for 5 to 10 minutes. I assured myself that even if everything goes awry, at the very least we would be able to atleast witness the TB dam with a huge outflow. I consulted my dad, mom and wife. We all agreed in unison for the next destination “HAMPI”. I quickly checked the Kumta – Sirsi route and there were no unfavorable comments. We had scrumptious tomato dosa and wholeheartedly gave a nice tip to the chef. We packed Dal Kichidi for my kid as we were totally unsure about our impending journey and route. We filled up the tank before hitting the highways.

The sixty kms between Kumta and Sirsi was breathtaking and after travelling for about 20 odd kms, I was so glad to see an MH registration car in the opposite direction. We climbed up the Devimane ghat with full of fog, clouds and continuous drizzle. Had it not been for the circumstances, I would have taken multiple photo breaks. Considering the safety, I enjoyed the picturesque drive and we were safely on the outskirts of Sirsi by 11 AM and reached Haveri by 1230 PM. We had our lunch at Green Court and fortunately the food was good.

The road to Hospet from Haveri was to be one of the slowest, the next 150 kms took me close to four hours with many village crossings and cattle movements. But this is also one of the most fertile places to drive with paddy, sugarcane, corn and sunflower fields.

On entering Hospet, we saw the roaring Tungabhadra. We checked into the hotel and after a steaming cup of hot coffee and snacks, we left to TB dam to see the night view. There were mini buses that took us close to the reservoir which is a KM and a half from the car park. Post that, we had our supper and retired for the day.

14/08/2019 – Wednesday

We got up and had our breakfast at the hotel and left for Hampi. Since the details of temples are so vast, I have covered Hampi in a separate post. During our return leg from Hampi, I crossed the 1000 KM milestone

Teaser Pictures from Hampi – Vijaya Vittala temple

An incredible work

Virupaksha Temple

In the evening we again went to TB dam to enjoy the park and witness water gushing out of surplus gates. It was a site to behold.

TB Dam Park

Overflowing TB Dam – Up close

Too many canals around the dam

Well maintained gardens

Boating area

We returned to our room and did all the packing for the next day to Bangalore.

15/08/2019 – Thursday

Our guide was very approachable and so I had asked him for a trip to Anegundi and Anjandri hills. There were numerous steps to be surmounted and I went alone with the guide early in the day. I will write about these two places along with Hampi. If you are planning to visit Hampi, Anegundi and Anjandri Hills are worth experiencing.

Teaser Pictures from the top of Anjandri Hills

Touchdown – TB river

Post breakfast, we started our return leg of our week long trip. At Chitradurga, we had our lunch. After lunch, since we were on the Pune – Bangalore highway and after a gap of week, I decided to raise the accelerator. I covered 103 KMS in an hour. In no time, I caught up with the Bangalore traffic and reached home a little past five. Our final ODO read as 1424 KMS.

What started as a wishful fantasy of exercising a monsoon drive in the ghats turned out to be an adventuresome expedition with timeless memories !!!