ULAVI – PARADISE ON EARTH( AN UNFAMILIAR ONE)
“Yess, FINALLY! I am done with my exams. Let’s pack our bags and get going mom!”
“Yes, I shall start soon with my clothes. In the meantime, start packing snacks and juice for our long road-trip to Goa”
“Really! A road-trip?!!”
Immediately, the next day, The newspaper headlines read, “A Country-wide lock down has been imposed in lieu of the corona virus pandemic”
My expectations and amusement came crashing down. My family and I had been longing for this trip for so long now. In fact, I imagined about our journey and the magnificent places we’d see in Goa each time I was bored while studying for my exams(the so-called day-dreaming). In fact, this motivated me to study rigorously so that I can have the time of my life once my exams would get over but life had something else in store for me. I learnt a hard lesson that day that “Life doesn’t give you all you need and when it gives you lemons, you need to make Lemonade”. So here I am making my Lemonade, by writing travel blogs, highlighting my previous adventures with my family, to create Visual stimuli in order to please myself and the others who read this.
Some might argue that this pandemic has enabled people to connect more with family members but according to me, nothing beats traveling. Traveling improves the bond between you and your family and at the same time increases interaction.
Ulavi, personally a paradise on Earth for me, is enveloped inside the thick jungles of the Western Ghats. A small village that has tigers and leopards paying visit to it, more frequently than people. It’s a village that makes you one step closer to understanding the real beauty and magnificence of nature.
Before describing its beauty and salient features, a brief introduction about this place. Ulavi is a village in the Uttara Kannada district in the India state of Karnataka. It is an important center of pilgrimage for people of the Lingayat faith( a sect). The Samadhi /burial of Channabasavanna, a renowned saint of the Lingayat faith resides here. People flock in huge numbers during a specific time of the year to visit the sacred shrine and pay their homage.
There are a number of tourist attractions and trekking trails that are a sweet treat for the adventurous, but mind you, the trek is highly treacherous and tests your courage. The brave-hearts have absolutely no problem in clearing the obstacle that this place offers periodically. The thick jungles house several caves and some of them are considered sacred. We had to hire a jeep and had a wonderful and well-informed guide who took us to all the marvelous sights.
Our first sight was the Vibhuti Kanja. It’s a huge stalagmite shaped like the Shiva-ling and has water dripping from it constantly even to this day and date. After finishing the trek, we proceeded to our next destination, the Akal gavi, perhaps the most treacherous and the scariest of the lot. It is considered as the site where Basavanna did his penance and was thought to have an unending supply of milk dripping from the rocks beneath. The trek started smooth and simple but as life has thought us, ‘Appearances can be deceiving’. The path immediately trails along the bank of a river and has a great slope-gradient. This was the first time I faced a life and death situation. On one side, you had the beautiful and lush greenery of the western ghats and on the other side, you have the river flowing with all its might. The only way was front or back and we obviously went ahead. At one point, the trail became slippery and had loose rocks. One wrong step and you would go down. Our guide was probably one of the most experienced person in my opinion, who looked like he knew each and every rock and tree and could easily identify if even one was out of its place. In the end, a person has to descend into the cave one-after the other. The real bummer was I couldn’t make it beyond this because it was a vertical rock wall and a fifty-foot drop where the river descended with all its might. This was our last sight and on our way back, we encountered the Chiluve Honda, a natural hot spring where the locals cooked their rice. Though the water was not hot anymore, it did have an abundant supply of fresh water.
In terms of accommodation, the place hasn’t much to offer. One can choose to stay in the temple(provide free food to all) or a private simple hotel having only the basic amenities.
Overall, this was an amazing trip and didn’t disappoint me. It brought me a step closer to nature and understand its beauty and might and taught me how minuscule we human beings are, compared to its magnificence and might.
HAVE A NICE TRIP!
By Yasasvat Vummidi