WOW Trek to Devarayanadurga

After crossing the Intermediate levels of treks (with my past 4 WOW events), somewhaat, this experience was gonna take me back to the very first Trekking experience of my life [Rayakottai]. Devarayanadurga is an easy-to-moderate level of trek, but I still wanted to participate - this time as an 'Experienced trekker' - just to know much have I learnt and developed my adventurous traits so far :P [U need to go  back to the Basics just to see how far you have reached, and what more can u learn outta it - that's my Philosophy , and hence the reason for enrolling this event too!] And moreover, Fun has no levels :P

About the Place - Devarayanadurga:

Devarayanadurga is yet another hill located near Tumkur. While Shivagange [a trek destination] comes to the left of Dobaspet, this one is located to the right of Dobaspet (if you come from Bangalore). A major part of the climb consists of just steps ( and monkeys accompanying you :P) until you reach the Yoga Lakshmi Narsimha temple towards the peak. The path henceforth [1/4th of the climb until the Peak] - though a short distance - is quite challenging climb over small steep rocks, and narrow passages inside thorny bushes.

The Journey Begins..

This was Krupa's 2nd Officially organized trek. The team of 12 had a proper mix of WOW newbies and experienced members. The WOW newbies seemed to have heard and read a lot about previous experiences - and so we, the senior WOW members had to live upto the Expectations (and get them into the groove too :P). We had a brief, casual round of introduction; and then wasting no time we started our very important rituals - 'Dance and song-change-every-two-minutes'. The only song that we let completely play was - 'Aa ante Amlapuram' - which we all later religiously titled as WOW's Anthem :D

Masti & energy instantly started sprouting up, when almost everyone participated in the 'Sheila ki jawaani', 'Shree Salman Khan ka dabang' and our routine 'cork-bottle-opening' dapangoothu styles :D. And since almost everyone has seen the term 'BBB' on the Facebook, wild guesses started happening then and there...:P  This was a complete ice-breaker :P

Soon, we reached Dobaspet, had our breakfast there, and then travelled further to reach the base of the Devarayanadurga Hill. At the base, the 12 girls were split into 6 pairs of 2, and after a short photo session, we started climbing the steps alongwith our partners. After a few minutes of climb, we came across large  sculptures of Lord Hanuman, along the sides of the rock, that have been now turned into an unenclosed temple. After a brief round of photo-session and 'Mohabbaten poses' we decided to climb further.

Trek - base

Trek ki 'Shoe'ruwaat':

The lead pairs marched forward, and had just crossed this temple when we hear a yell from behind - 'My Shoe, My Shoe. My 4000 Rs Shoes' [ I remembered the 'price-tag' from the movie - 3 Idiots :P]. Turn around, and found out it was the same WOW miscreant - Viji (who has done utpataang harkat before too :P :D). Apparently, she had removed her shoes (forgetting to ask someone to watch them) to get inside the temple and pray, and before she could grab her shoes back, a monkey had taken it and zzzzoom thrown it somewhere down inside the bushes, without an aim :D. It took sometime for our Heroes - Krupa, Shilu and Viji herself - to figure out where exactly the shoe was thrown, descend down and get it back from the bushes.

This was the Shoe-Start!!

While this drama was happening, the rest of the gals (who were waiting near the temple) got creative and started giving me ideas for my blog [and this is how this 'Shooeeruwaat - story' finds its place here, in this post - on public demand :P]. What a start ('Shoe'ruwaat) of the Trek! :P

Further Ascend:

After successfully finding the 4000 Rs. Shoe, we climbed further. Climbing the steps did not feel boring as we passed the time and stairs, cracking jokes, and narrating the Unwritten stories of previous WOW treks - getting thrilled and laughing over them :P eg: Krupa's fall in the Iruppu falls origin, Shree's Bday special midnight - (uncut version) at Brahmagiri trek, the whole History behind the title 'King-Kong' lady, interviews on my 'Leech-bites-experience', WOWs Annadaata's etc etc - to mention a few. Was surprised that the newbies were so curious to know more about the previous treks. They even joined the league by giving me the name - 'Leechi' :P [see..WOW is not only creating History, but also Historical characters and moments :D]

Yoga Lakshmi NarsimhaTemple, Sreepada teertha cave:

Baaton baaton mein, we reached the temple near the peak. We first entered a small cave right adjacent to the temple,  called as 'Sripada Cave' [which was a little scary], and then some of us had darshanam inside the Lakshmi temple and a nice View from the temple's balcony behind.

