The aim or motto of the trip was to go for a pilgrimage :) . But it was more enjoyable than that. We started off on Friday night from Bangalore to catch the train to Shimoga at 11 in the night.
A hectic week had just then passed and it was a Friday night and we rushed to reach the railway station at 10pm. I was just curious to locate the train to sleep off even an hour before the train could start. But…. The only law that works absolutely correct for me is Murphys law :).
Never in the history of Inidan railways would it have happened that a train could be delayed from the originating station itself :). But miracles happen. No one had any idea (including the enquiry counter) how long the delay is going to be. Just because people were crowding the enquiry counter, they kept on saying 1 hr, 2 hrs and so on… Finally the train showed up at 3 am..with a delay of only 5 hours. With half open eyes we managed to get into the train.
We reached Shimoga at 9 the next day morning refreshed ourselves and started off to Shringeri. It is around 100 kms from Shimoga and the drive was enjoyable. There was lush greenery every where around and the drive on the roads of the mountains (Western Ghats) was great.
Now some Gyan
about Shringeri: It is the first math set up by Aadi Shakaracharya. The story behind goes like this: On a heavy raining day, Aadi Shankaracharya was passing through Shringeri. On his way he saw a frog which was pregnant and was suffering in the rain not able find a shelter. Then a cobra passing by saw the frogs suffering and gave shelter to the frog by opening its hood. This made Shankaracharya believe that the place where rivals (frog and snake) help each other is very pious and “Gyaan”( knowledge) would definitely reign the place. So he started a math and established “Sarada Devi Peetam” here. Anna danam is very famous here people who visit the temple are supposed to have lunch in the peetam. The volume at which the danam happens is definitely to be appreciated.
After lunch we started off to “Horanadu” which is around 100 kms form Shringeri. Again the drive was completely in the western ghat section. Too good it was. :)
Horanadu is famous for “Annapoorneshwari temple”. It is a small temple but quite peaceful and good on the top of the hill. As the name speaks, here too Anna danam happens on a daily basis.
By the time we came back to Shringeri it was too dark and we were too tired.
The next day morning Rams mother woke us up at 4.30 in the morning to have pavithra nadi snan in TungaBhadra and then go for the darshan of Sarada Devi. We went to the so called river basin and could see that there was only basin there and no water in the river ;). The water level was too less that we could not even drench our feet completely in it. On top of it there were 1000’s and 1000’s of fishes in it. I guess because it is sacred river one is not allowed to do fishing there. And each fish was as huge as the “Mathsya Avatar” fish. (You can see that in the images). We were taken aback for a moment. After having a nice laugh we decided to go back to the hotel to get ready.:)
After Shringeri, our next destination was “Jog Falls”. It was a 3 hour journey from Shringeri. It seems that the best season for the falls is during the months of july to september. As it was already getting late we did not take a chance of getting down up till the base of the falls. Dreaming of a next trip in the rainy season we came back to the busy Bangalore again leaving behind us the greenery, the woods and the nature. :(
For more pics view my photo album.
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