After a long long time, got an opportunity to visit the 900 year old Chandramouleshwara temple in Hubli, my hometown. Though I have visited the temple quite a lot times during my younger days, but only now did I happen to observe and appreciate its exquisite architecture.
The navigation to the temple might be a bit challenging for the outsider. Surrounded by the houses, it is located in the interiors of the locality and has to be accessed through a narrow lane. It is at a stone's throwaway distance from Unkal and is approximately 8-9km from the Hubli Airport.
The temple was built in the 12th Century during the regime of the Chalukya Dynasty. Sculptor Jakanacharya, who was known for his marvelous piece of architecture was assigned to build this temple overnight. The artisans engaged for the same couldn't build the temple overnight and hence part of the temple structure remained incomplete.
The beauty of the temple is that, in the sanctum, it has two lingas, one of which is called a chaturmukha linga, which translates to four faced linga. The temple on the outside walls has gopurams, carvings of the deities and incarnations of lord Vishnu. No gopuram resembles the same, each has been distinctively carved. It surely catches the eye of the visitors.
It was a time well spent. Looking forward to explore more such ancient monuments.
After having the darshan of Lord Guruvayurappan, we headed towards our next destination, i.e Athirapilly falls. Athirapilly comes under Chalakudy Taluk. We boarded a bus to Thrissur from Guruvayur around 11 a.m., reached Thrissur around 12 p.m., then boarded a bus to Chalakudy.
From Gangtok we began our excursion at around 9.30am towards Pelling, which is in West Sikkim. Enroute to Pelling, we visited Ravangala in South Sikkim.
Gangtok to Ravangala is around 3 hours journey. Ravangala houses a beautiful and a giant Buddha statue. A temple like structure can also be seen below the Buddha Statue.
The 64 Pillar(8x8) Mantapa on the banks of river Tungabhadra in Anegundi, Dist: Koppal is believed to be constructed during the Vijayanagar Regime. The Mantapa can be seen when enroute to Navabrindavana from the Anegundi side.
After spending a considerable time in chalking out the plans and preparing the body for the trek, the day had come.
Me and my buddy Akhil packed our backpacks and setout our journey. Well not to forget mentioning the preparations we did for the trek. Staircase climbing, pranayama, yoga, sprints and what not, only to ensure that our body was fit enough to scale the summit.
On 18-12-2016, we reported at the Mussorie YHAI camp. On reporting, the formalities of registration process was carried out. We were allotted a common dormitory.
Since we reported in the morning itself, we had sufficient time and therefore went for a stroll in Mussorie and returned to the hostel in the evening.
The YHAI representative asked us all to gather in a dining hall, where, each on of us were asked to introduce ourselves and were asked if we had any experience in trekking prior to this one or if anybody had done any treks with YHAI earlier. After all this, we had dinner and slept.
Next day we had to leave for Sankri, the base camp for Kedarkantha trek. The bus that was to ferry the participants to Sankri was jam packed, so a Jeep was arranged in addition to the bus. Me and Akhil were asked to get into the jeep.
The driver was considerate enough to stop near Kempti falls for a while. After spending some time. we proceeded towards Sankri. The Landscape enroute was aesthetically alluring. The route to Sankri passes through through Govind National Park, which is home to the endangered species.
The roads leading to Sankri were narrow and scary. In some curves, only one vehicle could pass, with the other carefully maneuvering to accommodate the other vehicle.
We reached Sankri in the evening and were allotted tents after completing the formalities. We were provided ID cards, sleeping bags and were offered food and milk. After a tiresome journey, we were feeling drowsy, without wasting much time, we got into the tents and slept.
The next day we were provided with breakfast and tea and were taken to a nearby terrain for acclimatization and briefing. By noon we were back to the base camp where we got introduced to a group of trekkers from Bangalore, great guys I must say, and got along with them really well.
Evening we had a small get together session to know the team members/participants. People were asked to volunteer for a skit/singing etc., After the session, we were asked to deposit our belongings and only keep the things that were required for the trek. Also, YHAI provided one ruck sack to those in need.
Next day, after having the breakfast and carrying some in the lunch box, we set out for our trek.
Two trek leaders accompanied us. One was leading from the front and another from the back to ensure no one was left behind or felt lost.
The sun used to set quite early, say by 4.30 - 5 PM , it. used to be dark and chilling winds provided no respite from the cold.
On reaching the camps at different altitude, we were offered food and other fluid items to keep ourselves hydrated enough. We were to wash our own utensils, the hot water that was available was meant for drinking only. God. those few minutes of washing our utensils in icy cold water just gave goosebumps.
On the day of summit, we could hardly sleep, could just take short naps, we were pretty much excited. We got up at 1.30 AM and got ready for the summit. It was dark and cold, we started scaling the mountains around 2 AM. Our aim was to reach the summit well before the sunrise. It took nearly 4 hours for us to reach the Kedarkantha summit which is at a height of 12500feet from sea level, Lapped in the mighty Himalayas, it offered a splendid picturesque..
By 6.15 AM we scaled the summit, the sun was still to rise, between 6.20 AM to 6.30 AM and the sun had risen within seconds, we were extremely enthralled to witness sunrise of this kind.
The scorching sun rays on one side and the chilled winds on the another, hands were feeling numb. There was no way we could remove our gloves. On removing the gloves, our hands got even harder.
On scaling the summit, a moment that we all were yearning for was achieved. We then began descending to reach our camp at Argaon and then to Sankri the next day.
On the way we were greeted and welcomed by the team that were to set out for the summit which was then followed by distribution of certificates.
The next day after having the breakfast, we left for the Mussorie YHAI camp carrying with us the wonderful memories and the time spent during the trek.
