Central to Central, Coast to Coast!

The Western Coast of India has always been a mesmerizing factor for me. Be it the first time I saw the mighty Arabian Sea at Juhu way back in 1991 or the view of oil-rigs filled Dumas beach in 2006 or the sunset at Alappuzha in 2006 or the magic of pure white sand in Kasaragod beach at Honnavar last year, it has never failed to create a magical memory in me that pulls me to the Sea once more. This year, I planned my long vacation to the Canara coast of Karnataka (did you hear the Missus saying, “not again to Karnataka!”). As with any of my trips, the planning starts well ahead of ARP – this time, it was planned 4 months in advance. The itinerary was to visit Mangalore, the standard South Canara Circuit, Konkan in broad daylight and the forests in Dandeli (North Canara).

The D-day arrived and after rounds of packing that folks at home front have by now got used to, we boarded the legendary 1 Mail at Central. The FC coach offered the much needed clutter-free privacy to enjoy the greenery of Kerala once we crossed PGT. WAP-4 #22766 was the power; I was expecting a good show because this belonged to the elite 227** series of locos that were allotted to RPM shed – 22786 being the mightiest brute among them all. A sharp RT departure from Pf 4 was followed by the usual speed pick-up at VPY, slowing down before TRL to switch to Down mainline and then burning the tracks all the way upto SRR. I was wide awake upto Walajah and then was in on-off alternating mode. Got up at Bommidi when we slowed down for a C/O; watched the buzzling activity even at that odd hour at Salem Jn; watched the usual ‘dhadaam-budaam’ girder-bridge crossing of Kaveri river just before entering Erode and then dozed off. I got up when my ears sent a message across to the brain that there is something ‘unusual’ with the usual PA stuff – it was different indeed, in Malayalam! Voila, we had reached PGT. It was then watching Bharathapuzha river cruising just next to us all the way upto Tirunavvaya. The red brute gave way for a surprising link WDG-4 #12652 GOC at Shoranur Jn. It was a bullock-cart ride from there, stopping at almost all the stations enroute, even at places where a pure-white dhoti-clad man stopped the train by waving his umbrella. Hot sun was really taking a toll as we were travelling in a non-AC FC coach that has doors blocking the movement of air. We crossed the KL/KA state border, Netravati river and the famous Netravati Cabin to reach the other Central, Mangalore Central station along the Canara Coast.

Stay in Dakshin Kannada (South Canara):

We checked into Hotel Srinivas at Hampanakatta area, the typical ‘downtown’ of MAQ. I had booked a room in advance anticipating a summer holiday rush and it proved worthy – AC rooms were fully blocked when we went there. The evening of May 11 was reserved for Mangalore local trips: we started it with a visit to Kadri Manjunathaswamy temple (‘Kadri’ Gopalnath fame). This temple, like any other temple in this District, was built in typical Malabar style architecture with a huge outer prakaram, facilities for lighting a lakh ghee lamps along the inner wall and a sanctum sanctorum that is separated by an inner prakaram. There was also a ‘Gomukham’ that had a perennial water flow from it. The next temple on the list was Mangalambika temple, because of which the city got its name. If one has observed, trains from South to Mangalore have the city’s name written in their name boards as ‘Mangalooru’ in Kannada, ‘Mangalore’ in English, ‘Mangaloor’ in Tamil and ‘Mangalaapuram’ in Malayalam – the city’s actual name is Mangalapuram. Enroute Panambur beach, our driver Babu Naik took us to Kudroli Golden temple - with due respects, I felt this was more a commercial establishment type than a temple. Panambur beach was maintained well despite its proximity to a port that handles coke and charcoal that stored like mountains in the vicinity. Sunset in the Arabian Sea was worth its watch.

