DAY 3:BHAGMANDALA

Driver suggested us, to b ready @ 8:00, as we had to go place called Bhagmandala, and return back by 2:00 p.m, as we had bus @ 4:00 back to blore...

Bhagmandala:
Cab was on time and  we started towards  bhagmandala, we first stopped at Bhagmandala, and visited Bhagamandaleshwara, this was temple dedicate to shiva, temple was built in kerala
style.  There is a small kalyani also, where people were taking bath, it is a belief that it is sacred to take bath and worship shiva as this place joins 3 rivers  Cauvery, Kannike and Sujyothi Rivers and forms  Triveni Sangama. We  just sprinkled lil of water on our head, and visited temple, and  started to next place, Talakaveri.

TalaKaveri.
 Talakaveri is a considered to be source of  river kaveri. The temple here is dedicated to Goddess Caveriamma.It is located in the Brahmagiri hills of Coorg. Localites there told thousands of pilgrims flock to the river's birthplace to witness the rise of the fountainhead..

Bramhagiri Hills:
We then decided to trek Brahmagiri Hill, which is 1608 m height,  hoping to find  temple there, it was breathtaking steep climb, i had to sit  many places take rest, and again trek before reaching hill, we dint find any temple there thou, but had a nice view point..

We returned back to home stay from talakaveri, had lunch, and started back to Blore.. Over all it was a pleasant and much needed time out for us as, both myself and Ramesh were involved in project work for the last 3-4 months and couldn't even go out on week-ends.

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DAY 3 : GOA

This was last day of our Goa Trip. We had booked a South Goa trip package from GTDC.

Places covered

1. Dona Paula Beach, 

2. Abyss Marine Fish Aquarium, Nagoa, 

3. Ancestral Goa - Big Foot

4. Casa Araujo Alvares, Loutolim,

5. Shree Mangesh temple, 

6. Se Cathedral, Velha, 

7. Basilica of Bom Jesus, 

Dona Paula Beach : 

This places is not a beach, its more of jetty... Places is very scenic and serene... Some movies are shot here..  Places was not very crowded at time we visited.. We enjoyed some time in the cool breeze with excellent views of Mandovi and Zuari.

Abyss Marine Fish Aquarium:

Our next stop was Abyss Marine Fish Aquarium. Nice aquarium with variety of sea creatures and well maintained. It also has Horror house, which is part of the ticket.

There are some statues outside the entrance, good for some photo oppurtunity.

Ancestral Goa - Big Foot:

 

 Big Foot Museum is a museum and a theme park based in the South Goa. It is a museum dedicated to rural Goan life. Goan life is depicted with life size sculptures and props which portrays different occupations of the locals and their way of living.

We enjoyed strolling this place and taking pictures at all interesting spots..

Casa Araujo Alvares, Loutolim: This place is just opposite to Big foot. It  is a  18th-century Portuguese mansion open to the public. This places takes back to old era with the antique beds, the old style bathrooms,  antique intricately carved pieces and lot of collectible items ,a nursery  with a crib , hand-painted wooden rocking horse , twin beds and a wooden walker , kitchen is very spacious with  earthen pots and other kitchenwares kept intact.  I loved this place...

5. Shree Mangesh temple:

The temples belongs to Bhagavan Manguesh, an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Its family diety of Goud Saraswat Brahmins.Its a Very peaceful atmosphere and Divine feeling. Architecture is truly amazing..

6. Se Cathedral, Velha

The Se Cathedral was built to commemorate the victory of Portuguese over a Muslim army, leading to the capture of the city of Goa in 1510. Since the day of the victory happened to be on the feast of Saint Catherine, the cathedral was dedicated to her. It is part of the World Heritage Site, Churches and convents of Goa located in Old Goa, India.

7. Basilica of Bom Jesus:

This places is just opposite to St cathedral. The Basilica of Bom Jesus is a Roman Catholic basilica located in Goa, India, and is part of the Churches and convents of Goa UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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DAY 2:KUSHALNAGAR

 We got ready by 8:30, aunt gave us breakfast , something similar to idli, not sure of name, it was really tasty thou. Cab driver was on time, and we started our second day's  journey towards kushalnagar. One the way, driver stopped @ estate and showed us coffee, and pepper plants.Coffee and spices are very famous in coorg.We also found a small falls on the way, and stopped for a snap. It was a pleasant drive all the way from madikeri to kushalnagar, very smooth, winding up like a snake thru the dense greeneries with coool breeze & excellent climate.....

DUBARE:

 Dubare is a place on banks of  a river cauvery surrounded by a forest camp, where elephants are trained. One can go for trekking, elephant rides and river rafting.  Around 10:00 we reached  Dubare, we had nice time playing in river cauveri, took some snaps, then went on for rafting (Charges 100rs per person).  It was 11:00 by then, people there told us, had we been there @ 9:00 a.m could have seen elephant bathing,eating n stuff..We missed that , and thot will atleast go for elephant ride, but  Coz of dassara all elephants were taken to Mysore. and only 2 elephants were there. We had to return back seeing long que...

Chikkole dam:
We then left to Chikkole dam, view from dam was superb, But it was too hot, Kushalnagar's climate was exactly opposite from that of madikeri, it was really hot. I was hesitating, to walk all the way to bridge(it was almost 1 km) in hot sun, but had to join ramesh, as he started walking, we started just walking along bridge of dam, it was very steepy to get down, and finally we took some courage, and slowly got down that steepy stones, and reached the water, it was awesome to feel water, after walking long in sun, spent some time there, and left towards  Tibetian camp.

