Wishing all the readers of payaniga a very happy and prosperous new year 2009.

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Background Photo: A lake on the way back from Somanathapura to Mysore.

Godspeed.

Though I’m in Mysore for the last three months, I never stayed there over weekends as I traveled back to Bangalore every week. One fine weekend I had to stay in Mysore and I made use of that Sunday to roam places around Mysore. I managed to visit Keshava temple at Somanathapura that day along with few other places.

The Keshava temple built in thirteenth centuary by Somanatha, the Dandanayaka (general) of the Hoysala King Narasimha The Third. The temple constructed in Hoysala style of architecture, and is a trikootachala (with three sanctums). The temple sanctums are dedicated to Keshava, Venugopala and Janardhana.

The temple is nicely maintained by Archeological Survey of India. Though the place is very close to Mysore, the conditions of roads is not good. I had a very tough time manoeuvring my two wheeler.

How to reach?

Somanathapura is approximately 32 KMs from Mysore. Mysore - 25KMS - Bannur - 7KMs - Somanathapura.

Related links:

• Kaidala
• Belur

I had posted couple of photos taken from the bus top - journey between Hosagadde and Kargal in Shimogga district.

During my last visit to Sharavathi valley (in Feb’08, we trekked from Kanoor to Nagavalli) we did that again. Same bus, same driver-conductor duo, but for a longer distance. We travelled on the bus top from Nagavalli to Kargal this time.

Mridula’s post reminded me of these photos taken in Feb. And that means, it’s time complete that long pending trek log. And also it’s time to go on a trek :)

It’s not easy to attain or reach good things in life. And so is to reach Binsar. As I’ve said before to reach Binsar one has to travel six to seven hours by road from Kathgodam. Between the two towns - Almora and Bhawali flows two rivers Kosi & Ramgarh parallel to the road. Down the line river Ramgarh joins Kosi & the bigger Kosi in south forms the eastern boundary of Corbett National Park. The water level was low, shallow & inviting. On our return journey we stopped for lunch at a hotel where river Kosi flows just behind. It wasn’t easy to sit by rverside ordering for lunch & not taking a dip. We had plenty of time to reach Kathgodam to catch the train back to Delhi. And we jumped into the river. It was sheer fun swimming after a long time. Swimming in a river is more fun than in still water. Unfortunately I haven’t done this many times.

The signboard at Bhawali which said “Nainital - 10KMs” made us take an impromptu decision & we decided to pay a short visit. At the very first sight itself, Nainital, the place of Goddess Nainadevi didn’t impress me. My first impression and thoughts were not to visit the place again. With lakebed completely crowded and polluted with concrete buildings and no question of scenic beauty in the tourist town. We stood there on the edge of the lake looking at the sorry state.

Light was diminishing, so were my chances of visiting Nainital in future and our journey home resumed. An overnight journey, delay of four hours in Delhi airport and usual traffic jams in Bangalore, I was back to the routine after an wonderful vacation at the Kumaon mountains.

Other published articles on Binsar:

• Binsar, the Kumaon mountains
• Rock Climbing and A Morning Walk
• Temples of Jageshwar and Dandeshwar
• Zero Point and Binsar wildlife sanctuary