May 12 Sunday was an early start around 515h. We were able to beat the traffic and reach Kukke Subramanya temple before the crowd gathered. Our total time in the queue for Darshan was just 10 minutes. The very sight of Sahyadri hills in the background with its lofty peaks looking like mushrooms with cloud tops was refreshing for that hot May morning. We finished our breakfast in a typical ‘Udupi Ottel’ pushing in Thattu Idlys, Uppittu and a Kesaribath. A ride up North, cutting through the Puttur valley starting from a road that comes from Salpej ghat, driving through a road that comes from Shiradi ghat, cutting a road that comes from Charmadi ghat and finally driving through the road that takes us to the Malaghat, took us to Dharmasthala – the town where Dharmadevathai (Good Deed Angel?) worshipped Lord Shiva. The queue on that day, to our good luck, was very less. We stood in the line for nearly an hour and had a very nice and peaceful darshan of Lord Manjunatha. I gathered that this place is the ‘Tirupati’ of Karnataka where all tonsure, marriage and other ceremonies are held based on various prarthanas. The temple management had made elaborate arrangements to help devotees during summer by installing fans all the way in the queue complex, supplying chill water, pouring water on top of the ceiling of queue complex, making us walk on wet red carpets and arranging for an orderly and swift movement of crowd in the queue. Kudos to them! Dharmasthala is the most famous temple (iirc) in India for Annadhanam – my amma was very specific that we should have a meal from the Annadhanakoodam of this temple. Unfortunately, the queue for that service was a bit longer and our Mr. Ranganathan was a bit non-cooperating. We abandoned the plan, however made sure that we atleast donated money for this good cause before coming out. To our pleasant surprise, we were given a neat receipt for the money received in a brown envelope, along with a silver dollar with an image of the Deity and two (rawa) laddus. The smell of pachchai karpooram in the laddu was divine 

Finally we left Dharmasthala at 1400 and took the direct route to Sringeri. This road, during its final stretch, climbs the mighty Western ghats to reach the Deccan Plateau via Malaghat (Rainforest), the road that cuts through the famous Kudremukha Reserve Forest. Our entry at the base was time-stamped and we were allotted only 90 minutes to climb the ghat, clear the forest and reach the upper level check-post. We did it comfortably in 60 minutes, enjoying the evergreen tropical rainforests of the Sahyadri hills (now declared as an environment bio-diversity hotspot by UNESCO, one among the few others in the world). Malnad turned out to be Malenaadu (thanks to Dr. Himagirish Rao for the word pun) as we stepped into Sringeri. I had not booked any choultry in Sringeri as the travel agent, Mohan Kamath, assured that accommodation will always be available in the temple-run (not the Android game folks!!) choultry will always provide it on a first-come-first-served basis. The car driver also assured that he has some contacts, who will be able to arrange one – unfortunately, the contact’s SIM has gone kaput and we were not able to reach him at all. It so happened that the contact was traced near an auto stand as we entered the town. To my disappointment, he showed me an AC room in a hotel that was no better than the ubiquitous VMS (the acronym that only my brother Anand understands  - I cannot publish the expansion due to some reasons!). A hunt for ‘decent’ lodges in the narrow lane a.k.a Main Road ended up in me finalizing a non-AC room at Hotel Kanniyakumari, a lodge that seemed to be a newly built one. The rains started as soon as we checked in – it started to rain as if someone was pouring water from a bucket from the skies… we were even about to drop our plan of an evening visit to the temple in favour of an early morning darshan and hence a late start to Kollur. At a point where it appeared to pause and when we saw some tinges of blue sky above, we went to the Sharadhambal temple. It is a twin temple along with the Vidhyashankar temple, that is built in typical Hoysala architecture. Sculptural marvels, as usual, are aplenty here, very similar to Belur and Halebidu. There were chains made of rock (similar to the ones in Kanchipuram Devarajaswamy temple), rolling rock balls inside the mouths of lions, the entire ‘vidhaanam’ of the ardha mandapam carved out in a single piece of stone with an array of parrots, tarots and zodiac signs. There is a new foot over bridge across River Tunga to reach the H.H’s Shankara Matam. In good olden days, there used to be a coracle to ferry people across the across. We did the usual ‘rice-flakes-for-fish’ activity as we spent some time taking photographs in the golden hour. Had a darshan of H.H. Shri Shankaracharyar of Sringeri Matam in the Pravachana mandapam presiding over an upanyasam. Finished the day with having food at the Annadhana mandapam.

By this time, we had got used to start early in the day – we checked out and started to Kollur around 815h. We stopped at Agumbe for breakfast by a new hotel that has sprung up in the 3-road junction (roads from Sringeri, Shimoga and Udupi). I had made a point to taste only typical Udupi cuisine all the way, so munched in a Kesaribath, a Mysore Masala Dosai and a plate of Uppittu. A pit-stop at the famous ‘sunset view point’ of Agumbe at 930 followed the halt, it was accompanied by a few typical photographs from the view point. Rains of the previous day has surprisingly cleared the mist and I was able to see the Arabian Sea from this point (some 200 km away). A drive down the Agumbe ghat section comprising 14 hair-pin bends brought us back to the West coast plains, and we took the tedious road to Kollur. The road was bad in a few patches, but was a good one overall. The sun decided to torture us with a torrid sunshine on that day – it was super hot by the time when we reached the Mookambika temple at noon. This temple is deep inside the Mookambika Reserve Forest and hence plastics are banned. A few good things that I observed during the trip, most likely due to the UNESCO recognition, is that the ghat roads were very good, newly laid / relaid, smooth bends in ghat sections, almost-nil plastics in reserve forest areas and no rampant misuse of construction rights inside the forest areas.