Tibet Camp:
Kushalnagar has a place where the refugee Tibetans have a settlement locally called as Tibet Camp. We reached the place around 12:30, we had lunch @ restaurant there, and walked inside the camp.  Place was very calm, and had good shopping. The golden temple has a 60ft statue of lord Buddha, and  two other equally grand images of Buddhas. Walls of  temple had colorful drawings,  was not sure of what was drawings about, but it was very colourful and attractive....From there we left to place called Nisargadama.

Nisargadhama:
Nisargadama  is an island formed by river cauvery.  We took tickets, and walked along nisargadama  and we  saw deers,rabbits, a small information musueum, and finally reached  the natural island of cauveri, i have no words to describe the place, it was so romantic, with water flowing, trees bent till rivers, cool breeze, awesome.... we took some snaps, and spent some time in water. I wanted to spend some more time, but had to return as  they close place @ 6:00.....

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DAY 3 - CHIKMAGALUR

DAY  3: CHIKMAGALUR

• Destination 1: Bababudangiri
• Destination 2: Mullayanagiri
• Destination 3: Honnama temple & falls
  
  

Our 3rd day's list  had  Dattagiri or Baba Budan Giri Range, which includes Mullayanagiri (height 1930 m) and Dattagiri/Baba Budan Giri (height 1895 m),  both are highest peaks of  karnataka and are  trekkers paradise.  We had breakfast and started around  10:00 am. Even around  10:00, it was extremely cold.  I requested driver to close all the windows of car, and enjoyed the beautiful view sitting inside:).   Once we reached  Baba-Budan-giri mountain range, roads are very narrow and scary. Even a single mis-step would lead the car to 1895m down the hills :). 

Bababudangiri:
Baba Budan Giri peak is one the highest peaks of  karnataka. Baba Budangiri, also called  Dattatreya Peeta, is  hill Range, of the Western Ghats of  India. This hill is considered sacred for both Hindus and Muslims. As it inhouses Sufi shrine devoted to the  Baba Budan, and  Hindu God Guru Dattatreya. It has been controversial due to political and religious tension over its status as a syncretic shrine.Baba Budan Giri represents a unique syncretic culture of Hindus and Muslims where both offer prayers in a cave-like structure.Car  is allowed directly to top of the Bababudan giri.  When we got down from the car, wind was blowing so fast, pushing us backwards.. We  had to walk ahead fighting with the wind :). We saw a  Sufi shrine (revered by Muslims), and few  tombs at the entrance.. Lot of muslims  were offering prayers near the entrance of the shrine. (Shrine was closed though) According to legend, saint called Baba budan introduced coffee to India by bringing beans from the port of Mocha, Yemen. We just took snap from outside and walked towards Manikyadhara falls..

Manikyadhara falls:
Manikyadhara Waterfalls also known as Nellikayi Theertha is situated 1 km from Baba Budan Giri/Dattatreya Peetha.  Both Hindus and Muslims believe that they are relieved of ailments if
they bathe under this falls.It is also believed that the person who takes a bath here has to leave one piece of garment for the  wishes to be fulfilled.

Beliefs apart, but place was total mess, with Clothes all around. And so many people(esplly muslims) were taking bath under this small falls, which had very  thin water flow, worse then tap flow.(Not sure if flow is always like this, or coz of April month).  We came out of there as soon as possible.

Sitalyangiri:Sitallayangiri is 2km before Mullayanagiri. Car is allowed all the way till Sitalayangiri. There is a temple called Sitalaya-mallikarjuna. But more than a shiva temple, it looked like a mutt.   It also had couple of houses, for Priests  and also for visitors, who wish to stay there(But you have to inform them earlier, so they can arrange for Food and Accomodation). Mainly trekkers would do that.. They can start trekking from base of mountain, trekking all the way to  Sitalayangiri and Mullayangiri . That trekking path is called as Sarpa Dhari (Cobra path). But we decided to go to Sitalayangiri and Mullayangiri in Car, and only climb the Mullayangiri peak from Mullayangiri Base...  View from this sitalayangiri is awesome. We spent few minutes there and , headed to mullayangiri.

Mullayanagiri:
Our next destination was  Mullayangiri.Mullayangiri is the highest peak in Karnataka. With a height of 6300 ft. Driver parked the car  at base of Mullayangiri and told, we need to  climb around 200+ steps to reach the top.  We started climbing steps,  as and when we climbed up, it started getting cold. Once we reached around 100 steps, we get to see awesome view of places around.. Cold and fast blowing Wind makes it more difficult to climb... .

I had to rest couple of times, before reaching the top. We finally reached the top, and was totally amazed to see fog all round the peak. It was 12:00pm, and it looked like it 5am. Weather was awesome, with cool brezze, fog all around, and we were at so height place, it was looking as if we can touch the clouds :).  We could see the roads  from  this peak, which looked like a line drawn in between a peak . People and  roads looked so small, and sometimes, the view was totally blocked by Fog, so we sat there for a while for fog to clear, once it was cleared we took  some snaps, then visited temple, and sat there for a while again, before we climbed down..

Honnama temple, Attingundi:
 One the way back to Hotel, we passed through a village called Attingundi , which is some 6 km before Baba Budan Giri peak.  There a small falls here, which is made to flow on few steps... We climbed the steps, and looked for the source of the falls, but  it was flowing from long distance, beyond our eyes to locate it... Water in this falls was real cold. We washed our face, freshened up, had tea in near by small chai shop. It was awesome to drink tea in that cold.. Finally left back to our hotel by 2:00pm..

Checked-out from Hotel immediately ,and asked driver to drop us at  Chikmagalur Bus stop. We had bus to Blore @ 3pm.. Well we could make it to reach bus stop by 2:30pm, ate something in near by hotel. Bus started sharp 3:00pm. We could reach bangalore by 9:30pm..

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