Just Tripping!: Sanapur Lake - A Visual Wonderland

The incredible pre-historic art of Onake Kindi is still playing in your mind as we make our way through paddy fields and banana orchards. The setting sun has doused the loose boulder hills with gold in Anegundi. Muniswamy, your guide and driver for the day, has planned another surprise for you. It was in Anegundi that the story of one of the greatest kingdoms, the Vijaynagar Empire, began and whose well-known evocative ruins in the village of Hampi across the Tungabhadra River brings in the tourists. But it is here in Anegundi that real surprises await the traveller.

The Atmospheric Sanapur Lake near Anegundi, Karnataka

And then you hear the water sloshing. We are driving along an embankment when a wave crashes over the wall and splashes the motor cycle rider in front! After walking through episodes of Ramayana, pre-historic men and ancient history now is the time for some R&R. Has Muniswamy brought you to sea-side in the middle of boulder strewn hills in Central Karnataka?

Climbing the embankment, you are greeted with the most incredulous sight. Gently lapping waves catch the hues of the setting sun. Similar looking boulder hills in the distance create a scintillating setting that you have grown to love around Anegundi. Tungabhadra River that meanders around the boulders, creating picture post-card scenes at every bend, was the only water body you had seen here. Tucked out of sight among the hills is the Sanapur Lake, created by the reservoir of Tungabhadra Left Canal. The scenes are to die for – on one side is the golden sunset over water and on the other side rolling paddy fields with the boulders forming a common brilliant backdrop.

Sanapur Lake, Anegundi

The road further up winds around big irregular shaped boulders lining both sides of the road. Warnings are painted on the rocks prohibiting visitors from swimming – there could be crocodiles in the waters! At this point the lake flows downstream through a barrage. The road going to Rangapur village continues ahead and soon disappears among the boulders.

For incredible photos of Sanapur Lake, please visit the link:

Sublime Sunset and Magical Sunrise over Sanapur Lake

You are in a visual wonderland. Every way you look, the sun, the waters, the boulders merge to create a harmonious alliance. You are in the middle of a visual symphony that changes colour and form every minute. Wonderstruck you sit on a boulder as the visual strains fill the evening sky. The water has turned into molten gold. All around it is supremely peaceful and serene. There is just the sound of lapping water and a divine setting for company. This is not the world you come from. This is the time when the mind goes silent on its own and nature takes over.

Few locals have arrived for fishing. Downstream, amid the upturned coracles, the indigenous contraptions used as boats, lines are cast with live worms as bait. You are reeled in by the unfolding scenes. Humans have entered the orchestra of nature. The symphony is in its third movement form.

The excitement levels are just going up a notch. In the eastern sky, the moon has tiptoed into the symphony. Things are rapidly turning even more wondrous. The lake in the west is golden while the stream in the east is turning silvery. Elements are entering the symphony even as it reaches its last movement to a triumphant finale. You are witnessing a glorious evening in your favourite village of Anegundi.

The evening darkens. It is time to say good bye to Sanapur and Anegundi. You feel a connection to Anegundi and its times from mythology to present times. Anegundi is a wish fulfilled that was never wished for. You look up to the sky to say thanks. Wait a minute – is that a shooting star? This is the magic of Anegundi – the wish gets fulfilled even before asked for.

Getting There: Anegundi is across the Tungabhadra River from Hampi, the site of evocative ruins of the glorious Vijaynagar Empire. Sanapur is about nine kms from Anegundi on the way to Hospet in Karnataka.

The story appeared in the December 2016 issue of Rail Bandhu, the on-board magazine of Indian Railways

http://railbandhu.in/sanapur-lake/

https://issuu.com/maxposure/docs/rb_dec_16-low_res/73