Honnavar :)

Reason to Smile: The lush green views, the rice and wheat plantations, the foggy mountains, the wet silver curvy roads and we 3 girls on a road trip. It all begins with this thought and check where we land up :)

Honnavar - One small city in Karnataka, very close to Kumta, Gokarna, Murudeshwara Temple and many more such popular places. We headed straight to Madhu's native where her uncle lived. Her Mamaji, as we all affectionately called him, greeted us and was very strict about maintaining the schedule of our trip, for he was our official guide to take us to umpteen places around for sight seeing. Honnavar is a place not many people know about. We succumbed to a feeling that it was a good monsoon time to explore something unusual, less popular, and less commercial :)

Day 1: So our first stop was a drive to Mirjan Fort. A huge fort located towards the South of Gokarna, about 30 kms from Honnavar is a fort that attracts visitors with its majestic looks. As one enters the fort through the broad steps leading to the interiors, they get to know of the architectural skills that the builders possessed at a time when modern technology was unheard of. The wells, secret doors, tunnels, kitchen, dwellings, watch tower and other such ruins make visitors ponder over the lost historical significance of the place. This time-tested structure has been built using locally-available late-rite stones. It is popularly believed that the fort was built by Queen Chennabharadevi, who was known as the pepper queen of India as she controlled the pepper business through this fort. The period of construction is believed to be 1608-1640 A.D. The flowing river, greenish groves and the breezing wind from the seaside adds flavor to the beauty of the fort. The fort has been declared protected monument by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which renovated some major parts of the fort recently. If you are looking for an ideal place for the weekend on the coastal belt, Mirjan Fort is remarkable yet less visited. The name Mirjan is extracted from the wrong or the incorrect pronunciation of "Meri Jaan" by one of the Muslim rulers of Uttara Kannada who insanely loved the Queen Chennabharadevi. 

Next stop: Venkateshwar Temple at Sirsi. About 65 kms back from Mirjan, it was the beautiful and typical south indian temples that were waiting for our steps :P The ancient black rocks exotically carved in shapes of the several goddesses posed in its dancing beauty, these temples were an explorations galore. The Marikhamba temple and the Banavasi Temple also prepared us with some usual offerings with sculptures neatly crafted on its black huge pillars spread in-numerously spread across the wards between the small temples. 

Next stop: Unchali Waterfalls - About 63 kms from Mirjaan is the most beautiful, huge and spectacular falls, again not many people know about. It is about 500 mts walk away from the Parking Site. It has stairs descencing down to the view point of the falls. Fortunately, unfortunately it was raining so heavy that it became fully foggy but the sound of the falls made us realize how magnanimous it must be ! The stairs naturally colored green looked like a stairway to heaven with complete fog around as its background giving us an ecstatic feeling of the world unexplored :)

Day 2: Ramtirth Temple, very close to our Mamaji's house in the city is a place totally there for the people to get themselves soaked in the natural cold water spring that flows out at the pond located at the base of the temple. There have been several attempts to find the source of the spring but still to its vain. The flow is so hard that it just is perfect for a nice back massage. No Jacuzzi required you bet :P

Next stop: Apsarakonda Falls and Kasarkoda Beach. About just 8 kms from the city is this sweet and cute Apsarakonda waterfall which also means the pond of angels :) This was named after a pond facing the Beach. The legend associated with the name of the waterfall is that it was the chosen place of the angels to take a bath and relax. Just 5 mins walk from the falls you will reach the hill. There is a viewpoint in the hill.  The ApsaraKonda hillock verily offers a feast to the eyes that see. You can see beautiful view of Kasarkod beach, pond and surrounding lush green paddy fields from this viewpoint.

To check out this beautiful scenic beauty on pictures, please check FB. Have uploaded some pics there for your viewing, liking and comments :)

Keep travelling, Keep Smiling :)