Karinjeshwara and Venur

During the first week of December, since I had no classes at school, I decided to travel to my hometown and spend a week there. A lot is changing in my hometown as well. The land of my muslim neighbours has been bought by a real estate agent who has also bought a few fields around it from the locals. The house was demolished and the area will soon be converted into multiple sites for sale. It was strange to see the entire house get demolished before my eyes. I have so many childhood memories of playing with my neighbours. However, since they had vacated the house about 8 years ago, it had been in a dilapidated state.

I went on morning jogs to the beach and enjoyed home cooked food. In the evenings, if I got a chance, I took a walk to the beach.

On Saturday, the 4th of December, I planned a trek to Karinjeshwara temple. My friend Deekshit joined me. Back in my school days, I had trekked to this hill top temple twice. The trail passed through jungles filled with monkeys. I still remember the excitement involved in the trek. But when I reached there, I was kind of disappointed that there were new shorter routes created to the temple. One could also drive to the first temple located midway. Therefore, the climb seemed less challenging and interesting. 

When I was at the temple looking for the old trail, I met another lady who was trying to look for the same. We recollected that interesting, but also difficult trail we used to take as kids. Eventually it turned out that we both hailed from same town and her daughter now lived close to my house in Bangalore. Small world! 

A few locals later told me that the road we had driven was initially a mud trail leading to the temple. It is barely unrecognisable. 

After exploring the temple located midway along the trail, we walked the flight of rock cut stairs to the main temple at the summit. The temple is now renovated and looks nice but it lacks the old charm. Previously, there was room for only a set of people to stand at the summit. Now the entire summit has been levelled to accommodate more people. 

We stopped by the cliff for some view and then returned back to our car and decided to continue the journey to Venoor or Venur. The view of the surrounding forest from the top is spectacular. 

At Venur, we stopped first to have some jain meal at a local restaurant. The food was delicious - specially the sweet potato podi. 

After lunch, we visited the main shrine dedicated to Gomateshwara. The place is under renovation and the workers left for lunch as soon as we arrived, so, we had the place for ourselves. 

On our way back, we stopped at Pabbas in Mangalore. If you ever visit Mangalore, you must never miss eating the special ice cream at Pabbas. My recommendations - Banana split and Chickoo almond.