Another Weekend... This time wanted to go for 200 KM trip. Goggled many blogs for travelogues, finally found these Divine places perfectly for my trip.
Places Visited : Koti Lingeswara Swamy Temple, Ramalingeswara Temple and Lava-Kusa Hill
Route:
1) Whitefield - Kolar - bangarapet - Koti Lingeswara Swamy Temple : 100 KM
2) Koti Lingeswara Swamy Temple - Avani : 21 KM
while return : Avani - NH4 directly - kolar - hoskote - whitefiled : 96 KM
Distance Travel (Round trip) : 217 KM
Trip Time : 7 AM - 5 PM
Road condition :
Once you go-off from NH-4, complete road is village single road.
Kolar - bangarapet - koti linga Temple road is excellent, moderate traffic but many speed bumps near to villages and crossings.
From koti linga Temple to Avani, I took short-cut route as shown in map below instead of lengthy main road given by GMAP. Around 5 KM road condition is worse.... not even shifted to 3rd gear and took nearly 30 mins for 5 KM. Suggested you to go by main road as per GMAP.
Koti Lingeswara Swamy Temple :
Morning started at 7 AM with my colleague/friend without breakfast...thought of having tasty village food near temple. Reached Temple at 9 AM without any break other than GMAP checking. Route is simple direct road and directions given for Temple all the way from Bangarapet. Parking is GOOD, looks like lot of people come everyday.... parking fee only for 4-wheeler.
Wrong thing we did is not having breakfast in the village. Few small hotels available inside the temple compound. We went to one of the hotel and ordered idly first... I am full hungry.... thought of ordering dosa next. He said no chutney as no power from 4 days... what the hell.... We just had 2 idly with sambar ... sambar is worse.... yaak..... all my epithet gone with that taste.
Ticket cost for temple entrance is 20/- per person. Camera ticket is high ...100/-. Inside no security to check camera ticket but few photo studio guys not allowing anybody to take photos without ticket, but not objecting for mobile camera. I am not talking about temple and 1 crore lingas.... instead below pics talks to you. Nearly 1 Hr spent in Temple and started to Avani at10:15 AM.
108 ft shiva lingam:
35 ft Nandi:
Avani : ( Ramalingeswara Temple and Lava-Kusa Hill )
Ramalingeswara Temple:
Reached Avani in 1 Hr through the horrible road which I choose madly. Avani is a small village having less than 100 houses. First reached Ramalingeswara Temple. No parking place here and not many people surrounding including villagers. There is no shoe stand, we can leave at the side of the entrance, nothing to worry. No entry fee for the Temple/Hill.
Temple architecture is simply superb. Priest briefed about the temple as no devotees in the temple at that time. Temple constructed 1400 years ago by Chola king. Look at the beauty of temple in below pics. Around 30 mins we spent in temple. Lava-kusa Hill is walkable from Temple.
Lava-Kusa Hill:
There is one small shop opposite to temple... thought of buying some biscuits, but again thought there will be good shops on the top of the Hill There is no shoe stand near the Hill. One point I should mention here .... this path is like real hill climbing unlike famous temples with good security and roads to the top of the hill. I don't see a single person other than one priest at the top of the Hill temple. I heard guides are available to explain the history, but we don't see any one .....maybe we went at wrong time.
We kept our shoes behind one big rock secretly and started climbing steps. Initial few steps are made with separate stones and arranged neatly but step size is bigger. Later some 100+ steps are carved on the steep hill. After reaching to mostly end of it.. nearly 80+ steps....something wrong with my friend... We haven't had food other than 2 idly and traveled nearly 120 KM and walked so much.... now climbing steep hill. He settled on the middle way only and not able to move single step. Waited for 10 mins.... I told him if we can climb 20 more steps we can reach top and we can find some food... but he was not able to move single step. So I decided to go down and get some food without even thinking of climbing for next 20 steps. Dropped back pack with him and returned to Temple place where I saw small shop. No patience to wear shoes so...walked with barefoot.
Took some biscuits and maaza bottle and started climbing fast.... That's the mistake I did.... I can hear my heart beat after climbing half way and my legs started vibrating. I just stood for 5 mins to take the breath... Now felt like I am not able to move a single step, but somehow I managed and reached slowly. by the time my friend recovered and climbed the other 20+ steps. we settled for 15 mins under a big stone to finish the snacks. Now we got fully charged and ready to move.
We looked at the surroundings... entire place is covered with huge stones....temple is not visible from there. We saw valmiki cave/temple... where valmki had written ramayan and sita had given birth to lava-kusa. Now got little confused where to go ? tried all the paths finally found one. We saw the temple over the top of the hill and it's a long way to climb. Time is 12:30 PM and no one is going up other then us. Stones are getting hot and we are sweating like anything. we took another 2 halts before reaching to the top. We climbed total of 694 steps totally ( we did counting while return) and a lot walked on steep stones. minimum of 3 halts required for any person. We reached top of the hill temple, its so simple and other than one Priest no one there. we took another 10 mins rest after darsan and visited few historic stones on top.
There is no food/water available on top even no Prasad, started going down at 1:30 PM. Stones are burning with sun light and we can't stand for 2 secs at one place. But we were able to move fast without any halts other than photo pose. In the midway, we need to walk on sand path... that's really horrible like a fire-walking and we saw the real GOD. within 20 mins we reached to base of the Hill and shoes are safe :).
Steep Hill steps :
People say : If you pray by arranging the stones like this, your wish will come true
People say: This is the place where sita gave birth to Lava-Kusa and valmiki wrote ramayan..
Sita temple on top of Hill:
Sita kept ornaments in this rock, key to open the rock is Hanuman finger through a hole....
When Sita not able to resist the stomach pain, rolled over this rock and stone got bent......
Few random pics:
It's not some baba.....Thats me :)
There are few shiva lingas placed next to the Hill place, 1 minute walk. Took few pics and left. From this place Ramalingeswara Temple view is good.
Entire journey having few side kicks but stored lot of beautiful memories from all 3 places. worth of watching. So guys, if you are planning to go.... remember below points:
1) Carry food from home.
2) First go to Avani and then to Koti Lingeswara Swamy Temple if you are starting at early morning. so that you can avoid hot stone climbing. If you are planing from afternoon then first go to Koti Lingeswara Swamy Temple and then in the evening go to Avani, so that you can avoid hot stones and also you can enjoy the sunset from hill view.
3) Try to get guide at the hill otherwise it will be just like a hill walk.
4) From Koti Lingeswara Swamy Temple to Avani, take main road instead of short cut like I mentioned in my route map.
5) Be ready to bare leg (gastrocnemius muscle) pain for next 2 days... why not, if you climb 1400+ steps in a single day.
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