It was a long pending trip to the Uttara Kannada (North Kanara) district of Karnataka. My crave for visiting this land of scenic beauty during monsoon was persistent. Thanks to the long weekend, a spontaneous plan of visiting this place during the peak monsoon became a reality. Without any second thought I took one more day off and set myself for a 4 day trip. There was no schedule decided and there was no plan on how to move around. On a beautiful Friday morning, the red bus dropped me off at Manchikeri. It was since a long time I visited a typical 'Malenad' house and we were fortunate enough to become painful guests for Ajith and his parents for 4 days. Ajith and my friend TS work together at ITC in Bangalore. And it was Ajith's recommendation that we visit his place. Manchikeri is 37 km away on the way to Yellapur from Sirsi.
Since we had no specific plans for 4 days, we were free to go anywhere we wanted to. And we decided to not worry much about visiting all the places around and instead spend some quality time seeing some beautiful waterfalls. Uttara Kannada is the home for many such beautiful waterfalls, perennial rivers, moist deciduous forest and abundant flora/fauna. And over the next 4 days we got to see some stunning creations of nature. Thanks to Ajith and his friends, we even got to travel around on motorbikes. And not to mention the food at his place, it was a delightful Konkan feast on all 4 days. His mother took so much trouble and introduced us to some authentic Konkan dishes. I have to write a separate blog post altogether to explain all those mouthwatering stuff.
Worrying about my camera equipment in the heavy rain, I could somehow managed to capture some photographs. It was a thrilling experience to visit all the places in-spite of the heavy rains. That even saved us from sighting too many humans as well. Here are some of the photographs:
Sathodi, Dabbe and Kanchin Gadde:
We walked for about 6 km one way through the Kodasalli dam back waters to reach the Sathodi falls.
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| Sathodi falls in Yellapur taluk |
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| Sathodi falls in peak monsoon |
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| Kanchin Gadde falls near Sathodi |
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| Dabbe Saal Falls near Sathodi |
Chandaguli, Magod, Jenkal Gudda and Kavadi Kere:
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| Chandaguli Gante Ganapathi Temple |
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| Misty woods at Magod |
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| Magod falls during the peak monsoon |
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| Bedthi river flowing at Magod powerfully! |
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| Majjige hole falls near Magod |
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| Kavadiamma temple on the banks of the 62 acres Kavadi kere. |
Yana, Vibhooti and Unchalli:
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| The historic limestone rocks at Yana |
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| Gorgeous Vibhooti falls near Yana |
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| Finally after waiting for 30 minutes, we could see the Unchalli falls. This is my second attempt to see Unchalli in full flow. |
Sirsi and Sahasra linga
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| A random water falls near Sirsi |
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| Sahasra Linga. During monsoon only a few will be visible. |
Some interesting flora and fauna:
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| Blue Oakleaf |
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| Cup Fungi |
It was a very tiring trip after a long time. Legs are full of leech bites and even now one hand is on key board and the other is scratching on my itchy legs. We were very lucky and thankful to get to meet Ajith and his family. Their hospitality was one of the best.
Talking about the developments and the tourism, all these beautiful places are being commercialized. There are neat roads till many of these destinations to which one can drive easily. Concrete structures are being erected amidst the woods. For a typical 'tourist' getting to see and enjoy in 'Nature' is becoming easier day-by-day. I had gone to Yana 8 years back (I think) and I had to trek for 6 km to reach the rocks. Now it is not even a 1km walk on a concrete road! Similarly access to Madod and Sathodi is very easy. People come in thousands to visit and at the same time they leave thousands of tons of garbage. Perhaps, many people have not yet realized that 'Nature looks beautiful only if it is left Natural'.
Mind you, If any of you are travelling to all the above places after reading this blog post, you better be responsible and care for environment.
Link to more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/srikanthap/sets/72157627508883636/
Srik
