It looked like a typical lazy Sunday morning at first as I got up around 0900 hrs after my kid's birthday bash the previous evening. As I was busy brooding how to spend the day, my wife rushed in with a list of possible places to go, including Devarayanadurga, Hogenekal and the like all from around 80 to 90 km from home. All my protests were in vain as the alternative was a terrible one:- help my kid with his History and Civics! I grabbed my Ipad and did a quick check on the T-BHP forum, found some encouraging reports of road conditions to Devarayanadurga in June 2013, and decided on it right away provided we checked out by 1200 hrs from home, quite late by my standards.
So by 1207 hrs to be precise, the three of us were ready and headed off on our humble and faithful i10 on this route from our home in Rajajinagar, Bangalore. We took the Chord road- Tumkur road route, most logical to us.
All my apprehensions of heavy weekend traffic were slowly put to rest as I found I could keep 80 km/h from the start of the elevated expressway to Nelamangala and Tumkur. I relied on my GPS readings from my last visit to the place. The only pain was the 3 toll points on this short distance of 80 km itself, consuming some 20 min in all. I ended up paying a total of INR 96/- as toll for the up and down journeys together, though that seems worth it as I was at the foot of the Devarayanadurga hills by 1325 hrs itself, that is just over an hour. From my experience I find it is better to drive all the way to Hanumanthpura and exit the 6- lane expressway (AH47) as seen in the map above, rather than take the apparently shorter route via Kyatsandra and possibly get stuck at the railway crossing on this route. Road condition is between excellent to good all the way, although as one might expect, the road is rather narrow in Devarayanadurga forest.
Being a Sunday there was some expected crowd from neighboring places, but I found a comfortable parking slot for my i10.
One needs to carry enough drinking water in the car and beware of monkeys who are in plenty around the temple. Never walk before them munching on anything or you will be sorry for a shocking grab from your hands! The climb up is really enjoyable as always.
One gets a good view from the temple top as well.
The temple is small but well maintained and our darshan was done in some 20 min. Only thing is they seem to lack toilets and this would be a problem if elderly or ladies were travelling. Hope they address this need soon.
We drove down next to Bhoga Narasimha temple at the foot of the hills and post darshan there drove further down another 3 km to Namada Chilume, where Lord Rama is said to have shot an arrow into the rock to bring out water needed for His Nama (Sacred Mark on forehead), hence the name. Namada Chilume is a cool forest as well with a deer park.
After some feeding sessions for the deer (there is a guy who sells the deer's favorite nuts and celery just outside the park), it was time to head back. We were back on the expressway by 1800 hrs and touched home by 2000 hrs, thanks to night driving and a lot of traffic apparently headed back to the city.
Half a day well spent, I would say!