A short trip to Gokarna, Murudeshwar Temple, Dandeli from Hyderabad

It was a sudden plan, we booked tickets all of sudden to Hyderabad from Delhi.

Expenses: 7k per head

Overall journey: Approx. 1900KM

Number of days: 4days

We hired an Ola at around 3:30 early morning towards the Terminal 3 of Delhi Airport.

Around 11:45 a.m. with the east at Hyderabad international airport. We took our luggage from the airport belt.

We had our breakfast at McDonald's at the airport and booked OLA towards Indrajeet's home.

After unload our luggage at home, we booked an OYO so that to can meet our friends and plan for the trip.

We started at around 7 in the morning and after the airport check in process, we board our flight to Hyderabad.

It was the first flight of mine in 2020.It was the last of my friend (Indrajeet {Golu}) in Delhi, as he is permanently moving to his hometown, i.e. Hyderabad.

And we don't know when we will meet again, hence we decided to plan a trip to South India.

At around 9:30AM we reached at Tirupati airport, as it was the connecting flight from Delhi to Hyderabad.

After a halt of around one hour.. at around 10:30AM, our flight takes off from Tirupati airport towards the Hyderabad airport.

We took NH167 to reach Gokarna by next morning. We planned to reach there in between 11AM to 12PM so that we can have at least few hours to take rest and explore nearby places.

Around 5, in the early morning, around 1-2 hours before Hubli we found the roads on the highway.. 😂

After breakfast, we plan to not stop before Gokarna (approx. 150KM).

After 30Min of drive from Hubli, I saw the highway for the first time.. (don't take me seriously).

We enjoyed the evening in the Kundle beach.

In the morning, we checkout from the hotel and visited Maha Ganapathi Temple & Sri Mahabaleshwara Swamy Temple which is situated nearly around 5 min walking from the hotel.

After 1 and a half our, we reached to the Murudeshwar temple. The scene was amazing. When I saw the post on Google, I was not that excited for the temple but wanted to visited for the pics, but after we reached there, I got the goosebumps as in North I can't even imagine for such a beauty covered with sea (Arabian Sea).

We took the lift for 15th floor of the front temple, to capture the 360 degree view of Murudeshwar.

We were there for around 2-3 hours, took many photos, videos, boomerang..

After spending peaceful time at Murudeshwar temple, we plan to visit Dandeli forest, which is situated approx. 190KM and would take around 4-5 hours to reach there. We left from the temple around 1:30 PM to reach the Dandeli forest on time.

As we slept late in the last night, hence we missed the water sports at the Kali river. But we decided to explore the nearby places suggested by the camp staff, such as Supa Dam, backside water etc.

Supa Dam is located in town of Dandeli in Joida Taluk. it was built across the River Kali or Kalinadi by Karnataka Power Corporation Limited. This dam has a power house at the foot of this dam with two electric generators.

This time we took NH52 for the return journey.

In the morning around 10, we reached to Hyderabad

We encounters two major and worst problem in the whole journey:

- The highways are damaged due to Heavy rain and floor in Karnataka and Telangana

- In Karnataka, After 10 PM, you will not found any open hotel or petrol pump.

At around 9:30AM we reached at Tirupati airport, as it was the connecting flight from Delhi to Hyderabad.

At around 1 we reached and met Goutham & Rohit.

As I am in Hyderabad after 2 years.. I don't wanna miss the biryani's.. hence we ordered Dhonna Biryani and had a dinner and also planned for our weekend trip.

Rohit suggested around 25 places near by the Hyderabad around 500 to 600 km for the weekend and from those we confirm the trip to Gokarna. As few of them have a contact in the self driving cars so we booked an Ertiga to self drive towards the Gokarna on the next evening.

In the morning we had the breakfast at the hotel and back again and after the formalities of checkout, we took our car to meet our friends.

After meeting few friends in Hyderabad, we took the self driver car from the respective place and pick up Rohit from the highway.

I haven't saw any highway in my life or in the North region of India which doesn't have roads.. NH167 is such a nightmare for me now.. we were not able to cross even 60KMPH for around 200-300 KM's of our route.

Around 7 AM, we reached Hubli and ordered our breakfast in the restaurant. I am never been in Karnataka before hence I didn't like the food much.. Somehow they have the sweet taste in every food we ordered.

Around 12 PM, we reached to Gokarna. as the plan the was sudden hence we had booked the hotel on the spot.

We booked a double bed room for 2500 per night. balcony has the amazing Arabian sea view. Only thing we missed is that the hotel has only Veg in the menu and hence we had to purchase non-veg from local market.

In Sri Mahabaleshwara Swamy Temple, Men should wear Lungi to enter in the temple, this is mandatory for the entry. The Mahabaleshwar Temple, Gokarna is a 4th-century CE Hindu temple located in Gokarna, Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka state, India which is built in the classical Dravidian architectural style. It is a site of religious pilgrimage. The temple faces the Karwar city beach on the Arabian Sea in which Hindu pilgrims cleanse before visiting the temple for worship. The temple is considered as holy as the Shiva temple at Varanasi or Kāśi (Kashi) in North India on the banks of the Ganges River. Hence, the Mahabaleshwar temple, Gokarna is known as the Dakshin Kasi ("Kasi of the south"). The temple deifies the Pranalinga ("the reality of God which can be captured by the mind") also called Atmalinga or Shiva Linga. In legend, it is said that the deity of the temple will bestow immense blessings to devotees, even to those who only glimpse it.[1][2] Currently the administrative charge of the temple is with Sri Ramachandrapura Mutt, as per the guidance of Adiguru Shankaracharya during the establishment of the Matha

After the darshan, we took the Ertiga and started our drive towards Murudeshwar temple which is approx. 80 Km from Gokarna.

We had our breakfast at Udupi restaurant on the NH66 highway

In between the route, we plan to visit Goa just to see if we can stay there overnight or not, as our requirement is to sit & chill on a beach all night, but as all the shacks are closed due to Corona so we touched the nearest beach to the border of Goa and again started travel towards Dandeli forests.

Dandeli is a Taluk in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India, in the Western Ghats region.

We stayed there overnight in the camp. The food was amazing.. we sat near the bonfire and had our dinner. After a long chit chat of over 4-5 hours we go to our camp.

As we were not allowed to enter on the frontside of the dam, we decided to go to the backwater of the dam which is nearly 9 km from the front.

The place was amazing.. we drove our car on the backwater's boundary. We spent 3-4 hours there.

We again started at around 4:30 PM from the backwater of the dam and took the route towards Hyderabad.

We had our dinner at the hotel in Bilgi highway.

We started at around 7 in the morning and after the airport check in process, we board our flight to Hyderabad.

It was the first flight of mine in 2020.

In the morning around 10, we reached to Hyderabad

We encounters two major and worst problem in the whole journey:

- The highways are damaged due to Heavy rain and floor in Karnataka and Telangana

- In Karnataka, After 10 PM, you will not found any open hotel or petrol pump.