Chennakeshava temple - Somanathpur

The fabulous temple of Somanathpur was always eluding me when ever I used to planned to visit the wonderful place some how I could not make it this time before going to Kotagiri from Bangalore I decided to visit this place since we had planned to leave on Friday night I landed in Mysore on Friday morning after freshening up having breakfast I took a bus from Mysore to Somnathpur there are lot of local buses plying from Mysore, I reached the place by 9am the glorious heritage was reflected in the magnificent temple it's architecture took me to many hundred years in time I was lost thinking how beautiful and precise things were though the technology was not as advanced as it is now one has to agree its man's super brain be it any time or advancement nothing compared to human wonder and this temple was a classic example,
spending considerate amount of time looking from every angle basking in its grand splendor I had my heart's content of ancient wonder art cheers to all the architects and wonderful people who put in so much of dedication into this wonderful piece of art.

For the inscription on the stone slab, it becomes fairly evident that the magnificent temple was completed and consecrated in 1268 A.D. The shrine stands in the middle of a walled compound, around which runs an open verandah with 64 cells. The temple itself, stellar in shape, has three profusely carved pinnacles with a common Navranga and stands on a raised platform. The three sanctums once housed beautifully carved idols of Kesava, Janardhana and Venugopala.

Kotagiri

After lot of searching browsing through net we finally zeroed on a place Kotagiri which is a very old hill station known from the time of British but unknown to many a supposedly quiet place, a lot of planning went into this trek we were looking forward for this monsoon trek since it was quiet some time we had gone out during rains.We started from Bangalore we had to reach Kotagiri from Ooty though we had booked the tickets we were in for a big surprise as to our boarding place was not from majestic but some other place getting to know about this in the last minute we ran pillar to post trying to catch the bus at the next stop finally we made it after lot of running around finally seated we started our journey( little did we know that more surprises were in store). After crossing Madhumalai forest 50km before Ooty our bus had stopped people were fast asleep to even realize we were in middle of nowhere and bus had a breakdown finally waking up to a cold morning and a slight drizzle all of us had to wait for an hour to get another bus, finally we reached Ooty around 9.00 from there we got a bus to Kotagiri another 40km from Ooty old rickety bus.

Rain smell of eucalyptus was very pleasant though after a very tiring bus journey ,green mountains ,tea plantations never ending small streams wild flowers was enough to make anybody a poet, reaching Kotagiri a small place with a church a school and some few shops with a few tea factories Kotagiri was a sleepy town people were in their own time.

Having bread for breakfast with fresh tea which Kotagiri is famous for we looked around the place by noon we planned to see the Catherine fall with non stop rain and windy climate rows and rows of Nilgiri mountain completely covered in mist was breathtaking, though the fall was a little disappointing with very little water the place around was simply superb we felt we were riding on the clouds, more and more of mountains and mist and greenery we filled our heart's content monsoon trek was not that bad nature was at it's best giving her complete self Nillgiri hills was paradise,

making our trip back we were still in those mountains completely lost didn't want to face the city life again forcing ourselves planning our next trip gave us little comfort , on the way back through Madhumalai forest and Bandipur park we were treated to herd of many wild elephants( looked like they too had planned Sunday outing with family many baby elephants with their mothers were happily posing for photos) enjoying themselves in the rain got to see few wild boars and many spotted deer’s,

finally we reached Bangalore at 8.00 pm ,though lot of adventure it was a superb monsoon trek hope to make some more before the rain ends..

Betebare Mountain (HaddinBare) and Siddargundi Waterfalls

Siddargundi waterfalls

Unknown places are more challenging for a trekker we had heard of this place called Siddaragundi falls which is situated in the Mookambika range apart from this we had absolutely no clue as to where it exactly comes and how to go about reaching it, but this did not deter our spirits,after a roller coaster ride in the jeep we reached the village

Siddargundi waterfalls

-from here we had to take the help of a local guide since every thing was new to us,we were five of us altogether and three were between ages of 50-65 we asked a local guide to accompany us, and one look at our group he had already judged that we just cant move our bodies leave trekking, but who could guess our team consisted of seasoned trekkers and age was never a criteria, finally after convincing him that looks don't matter he agreed to come with us,he altered our plans telling he would take us to more interesting places in the surroundings,this brightened us and we started moving with vigor.

First he took us to SiddaraGundi water falls it was a small trek into the forest a thirty minute walk brought us to a beautiful water fall,it was like a scene taken right from the fairy tales where one could imagine all angels bathing in that clear pool of water with water flowing in a magical way on the rocks we were so engrossed in it's beauty we didn't want to leave the place but the guide told us there is another water fall short distance from where we were where many small water falls join to make a splendid falls called Tirthabare falls.

Teerthabare Waterfalls

we were spell bound seeing the fall nature had just cast her magical spell on us,every place in nature makes us wonder how can it be so beautiful and praise the creator,

Our guide seeing our enthusiasm and joy told us he would take us to another place more beautiful called BeteBare (may be he was still not convinced till then if we could really make it finally he must have decided we could and took the interest to show us another place)

Betekallu

After another hour's walk the forest became more dense and suddenly there was a clearing and open place with just a rock jutting out and a dead end the jutting rock and a small clearing there we were looking into paradise we could see Kodachadri in all its splendor we could'n stand as wind was very strong and the rock was congested but being crazy it did stand and felt was one with nature with endless valley of green thick forest.

While returning we took another different route and within half an hour we were back on the jeep track,all we could think was valleys water falls and forest none of us could speak for nature had cast us a spell.

One more unknown waterfall