The Annapurneshwari temple in Horanadu is very famous. Also famous is the annadhaanam (simply put, free lunch) at the temple. We had a good darshan of the goddess and proceeded to the lunch. The food was served a la Dharmasthala style. The boiled rice was pulled in a trolley while the brahmins served it using large ladles. The food was absoolutely delicious. We couln't budge even a bit after the heavy meal. We rested for sometime and started our drive to Kudremukh.
This is where there is an intersting thing happened. Bhanu got lost! Sathish and Bhanu went ahead of me when I stoppped for a few photos. I drove a little fast to catch up with them. They weren't waiting for me in Kalasa. I assumed they went ahead. I proceeded on the road to Kudremukh. For the next 5 kms, I expected two bikes to be waiting for me at every curve. But no, there were none. I was getting worried. I stopped and with my little kannada speaking ability managed to ask some people if a Bullet had passed by. They said no. I started to panic. My mobile had no signal (that was in the mountains, duh!). I turned and traced back the route I came only to find Sathish driving in the opposite direction. Again I turned and caught up with to ask what happened. Then he said, Bhanu had driven into a differenrt route and they were searching for each other. They had found each other and, Sathish had guessed that I would only be heading to Kudremukh. In a minute Bhanu joined us. I felt relieved.
We drove to for around 20 kms to Kudremukh. This road, I would call the best in our trip.
We stopped at Hanumangundi falls. We had to descend at least 300 steps to reach the waterfall. But it was worth all the trouble. We dipped our feet in the cold waters and it did some magic on our sore feet. We did not bath as we had no spare clothes. A bath probably would have been more refreshing. After an hour we left the falls.
Again climbed up the stairs, and yes, I was out of breath by the time I reached the top. I asked one of the photographer guys to take a photo of the three of us. He asked me what make is my camera, when I told him Panasonic FZ50. He said "Wow! Thats a very nice model". I had goose bumps. After some more photo sessions enroute, we drove to Sringeri.
This was not on our inital plan. But to reach Chikmagalur from Kudremukh, one has to go via Sringeri.
In the Sringeri temple, we prayed to godess Sharadamba. Then we saw the age old tradition of fish feeding in the river. The fishes were huge growing upto a feet in length. People feed the fishes with puffed rice. This has been happening for ages. Sometimes I wonder if those fishes ever get bored of the food.
I took a photo in the same place where I had one taken 15 years ago when I came with my parents. It was nostalgic.
Then came snacks time. Sringeri is quite popular for the hometels, bhotels run by a family in their own homes. We went to one of those and binged. The only items that were available were idly, vada and poori. But they taste so delicious!
After the "light" snack we began our way back to Chikmagalur. It was dark already. The winding road slowly became more and more scary. No signboards, no milestones, no lights. At one point we stopped and I told all of us to switch of the lights. We freaked out. We couldn't see even other person's face. It was pitch dark! It looked like someone had painted black all over my eyes. We rushed the rest of the 90 kms to Chikmagalur. When we checked into the hotel, it was 10:30 pm. I noticed that I had severe sunburn. The skin had turned red. The part that hurt the most was my butt. Other parts seemed ok. We had driven 310 kms that day. Twice than the previous day.
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