we left om beach and gokarna to turn inland towards hampi. soon we found ourselves in deep forests with just our road cutting through.
we were sweating up the hills and reached sirsi in the evening. after finding ourselves a guest house we went to the marikamba temple, one of the biggest and most popular in karnataka.
it was a big holiday and the temple was crowded with people. at first i felt a bit uncomfortable and in the way of everybody. but after some time a woman came up to us and shared some grains and fruits which she had brought as gifts for the gods. this and some words on the history of the holiday and proceedings taking place helped a lot to feel welcome though we did not take part in any of the rituals.
the next day we passed a bridge from which you could see a lot of typical scenes of india.
people taking a bath as well as the cows…
women doing the laundry and placing them on the riverbanks in the sun to dry,
while the men were cleaning the machines after use in the fields.