Ramteerth revisited - part 1

My first visit to Ramteerth was earlier this year, on Jan-15th i.e. Sankranthi. It was my wish to see Ramteerth again but after a rainy season... September or October.

October 16, 2010

We met at my place by 5-30AM. Drive on NH4 was a breeze... At Kotur I mentioned about a dhaba popular with truckers. Veeresh wanted to stop there on the way back. He was already thinking about lunch! From Kittur to Bidi it was slow because of road condition. After Bidi the road to Halasi was in good condition. By 7-15 we were at the trial to Ramteerth. I parked the car under a mango tree and we were all set to go.

That hill top was our destination...the path wound through paddy fields and jungles.

Barely 100 meters into our trek, Veeresh said he was hungry. He wished we had brought guavas. I told him we had bread and jam, and we'll be having breakfast at the temple. We were walking on narrow foot-paths which are actually mud retaining walls to hold water. We had to look before stepping...

Neel got a call from one of his relatives.

A farmer on his morning inspection round.

We found this butterfly... hmm.. is it a moth? Wings look so leathery.

Another farmer heading home with fodder for his cattle. We had to bend down to let him pass. Just behind him is the border between paddy-fields and the hill.

The curled up leaf looks like a giant elaichi fruit.

An abandoned quarry... patches of red is some kind of plant grown in cracks in the rocks.

A spiderweb which has held three leaves together.

I asked these guys to imitate poses in cinema posters.

A weaver bird nest. Just below this tree we found a foot long cucumber... Chetan had called it boodakumbalkayi...white pumpkin. Veeresh wanted to cut it open. We had to prevent him from doing so... some farmer would have protected it for weeks with a hope of enjoying a dish with his family. I guess Veeresh was really hungry.

Young eucalyptus leaves. Such a pleasant combination of color & texture. 

Check out the look in the myna's eye. It took off just after this shot. Did not give me another chance. Little further ahead, at a fork in the path, we took left. A furlong down the path, I had a feeling we were not on the right path... Veersh mentioned we were going down hill instead of climbing. We turned back, found the fork...

The path was uphill from this point.

I let these guys go ahead and took a short break. The jungle seemed to stretch till the horizon.

These rocks looked like seats arranged for a meeting.

A colony of ant homes? Normally they live in one big home?

A farmers canvas called paddy fields. The green patches are still tender while cream colored patches are almost ready for harvest.

Reached our destination. This is the Shikara of the main temple. The trek in the fresh cool air had made me hungry.

Chetan spotted this butterfly. The most beautiful butterfly of the day.

That's a Keertimukha watching over the temples, hills, jungles and fields below. 

I washed my feet, plucked some flowers, went into the temple and placed them on the deity, a Shiva Linga.

We settled down on the temple benches and spread out two loaves of bread and a 500g jar of mixed fruit jam ...Mala's. I actually liked the picture on the bottle and decided to buy it instead of Kissan jam. We had paper plates and a spoon. I spread jam over the slices and made sandwiches. We had a filling breakfast. We packed up and decided to go exploring.

...will continue next post - Ramteerth revisited - part 2.
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