trek to Hanumana Kote - part 2

...continued from barefoot trek to Hanumana Kote - part 1.

It was an hour long trek from Lalguli to Hanumanakote. This place gets its name from the idol of Hanuman and remains of an incomplete fort here.

This idol is said to be installed by the XV & XVI Century Madhwa Guru Vysatheertha. The idol is made of dark stone, its about 4' tall. Do see the description of this idol my friend Ravi Varkoor in this post- Hanumana Kote.

After paying respects to Lord Hanuman, we go the other side of the gateway. The place was covered with lot of vegetation, no point going into the bushes. Deepak wanted to see river Kali. The conditions weren't favorable to explore river Kali... 1. difficult to find the way through the vegetation, 2. even if we found the way, the rocks would be too slippery, and 3. water from the dam can be released anytime which flows down here. The other thing was insects, we'll get taunted by jungle pests if we hung around long. We decided to head back and spend time at the stream.

We crossed the bridge and came down to the stream bed. I went down little further to escape the bright sunlight. This jungle is so thick, air hardly moves in here. Not a good idea to remain stationary in sunlight in sultry conditions. Rest of them were sitting in the sun close to the water, they too moved into the shade.

Raghu had got homemade jackfruit chips. They tasted so nice, not like the ones available at shops. I don't know if its way its made or because of the ingredients. Raghu and Deepak's were still engrossed in their talk about stocks. Pushpa was busy munching chips. Durga was sulking after a talk with Deepak. Our little friend Partha was lost in his own world, he never once bothered Raghu or anyone else.

I walked further down checking out the rocks. Lot of interesting shapes. We found one that was shaped like a pickaxe, not sure if its natural or if its a manmade prehistoric tool. Pushpa too had found lot of stones shaped like this or that. However, we took just three of them.

It was noon. Heat and humidity was rising by the minute, which can cause dehydration. We decided to head back so that we be home for lunch. The return trek was kind of faster because all of us wanted to reach home quickly and rest. On reaching Lalguli, we stopped at Raghu's cousin Sriram's place. I'd met Sriram in 2010 when we went in search of Lalguli waterfalls. A glass of butter-milk felt so refreshing after the trek. A picture together before we said bye. 

At Raghu's place, we freshened up, had a tasty meal of rice, sambar, curds, pickle and hapla. Hapla were two types- white and yellowish, jackfruit pulp was the basic ingredient for both. Partha barely ate. Wondering where he drew energy from. After lunch we sat down for a session of yeli-adki with Raghu's grandfather. During the previous visit, Malatesh had tripped on grandfather's belli sunna thambak dabbi. It's a cylindrical box with two chambers and two lids. Sunna means lime and thambak is tobacco. It also had a small poker which was attached to the bod with a small chain. The poker is used to dig out lime. When I sat down for yeli-adki session, the first thing I did was look for the dabbi. Yeah, it was there and I took lime from it.

We rested for sometime. Soon it was tea time. Raghu suggested we all go the stream which was 15 minutes walk from home. The same group headed to the stream, with Partha leading us again.

The trip to the stream had a surprise element. There was a check dam. This channel of water is diverted to Raghu's farm which is supplied to half a dozen homes there.

The dam was overflowing. Raghu and Partha walked on the overflowing part of the dam. Rest of us opted to stay out of water because of shoes. The terrain is rough, see the jagged rocks in the stream bed.

The dam is approximately 200' wide and the hold back quite a pool of water.

Pushpa and I clambered over rocks and got here to see the stream continue its journey. With regular rains, streams had turned muddy.

This pond is below the check dam. A few men on the opposite shore were fishing with wires and hooks. There seems to be a hamlet on the other side.

While we explored the surroundings, Partha was in his own world... I think he was discovering a new genre of dancing. May be I'll dedicate a post to his pictures which are 50 or 60 of them. He's acrobatic. Never once did he slip or jerk. To me it seemed like random movements but he seems to have them planned.

It was my suggestion to leave early so that we reach Dharwad while its still light. We headed back home. Pushpa spotted the dragonfly on the dam and the hairy creature was on a tree trunk.

Back home, I we took a few group pictures. The person on the extreme right is Raghu's uncle.

One shot from the ladies side. The little one is there with her mom.

I thought we would be leaving. Realized we didn't have drinking water, so asked Pushpa to fill up the bottle. She went it. That's it.. instead I went in. Someone called me to taste jack fruit. I go the backyard, the girls have settled down in front of a freshly cut jack fruit placed on banana leaves. Great! I got pulled into the party... it was a self-service system, pull out your own pieces. Sweet and juicy stuff. After a dozen or so, I had to force myself  to stop and get up. Then Raghu went to fetch some more for Dharwad / Bangalore. Along with the jackfruit, Pushpa got curry leaves, pappad and chips. We loaded everything into the Duster. Then we chatted some more. It was past 6 pm when we started the Duster to leave. We promised Raghu to come again for a two day stay here and said bye. We reached Dharwad by 7-45 or so... A wonderful day it was. I felt good to have brought two families together :)

The bare feet trek had had a nice effect on my soles... a mild burning sensation which was pleasant. The skin felt smooth and soft. I felt we must walk bare-feet often. The direct contact with earth is needed for good health.
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