Local 'Gems' but not from Cadbury - Part 3 #NearMyHometown

In my previous article "Local 'Gems' but not from Cadbury - Part 2 #NearMyHometown" I had described 3 places near my hometown which are worth a watch.

As mentioned in that article, I will come up similar places near my hometown as a series, that is worth to spread a word about it. This is the continuation of that series

1. Sri Mahalakshmi Temple, Goravanahalli

This is one of most famous Goddess Lakshmi temple in south Karnataka. We can get more details like history, timings etc. of this temple here

Location on Map - Sri Mahalakshmi Temple, Goravanahalli

If you would like to visit with less crowd, better you avoid going on Fridays

We also get to see the below temples in Goravanahalli

1. Sri Lakshmi Ranganatha Swamy temple

2. Sri Venkateshwara Swamy temple

3. Sri Renuka Yellamma temple

Note: We do have Theetha Dam and Theetha lake here, as there is no water we didn't feel like visiting it and hence, no details are posted related to it. If someone is interested, we can go for a short walk and have a look at it

2. DD hills (Devarayana Durga hills)

Many of us would have heard about MM hills (Male Mahadeshwara Hills), BR hills (Biligiri Ranga Hills), GS hills (Gopala Swamy Hills). There is another famous hills known as DD hills near my home town

This is mostly occupied with people from Bengaluru on weekends. Its popular among cyclists, bikers, lovers, college students and even family audience too

Its cool weather complimented by trees all around makes its a good ride in any vehicle you come with

We have name boards guiding us to reach the temple, we can even check with road side vendors when in doubt rather than going in wrong direction

We have 2 temples here, one at the bottom (Bhoga Narasimha Temple) and another on top of hill (Yoga Lakshmi Narasimha Temple)

After visiting temple at foot of the hill, we started towards temple at top of the hill

We need to drive through 15 hair pin curves to reach the top of the hill. This tests the driving skills of newbies who just started to learn Bike or Car

Note: We need to climb around 250 steps to see Yoga Lakshmi Narasima Swamy temple even after driving to top of the hill, so think and plan about it

3. Namada Chilume

Below pic says it all about Namada Chilume

Location on Map - Namda Chilume

For those who do not understand Kannada, I would like to translate as below in brief

"It is believed that Rama, along with Sita and Lakshmana, stayed here during their exile in the forest. Rama searched for water to apply tilak to his forehead. When he could not find any water, he shot an arrow at the rock. The arrow penetrated the rock, made a hole and the water came out. Henceforth, this place was called Namada Chilume, meaning "Spring for Tilak" (naama = tilak and chilume' = spring, in Kannada)"

As shown in the picture, the water comes out from a small hole throughout the year and never dries up

This is not just historical place, instead its a forest area where deers are conserved. We can spot lots of deers inside this park

After seeing the above board, we got to know about 700 years old temple 'Sri Vidya Shankara Swamy temple', which is located on the way of our return journey

Location on Map - Sri Vidya Shankara Swamy temple

So, planned to cover the same during our visit

Unfortunately, we could not visit Veeranjaneya Swamy temple which is near to this place. Temple would be closed after pooja in the morning, so we need to visit this in mornings in case we want to have the darshan of lord hanuman

More info:

- We have parking charges of 30/- at Goravanahalli temple premises

- We have parking charges of 20/- at DD hills entrance

- We have entry fee of 10/- (for adults) and 5/- (for children) at Namada Chilume Deer park

- We too have ATM near Goravanahalli temple, in case we missed to carry any cash

- In case, we wish to get pooja done to our vehicles at Goravanahalli temple, we get artists to draw lord Lakshmi pic on our vehicle glass. If interested we can give it a try. They offer to wash our vehicle and paint over vehicle glass before we get darshan and get the vehicle pooja done

- We have hotel options for food near Goravanahalli temple and lodging facility too

- We have wide variety of snacks option on hill top i.e. near Yoga Narasimha Swamy temple

- Do not miss view points on DD hills, spend some quality time here for nice pics and memories of the visit

Caution: Not to miss Barbeque corn (Suttiro Jola) near DD hills arch entrance in the season, its absolute treat to foodies

Please feel free to comment any other places near these locations that we might have missed to visit, so that it helps fellow travelers