Sahasralinga and unchahalli fall

My third day of Uttar karnataka trip I covered unchahalli falls and sahasralinga.

It was on Sunday, the final day of trip.
Plan was to first see unchahalli falls reachable by bus.Next spot to see was sahasralinga in sirsi yellapura road.Sahasralinga is closer to sirsi..I also had a plan for seeing banasvasi temple ..But with delays of public transport  and different directions of  these places , covering three spots was difficult.

Sunday was a rainy day .

After breakfast I called for Auto.The receptionist a kind old man, had guided me bus route to reach heggarani a place around 30 KMS away from sirsi.I reached sirsi old bus stand by 10am. The bus  was empty . I  was only the second person in the bus . The bus started to heggarani after 30 minutes .

When bus reached mahaganapthi temple of sirsi it started raining.It had lot of free seats .So I shifted to many windows to check different views along the way.The bus was in same kumta route from sirsi for some distance and the took a diversion towards Heggarani.The route was becoming more beautiful by then. Many more green beautiful places were all around . Monsoons had painted the landscape with greener trees and grass.Rain wasn't very heavy.There were  uphill parts of road surrounded by green pasteurs .

Cows were seen leisurely grazing grass in these fields.

Heggarani
First destination in routes heggarani arrived.

It was small village hamlet with population less than  a  thousand.Still there wee decent roads,  basic shops, cooperative banks.I saw boards of taxis and bikes available to unchahalli falls..As soon I reached heggarani , I came out of bus. I had to open my umberalla as rains started heavier. I took shelter in a small eatery nearby busstop.There was an option of hiring a bike drop to waterfalls trek entrance.

A local man offered me this service at a very nominal charge of 50 rs for travel  of 5 kms.

Rain had become heavier and we started the journey after rains become slower.i still kept my umberalla over my head and wearing m

y Winter jacket.TVS Victor bike went over beautiful hills..Winds accompanied rains .My umberalla was feeling the force of winds.I had to hold it in tight hands.umberalla was completely reversed and trying to get out my holds..And in span of 15 minutes we reached  trek path to unchahalli falls by 12 pm.I asked the driver to come back by 1 pm to the entrance.

Unchahalli falls was discovered by British officer and hence called as  "lushington fall"  his name.Locally its name is kepe joga due it's huge defeaning noise it creates during full flow.

Trek path was around 1 kms.Firsr one has to cross trek path then to use stepped path.Each step was 3 feet long built flat concrete table .It was easier to go down.
Slowly walking in path down surrounded by large trees I reached first viewpoint . The top stream of water falls was visible in this point.One could see water flowing down the top  of waterfalls .It was still raining.Waterfalls  was covered with rain..
I went to second view point some 20 more steps down.Waterfalls gives us full length view  from top to bottom falls here.Some awesome photos can be taken here.

In final view point , one  can see valley  is surrounded by  the tall mountains.I walked little down and captured better pictures.

The waterfall
The stream starts somewhere far from top of mountains..Like crawled zig zag  path of snake , waterfalls comes down forward in a downward angle.Stream Path keeps on widening.In  phasewise increasing  was the downwards descend till falls .At beautiful concave top of hill stream just makes a wide big spread all over huge area hill top and then makes a fall.The fall is big enough that most part of water is spread in air.The rocks in path of fall are like peaked cones.So giving unique view of waterfalls.The feet of fall is visible but is not reachable from this view point.after falling to earth it quitely creates a water stream in valley.

Story of a fall
The skies behind the mountains were visible.The stream comes down along the path  from the mountain sources like fearless light into  the dark space. These  were all rain drops from skies..they gather together from various places.they come and gather together .stronger stream grows by unity of billions of water droplets together. strength comes from unity..flow is faster by their abundance. They come down hills swiftly and fall to the valleys .Some fast droplets even when they fall become moisture and dissolve in air.Water reaches earth with loud noise and continue their flow as stream into rivers and further to sea..

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Lunch

At 1 pm I walked back to the gate.bike driver was waiting for me..We reached heggarani bus stop..To pass on time till 1 :30 I went around fields and green Pasteurs of heggarani..I took bus back to sirsi.. It was again raining .Though Path back was very scenic around I took a nap for sometime during travel.

After lunch in sirsi is started my journey to sahasralinga 17 km from Sirsi.

Sahasralinga is place of religious importance in river salamala.It is famous for  many lingas carved out in the rocks in riverbed.
The Shiva Lingas were built under the patronage of Sadashivarayavarma, king of the Sirsi kingdom of early 18 th century.

Yellapura bus from sirsi is one of best way on getting here.sahasralinga cross is nearest bus stop.This place is scenic surrounded by areacanut farms , forests and hibiscus trees.The roads on sides of yellapura road are beautiful filled along green fields and forests.I took a right from yellapura road towards sahasralinga..First there were huge areacanut trees farms in these roads.Dogs were keeping eye on people.I saw a big house garden was full of flowers  surrounding huge house in centre.I tried to take pictures here.but the dogs in house was barking. I decided to walk along my path.Then I passed along the forests.Monkeys  carrying their  offspring were seated in the main road.As soon they see human movement  , they run back to jungle.it was only 1.5 KMS very scenic road through forest.I was the only one to walk till I reached sahasralinga river banks.As soon I saw sahasralinga I was fascinated.I  have seen sahasralinga in few pictures and excited now to see it in reality.Memories from pictures and reality is entirely different qualities . Here River flowing through so many lingas and basava nandis is eye soothing side.I guess this only such unique spot.
I got down in river and reached to few lingas in river.There were few spots that were difficult to reach due to good water flow. People were catching other hands to proceeds to some lingas on sides.The water currents were more pronounced in few parts.So one needs to tread the path cautiously . After spending sometime,  I walked towards other side of river.it was surprising to see a calm river on upper stream of the river.Riverflow is more in river beds  with linga.It was like two opposite sceneries close to each other within few metres.

I sat on rocks on a rock in middle of river  for  watching the river flow and sun slowly moving togwards west end , getting ready to set for that day.I walked back to entrance of Sahasralinga and had tea in a teashop.There was a hanging bridge around here.Walking along hanging bridge one can enjoy new views of the river.There was close by village in sonda that can be reached by hanging bridge.

I walked back to yellapura enjoying the views of forests, monkeys and arecanut farms. I reached yellapura sirsi road. I was waiting for bus back to sirsi..A small lotus pond is seen in center if green land.The pond is square in shape  Surrounded by green lawn around it.It was beautiful to see such a small lotus pond inside field.
Marikamba temple sirsi.

As soon I reached sirsi at 7 pm , I liked to see marikamba temple again.I walked through sirsi streets to reach banavasi road  where temple is situated.I got better views and pictures of temple in better light of evening..marikama temple is in high platform .It's wall painted with various mythological paintings.its khavi painting are unique art of 16 the century.i did a peaceful darshan of temple.
I took auto from the temple.By coincidence it was same autodriver who dropped me from temple in Friday.He was very happy that I travelled twice in Three days from temple in his auto service.He feels it's good coincidence from goddess.

With this I took the luggage and started back to Bangalore..

This fascinating trip to sirsi, Yana, sahasralinga, unchahalli, jog falls will remain in memories for a lifetime..