Hampi - 5

Coracle Ride, one of the many attractions and a must do thing in Hampi.

There are two points from where you can take the ride. One from the Hampi itself, just a km away from Virupaksha temple, and the other is from the other side of Hampi, from Sanapur Lake.

I had planned to do it from Sanapur lake, but our auto driver insisted to do it from Hampi only. And that option turned out to be the best one. The river bed is generally overflooded in rainy season as the water is released from the dam. But this time water level is less and hence the beautiful caves, the small temples carved in the rocks, the amazing places where the Rushi-Muni used to seat for days to meditate are visible.

The water level is dropped by 30ft than the usual once and hence all these secret locations can be seen. Other days also, the water depth is very deep and rumoured to have crocodiles in it.

The best part of the ride is when the dingi passes from below a rock. The rock is so low that you literally have to sleep in the coracle. It feels so scary and adventurous. Am posting a video of it.

It’s around a 45 mins ride. Riding through the river passing through the Huge boulders gives a beautiful view and experience. From here you can see the Anjaney Parvat, the said to be the birth place of Bajarang Bali.

On the bank of the river, there is one lord Ram temple, only temple having Sugriva instead of Hanuman ji.

The nearby parvats were the hiding place of Sugriva when Vali threatened to kill him. All great mythological stories had to be heard in broken hindi from the helmsman.
Overall a very good experience and just cannot be missed.