The queue was for 45 minutes and in the meantime, we also had a darshan of the Sriveli procession. A happy and peaceful darshan was followed by meals in the Annadhana mandapam. A typical Kannadiga meal has rice, rasam, sambar and buttermilk, with a dash of a payasam – it was wholesome and I totally relished it! The halls were neatly maintained with tiled floors and sitting areas (similar to ‘maNai’) and were easy to clean. Food vessels were carried in bogies with wheel sets so that it becomes easy to serve. There was not even an inch of bad attitude in those who served the food, they treated devotees with respect and were kind – I observed this in all the five temples that we covered in the standard Dakshin Kannada circuit (Kukke, Dharmasthala, Sringeri, Kollur and Udupi). We started late in the afternoon and reached Udupi in a few hours (travel statistics available elsewhere in this post).

We checked into Hotel Kediyoor at Udupi and after a round of snacks (what else other than the famous roasted cashews of Mangalore?), we ventured into a trip to the Lord Krishna temple at Udupi Krishna Mutt and to the Malpe beach. Had a peaceful darshan of Lord Krishna – the decoration is beyond words  Malpe beach was not far away (5 km) from the city and was less crowded on that overcast day – we were late for the last ferry to St. Mary’s Island, but had a wonderful time at the beach. Vaibhav and I did an adventure car ride, and along with Vidhya, did a ride on a camel back.

KRCL in Broad daylight:

I had my tickets booked in 1098 Poorna Exp from Kankanadi Jn to Londa Jn, which will involve a 300-km run through the lines of Konkan Railway Corporation Limited, almost 1/3rd of its entire length – so that I can enjoy its beauty of tunnels and bridges in broad daylight. This was my first daytrip in KRCL limits and I was totally excited and looking forward to it. A few days ahead of my actual travel, I changed my boarding point from Kankanadi to Udupi, so that I can start late from the hotel and board the train around 930h instead of getting up early and rushing all the way to catch the train at 730h.

A hard-working WDG-3A from PUNE shed #14677 was our power, running LHF (reversed as SHF at MAO and again as LHF at LD). The loco accelerated well and was able to assist us well in enjoying the natural beauty of the mighty mountains with lofty peaks at the right and the parallel-running west coast with the never-ending array of waves from sea on our left. The first tunnel that we encountered was T-91 Byndoor tunnel that was ~2 km in length – we were inside the tunnel for almost 2 minutes… I had my tickets rightly booked in SL class that meant we were able to enjoy the gush of air at the entry/exit point of tunnels, the change in pressure and the cool summer breeze that was hitting our faces all throughout the journey (including a doorplate for covering Honnavar activity – Sharavati C bridge + Sharavati B bridge (2 km) + Mavinkurve Island + Sharavati A bridge (1 km) + two tunnels (2 km) ). Vaibhav, Vidhya, Amma and I were all enjoying the run, we were BT at a few stations too (Bhatkal, Honnavar) and were nearly 2 hours BT for MAO. We were detained at Balli for an hour and were finally let into Madgaon at 1500. The exciting journey of Braganza ghat section during daylight was also exciting, with the amazing view of Dudhsagar falls enroute (remember, the GT Jaunt 2013 edition is planned here!!) along with 16 tunnels between Qulem and Castle Rock. We got down at Londa Jn at 1815 and were picked up in an Indigo car to check in at Dandeli Jungle Camp, Pradhani in Uttara Kannada District.

Stay in Uttara Kannada (North Canara):

The folks at Dandeli.com did a neat job (albeit expensive too) in the arrangements. We were given two rooms as against the booked one room at the Jungle Camp, Pradhani. This is some 70 km away from Londa, via Ramnagar, Supa Dam and Ganeshgudi (11 km before Dandeli). We spent two nights here and took a well-earned rest. The only activity that we ventured into was a 3 km trek (45 minutes) into the Reserve forest area on the second day – other than that, it was just eat, sleep, play with Vaibhav and the Missus’ Sony Tab. The stay was uneventful, except for spotting a few Malabar giant squirrels, a lot of monkeys (especially lion-tailed macaques) and the switching off of gensets and power during midnight due to forest department regulations – we were staying deep inside a reserved forest, this was inevitable, but came in as a surprise.

