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A Special Pilgrimage(:D) Trip to Kotilingeshwara, Bangaru Tirupati, Avani
This trip was totally unexpected and came as a surprise for me, the plan for Saturday was to got to a movie with a friend, on Friday evening got to know our friend can not make it to the movie, so Chetu(my GF) asked me if we can ride out some where instead of going to the movie. First think that came to my mind was, finally i have influenced the most important person in my life 
, it took more than 4 years for me to hear this. So this ride is special one for me. So started looking for places which is not too far but not to close . Finally decided to visit Kotilingeshwara as its close 100 kms from Bangalore. And if possible visit Avani which is 20 kms from Kotilingeshwara but we needed to trek for 30 mins to visit the temple at Avani. I doubted it because, I knew chetu would be drained by then considering the heat and the kms travelled. The max kms she had done on the bike was around 100 kms , at the end of that ride she was completely drained. But I was proved wrong later. Planned to leave early around 7. With lot of excitement slept.
Saturday 7th:
Got up around 6:30 and called her to wake her up, to my surprise she was ready, damn I would be late again. Got ready and picked her up around 7, with one fuel stop at shell we were out of Bangalore by 8, took a divesion at Hosokate and from there it was non stop riding till Kolar Woody's hotel, took a breakfast break for 30 mins then headed towards Kotilingeshwara through Bangarpet. As soon as we entered the temple we were invited by 1 Crore shiva linga's
For history of this place click on the Kotilingeshwara, if you haven't clicked it still.
There are around 5 temple's over here and the biggest shivalinga in the world, 108 ft and 35 ft Basava.
Some Pics:
One of the temples
Basava
The biggest Shivalinga 108 ft
The Shivalinga line up
The place where you can beat the heat
Wish there was some water
The small temple at the top
Opposite to this temple there is Lakshmi temple. It was still 1 PM and there was lot of energy left in both of us so decided to head towards Avani, even though the heat was much we were beating it by drinking lot of water and juices.
Avani is around 10 kms from this place again the roads were narrow with no traffic. We reached there by 2 PM. Asked her if she was ready to trek in this heat, it was pretty steep, with no doubt in her mind she said yes. The people at this place are very kind, we parked the bike in front of some house which was at the foot step of the hill and the lady was kind enough to keep our helmets, bag and my heavy jacket( which would kill me if I trek with it) at her place because it would be hard to trek with those thing, we went to shop near by to get some water, we hired a local guide with low fare and with sipping butter milk we started climbing the hill, even though they have made step to make it easy to climb, the heat took out all the air in the first 10 mins of the climb :P but the butter milk and water helped us a bit.
Avani is where Sita gave birth to lava-kusha and the famous Ashwamega Udha took place. Then the guided started the story about the place, more pics.
This was a site for me. Atleast people some where doesnt fight over caste.
Start of the climb
Whats your wish?
There is belief that, if you pray something here by arranging the stones like this it will come true, ok i want to own a RD 350 and a nice place to park it.
The place where Sita gave birth to Lava and Kusha
, it took more than 4 years for me to hear this. So this ride is special one for me. So started looking for places which is not too far but not to close . Finally decided to visit Kotilingeshwara as its close 100 kms from Bangalore. And if possible visit Avani which is 20 kms from Kotilingeshwara but we needed to trek for 30 mins to visit the temple at Avani. I doubted it because, I knew chetu would be drained by then considering the heat and the kms travelled. The max kms she had done on the bike was around 100 kms , at the end of that ride she was completely drained. But I was proved wrong later. Planned to leave early around 7. With lot of excitement slept.Saturday 7th:
Got up around 6:30 and called her to wake her up, to my surprise she was ready, damn I would be late again
. Got ready and picked her up around 7, with one fuel stop at shell we were out of Bangalore by 8, took a divesion at Hosokate and from there it was non stop riding till Kolar Woody's hotel, took a breakfast break for 30 mins then headed towards Kotilingeshwara through Bangarpet. As soon as we entered the temple we were invited by 1 Crore shiva linga'sFor history of this place click on the Kotilingeshwara, if you haven't clicked it still.
There are around 5 temple's over here and the biggest shivalinga in the world, 108 ft and 35 ft Basava.
Some Pics:
One of the temples
Basava
We wandered around the place till 11:30 and we left to visit Bangaru tirupati, its just 9 kms from Kotiligenshwara temple. The narrow roads with minimal traffic was great to ride on as always. Bangaru tirupati has Lakshmi Venkateswara temple.
Some pics from Bangaru tirupati,
Some pics from Bangaru tirupati,
Opposite to this temple there is Lakshmi temple. It was still 1 PM and there was lot of energy left in both of us so decided to head towards Avani, even though the heat was much we were beating it by drinking lot of water and juices.
