I had come across this falls when browsing a automotive forum, one pic and a Facebook message later we(me and by ridding buddy JJ) were all set, err... more like decided to visit this place. We have a rule we don't plan the trip, every time we have planned the trip never materialized . I come home on a holiday , inform him the day before that we are going on a trip. And a lot of resistance from JJ, his parents don't like him riding motorcycles and he has never told them even once. Unlike my parents who no longer make the futile attempts to put some sense into the empty space between my ears. They must have heard the echo after all these ears.
So we decided to ride there, bike was CBR250, I love riding this machine. JJ came home and off we went from Hubli to Tadas cross, I should have topped up with speed petrol, indian brand of high octane fuel. There was none and no petrol bunk till Tadas cross upon enquiry the attendant told that there was one 5 Kms ahead. Despite better judgement of asking a few more people about the availability, I went ahead 10 Kms I am low on fuel and cursing the attendant with my huge vocabulary of colorful words. Finally we hit Tadas. Fill up normal fuel. We head on.
There is a place called Banavasi a temple town deep in westernghats. I wanted to visit it since all my school friends had been to a trip here and as usual I had missed, this was before almost 13 years ago or 14. So past mistakes have to be set right and JJ clueless as usual about my ulterior motives agreed.
I had no idea what to expect at Banavasi and since many visit this place I had some expectations. I don't want to comment if it was worth coming here since it's a historical place and I am not too excited about temples and such.
Here are some of the pics, excuse the quality of the pics. I have excuses for the quality-
All the pics were shot by JJ , even his.
Photography is not allowed here(seriously, that's what the board says) so we have had to shoot in spy cam style.
Ok Ok I am just a pathetic photographer who likes his pics to be taken and too lazy to shoot others. Correction I love shooting as long as its with a gun.
There is no place to leave you footwear. So take care to hide them.
This guy greets you at the entrance.
This one is of the courtyard.
A sthamba(Pillar) at the entrance.
This a stone table made out of a single rock, I'm not sure if it's a single rock. But I will still say so to make my Indian sculptors look great, and they were.
The table is locked in a steel cage so excuse the even worse quality of pics here.
A statue of Nandi, Shiva's ride.
The face of nandi has been sculpted very nicely looks very serene.
A pic from the back yard of the temple.
Another pic, I forgot from where I took this.
I was told the food in Banavasi was very good, but we had reached there pretty early and by the time we were leaving it was only 11.30 am so we skipped it. Hold on let me do a quick google on the cuisine there and may be regret a little. Ok did not find anything but I am sure this place is famous for it's food also.
Initially we had planned to reach Uncahlli via Siddapur, but at Banavasi we were advised to go via Sirsi as the road was good and not isolated like the Siddapur road. It was a good decison as I had a good ride and also got to race with a Suzuki Swift on the ghats there.
I am not able to find the route I took from Sirsi to Unchalli on google maps and don't remember the villages I passed through.
Now some pics to project "I am a biker" image of mine.
This is JJ wondering what am I doing with this lunatic.
Some pics of the falls.
I really enjoyed riding to this place,but if you intend to visit this, do go to Jog which is a mere 50Kms from here. Only regret about Unchalli is it's very difficult to reach the water as the trek is steep and would be very difficult to make it back up.
By the way there was a petrol bunk 5 kms from Tadas cross I did not see it nor did JJ, saw it on the return :)
