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| From Talakad - Dee... |
It was going slow and steady till we were 1 km from Mallavali and then we saw the stranded vehicles due to agitations. There was smoke on the horizon a little bit ahead. Then we saw a taxi guy was taking a detour and he told us to follow him and he will take us past the agitations. Initially we thought luckily we got this fellow, only to realize later that that was our bad luck! We followed this guy on the narrow mud road through the sugar cane fields and brick kilns and every now and then stopping on the edge of the road to allow bullock carts to pass by. Bullock cart fellows also returned the favor by moving to the side in some places. Suddenly our navigator had vanished. We managed to reach the intended destination which is supposed to get us past the agitations by asking school kids and the farmers. That was also blocked and we saw our navigator taking U turn and yet again he promised us to take through a inner road which will take us to Shivanasamudra. Within seconds he vanished again. ( May be he is stuck in a wrong job should have been a magician or politician but do they recruit through monster?)
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| From Talakad - Dee... |
And we were stuck in a "bul bulayya" with no sign boards or mile stones and with hardly any difference between main road and non-main roads. We started asking for directions with people working in the fields and grazing cattle. It was kind of treasure hunt with us getting to know one village after another on the way and with each person giving us varying distances between the places. Finally after more than hours drive we reached the so called national highway 209. Though the last person giving us direction had asked to us take right we took left and found Talkad road. After couple of kilometers we reached actual right meant by that person. If we had taken the left we would have reached the place we wanted to avoid!
With bad roads all along we reached the temple town at 2:00 PM instead of the original guesstimate of 11:00 AM. We took a guide at the entry point. First visit was to the Vaidyanatheshwara temple which had closed before we reached there we had to be satisfied by going around the temple and some explanation by our guide. After that we visited 4 temples and one temple under reconstruction. It took us about 2 hours to go around the temples and then we had lunch at "Udupi Mess" and strolled for a while along the banks of Cauvery.
Now we were very worried which route to take back. After lots of discussion with the guide, we decided to take the Mallvalli, Maddur, Chennapatna route. Canceled all the other plans like visiting somanathpur, mudukothore temple etc. Started the journey back to Bangalore at 5:00 PM. When we passed through Malvalli around 6:30 PM we let out a sigh of relief for crossing first trouble point. Close to Maddur, We had to go through few anxious moments at a traffic jam till we came to know that it was due to the road construction activity. Sugar cane wielding youngsters running here and there with loud instructions to the truck drivers had made us think otherwise. After having dinner at Lokruchi we reached bangalore at 10:00 PM and I reached home after 11:00 PM.
For the visitors
For information on how to go there and what to see check out "Talakadu on wknd.in"
What to eat: Before travelling I had read in the most blogs that nothing much available out here and its best to carry some food. But I guess after the recently held Panchaling Darshana many small eateries or so called messes have come up where one can have simple meal. There are lots of shaks on the river banks too. We got back whatever we took along with us.