Avani is around 10 kms from this place again the roads were narrow with no traffic. We reached there by 2 PM. Asked her if she was ready to trek in this heat, it was pretty steep, with no doubt in her mind she said yes. The people at this place are very kind, we parked the bike in front of some house which was at the foot step of the hill and the lady was kind enough to keep our helmets, bag and my heavy jacket( which would kill me if I trek with it) at her place because it would be hard to trek with those thing, we went to shop near by to get some water, we hired a local guide with low fare and with sipping butter milk we started climbing the hill, even though they have made step to make it easy to climb, the heat took out all the air in the first 10 mins of the climb :P but the butter milk and water helped us a bit.
Avani is where Sita gave birth to lava-kusha and the famous Ashwamega Udha took place. Then the guided started the story about the place, more pics.
This was a site for me. Atleast people some where doesnt fight over caste.
Start of the climb
Whats your wish?
There is belief that, if you pray something here by arranging the stones like this it will come true, ok i want to own a RD 350 and a nice place to park it.
The place where Sita gave birth to Lava and Kusha
Histroy says, Valmika gave some sand to sita to drink it mixing with water so that stomach pain would get done, people usually do the same even now, the take out the sand from this place. From years they have taken almost a load of sand.
Place where Sita washed clothes, and the mark shows the place where she used to keep the lamp. I wonder why she used to wash the clothes when it used to get dark. But whom i to ask, its her wish.
Place where she cooked.
When Sita was thirsty, Lakshmana with his Bow and arrow(not the shirt brand) slit the rock to get her water.
Our guide told, this stone had all the ornaments of Sita, the small hole in stone is the key to open it, they key to this is the little finger of our Hanuman.
Finally at the top
Urlu Bande (Rolling stone)
Link to my blog
Place where Sita washed clothes, and the mark shows the place where she used to keep the lamp. I wonder why she used to wash the clothes when it used to get dark. But whom i to ask, its her wish.
Place where she cooked.
When Sita was thirsty, Lakshmana with his Bow and arrow(not the shirt brand
) slit the rock to get her water.Our guide told, this stone had all the ornaments of Sita, the small hole in stone is the key to open it, they key to this is the little finger of our Hanuman.
Finally at the top
Urlu Bande (Rolling stone
)History again: Sita couldn't resist the stomach pain, so she rolled over the stone on her, but the stone got bent, this stone has ravu, ketu in it, people usually go through the stone crawling, it has again some history, but to much histroy will put you to sleep so skipping that part .
One more shot from the top.
.One more shot from the top.
Climb down part was bit easy, we visited one more temple which is very very old at the foot step, Ramalingeshwara temple.
Temple
So we left the place by 4:30 and it was non stop till chetu banged on my head to stop seeing this place.
With one more stop at the coffee day at HSR layout we reached home by 8.
Route taken: Bangalore - Hoskoate- Kolar (bypass, take right at the railway gate) - Bangarpet (take left after 5 kms)- Kotilingeshwara - Bangaru Tirupati - Avani - Kolar (Bypass) - Hoskoate- Take diversion towards white field - Silk Board - Back home.
It was a 250 kms ride, it was very relaxed ride and special one for me(us) because it was my first ride with Chetu, after this ride my hopes of being a tourer even after 2 years came back, because she will accompany my ride in the future.
Temple
Finally came back where we had dropped our luggage, by this time the heat had taken a toll on us. We went to the shop near by to get some water, the shop was a extension of the owners house, when we asked for some water to wash our face, the lady at the place was kind enough to invite us to there place to freshen up, as it was 3:30, rock band had started the concert by that time in my stomach, i inquired the shop guy where we can get lunch, the guy offered us to have the lunch at there place. These people are really nice. 
We finished our lunch and then the shop guy told us to take a short route instead of going through Mulbagal.
Shop come home where we had our lunch
We finished our lunch and then the shop guy told us to take a short route instead of going through Mulbagal.Shop come home where we had our lunch
So we left the place by 4:30 and it was non stop till chetu banged on my head to stop seeing this place.
With one more stop at the coffee day at HSR layout we reached home by 8.
Route taken: Bangalore - Hoskoate- Kolar (bypass, take right at the railway gate) - Bangarpet (take left after 5 kms)- Kotilingeshwara - Bangaru Tirupati - Avani - Kolar (Bypass) - Hoskoate- Take diversion towards white field - Silk Board - Back home.
It was a 250 kms ride, it was very relaxed ride and special one for me(us) because it was my first ride with Chetu, after this ride my hopes of being a tourer even after 2 years came back, because she will accompany my ride in the future.
Link to my blog
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