And so starts our north-eastward journey, roughly towards home. Just as sailors breathe a sigh of relief when the captain gives the order to adjust the mizzen and trim the topsail to catch the wind that will turn the prow of the ship homeward, the timbers creaking with the sudden twist in the hull, so did we, in our trusty Tata Punch, set the GPS towards Badami, 265 km from Gokarna, the first port of call on our homeward journey.
Departing from Gokarna (7.15 am)
We left early, bidding farewell to the Arabian Sea, the waves playing tag with each other. We walked over the squishy sand to where our car was parked 200m away, and drove off. NH66 towards Mumbai was a smooth ride for 30 mins, but then we turned right towards Hubbali, and this NH52, which took us almost upto Badami, was a piece of bad news - a badly maintained road full of potholes. There was heavy goods movement upto Hubbali, which is half the run, and road improved only marginally afterwards. However, the natural beauty of the route was amazing, be it forest journeys, ghat roads or fields full of a variety of crops.
Breakfast at Yallapur (9.30 am)
The ghats had just ended and I was becoming quite adept at overtaking trailers around blind corners on broken roads (Panna gave me no credit for this expertise). The first town down in the plains was Yellapur, and the first food joint was "Sri Krishna Residency", who had been practically yalling his head off (pun intended) with different boards nailed on trees warning travellers that they were only 5km away, 3 km away, 1 km away, and so on. O&M might have designed their promotion strategy. Nor did their product disappoint. Panna's masala dosa (masala alag) and my idli-vada were both top-notch and served immediately. I am sure I shall eat at Sri Krishna whenever I visit Yellapur.
Hotel Mayura Chalukya at Badami (1.30 pm)
Roads improving around noontime has an unfortunate fallout - drowsiness. Eating crunchy stuff and having coffee kept me in the waking world, and we rolled into the KSTDC hotel that I had booked in Badami for two nights.
Rooms were not yet ready, so we decided to have lunch at the restaurant. The place was full! Badami tourism was booming I say! We had a decent lunch of roti, daal and mixed vegetable, and repaired to our room for a bit of spine-straightening before venturing forth into the heat.
Badami, earlier known as Vataapi, is supposed to be prehistoric. The sage Agastya (in whose name there is a lake here) is supposed to have eaten Vataapi and digested him at this locality, so that even his brother Ilwal could not revive him (please read it up on the net). The Badami Chalukya dynasty was started around 500AD by Pulakesin I, since he found the location easily fortifiable, being a lake almost surrounded by sandstone cliffs. The temples were built mostly by his sons.
The temples around Agastya Lake (3.30 pm)
Our spine having been straightened enough, we took off for the CAVE TEMPLES, 5 mins from the hotel. These are caves (four in number) that had been carved into the sandstone cliffs around the lake, creating porches, pillars, passages and inner sanctums, all with intricate carvings and depictions of mythological stories. One has to climb a bit to cover the caves. Today the rush was very high as bus loads of school children were visiting. I mean, I am all for cultural education, but one should examine the factor of safety that the ancient builders provided for, when they imagined that only a few devotees would climb the steep steps to pay obesience to Shiva or Vishnu, as the case may be. The fourth cave had Jain figures, in fact. Pretty eclectic, the whole presentation.
We took an auto and visited the MALLIKARJUN temple and the BHOOTNATH temple across the lake, and they were very well-built, with fine detailing, and superbly located for a sunset view (the sun is not leaving us, you see?). The ILLAM temple near the caves was also beautifully made.
There was a FORT also to be visited, but we could not manage it. We returned to our hotel after sunset. Dinner will be in-house. Tomorrow we will drive to Pattadakal and Aihole to see more historical temples, but we will return to stay the night in Badami.
Photo credits: Panna Rashmi Ray