ಕ್ಷಣಪ್ರಭಾ - Kshanaprabhaa

Continuing on from the 4th part:  http://kshanaprabhaa.blogspot.in/2013/09/long-weekend-getaway-part-4-agumbe.html We had the option of going to the other famous waterfalls near Agumbe, the Onake Abbi Falls, but the Dodda Mane folks were quick to let us know that the number of leeches we would encounter there would be ten times of what we saw at Barkana Falls. We thought we had seen enough waterfalls for the day, and decided to have lunch at Dodda Mane, take rest for about an hour and head towards Sringeri where we had planned to stay overnight. The Dodda Mane lunch served by Kasturi Akka was heavenly, and having trekked along in incessant rain and braved the leech attacks, we definitely needed that. But just as we were planning a slow evening after coming back from Barkana, the auto driver Ashok had planted the seed of taking us to the Kundadri Hillock , where we could witness the evening mist, enjoy the ride to the top, visit the 17th century Parshwanatha Tirthankara's t...

Continuing on from the third part:  http://kshanaprabhaa.blogspot.in/2013/09/long-weekend-getaway-part-3-agumbe-jogi.html The next stop after the Jogi Gundi Falls was the rain forest trek to the nearby Barkana Falls , which is formed by the Sita River gushing down - one of the highest falls in the country - in the top ten to be precise - a curtain raiser before we went to the big Jog Falls itself. The auto driver Ashok took us a couple of kilometers further from Jogi Gundi Falls, and brought a "Guide", a local student who was happy enough to help us navigate through the forest to reach the falls. We were supposed to walk from there through the dense forest, to reach the destination. With incessant rains throughout the last month or so, the path was soggy throughout, and there were leeches, quite a lot of them, welcoming us gleefully. The choice of wearing the shoes instead of slippers for the trip (for the three of us, Thomas, Karthik and myself) was vindicated / looke...

Continuing on from the second part:  http://kshanaprabhaa.blogspot.in/2013/08/long-weekend-getaway-part-2-dodda-mane.html Just as we eased into the rainy day at Agumbe at Kasturi Akka's Dodda Mane, we were also wondering how to achieve our plan of visiting the three waterfalls in and around the town. As if they had understood our thoughts, Kasturi Akka and her family members suggested that we can get the help of Ashok, an Auto driver who regularly carries the tourists around the town, to the falls and the hills. As the Independence Day march past went on, he was ready for us to get into his auto, with plans to take us to the first of the waterfalls, Jogi Gundi. It was close by, about 4 kilometers from the town center, and the vehicle could go all the way, except for a couple of hundred steps inside the lush green forest, where every tree was drenched and dripping with rain water. We also had another team of four Agumbe explorers who started from Dodda Mane in Ashok's a...

Continuing on from the first part:  http://kshanaprabhaa.blogspot.in/2013/08/long-weekend-getaway-part-1-totally.html This blog is dedicated to a lady we were fortunate enough to meet in Agumbe, Kasturi Akka , for what she has been inspiring for years now, personifying " Atithi Devo Bhava ". Read on for more... So, there we were, at the Agumbe bus stop, needing to inquire about reaching the three waterfalls in and around the town (theoretical knowledge from reading multiple travel blogs) - Jogi Gundi, Barkana Falls, and Onake Abbi Falls. We found the "Mallya Residency" - a small lodge that I had read about in one of the blogs as a possible place to stay, and as we looked around in vain for a few minutes for the owner, we also got to know from the passers by that the falls we were after were all in a radius of 10 kms from the town. There were also an unusual number of policemen around, that being the Independence Day, presumably for the early morning flag h...

When we thought of taking a day off and plan a long weekend getaway around the Independence Day holiday this year, we had no clarity on where exactly to go, how to go, and who all would join. Thomas had expressed his idea of going to Jog Falls about a fortnight back. I too had not visited Jog, so was thinking on the same lines. Of course, this would be the ideal time of the year to visit Jog, and we had received good rains this year too. Anurag had his eyes set on Pondicherry, Jog, Alleppey boat race and what not. I had complicated matters by calling up my long time friend Karthik to check if he could join an unplanned trip just two days before we had to set off. He had to choose between this "adventure" and a well planned trek, and he chose the latter. But as luck would have it, the trek got cancelled and he said he could join our trip. Anurag and Thomas could not convince any of their other friends to join, and there, with less than 24 hours to go, we could book a bus tri...

The Independence Day holiday on Thursday this year meant that we could plan a four day getaway trip, and although we left it too late to plan it, a thought of going on a completely unplanned trip brought a sense of adventure to it. We, Anurag, Thomas, Karthik and I, had a great time in the three and a half day sojourn to different places in the district of Shivamogga, Karnataka. Some breathtaking, humbling, and indeed very enjoyable experiences followed, which I hopefully would be able to share in a set of blogs over the next fortnight or so. Here's how the blog post plan looks, indicating the different places we visited: Part 1: The Totally Unplanned Trip:   http://kshanaprabhaa.blogspot.in/2013/08/long-weekend-getaway-part-1-totally.html Part 2: Agumbe: The Dodda Mane Hospitality:  http://kshanaprabhaa.blogspot.in/2013/08/long-weekend-getaway-part-2-dodda-mane.html Part 3: Agumbe: Jogi Gundi Falls:   http://kshanaprabhaa.blogspot.com/2013/09/long-we...

Two amazingly contrasting trips to Sinhagad Fort in Pune within a year, and I can't help but compare the two. Probably the only two common factors in both the trips were:  a. Presence of Aniruddha b. The place where we had our afternoon lunch, the hut which sold the very filling Pitla Bhakri. Last July, on my first ever visit to Pune, former colleagues Ruju and Aniruddha had accompanied me to this picturesque and historical fort, and amid incessant rains, we had taken a bus ride from Swargate Bus Station at Pune to the foothill of Sinhagad. From there, a jeep ride ensured that we were at the entrance to the fort and we did quite a lot of exploration on the hilltop, exploring the unimaginably fresh greenery and breathing in some of the most refreshingly clean air you can ever come across. It was greenery all around. We could not see soil anywhere. All the hills all around were covered in green and soaked in mist. Sometimes w...