Murudeshwar-Udupi-Kollur-Agumbe-Sringeri-Hornadu

Hello Everyone

During the Christmas holiday season myself along with my friends planned a trip to the few places in Uttar Kannada , Udupi and Chikmagalur districts of Karnataka state. We have started from Hyderabad on 22Dec2017 by Bus. KSRTC operating couple of services between Hyderabad- Mangalore which starts at 5 and 6 PM daily. We have booked our tickets for 5PM bus. Bus started as per the schedule and reached Murudeshwar by 07:30 AM the next day. The main attraction in Murudeshwar is the Statue of Lord Shiva and one of the tallest gopuram in front of the temple.

Murudeshwar:

One of the major tourist spots in the western ghats and well known for the beaches and the Lord Shiva statue. The distance between the highway to the beach was around 2 kms. As we don’t have any plans to stay in this place, we haven’t booked any hotel for the accommodation. But due to long weekend all the nearby hotels were occupied completely. Cloak rooms are available to kept luggage and public bathrooms available for fresh-up. We took a holy dip in the Arabian Sea and started our trip. If you want to spend time in the water , there were some amusements like speed boat rides and other water games. We have visited the Murudeshwar temple(here Lord Shiva worshiped as Murudeshwara) and then started exploring places around the temple. Actually the temple was built on a rock(Kanduka Hill) which was surrounded by the Arabian Sea on the other three sides and there are some beautiful sculptures on the sea shore. One of the major attraction in this place is one of the world’s largest Shiva statue and the tallest Gopuram in front of the temple. Temple authorities maintaining a lift to reach top of the Gopuram which will provide the picturesque view of the entire beach along with the statue of the Shiva in dyandeepa posture. There are few sculptures like Arjuna on his way to the war field along with Lord Krishna on a vehicle. Statue of the lord sun. We took close to 2 hours to complete the sightseeing and had our breakfast in the nearby hotel and heads towards our next destination.

Actually, we have planned our journey to reach Bhatkal and then to Kollur but changed the plan to get down in Murudeshwar. After visiting Murudeshwara, we resumed our journey towards Kollur. But there is no direct transportation to Kollur from Murudeshwar. Please find below for the itinerary.

Murudeshwar to Bhatkal or Byndoor

Byndoor to Kollur

Kollur:

Kollur is very small village on the banks of souparnika river in the Udupi district and famous for Sri Mookambika temple. The temple is located in the dense forest area which was called as Sharawati wild life sanctuary. The temple complex resembles the temple style of Dharmasthala.

Another legend says that original temple is at Kodachadri peak,(1343 mt) which is at a distance of about 20 km from Kollur, also visible as a large mountain peak in front of the temple. There also a small temple dedicated to Mookambika near Kodachadri peak. After the completion of darshan, we have decided to go Sringeri but there are no direct transportation to Sringeri. We have then decided to go Udupi and reached Udupi by 6 PM.

Udupi:

Udupi is one of the pilgrim center in the state of Karnataka famous for the Sri Krishna Mutt and also beautiful beaches of the west coast. After reaching the Udupi, we have decided to visit temple and we have reached to the temple complex and completed our darshan. There is a cloak room in the temple complex to kept belongings and temple will be opened till 8-8:30 PM. If anyone planning to visit, please plan accordingly. We have decided to stay in Udupi for that night and have a plan to visit Malpe beach for the next day,so booked a hotel room for the night stay near Malpe port. They have charged 800/- per night. The main cuisine in the Udupi is fish meals, you will find more number of stalls selling sea fish near to that port area and the price is also very reasonable. The next day morning we have visited Malpe beach and took bath in the sea, the beach was very clean and safe to swim. After spending 1-2 hrs in the beach, reached back to the hotel.We had our breakfast and resumed our journey towards Agumbe. To reach Agumbe for Udupi, either we can take direct buses or buses towards Shimoga and Thirtahalli passes through Agumbe. We took bus from the city bus stand and reached Agumbe by 1 PM.

Agumbe:

One of the offbeat destinations in the state of Karnataka and famous for the dense forest. Agumbe is a small village in the district of Chickmagalur. We reached Agumbe by 1PM and had our lunch in the nearby hotel. There is one hotel in-front of the bus stand provides accommodation, there are very less options for the visitors to book the hotels online, so if anyone planning to visit, please book the hotel upon arrival. There are very less number of hotels for the food as well. But the food was very good in those hotels. We booked the hotel room and relaxed for an hour and started exploring the place. We found an auto to roam around the places. Here are the places that we ha e visited during our stay in Agumbe.

1. Jogi gundi water falls

2. Sunset point

3. Sun rise point

Jogi gundi Waterfalls:

The water falls is located at 7-10 kms from the bus stand and also we need to pass through the forest to reach the waterfalls. Water will be coming out from the hills and forming a pond and the water was very crystal clear but the main thing need to consider should be the depth which was close to 800 meters. Forest department charge Rs 30 for the entry.

Sunset point:

The sunset point close to 3 kms from the bus stand. If anyone willing to visit sunset, please make sure to reach the spot by 05:30 PM.

Sunrise Point:

As we have stayed in the Agumbe itself, we have planned to see the sunrise as well. The sunset point was around 15 kms from the bus stand, we hired the same auto and reached the spot by 5:45 AM. One of the beautiful locations in the western ghats which gives the pleasant experience with fresh breezes. Worth watching view from that location.

After done with the sun rise, we have reached our hotel and got ready for our next place, Sringeri. Sringeri is around 25 kms from the Agumbe but there is less frequency of the transportation. There are few services passes through the Agumbe i.e. Buses towards Bhadravati but need to get down at Bidaragudu which was close to 15 kms from Sringeri. Reached Sringeri by 10 AM.

There were few other places and beautiful waterfalls near Agumbe, as we're ran out of time, haven't had a chance to explore them.

Sringeri:

Sringeri is a small town in Chickmagalur District of Karnataka state. One of the pilgrim center in South India famous for the Sharada Vidyapeetam built by the Advaitha guru Sri Adi Shankaracharya. Sharada Devi is the form of goddesses Lakshmi also known as Goddess of education. The temple constructed on the 4 feet basement. We can find the idols of the Hindu gods carved on the walls of the temple. The idols of the 10 incarnation of the lord Vishnu carved very beautifully on the temple.