One day sight seeing at Markonahalli

23rd November 2008

It was a cloudy day and Sunday as well. So, myself and my friends decided to visit Markonalli Dam which is situated near Yediyur. Markonalli Dam is a small dam but has a huge back water, the view of which will calm down all your body stress. From Bangalore it is just 1-1/2 hour journey and is on the Bangalore-Mangalore Highway NH-48. Just 1 km before Yediyur (Yediyur is a famous religious place and has a beautiful temple of Sri Siddalingeshwara Swamy) you get a left turn for Markonalli. A board is there to guide you to the Dam. From this left turn it is just 4 kms away.

Markonalli DAM

We usually go there every Sunday, have the afternoon lunch in front of the water and swim in the canal. Hemavathi River water is the source for this DAM now. This Sunday was a big surprise for us. The DAM was totally full, but the gates were not open, instead the water was overflowing on the side of the DAM forming a big stream and going forward a kilometer away from the DAM it turned into a beautiful falls. It was totally unexpected and we were very much excited at the view of the falls. In kannada, we say "yale mare kayi" which means the "Hidden Fruit between leaves" and this water fall is definitely like that. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, but my mobile camera did the job very well. All these pictures posted are from the 2 megapixel camera of Sony Ericson W810i. We spent more than 2 hours in water and by that time it was nearly 5 pm. So, we left Markonalli with beautiful pictures in mind. Also, once we had gone for a coracle drive. You have to check for the fishermen around and get the drive.

A Panaromic View of the falls

In fact, everyone wanted to stay there for a day. But, we had our office work tomorrow, so we were forced to move out from there. Anyhow, if anybody wants to stay there, an Inspection Bungalow is available. You need to get the approval from the right authorities and stay there.

Nature beauty near a village Mallapur (very near to Markonahalli Dam). You can see me in the middle of the tree trunk.

We had a very good Sunday and had a heavy down pour on the return journey. Also, we heard that India-England match has been delayed due to rain. We were not descended by the news as we had an unforgettable moment in our life.

Sirsi - Karwar Trip

9th October 2008

Hello Everybody,

This time we decided to explore some falls near Sirsi and an island in Karwar. As usual myself, yogi, ranga and raghu left Bangalore on Thursday morning, 9th Oct. We took the route thru' NH4, Davangere, Haveri and then Sirsi, our night halt place. Its around 400 to 450 kms to Sirsi from Bangalore. We got into a very decent hotel, had dinner and went to sleep soon.

Next day, we got up early, finished all our morning duties and started towards SahasraLinga on the way to Yellapur. Its just 20 minutes drive from Sirsi. Nice place to enjoy in water. The river is filled with stones carved as lingas and basavanas.

One of the lingas was named as "RamachandraLingavu"

Next, we continued our journey to Magod Falls near Yellapur. Around 15 to 20 kms, road is really bad. There is a short distance jungle bypass road to the Magod Falls. Watch out for a sign board indicating as Magod Falls. Magod Falls is on the way to Ankola from Yellapur.

Magod Falls

Magod Falls is really beautiful to see and it cascades at one point as well. But here its difficult to get down to the water. We heard from the locals that there is a way to get down. but since we had some other plans as well, we didn't go for it. There is a travellers bunglow here, so one can make arrangements for the stay. Here we get to see the falls from a cliff. On the left hand side you can watch Magod falls and on the right hand side you can have a thinner vision of another small falls called Ganesha Falls. The cliff has park which is really well maintained. We spent some time and left for another falls before which we had lunch in Yellapur.

Ganesha Falls

After huge lunch, we started our journey towards next fall called Sathoddi Falls which is around 20 kms from Yellapur. Since it wasn't a rainy season, my car made upto to the last stop without any problem. Its a muddy road and you have to walk nearly for 2 kms and you get a beautiful picture of Sathoddi Falls. The water looked bit dirty, but was really good. Here we got down to the water and enjoyed for nearly a hour. It was a hot day and our body in water was so relaxing.

Sathoddi Falls

It was around 4.30 pm, so we decided to leave the place. Our next stop was Karwar which was around 100 kms from Yellapur. The road to Ankola from Yellapur is really good. So we easily made the major bulk of the travel. By the time we reached Karwar, sun had just went to sleep. Before we check in to the hotel, we thought of enjoying the sea shore walk. So we went for a evening seashore walk which was really good. We had some chats near by and checked into a hotel.

Next day, we got up early and checked at the "Great Outdoors". "The Great Outdoors" have occupied an island called Kurumgad which is like 1/2 an hour drive on boat. We hadn't planned much on to stay in this island, but still we decided to surf the island. So, we went on a boat to the island. The island is really worth to visit and stay there for atleast couple of days. On the island they provide tent houses, wooden cottages. They provide all sort of water sports like Banana race, Snorkelling, parasurfing and many other activities.

On the Kurumgad Island

A boathouse on the Kali River

We enjoyed there for some time and came back to Karwar by 2.00 pm. We have decided to make a stay on this island next time we come over here. The Great Outdoors office is situated on the karwar-goa highway itself. You can check with the locals for the proper address. Also, next to Kurumgad island there is another island Devbagh which is run by government "The Jungle Resorts". Even you can look for it as well if you don't get accomodation in Kurumgad. One more good thing here is Kali River Rafting is there and also boathouses to stay in the Kali backwaters.

We returned to our hotel, had the lunch and started our journey towards Bangalore. On the way back we had a short stay at Jog Falls. But this time there was hardly any water in the falls.

Early Morning view near Gonikoppa(near Honnavara)

Jog Falls

Anyways, we had a very good time during this trip.

See you next time with next blog.