Peak, Fooooooood and Peace:

After the temple is where the actual trekking starts. We went further the temple and started climbing the rocks. Along the passages, you will find dry thorny bushes and need to be careful (protect your face - eyes especially) as the thorns are low-lying (no danger though, just a caution :P !). After a brief climb, we reached the Peak spot.

Peak - our Lunch place

Strangely, as soon as we reached the peak, the hot-sunny-humid climate turned into a mild-cloudy-breezy atmosphere [though there were sun beams now and then, but not as hot as it was while climbing throughout]. We decided to have lunch at the peak . As usual, our Annadaata's got food for the entire group [this time with sweets too, since they recently celebrated their Bdays:)]. After having hogged the nice home-cooked food, it was time for some relaxation.  Some of us chose to take a short nap, and the rest of us just scattered ourselves around the pillars at the peak, contemplating  Nature's beauty and the weather, all by ourselves.

After sometime, we even meditated (in our own ways), when one of our Annadaatas Shalini, played a Chinese meditation music [co-incidentally, I have had been searching for this music off-late, and was thrilled that she had it :D]. The music just added to the peaceful ambience that was already present. Experience!!

Descend and the short-cut!

After spending a wonderful time at the peak, we started descending. Had a short-funny, photo session at an illusionary peak, and then descended further down. Just when we thought we were done with the descend and it would be just a walk along the road, our organizer brought a kahaani me twist. Rather than making us walk along the road turnings to reach the base spot, she made us trek down at the short cut between the roads (apparently that's how goats take short cuts!). The short-cut was quite a hell of a trek (toughest part of the whole adventure..and organizer ne hum logon ko hi finally bakra bana diya...) :S. Nevertheless, we accomplished this too successfully, and then wandered and ran along the main road, like some Roadside romeos...until we found our TT, thus completing my Fifth High! [fifth trek of my life!!]

Record breaking event was: This was the first ever Trek of Krupa without a fall or even a tumble! [And the minute we realized this, and I opened my big mouth to her about this, instantly her 18k camera slips down from her hands gracefully and then a dialog comes - 'at least something has to fall' :P

Naamada Chilume:

A little further to the Devarayanadurga hill, there's a Deer Park and a natural water spring called 'Naamada Chilume'. It found its name from a short story of Ramaayana and is of mythological importance. Again, had a peaceful stroll inside the park, walking, and more story-telling, and expressing our fantasies with Indian mythology; until it was time for return..

Return:

After the Deer sanctuary visit, we had a tea break, and then set out for Bangalore. The newbies now initiated Antakshari - and we had full-on fun singing new-old-older songs [we ensured our opponents get only 'na' at the end of the song..and kept them wondering till the end as to how did we manage to do this :P].

This also followed with much more crazier expansions of BBB - the most sensible and most apt of them being - BTC Birthday Bash [now that BTC is gonna complete its 1st year soon], which also triggered ideas of Goa visit, Beach visit, a big Bday bash etc etc...and much more crazy ideas (that I cannot jot down here :P)[Are the Organizers Listeniiiinnnnnng????? :D]

Thus we called it another Sunday, and with a promise of another blog, I got down first at the nearest point. As usual, this was an awesome experience. An icing in the cake was - the wonderful deep conversation I personally had with Shalini, on totally out-of-the-world topics :)

And another point to note - WOW is maintaining a track record of Sagittarians majority, since the Rayakottai trek :P [that doesnt mean you start shortlisting participants based on their bdays in future ;)]

Once again - Congratulations to Krupa for having organized very diligently (and without letting yourself fall:P). Thanks to the group who were equally Fun and amazing. Look forward to see you guys in future..:) B-)

Written By      : Swati Iyer
Main Blog        : Out of the Box
Organized By   : Kirubadevi C
Date of event  : 1st Dec, 2013
Members Count: 12
Place              : Dabbaspet
Pictures          :