Monday, September 29, 2008

Jog Falls - Murudeshwar - Kollur - Sringeri Itinerary

Inmates : 9 People
(Myself,Senthil,Prabhu,Rajesh,
Shyam,KB,Venkat,Pramod,deivapalan)

Commuting in koramangala @ Prabhu anna's house, has always been our routine, and this time it was no exception.Boarding the Tempo Traveller we started from Bangalore by 9:30.As we travelled through the NH-206 Bangalore - Shimoga, it seemed we were the only ones
travelling in that direction on the totally isolated uninhabited highway. When the Highway was not arrayed with any Tea shops/Petrol Bunks/Mechanic puncture shops, the weirdness in our minds soared. By
3:00 we crossed Shimoga and we stopped @ Laxmi Lodge,a mediocre inn @ sagar for refreshing. we started again by 8:30 and reached Jog Falls in an hour.At first the massiveness of the falls didnt strike us.

We trekked through the unlaid, stone path to the bottom of the falls.The mammoth height of the falls and man's miniature standing made us realize the sheer size of the drop.After taking photos we retreated back, Extinguishing our desires to venture out into the waters.The return to the top was a torturous one, especially for Faint hearts, we thought we could never make it any sooner :) Once at the top, we moved towards Murudeshwar and booked a 3 - 3 bedrooms for 350 each. We rested for a while and then dragged ourselves to the beach.

Murudeshwar Temple is put up in the midst of the beach and the view from the mound is a beauty.After playing Football for some time we came came back to the lodge to refresh and started again to visit the temple.The Temple Gopura is 249 Feet surpassing Srirangam's Raja Gopura of 236 ft, but the base is not as huge as in Srirangam.We barely made it on time before the temple closed by 8:15PM.After having the dinner at Naveen Beach Hotel, we went to sleep like logs in the lodge.

Next morning, i made a rendezvous to the top of the mound to capture some snaps and soon after we started to Kollur Mookambiga temple.Kollur temple's style and custom resembled that of the one practiced in Kerala.Next we made an vain attempt to reach Sringeri temple (one of the four mutts started by Adi sankara) before it closes, through the Agumbe(of Malgudi days Fame) route.We took some breath taking pics at the sunset point in Agumbe and moved on planning to make a dedicated trip to Agumbe sometime later.Since the temple was closed. we justed visited the Temple complex and the River Tunga by its side.The fishes in the Banks are really HUGE and needs special mention.There are two temples inside the Temple complex, one built with the South Indian style having the sharadambal deity.Another one is of a Hoysala structure.

Then we drove to Chickmangalur and then to Bangalore.These two days we had seen ghat roads more than what we had seen in the whole of our lifetime.Mountains, valleys, Fertile River banks, filled the scenary.The Rice cultivation done by means of contour ploughing needs special mention too.This trip turned out to be a Trekking trip + relaxing trip + Pilgrimage too.Too much in one shot.

More than anything else, this time with my new Camera, i was mainly standing behind the Lens rather than in the Front :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/kpraveen85/JogFallsShimoga
http://picasaweb.google.com/kpraveen85/Murudeshwar
http://picasaweb.google.com/kpraveen85/SringeriKollurAgumbe

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Its time for the Aperture's Cynosure

Certain interests doesn't pop out of thin air, it grows as one develops.One such was my passion for Photography.It got intense when i made some trips without a camera to picture the rusticated locations.A small chit-chat with a professional photographer of the national geographic gallery calibre brought me some insight into this Art.I narrowly missed being part of the Photographer's forum(special interest group) in college.The bereft of a proper DigiCam during those days atleast prevented that.

Now that, i bought a magnificent marvel from Kodak, this is another dimension in which i have to delve into.The Kodak Z1012 IS is a 10MP camera with 12x Optical Zoom fitted with Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon, f/2.8-4.8 Lens.It is a calculated Risk that i took when i selected this one over Canon S5IS.This could be taken as a signal to check my picasa & Flickr album then and there.Thanks to Ekanth and Prabhu anna for ordering & carrying this Cutie from US :)

Specifications @ http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=12456&pq-locale=en_US
Reviews @ http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/default.asp?newsID=3527