Matunga Hill – Explore The Unexplored

Day19

We started our day quite early and headed for Matunga hill for sunrise. Venkatesh created a major scene on that day which finally delayed us for half an hour and then we tried to take a shortcut through another temple and found the gate locked there, walls were too high to jump and finally we had to wait for gatekeeper to come and unlock. The route we took perceived to be easiest not at all seems to be comfortable to me at least where we had to negotiate at least couple of tricky places where a slight loss of balance can be fatal. Not sure how so easily people get up there or get down and how that’s possible in dark, i.e. before sunrise and after sunset. Anyway once again views from top would help you to forget everything. The views of Matunga are even better as you are almost in the middle of the ruins, Achyutaraya temple is down below in East, Tungabhadra river is at North, Birupaksha Temple is at North West, Krishna Temple at West and whole Royal center at South West. It’s a feeling like being frozen in time all around. Fortunately the morning fiasco helped us to getup the hill in daylight as we were delayed but due to clouds, the sun actually came up when we were at the top. Tea was sold at Rs. 30 at top, it was mostly foreigners there with only a few Indians around. We enjoyed the morning there for almost 45 mins before we again took the same pain to get down and finally headed to Hampi Bazar for a nice breakfast with puri.

We started our visit to the Sacred centre from the Monolithic Bull – the Achutaraya – the Cartesian Road and to the kodandarama temple. From here we took a decision to take a coracle ride to the Vittala temple. It was an excellent decision though costly, cost 650 for 4 of us but the boatman took us to some nice places which otherwise difficult to access by foot. We walked back to Hampi Bazaar again and gone to hotel for food.

In the post lunch session we gone to Daroji Bear Sanctuary where we heard experiences of people watching bears but unfortunately we didn’t see any. My guess was we chose the wrong time, you should be there in the evening, the sanctuary remains open between 1.00pm to 6.00pm and we gone around 2.30 and was there till 4.00pm. The ideal time probably is between 4.00 pm to 6.00pm as I found JLR jeep entering in that time only. We had to rush as Mithun and Soumya had a train to catch from Gutti for Chennai on same night. They booked a car for that and finally started around 5.00pm from Hampi but later I heard they were just able to catch the train as the train was late for 20mins.

We continued our date with Hampi by visiting Bhima’s Gate and then finally heading for Malyavanta Hill for a sunset. The only hill in Hampi which is completely motorable but still very few people usually come here. Enjoyed a brilliant sunset as the day was clearer than the last day when we witnessed sunset from Hanuman Temple at Anegundi.

Car Odo Reading:

Kamalapur Local/ Hampi Sight Seeing / Daroji to and fro / Hospet To and Fro – Total km usage- 134

Sunrise from Matunga: