Devaramane: A Heavenly Delight

[It's a travel and photo blog. If you wish to just see pics, slowly scroll down]

With a ray of hope that I would get the bus to Devaramane soon, I got down at Mudigere bus station around 9:45AM. I rushed to a nearby bus and asked its conductor, “Bhaiya! Devaramane ki bus kaha pe milegi?” He looked at his watch and said, “Devaramane bus 15 minute pahle nikal gaya.” With a saddened face, hurriedly I asked, “Next bus kitne baje milegi?”. With uncertainty he looked at his watch again and told, "Shayad next bus 1:45PM ko hai. Udhar jakar TC (Traffic Controller) se puchho.” With hastened steps I walked up to the end of the bus station and found a tin-sheet cabin. I asked the man in Khaki uniform sitting there (assuming him as TC) the same question. This guy seems to be only Kannada speaking and could not understand my query in Hindi. I tried to translate my query in Kannada and asked again, “Devaramane bus esto ghante?” Unfortunately his reply was also the same as of the last guy. A wait of 4 hours for a bus- This idea was devastating to me and not at all acceptable. I started thinking some other options to reach to Devaramane. While searching about Devaramane on internet few days ago, I had read about a place called Guthi, which was around 25 kilometers from Mudigere and on the way to Devaramane. I turned back to the TC and asked about the Guthi bus. And there was a positive response this time. There was bus for Guthi at 11:45AM. I decided to reach till there and walk/trek the remaining 6 km. to Devaramane.

Before taking you further in this travel, let me set the background about why I chose to visit Devaramane. Few days back in office, after having a good lunch, I was searching the details about the Kodachadari trek. One of my Kannadiga colleagues, Shashidhar who sits beside me, told about Devaramane. Few days back he read about this place in a news paper. The fact that attracted me to this place was, a violet- blue colored flower that blossoms once in 12 years and this year was one of them. This flower can be seen on the hills surrounding Devaramane. When this flower blossoms, it gives a violet-blue texture to the hills which must be a great treat to the eyes. Curiously I searched about the place and the flower. The flower is named Neelakurinji and is the reason why Neelgiri range of Western Ghats got its name. Google images were stunning and naturally this place became coveted for me.

After not-so-boring wait of one and half hour bus started at 11:50AM to Guthi. I got the front seat as usual because this place gives me enough space to keep my relatively bigger backpack. The conductor, who seemed interested in talking with me, came and sat on other side of the aisle after issuing tickets to all passengers. The conductor preferred to use his broken Hindi to communicate with me. During my previous conversation with the driver and conductor, I had conveyed that I would walk/trek the distance from Guthi to Devaramane. The conductor gave a keen look at my backpack and asked me, “isme kya kya hai?” I briefly replied,” camping tent, sleeping bag, camera bag, tripod, first aid kit, rain gears and some clothes”. With a smile using his right hand, he tried to lift the backpack kept on his adjacent seat. His smiling face turned into a stretched one as he could not lift it comfortably in the air. He ended up with a big grin and kept it back on the seat. He asked me that the way is full of steep ascents, how I am going to climb up with this heavy bag. I just smiled and didn’t reply anything. With a burst of laughter he did some chatter with the driver in Kannada that went over my head.

Around halfway to Guthi, I saw a group of people following a desi music band through the front glass of the bus. I sprang to my bag for getting the camera out. The conductor guessed my intention rightly and asked the driver to slow down the bus. As soon as bus reached the tail of the small procession, I started clicking images. In first shot I got few of the ladies from the group. In the next shot there was a lady in red cloths with face covered with long, black hair hanging till waist. A garland made of yellow flowers and green leaves was hanging around her neck. She was also holding a stick in her right hand which seemed to be a divine stick for her. Right to her was standing an elderly man in white, firmly holding a heavy sword.