We shifted to Bison River Resort by the Kali River for the next two nights. This was a different ball game altogether. Although this resort is in the forest area, we were staying on the banks of River Kali that was running full to the brim. This place is for adventure lovers – this resort offers White-water rafting, Rapelling, Burma loops, River crossing, Natural Jacuzzi*, Coracle ride*, Fishing, Swimming, Kayaking*, Canoe ride, Jungle Safari* and Nature Walk* among other regular attractions that a resort offers (camp fire, sit-outs with view points etc.). This resort is professionally managed and all the activities are safe to all – we ventured only a few of them* due to sheer laziness!! Natural Jacuzzi was a wonder by itself – we were taken to a place in the river where it is blocked by rows of boulders, small and big, offering a wonderful place to sit inside the flow of water and enjoy. The rocks were smooth, but not slippery – the time spent was worth it 

We opted for the Jungle Safari in the evening slot - we were able to beat the heat and have a wonderful view of the setting sun from the view point deep inside the Dandeli Anshi Tiger Reserve. We spotted a lot of monkeys, peacocks, bisons, wild boars and deer. The Nature Walk is actually a 3 km trek inside the forest to a now-defunct Manganese quarry. Both were interesting and worth the time and effort.

We were dropped back at Hubli Jn on the evening of May 18 to catch 7314 Exp to Madras. I had a reservation in 2A and it proved its worth after the train descended from the Deccan Plateau at Vaniyambadi. The heat outside was beyond a limit and by the time we reached walking through the rake to the end of Pf 1 at MAS, I was drenched in sweat – typical ‘Madras in May’!! The train got a surprise WDG-3A #13267 KJM for the run upto YPR and again a surprise WAM-4 #21230 BZA thence. Having sandwiched between a Shatabdi in front of us and a brutally attacking Lalbagh behind, we were ripping the line apart – the royal r*** of the Vaniyambadi, Ambur and Gudiyattam trio happened and Whoa! What a sight it was to see this train running non-stop at MPS through the mainlines at these stations!! We reached MAS at 1140, 15 min BT.

Who else will you expect during the wee hours (5 AM!!) of May 19 to come and meet you, say a hi while your train stops at Yeshwantpur Jn for a direction reversal and loco change? It was Rakesh Joshi - we managed to discuss about trains, IPL, politics and a few gossips in the available time!

Half-a-day rest on 19th and I was back to office on 20th; this wraps up the story! Madras Central to Mangalore Central, East Coast to West Coast :)

Travel jottings:

530 MAQ
550 BNTL
650 Kadaba
700 SHBR
715 Kukke Subrahmanya Temple
830 dep
900 SBC-shiradi ghat- MAQ NH entry
920 exit from NH
1000 Dharmasthala arrival
1015 queue start
1130 darshan
1145 Dharmasthala departure
1200 Lunch halt at Ujire
1300 Ujire dep
1315 Bethalangadi
1405 Bajegoli
1420 Malaghat Kudremukha Forest starts
1505 ghat section ends
1530 Sringeri arr

0820 Sringeri dep
0900 Agumbe arr for breakfast
0940 dep
0950 sunset point arr
1010 dep, ghat section starts
1030 ghat section ends, someshwara temple Jn
1100 Haladi
1130 Mookambika WLS starts
1150 Kollur arrival
1345 dep
1425 Hemmaadi join NH17
1435 Kundapura
1515 Udupi

MAQ - Kukke 1:45 h
Kukke - Dharmasthala 1:30 h
Dharmasthala - Sringeri 2:45 h
Sringeri - Kollur 2:30 h
Kollur - Udupi 1:30 h
Udupi - MAQ is usually 1:15 h

Links:

Rail-related jottings are here

Videos are here : Byndoor Tunnel, Honnavar Tunnel / Sharavati bridge

Photos are here – view access is restricted.

Travel agents:
Mangalore:
Mohan Kamath +91 94485 46477

Dandeli:
Ramnath Sadekar
http://www.dandeli.com/
+91 99005 47763

Comments, feedback are welcome!

-Regards,
Aravind.