Boating at vypin

last week we were lucky enough to have a boating from vypin through sea for about four hours.Sea birds in large numbers following the boat was an unbelievable sight during the journey.We  also got the beautiful sight of LNG terminal and vallarpadam, the prestigious projects of Kochi ./ Kerala

Some photos of the journey  posted 

                            Vypin :- one among a group of islands, that form part of the city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala, India. The island is about 27 km long. Vypin is connected to mainland Kochi by a series of bridges known as the Goshree Bridges.
                       The northern tip of Vypin (Munambam) has the largest fishing harbor in Kochi , the Munambam Fishing Harbor. Recently Puthuvype is became the major industrial hub in Kerala .
India’s first international container trans-shipment terminal (ICTT) in the Special Economic Zone at Vallarpadam Island, designed to handle the largest container ships,is opened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on February 11, 2011.
Now Vypin is a fast-developing suburb of the Kochi City. Today all basic infrastructures for modern living are available in Vypin. Njarakkal is the business capital of Vypin. Travellers from North Kerala use the Vypin-Munambam state highway to reach Ernakulam.

Kollur   Mookambika Temple - Kudajadri & Murdeswar

                 

                         Journey to Mookambika Devi temple was only planned four days before the trip.We started from Trivandrum at 5 Am in the morning in my sisters Wagon R Car without knowing any seriousness of the trip,calculating that we can reach Kollur by late in the night.But the present day Kerala road traffic condition only allowed us to reach Kasargod by 10 in the Night..We took our supper from a Restaurant  at Kasargod and started  searching  for  a hotel convenient for our family stay. Most of the hotels were full at that time since there was a conference of  a political party the very next day.At last due to gods grace we got two rooms in a decent hotel by 11.30 night.

                         The next day at 5 Am we started to Kollur. By 10 am we reached there, rooms were booked early In a hotel and the famous and respected Nrasimha Adigas family was there offering so much help to  us .By the after Noon we hired a Jeep only for five of us and started to kudajadri . Very hard journey for the last 11 kms ( total 37 kms) even in four wheel drive jeep.By 7 in the night we returned to kollur. 

  

                         .The next day morning we started to Murdeswar the famous Shiva temple by the sea side. It was a stunning experience,the sight of 38 feet shiva statue took us to another world of Ecstasy.The Gopura (Tower) in front of the statue,different temples painted in golden colors, Coffee house protruding towards the sea ,The.sculptures designed at the basement of the shiva statue narrating the story of Murdeswara (with audio) etc will attract any visitor.we also went to the sixteenth floor of the gopura in a lift. The sight from the top was so amazing with clouds floating so much beneath your legs.We started our return journey to Trivandrum at  almost 2 PM  and took a halt at Kozhikode .and in the next day morning started our drive to Trivandrum .Altogether we have covered almost 1900 kms in our three days journey.This journey stands as a  heavy driving experience in my travels.

                                          Photos posted below

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Mookambika.

Kollur also called Kollapura one of the important places of pilgrimage in Karnataka State, which has a temple dedicated to Mookambika.

The goddess is called Mookambika as she is said to have slain the demon Mookasura. The goddess is described as in the form of a jyotirlinga incorporating both Shiva and Shakti. The panchaloha image of the goddess on Shri Chakra is stated to have been consecrated by Sri Aadi Sankaracharya.

Kodachadri

Kodachadri forms a background to the famous temple of Mookambika in KollurIt is located at a distance of 21 km from Kollur and 15 km from Nagodi village, in Hosanagara . There are different routes to reach the Peak of Kodachadri and the difficulty varies highly with respect to the route chosen.

The shola Forests and thick forest cover Kodachadri and the nearby hills and the place has a cool and beautiful landscape. The forest of Kodachadri and nearby hills is tropical rain forest as seen all along Western Ghats

Sarvajna Peeth is a small temple like structure near the peak where Adi Sankara meditated. This small structure bears a name which is similar to Sarvajñapīṭha, also called Sharada Peeth of Jammu and Kashmir. which was visited by Adi sankara during his long spiritual journey, where he defeated other scholars in philosophical debate and opened the southern door of the temple. Another temple is located near travellers' bungalow and is believed to be the moola sthana (the origin) of  Sri Mookambika devi. From this spot, it is a 2 km trek to the peak. Just below the peak, an almost vertical path leads to a small cave called Chitramoola, from where the Mookambika temple of Kollur is visible.