Trip to Sirsi Uttara Kannada

20-22 Feb 2010

– Day 1

In the mid of the week it was decided we would attend Guru’s marriage in Sirsi. This was an unexpected trip that was planned and we were left with two days to plan the entire trip and utilize it to the fullest. The marriage was on 22nd Feb 2010 but we decided to leave Bangalore on 19 Feb and go around visiting places in Sirsi for two days.
The ticket to Sirsi was booked with KSRTC bus for 19th Feb Friday night from Bangalore and the return journey on 22nd Feb night. We tried calling up few hotels in Sirsi for booking but was not successful. We took our chance and decided to reach Sirsi first and look for accommodation. We had few hotels in our prioritized list.
Five of us (myself, Miltan, Arjun, Vijay and Piyush) started from Bangalore and reached Sirsi on 20th Feb at around 7 AM in the morning. The weather was chilling with dense fog covering in the morning. We went around the place looking for lodges, finally zeroed in on Hotel Panchavati about 4km from the Sirsi, on the way to Yellapur SH63 road. It is a decent hotel to stay. The hotel being out of town provides a very calm environment to stay. It has an attached restaurant which serves pretty good food. Initially we thought of staying in hotel Madhuvan, which is right in the heart of the city but it was fully occupied at that time so was hotel Samrat.
We had hired a local vehicle to go around for our three day trip. It is a better option since one need not have to bother about the routes as these people are well versed with the routes and we can then plan accordingly the trip.

Yana:
We started out trip by 9 AM on Friday morning. Our first destination of the three day trip was Yana. We came to know that there are two approaches to Yana. The first one is through Devimane ghat on the way to kumta where one has to take deviation and the other one is through villages of Hegdekatte, Devanalli and Mattighatta (while driving from Sirsi towards kumta one has to take a deviation to the right to go to Hegdekatte road) . We took the second route, after covering over 35-40km we get a deviation to the left which goes towards Yana. This is also the last point for the people who come by village bus (as told by our taxi driver). This is junction where Vaddi ghat starts.
From this junction one has to travel approximately 3kms by vehicle and another 0.5km by walk to reach Yana. Few years back there was no road after the junction. One had to walk all the way to reach Yana. This place became famous after the release of film “Nammura Mandhara Huve “. This was the first Kannada movie which portrayed this structure for the people, until then very few people knew about this.

We reached Yana entrance by around 10:30 AM. After walking for about 0.5km we suddenly were faced by humungous rack structure of Yana. It was a beautiful structure to watch and hard to put in words. Two main majestic rock structures named Bhairava shikara and Chandika Shikara stands tall amidst the dense jungle. There are 61 structures of these kinds distributed across the jungle among which the two listed above are the prominent ones. These structures are not only famous for tourist visit but also a pilgrim center. Once in a year on Shivarathri festival, grand celebration happens over here. People for different parts come here to be on this auspicious day. There is a shivalinga inside the cave on which water trickles down, which people call it gangodbhava. There is a path through which one can come around the Bhairava shikara and get some good views of the rock formation.

It also has mythological significance. The story goes around the rakshas basmasura who was granted a boon by Lord Shiva to reduce anyone to ashes just by placing his hand on them. The boon backfired on Lord Shiva, who chose this place for hiding. Lord Vishnu disguised himself as a dancer and challenged him in a dance performance, during which he was dragged into placing his hands on his own head thereby reducing him to ashes hence saving Lord Shiva. Today people believe that the black colored soil spread across this place is in fact the left over ashes of the same Basmasura (was told by a senior person whom I met in Sirsi)

Vibhoothi Falls:

After talking to people in temple premises in Yana we decided to visit Vibhoothi falls which is about 7-8km from Yana. In order to reach this one has to go back to the intersection which led into Yana, take the other direction which leads to Vaddi Ghats. When approaching this falls one can see some civilization. The place name is Mabage. From here the falls is around 3kms. The last 1km has to be by walk and it takes around 20min to reach this falls.
This is a three step fall. People call it Vibhoothi since it flows through limestone and the water here is bright white. At the end of the falls once can go for a swim or take a bath as it forms a small pool before going down further for one more fall.

Unchalli Falls:

It is situated at a distance of 35km from Sirsi town. It is actually the river Aghanashini, tributary of Kali river which makes this spectacular falls. After travelling for around 15km from Sirsi crossing Ammenahalli village on the way, one has to take a left and have to travel another 20km to reach Unchalli falls. There is a billboard indicating the deviation to the falls. The tar road takes almost till the falls. The last half kilometer has to be done by walk to reach the view point.
It is spectacular falls given the time that we went here (its start of summer in Feb). The fall is quite beautiful with a very steep fall of more than 100mts. There are viewpoints created by tourism department to view the falls. There are few hundred steps to go near to the falls and two view points to view but be aware that these concrete steps won’t lead you till the bottom of the falls. It rather stops abruptly. If one wants to go till the bottom of the falls there is a different path that leads you there. Near the start point of the steps leading to view points, there are few concrete benches that have been put up for people to relax. Just behind these one can see a small path mud way that would lead till the bottom. It would be a one hour of walk to reach the bottom of the falls. Since we were not aware of this and also it was getting dark we decided not to go all the way till the bottom of the falls.
This fall is also known as Lushington falls named after a British collector who first discovered the falls. Locally it is also known as keppa joga (keppa = deaf) due to the immense noise it creates during its fall.
One would find a petty shop at the begining of pathway to falls where one can quench his thirst after the visit to falls. You might as well get some guides to take you all the way till the bottom of the falls but it would be normally during the month of Nov to January.

This ended the first day of our trip of Sirsi.