Monday, February 16, 2015

The Gudibanda Fort , Ananthapura

The Gudibanda Hill Fort
The second fort we visited on the same day (Madakshira adventure) was the Gudibanda Fort situated very close to Madakshira. In no time we were at the front of this hill fort which is a small hill with a lot of fortification. With not much history known about this fort, we began to wonder why one would build a fort on such a small hill. We reached the gateway of the fort and could clearly witness the technique and skill used to build the fort walls here.
Path to the Fort
Need of the Hour Save Tree and Water 
Fort Building Technique
One of the Gateways
Lord Shiva Temple
 There is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva which portrayed the architectural style of Vijayanagar Kings. Further to this there is another gateway enclosing a vacant area which probably housed a palace or the king's residence. There are 2 big water ponds enclosed inside the fort walls. The steps laid help one to the climb this hill. The descent was not very exciting and thus we completed our dual fort adventure.  
The Temple 
Fort Walls 
Water Pond 
Another Water Pond 
Inside the Fort Walls 

Friday, February 6, 2015

Bangara Kusuma Falls, Shimoga

The Waterfalls 
During one of our waterfall explorations, we were in search of MM falls located somewhere near Gerusoppa. After enjoying the Apsarakonda falls, we headed towards Shimoga in search of MM falls. On the way, we sighted a small board put up by the Karnataka Forest Department directing towards 'Bangara Kusuma Falls'. We immediately forgot about the falls we were in search of and decided to explore the current BK Falls. We parked our vehicle and started to walk, following the directions as per the sign board and in no time reached a small beautiful waterfall. We had to trek down a while to reach the falls. While we were enjoying the falls, suddenly the top tiers of the falls caught our attention! Only then did we realize that we were probably at the bottom most tier and there was much more to explore.
The Path 
Bottom Tier 
Hereon we moved towards exploring the upper tiers of the falls and reached a Y junction. At the junction was a direction board which unfortunately was fallen on the ground and wasn't fixed right. We had to choose between the two routes and taking a right, we walked for a while until we reached a small stream that lead us to another tier, probably the mid-tier of the falls. We spent a good time here and looked out for any paths leading to the upper tiers. Though the upper tier was visible, it was quite far away and there was no clear route to reach the same. Due to time constraints we had to forgo any further exploration as we also had to head towards searching the MM falls.
Bangara Kusuma Falls