Semblance of scenic beauty....

There might not a person who has never enjoyed the majesty and magnificence of waterfalls in this summer season. Waterfalls lend a serene touch to those witnessing them, making them spellbound and completely mesmerized. The water trickling down the hills refreshes both the mind and the body considerably.

This is one of the beautiful waterfalls in the Western Ghats region and it’s very nice in the rainy and non-rainy seasons with lot of different aspects and also one of my favorite waterfalls usually I pursuits to visit in my free time.  This month 8^th a fine Sunday nippy morning we had no other option to go so once again we chose to visit OnakeAbbi Waterfalls.

After a one hour bike ride we parked our bike in a safe place and prayed to God Ganapathi in nearby temple for our safe journey. After getting a divine feelings and ideas in our hearts we turned to walk the following paved path inside the Jungle. The route takes us through unrivalled scenic beauty, thickly forested green so this is one of the beautiful affluent forest regions in the Western Ghats.

 

Within about an hour upside walking inside the thick jungle land we reached the bank of one of the small crystal clear stream and were able to sight the long distance view of the waterfalls from the downstream side. Cascade of waterfalls have a smaller volume of water, falls from a height of almost 500 feet.

 

They descend a series of 2 rock steps. Here water spills over the edge of a very wide rocky surface, this waterfall is covered by rocks on both the sides because of this it named as OnakeAbbi it mean In Kannada language as, Onake means a pounding stick which is used to pound grains in villages.

 

Final walk through stream between small and big rocks was impressive as we reached the immediate bottom of the falls the waterfall seems which falling from the sky height into the beautiful natural pond.  The cool and pleasant atmosphere of the place gave a sweltering heat of the summer a miss. The surrounding areas were full of forests with rocks cover which leads into a deep natural reservoir.

 

We took bath for a long time in the pond and did lot of harmless adventure activities till the evening and had returned back home mesmerizing with the sweet and cool memories. Recent Naxalite activities have been observed in this area and were a threat for nature lovers.

Stairway to heaven....Part-2

It was a great experience to watching beauty of nature which can’t explain by simple words. Here we can see real beauty of Shola forest & It was a unique place were never anywhere count see like this view & this type of forest. Here Suitable and extensive rainforest habitat for Lion-tailed Macaque existed in this range and that the tract probably harbored the largest contiguous population of lion tailed macaques in the Western Ghats.

Beautiful Krishnagiri Range

There is a rich avifauna collection in this forest. You can find around 195 avian species, which are rarely found outside this national park. Some of the typical birds, which finds home in Kudremukh National Park, are Malabar whistling thrush, imperial pigeon and great pied hornbill and Malabar trogon.

 

All so can escape it under a day and find paradise in your backyard. Even before a time when I think of the rat-race, pointed out long ago, thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home; that wildness is necessity;

 

that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life. Yes, it all makes sense now why we live in the City, why we put up with the stress, the crowds, the never-ending hassles of urban living.

Kesava temple in Hirekadalur-Dudda

Early morning I and Ashok joined Rajesh Naik had a quick breakfast and started with Rajesh sir’s leader ship to visit ancient Keshava temple. But the journey was not so nice because of the damaged unpleasant road. Although we reached a village and inquired about the temple with one group of villagers and all the villagers saw our face with a big surprise. Because nobody had come to visit this place even the villagers didn’t bother about the ruined temple.

 This was built during the time of Hoyasala King Veeranarasimha-II and it is situated in the heart of the village. The carved doorway, the turned pillars and pierced window screens used in this temple was like other Hoysala temples.

The 6 feet height Beautiful Keshava Deity has been shifted to Navaranga which had some of the rare stone carvings exhibiting the epic characters. The Mantapa with decorate shining, lathe-turned pillars which was almost in its last stage.

The sculpture within the shrine has been pointed out to be of the Hoysala style known to be unique style of Vesara architecture, where as the walls and the basements of this shrine are not much decorated but fusion of styles is associated highly architected of Hoysala craftsmanship. The outer of the sanctorum (Garbhagriha) shaped as Kadamba shikara (tower) with Kalasa (pinnacle) on top.

Local villagers also were not much interested about renovation of their village temple. Everywhere new temples are coming up but no one is interested about such a historical rare stone temples. Interestingly Archeological Department has not taken possession of this old beautiful temple. It has to take initiative steps to prevent further loss and renovate this huge temple by arduous task of destroying and eliminating the huge bushes from the Temple premises, without causing much damage to the Temple Structure.

On the way to Anugavalli Shiva temple we had seen some beautiful big lakes in gigantic size. That village is famous for KodandaRama Temple but we had decided to go to the Shiva temple. It was a union of 2 small temples which was not much attractive. But scientific inspection is needed in these areas.  We could see lots of existing pieces in these surrounding areas.