PAYANIGA

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Background photo: Sunset – captured right behind our house.

On day three we gave rest to our steeds & hired a car as Srik’s aunt & cousin accompanied us for the trip. And third day turned out be more of a pilgrimage with visits to plenty of temples – most of them in Kasaragod district. Our first stop was Ananthapura. Few weeks before our ride plan, there was a news article about the place & it’s uniqueness.

Ananthapura, the place is well known for the temple of Lord Anantha Padmanabha. There are two specialties of this place – one, the idols of Lord Anantha Padmanabha, Goddesses Sridevi & Bhudevi are not made of stone/wood/metal, but are made of a mixture of more than 60 extracts from herbs/plants & other natural materials. The temple is built in the middle of a small pond & there is no external source of water to the pond except rain.

Second unique/strange thing of the place is, a crocodile lives in this pond where temple is constructed. It’s said that the crocodile is living there for years. During lunch time when called by priest, the crocodile comes out of the water & receives the ‘prasada’ from the priest. The legend says that – In 1942, the crocodile was shot dead by a British soldier. And the very next day appeared another crocodile which is present now. It’s said that the same crocodile is living in the temple pond since then. It was truly a ‘Believe it or not’ moment for us.

How to reach Ananthapura:

From Mangalore travel south towards Kasaragod to reach Kumbala (39KMs). Turn left & after 4 KMs you will be at Naikap. Turn right to reach the temple.

Our next stop was Madhur – temple of Srimadanantheshwara & Ganapati (siddi Vinayaka). Though the main deity here is Lord Shiva, his son Ganapati gets more importance/devotees. Our visit was brief compared to Ananthapura. From Madhur we started towards Bekal fort.

The Story so far:

Bangalore – Kunigal – Hassan – Belur – Yagachi – Chikkamagalur – Balehonnur – Jayapura – Sringeri – Agumbe – Hebri – Udupi – Malpe – Bengre – Udupi – Udyavara – Kunjarugiri – Pajaka – Kaup – Surthkal – Mangalore – Ananthapura – Madhur

From Udyavara we headed towards our next destination – Kunjarugiri, a hillock (giri = hill, mountain) with temple of Goddess Durga atop. One can reach the top either by steps (a hundred or so) or by road. Though we wanted to climb the hills, we didn’t want to risk our luggage on the bikes with so many monkeys around. There were so many monkeys near the temple, I stood gaurd near our bikes while Srik went inside the temple. And later we switched. To the west of Kunjarugiri, there is another smaller hillock. And there is a temple of Parashurama.

From there we visited Pajaka, the birth place of Sri Madhvacharya, the founder of the Dvaita school of philosophy. He is the one who installed the deity of Sri Krishna at Udupi. A priest volunteered and took us on a guided tour. It is said that Sri Madhvacharya used to visit the Durga temple everyday & worshipped the goddess. Listening to the stories and the legends, took me to my childhood days of reading books and comics. And how we tried enact or immitate the mythological heroes.

After traveling 500+KMs in todays and visiting many places, we were tired. We reached Srikanth’s Aunt’s house in Surtakal. Before calling it a day, we met another fellow blogger Venu Vinod. At the end of day two, our trip meter read 540 KMs & distance for the day 100KMs.

Day Two:

Udupi – Malpe – Bengre – Udupi – Udyavara – Kunjarugiri – Pajaka – Kaup – Surthkal

Day One:

Bangalore – Kunigal – Hassan – Belur – Yagachi – Chikkamagalur – Balehonnur – Jayapura – Sringeri – Agumbe – Hebri – Udupi

Arabian Sea – Udyavara beach

Our second half of the day started after a sumptuous food. And this time we went in search of ‘Udyavara beach’, one more beautiful place suggested by Rajesh Naik. If you have been to Maravathe & like the place, here is the miniature version but more beautiful & pristine of Maravante.

The river

A narrow stretch of land (of about 200-300 meters width) is sandwitched bwtween Arabian sea on the west & a river on east. Starting somewhere near Kaup, the stretch suddenly hits a dead end very close to Malpe, where the river joins the might sea.

The boat & the journey

The place is very close to Udupi & yet less known to the world. Udyavara town is 3 KMs from Udupi & another 3 KMs from there takes you to Pithrodi village. A boatman awaits for people to take them to & fro the main land & the other side. One has to cross the river in a narrow boat which can accomodate 5-6 people.

The boatman

It’s pretty difficult to find a beach in India which is clean & also no one around. But this was an exception. It was clean & untouched, not even foot marks of people. We were there around 3PM, definitely not a suitable time to be at the beach & for photography. But we had no other choice. I want to go there again to witness the Sunset, before the place get stormed by people & turns into just another beach in the world.

Continuing the West coast ride story

Route day two:

Udupi – Malpe – Bengre – Udupi – Udyavara – Kunjarugiri – Pajaka – Kaup – Surthkal

Route day one:

Bangalore – Kunigal – Hassan – Belur – Yagachi – Chikkamagalur – Balehonnur – Jayapura – Sringeri – Agumbe – Hebri – Udupi