Road Trip to Devarayana Durga

This road trip took place on Sunday, 15th March 2015 between a small group of friends from Bangalore, Karnataka ( ie: 6 members, 3 bikes).

We had finished our graduation in 2012 and were working in different companies. Ever since our college days we had not planned for an outing. So we were chatting on Watsapp regarding the same.

Each of us had a different opinion on the spots. I had suggested for Savandurga, near Magadi, since I had not visited that place from a very long time, but others wanted to go to Nandi Hills, Skandagiri hills etc-etc. But one of my friend suggested a temple on the top of Devarayanadurga, Tumkur, Karnataka, which was about 70-75 Kms from Bangalore and an ideal place for a one day trip.

I didn't show any interest until he uttered, that he had been to that place once and witnessed a leopard crossing the road. It just sprung my ears into action and without any further comments I said yes and so did the others.

On 15th Sun, everyone were ready and friends kept on calling me. But I could not make out at 7.00 am which was fixed the previous night, instead left my home at sharp 8.00 am :-). Ma friends face had turned red but I gave them some excuses and we started our journey.....

Except me none of them had breakfast, but they did not want to have it in the city instead around the city outskirt. (dhaba I mean)

Fig:1 Dhaba on NH-4

They had parota and curry  later  tea and coffee. Since I wasn't hungry I just had a fresh tender coconut which was served by the side of the highway. Later we headed on .. moments later we found a sign board pointing towards right side of the highway. The junction(hobli) was bit jammed as as there was an accident between a car ( tata indica) and a lorry. Thank god the accident was minor and nobody was hurt. small bumps were observed on the car. The drivers were quarreling and to see that the people had gathered( a common scenario in India :-) :-)).

We did not waste time looking at the the show, we moved on until we could make out that we were trailing by 32 Km after looking at the signboard.

Fig:2 Signboard

All the way long we made fun of each other and telling stories of the past. Along the way we started seeing the old houses, with sand roofed tiles, cattle's grazing by the side of the road, people sitting near the old banyan trees, which took me to the different world. I always dreamt of  running my life in a village as a farmer than spending a hectic life in this mass society. But fate wanted me to be an engineer and work for an MNC :-( :-/...

Fig: 3 Cattle grazing around the field

Oh sorry I went off the track...

Coming back, we were closing by our destination, but I became pretty dull as we could not see any animal passing by.All we could see was cattle's and herders across the road, but could hear the chirping sounds of birds and call of a peafowl from a far distance. I told ma friends to stop by, but they weren't interested in those things. And sadly I realized that ma friends were not a great lover of Nature, animals or birds. All they wanted to show was their riding skills :-( :-(. Hmm...

As we almost reached the place, the first one to greet us were the group of macaques.

Although common in cities, I always adore them and spend some time watching at our close cousins :-)

Fig:4 Bunch of Bonnet Macaques.

We took some snap shots of  the place around and then headed towards the temple to get the darshan of Lord Yoga Narasimha. All the way through the steps (almost 500 I believe or even more). It was very cool inside and at around 12-12.15 pm we came out from the temple. And as soon as we came out the Sun was waiting to dodge us. But we went near the pond which was on the hill beside the temple, cooled ourselves. Amazing thing about the pond is that it never dries even in summer and would be there for the whole year, acting as a main source for the flora and fauna found around the hill top.

Fig:5~8, Diff  views  from top of the hill.

Around 1 pm we came to the place where we had parked our bikes. All of us were pretty hungry and I was damn hungry... But we still wanted to explore this region, so my friend told to visit Namada Chilume (spring of Tilak, believed to be shot by Lord Sri Rama with his arrow) which was around 7~8 Km from Devarayanadurga. This place is heaven for a small group of spotted dears and native birds. As the water flows from the spring through out the year, it is supporting the region around it. And also this place is well protected by local forest dept. The entry fee is just 5 Rs per head.
We spent an hour in this place took some snap shots of the deer and headed back to Bangalore with a nice experience.

Fig: 9 & 10- Group of spotted dear/ Chital grazing 

But the sad thing is that we could not spot any leopards nor bears crossing the road.

And we are planning for a road trip to BR Hills in October ;-) and I hope to see some fascinating birds & animals over there and may be share it with you guys in my upcoming blogs.

Thanks for reading and hope it was not that boring for you guys as I could not get much pictures of animals or the surroundings.

Nithin K G
INWian...