The Bahubali Statue at Ratnagiri

On a hill a short distance from the temple stands a thirty-nine foot monolithic statue of Bahubali, carved from a single block of granite at Karkala and installed here in 1973 - a reminder that the family running this Shiva temple is Jain, and a substantial piece of modern monolithic sculpture in its own right. The climb up Ratnagiri is short and the view over the valley and the river is the reward. Visit in the late afternoon. It takes under an hour including the walk and it is the second thing most visitors do here.

The Manjusha and Car Museums

Manjusha is the temple museum and it is a genuinely good one - sculpture, coins, manuscripts, textiles, weapons and craft objects gathered over decades, well displayed and far more substantial than a temple museum has any obligation to be. Separately, and unexpectedly, the temple maintains a vintage car museum with a collection of pre-war and mid-century vehicles, some of them of real rarity. Visit both in a couple of hours between darshan sessions; the car museum in particular delights people who arrived expecting only a temple.

The Nethravathi

The river runs below the town and bathing in it before darshan is the traditional sequence, with ghats and changing facilities at the bank. The Nethravathi rises in the Ghats above Sakleshpur and meets the Kumaradhara at Uppinangady on the road in, which is worth noting as you cross it. Visit in the early morning when the ghats are busy with pilgrims and the light on the water is at its best. Conditions vary with the season and the flow after monsoon rain can be strong, so follow local direction rather than assuming.

Kukke Subramanya

Around sixty kilometres away, Kukke Subramanya is the other great shrine of this district and the two are almost always visited together. Subramanya is worshipped here in the form associated with serpents, and the temple is the principal place in South India for the Sarpa Samskara and Ashlesha Bali rituals performed for Naga Dosha - which brings pilgrims from across the country on specific dates. Visit in the morning. Ritual bookings are made with the temple directly, run to their own calendar and fill well in advance, so plan the vehicle around whatever slot you secure rather than the other way round.

Southadka, Ujire and the Falls

Southadka, around twenty-five kilometres away, is a Ganapathi shrine with no roof and no walls - the deity stands in an open field and the offering is coconut and grass, which makes it one of the more unusual temples in Karnataka and a quiet counterpoint to Dharmasthala. Ujire, eight kilometres from the temple, is the local town and the base for the trek to Bandaje falls, a demanding day through forest to a hundred-metre drop. Didupe falls is easier. Visit Southadka in the morning; for the falls, go between July and December when there is water and check trek arrangements locally.