Day 25 : 30 Jan 2014 : Kumta to Shiroor : 75 kms

Welcome at the School..

The Gopuram of the temple at Murudeshwar

The second largest Shiva Statue in the world (dont know which is the largest though)

Shiva!!! Anita, Nikoi, Krishna

Each day brings with it something surprising and beautiful and today it was Murudeshwar, which has the second largest Shiva statue in the world. Today is also the birthday of little Vinayak and it is his first birthday... Happy birthday Vinayak!!! I’m sure his dad and sis are missing him...

We started off as usual around 6.30 am (we’ve been waiting for it to get a little brighter so as to avoid dangers on the road) and the road was more or less flat. Did not really have too many uphills like we have been all these days. There have been mild ups and downs, but nothing touch. Half the team went off ahead, as they were used to it through the ghats and the other half stayed back with the slower members. When the rear team reached near Murudeshwar, initially we just continued ahead as we just wanted to reach our destination early. But we saw that the temple was only 2 kms from the main road and we could see the tall Gopuram as well as the Shiva Statue from the Highway and decided to make the detour. We figured another hour will not really bother us. And we were so happy that we made that decision. The location of Murudeshwar is amazingly beautiful. The temple is situated on a strip of land that goes out into the ocean and one can see the ocean all around.

After a quick darshan we headed back towards the main road and started cycling. The Faster group had already reached Green Valley School, Shiroor, by that time. It took us another 2 hours to reach (also because we had to take a 45 mins break to speak with a reporter who met us in Bhatkal).

This school took our breath away. The truly international ambience in the middle of nowhere. Green Valley School Shiroor, is headed by Mr John Matthew and his wife Mrs Mathew and both of them are such wonderful people with a great vision. We spent a lot of time with them and it was a pleasure.

As soon as we reached, we finished a quick lunch and immediately had a presentation for the children. They were all very impressed with the team and the presentation that was made and a lot of them came up and spoke with us after.

We stayed at the girls hostel and felt like we were living in 5 star luxury. Great food and great hospitality.