After this shot, I moved my eyes away from the camera viewfinder and looked out of the window. The lady was presenting quite a scary and witch look. The man in white walking beside her already saw me clicking her image and seemed not happy with it. Sword raised in hand, aggressively he took few steps forward toward my window. The driver who was also looking out at the scene, anticipated the man’s move and accelerated the bus. For some time I was in shock thinking what went wrong. May be clicking the image of the lady was not acceptable to him. I asked about it to conductor but he seemed quite reluctant to the incident and asked me not to worry about it.
Soon bus was running on a narrow and broken tar road giving frequents bumps to the passengers. Passing through many ascents and descents I witnessed few good landscapes.

After a drive of an hour bus reached to Guthi bus stop and driver had to take a left turn to reach to its destination. But he didn’t take the turn and kept driving for around half a kilometer and stopped. Conductor asked me to get down and showed me the way to Devaramane. While getting down from the bus I understood that the driver drove for extra half kilometer to save some of my energy. I was quite surprised and impressed with his kind and friendly gesture and thanked him. The conductor along with other passengers wished me a safe journey ahead. Conductor also asked me to be careful and watch around for elephants as they might be found near the road that leads to Devaramane. Swaying my hand I bid them good bye as the bus turned around and started for its final destination leaving back some good memory and dust in the air.

Now I was all alone and on my own. I rearranged my backpack keeping the frequently needed things into my small sling bag for fast access. Hoisting the backpack and fitting the waist & chest straps, I started my exciting walk on the solitary road around 12:50PM. A 10 minutes of brisk walk on a nearly flat road and I saw the first ascent in the road. It was about a 45 degree ascent and I was going to get more of them. With my prior experience I knew how these steep trudges will suck your energy fast. I looked around searching for a potential walking stick. I got a candidate for it and with the help of my knife I shaped it into a workable walking stick. Around this area a view of beautiful and refreshing coffee plantation took my attention. Coffee plants were laden with green and young coffee beans. This was the first time I saw coffee beans so close, I could touch them, pluck few of them.

40 minutes of walk and I was able to cover a distance of 2 kilometers. In front of me now the road was forked and the right leg of the fork was leading to Devaramane.

Just beside the road, there was a stream flowing. My water bottle was empty and it was the right place to fill it with clear stream water.

I walked on for a few minutes and was surprised with the splendid view of Western Ghats. To my left there was a descent from the road which ended into a valley and then there were multiple layers of hills clad in green. I just said WOW to myself and clicked some of the beauties.

This was the first time an SUV passed by me. Almost everyone in the vehicle turned back and gazed at me. I smiled and bid them bye swaying my right hand. The view around was refreshing and with steady steps I walked for the next surprise. One after the other few more vehicles passed by, with people inside taking a surprised glance at me.

Breathing heavy after a steep ascent, I just stopped for a quick recovery and a car from opposite direction paused by me. A family of 4 people was inside. A middle-aged man from inside asked, “Are you trekking to the temple”.
“Yes”, I replied taking a long breath.“How many people?”, He fired his next query.“Alone”. My single word answer excited the boy (probably his son) on the rear seat and he exclaimed, “WOW”.Hearing my answer the man drove away suddenly without uttering a word. The incident left me with a smile and a question. The person who looked keen in having a chat suddenly drove away, why? The boy in the car kept gazing and waving back at me till his car took a right turn and vanished out of my sight.

The next 2 kilometers of distance was having multiple steep ascents and some spectacular landscapes. Pausing by many view points and witnessing the incredible beauty of Western Ghats, it took almost an hour to cover these 2 kilometers. 

I crossed the milestone showing 2 kilometers to Devaramane at around 2:30PM. The remaining way was almost flat with few descents of low angle. Few more minutes of walk and I got first sight of a walking human. Holding an umbrella and a small bag he was coming from Devaramane.

“Devaramane esto door?”, I asked hastily stopping by him.“Ondu kilometer”,“OK”, I told and kept walking. Around 3:00PM I saw the first home from far and assumed that the Devaramane village is soon going to arrive. Five minutes of walk and I was at Landmark saying Devaramane. 

