Kokkrebelur-Shivanasamudram-Somanathpur-Talakad

Date : 8th January 2011

Our first trip for 2011... This time we had some special ones joining our trip from Hyderabad.
We were nine of us with bags of snacks and water bottles, booked a tempo traveler.

The day before our trip I was fasting the whole day and had a heavy dinner that night @ Coconut Groove with Sugan. It was about 11 pm when I slept that night and got up by 2 am. Due to complete imbalance I vomited that morning and was totally down on bed. But I know the consequence if I opt out of the trip. So I somehow managed with the tablets I had and didn’t utter a word to anybody.

Our trip finally started @ 4 30 in the morning (cab was late than expected).

After all pickups from different places of bangalore our journey to the destined places started. @ 6 30 the driver stopped at a place saying Bisi Bisi Idly will be available there... So had a heavy breakfast there.

Bangalore to Kokkrebellur : 80Kms
It was 7 30 when we got sight of a board "Kokkrebellur -- 12Kms". We were busy playing cards but as soon as we saw the board out of excitment to see Kokkre (Kokkre is a bird that is expected to be seen there) we stopped playing with a wrong assumption that we would reach in a few minutes. But the road was completely broken and to worsen the situation the road was covered with humps of reaped paddy plants and the driver had a tough time taking us through this.

Finally we reached the place and the driver enquired the people in the village about Kokkre and they took us to a tree where we found huge, white, beautiful birds with broad milky white wings. There were two trees around and these birds keep flying around these trees. Being referred to as a bird sanctuary my frenz turned to me with a rowdy look and asked if it was those two trees I meant by a sanctuary. I didn't have comments :P . Finally they convinced themselves saying they found other birds around.. Secret unrevealed for my safety. :P

Then our next plan was to Shivanasamudram. On the way to Shivanasamudram the driver took us to a temple saying it’s a very famous one in that village. It was a Shiva temple, and the best part of the temple was Lord Shiva s vehicle believed to be “Nandhi” is not a idol here instead they worship a real bull and it is believed that any wish placed in front of the bull will come true.

We didn’t have any kind of belief until we saw the bull but we all were surprised to see the bull was just left all alone tied to a building under construction. We could find only a lady around there.It just seemed to be an ordinary bull until we looked @ it closely. But when we went near we were shocked to see bundles of 100 INR, 500 INR and 1000 INR currencies tied to its horn. Then my mind whispered to me to make some wish and so did I do (Will surely post if my wish comes true.. :-) ) .

Then our move towards Shivanasamudram continued. Now in the van we felt board playing Ace and hence after a long discussion of what to play we ended up playing Raja Rani.. :P

By the time we reached Shivanasamudram noon started peeping in and the day was very hot. As soon as we stepped down @ Shivanasamudram we started grabbing water melon, tender coconut and pineapple sold there. After the interval when we looked out @ the waterfalls we found everything else other than water. ;) The way to the falls was also blocked. There are two parts of the falls one is Gagana Chukki and the other is Bhara Chukki. After Gagana Chukki @ about 1km is Bhara Chukki. We could find some water here but again it was restricted to go play in water. So we missed some fun there.. :(

Our next place of visit was Somanathpura “Keshava Temple”. Planned to visit during Mysore trip but couldn’t. The driver was reluctant taking us there because of the very bad road. But we didn’t want to miss it. And we realized after the reaching there that our expectation for the place didn’t disappoint us. It’s a worth visiting place in spite of the harshness of the way that leads to this beautiful place.

The deity inside is Lord Keshava (the original statue though is believed to be preserved in London museum.) and the temple is star shaped with fine carved sculptures that gives a good feast for your eyes unlike our usual stare @ our monitors.

Inside the temple the ceiling were so beautifully carved that Karthick started crawling down on the floor trying to click them all. ;)

Finally to the most expected place Talakad “Land of Sand dunes”. Had really a tough time stepping thru’ the sand. There are 5 temples around all believed to be buried under sand few centuries ago and now renovated. After our holy visit to all the temples we ran to the river to have fun.

We had a most thrilling “Parisal” ride ;) while 3 idiots not seen in this photo missed the fun as they were lying on the shore gazing around;) .

That fun filled evening with the view of sunset was something unforgettable. And some good clicks here. ;) And for info these three are not the 3 idiots refered above. These three are good obedient guys.. ;)

Darkness started creeping in alarming us to get back and we reluctantly walked to the van and it was then we realized we didn’t have the meal for the day. It was 7pm when we reached a nearby mess to have our food for the day.

Back to the van with Raja rani, Ace and dumb charades that kept us occupied till we reached our homes. Special memories – Fun made while guessing the film Samrat Ashoka (Ezhil), Baktha Pragaladha, Simla special, Bhuvana oru Kelvikuri (Vivek breaking the van seat referring to the scene in boys film) etc will stay evergreen in our book of memories… :)