Destination Horanadu

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Blast from past!
How can a trip with family not include visit to temple. So after Belur and Halebid, we embarked on the great rumbling and tumbling road trip across the western ghat. If it wasn't for the wonderful scenery , I would not recommend the journey to anyone. The torrential rains along with the pathetic roads took us to Horanadu in chikmagalur district.



 Interestingly I always thought coffee plantations covered majority of chikmagalur. But we came across some stretches of tea plantations. We also came across many school kids happily  walking back home, sometimes two-three of them sharing one umbrella without raincoats, least bothered about the cats and dogs showering on them. We under the cozy protection of the car had mixed feeling seeing the kids this way. Hats or should I say umbrella off to them!!!
For some reason most Hindu temples are located in the most scenic locations high up on mountains and hills. Horanadu is no different. We checked into Durgamba lodge which was typical of lodging at temple towns except that it was bearable as it was relatively new. But the view from the room was out of the world. If it was a resort, we would have certainly paid lot more than Rs 500/- a night.





Horanadu is home to Goddess Annaporneshwari . Literally translated it means fulfiller of rice. There is a legend here that anyone who has the prasad here will never go hungry!! The temple is in typical style of the temples in the western ghats with its Mangalore roof.
As the temples serves all the three meals in a day as prasad, there are very few basic options for restaurants in this area. The best choice is to have the prasad at the temple's immaculately clean dining hall. The temple serves the most amazing tasteful prasad of steaming hot rice, sambar, rasam,buttermilk and a sweet payasam irrespective of caste creed gender or financial status of the person. It was a humbling experience for me as I was part of something like this for the first time.


Location: Horanadu, Karnataka
Date of travel : November 2010

Tip: Always carry rain protection while traveling in the western ghats even if it is post monsoons
Must do:  Experience  Maha Mangalarthi  and offer rice at the temple.
First: Be part of community dining experience at the temple.

Location: Horanadu, Karnataka 577181, India

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