From here the sight of The Kalabhairava Temple was in view. The road I was walking on was full of both dried and fresh cow dung. After getting near to the temple I got the reason behind it, as many of the cows were roaming, grazing and lying down around the temple.

Standing in front of the temple, I took a deep breath. A thousand year old temple with a lake fronting it surrounded by hills with green and violet texture greeted me with quite a picturesque view. Air was so fresh that I wish I had two more lungs to get the air pumped in faster. My thoughts were broken with the bell sound coming out of the temple. A few moments later a family of four and the priest came out of the temple.

With the help of one of that family members I spoke to priest and a near by guide named Kushalappa for assistance in trekking the surrounding hills. Kushalappa, not so interested in assisting, demanded ₹1500 for the trek which I politely refused and offered him ₹500. This deal did not work out. I thanked the guy and they departed.

Feeling the deep silence around me, I realized that the Devaramane was just having 4-5 houses which where kind of big huts. I started clicking some pictures of the surrounding hills. Few minutes passed by, I saw the priest whose home was close by the temple, going for a walk. I approached him and tried to speak in Kannada with help of android app Kannada Barute. While speaking, I was able to understand that he was going to repair the pipe through which water comes from the top of the hill to the temple. I walked along with him and reached to the point of pipe breakage. I assisted him in fixing the leaking pipe. While walking back I asked, if I could camp in temple premise and he was all good with it.

Priest fixing the water pipe

Reaching to the temple, I dropped my backpack and washed my face, neck and hands with the tap water. While pat-drying my face I saw a group of three young men getting down a car in front of temple. They seemed interested in talking to me. Most of them were engineering graduates and that made the communication easier for me. Shiva, Vishwas and Praveen, as they told their names, were college friends and seemed to be good and interesting guys. They suggested me to trek the surrounding hills myself instead of searching a guide. We roamed around the near by hills and clicked some pictures. By this time everywhere around was getting foggy and dark and they departed.

Shiva and Praveen

It was around 6:30PM and I walked back to the temple planning to set my tent when there was still some daylight left. I took the tent and accessories out of my backpack and spread on the cemented ground to the left of the core temple building.

Perhaps it was time for cleaning inside the temple and arati of the deities, I saw the priest coming in through the small gate. He pointed to the cloudy sky and told me to better sleep under the hood area of the temple which was also secured with iron grills. It was hills and forests all around there might also be the sighting of the wild animals. I liked his idea and wrapped already spreading tent back.

The Kalabhairava Temple Deity

Now it was completely dark. Cleaning and arati was over. The priest gave me an apple and few bananas to eat. He locked the door under the temple hood and asked me to lock the iron grill gate. I wished him good night and locked the gate. Folding the tent tarpaulin, I made my bed on the plain rock floor. I was feeling hungry and had packed idly and chatni. Also ate few banana given by the priest. I was dead tired and fell asleep quickly.

Preparing to sleep under temple hood

Sweet sound of chirping birds awake me next morning. It was 6:30AM. I got fresh and backed my stuffs back and started my trekking. I planned my trek in such a way that I will reach back to Guthi village before 1:00PM. Bus from Guthi to Mudigere was at 1:30PM.

Next 3-4 hours I roamed on the hills and hillocks alone like a wanderer. No one in sight anywhere. View all around was astonishing. A boundless vistas of green and violet hills untouched by the human hands, spreading in all directions. They formed a beautiful a layer flavored with fresh mist all around. This splendid view could be from heaven. It was impossible to capture the nature’s beauty in a man made camera.

Neelakurinji bud

A house in Devaramane

Neelakurinji Flower

Unfortunately I had to return leaving all these behind. At around 10:30AM, I started back to the Guthi village. Since the way back was either flat or a descend, walk was faster and reached the village at around 12:30PM. On the way back, thinking about each moment passed in last 24 hours made me feel content and joyful. It was indeed an achievement for me.

PS. I did this travel back in October 2014