Lepakshi Veerabhadra Swamy Temple, Andhra Pradesh

While returning from Belum Caves (Read about this in my previous post), we stayed in Anantapur at Hotel Sapthagiri Balla.  It is a very good hotel in this town with attached veg (Chutnees) and multi-cuisine (Spice) restaurants.  After a nice rest, we had breakfast at the attached Chutnees restaurant (buffet breakfast was included in the room charge), we started towards Lepakshi.

Lepakshi is a small village located in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.  It is around 120km north of Bangalore.  The Veerabhadra Swamy temple dedicated to Lord Shiva is located here.  The temple is built in Vijayanagar architecture style and has excellent sculptures built by Vijayanagar empire artisans.  The temple also has a repository of mural paintings of Vijayanagar kings and gods.  A reference to this temple is made in the 'Skandapurana' as one of the hundred and eight important Shiva temples. This temple is a visual treat to anyone interested in historic sculptures and architecture showing the skill of the our predecessors.

Trip to Belum Caves, Andhra Pradesh

During this year end, we were looking for nearby places to visit in a day or two.  We were planning to travel with a friend and family and this place was suggested by them.  It is surprising that we never heard of this place before.  Belum Caves is the second largest cave in Indian subcontinent and the longest caves in plains of Indian Subcontinent, known for its stalactite and stalagmite formations. It have long passages, spacious chambers, fresh water galleries and siphons. The caves reach its deepest point 120 feet from ground level. Belum Caves derives its name from "Bilum" Sanskrit word for caves. In Telugu language, it is called Belum Guhalu. It has a length of 3229 meters, making it the second largest natural caves in Indian Subcontinent.  The cave was restored by APTDC and was open to public in 2002 for 1.5 km stretch.  Around 3.5km of the cave have been explored so far. (Information from Wikipedia)

Trip to Malnad - Kuvempu Memorial

We had several plans in mind for this year end holidays. Nothing worked out due to various factors. One of them was a trip to Delhi. The ticket costs were prohibitive and we dropped that.  At the end it turned out to be a good decision after reading flight delays and diversion in Delhi due to fog for last few days. At the last moment we had to decide on a getaway and we decided to visit my cousin sister in Mangalore. On the way we planned to stay somewhere in Malnad and see some places there. I searched for homestays and found a reference from one of my colleagues about Bananki Homestay in Tirthahalli.

We started in the morning from Bangalore and took Tumkur road.  We then took NH206 from Tumkur towards Shimoga. Till Tumkur it was toll road which was excellent. NH206 was not as good but a descent road. But it is far far better than the road I was to travel in the later parts of this trip. From Shimoga you have to take NH13 to go to Tirthahalli which was a narrow but good and scenic drive.

We reached Tirthahalli around 3PM and Bananki Homestay was around 8km from the town towards Koppa on NH13. The homestay is run by a couple and their parents. The house is in the middle of a farm comprising of Aracanut and rubber cultivation. Aracanut seems to be a big crop and business in the Malnad area and you can see it everywhere you turn.

Bananki Homestay at Tirthahalli

As soon as we reached there, lunch was served to us. It was typical home made Malnad cuisine and very delicious. I later found out that it was for food many travelers choose this home-stay and they continued service excellent food to us till we left. After taking some rest we inquired about nearest places to see and decided to visit Poet Kuvempu's house which was around 6km from the home-stay. Kuvempu (Kuppali Venkatappagowda Puttappa) is a noted Kannada writer and poet.  Since I haven't visited such memorials before, we decided have try.

Gagan Chukki Falls, Sivanasamudram

Our trip to Mysore on last October long weekend was the first pleasure trip after we got our daughter. She has almost reached a year and is ready to join me. En-route to Mysore, we visited Sivanasamudram (also called Sivasamudram). I heard about the water falls from one of my colleague and decided to check it out.

River Cauvery flows through this place towards its journey to find sea and creates two waterfalls called Gagan Chukki Falls and Bara Chukki Falls. The best season to visit the falls is around July-August when Cauvery river is full. There was not too much water this time of the year, but it was good enough to enjoy.

Sivasamudram is located in Mandya district in Karnataka state where the Cauvery river splits to two and forms a small island and the two water falls called Gagan Chukki (90 meters) and Bara Chukki (69 meters). Both the falls are only km away from each other. We visited only Gagan Chukki falls since we had to reach Mysore by that night. From Bangalore, the falls is around 135 kms.

Hogenakkal Falls Trip

We had a three day holiday due to Ugadi and decided to go out some where. Since Hogenakkal was in news for all the wrong reasons these days, we decided to go there. We started out in the morning in our car around 8:45am and reached Hosur by 9:15 am. Hoganekkal is around 150km from Bangalore.

There are three ways you can go to Hogenakkal from Hosur. First Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Pennagaram and second via Roayakkottai-Palakkod-Pennagaram and third via Denkanikottai. The third route is suppose to be very scenic and the shortest, but the roads are very bad. We were advised not to take that route on our Maruti 800.