It was a 4 days long “weekend” at work. Now that is not a common occurrence. We were in two minds if we should travel out for a getaway or instead stay at home. The latter one got our vote. But us being us, we were not going to simply lounge around lazily at home. Instead we decided to do different treks at places not too far from home on the days. I am going to cover each one as a blog post. This is the first one about climbing Avani Betta (“Betta” means Hill). It was approximately 100kms away from our home.

The Avani town, the temples and the hill have significance in the Hindu legend. The legend goes that the saint Valmiki, who wrote the epic Ramayana, lived in Avani. Shri Rama, during his return journey from Lanka to Ayodhya, visited Avani. His two sons, Lava and Kusha were born in the nearby hill, now popularly known as Avani Betta.

The temple complex is commonly referred to as the Ramalingeshwara group of temples. They were constructed in the 10th century. There are four major shrines, one each for Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna. There are other minor shrines for Vali and Sugriva.

We explored the Shri Ramalingeshwera Temple first. It is located close to the base of the hill. Here are some photos from our visit.

Next was to climb Avani Betta as well as see the various shrines around the hill. First, here are some of the sights from the trek up.

Here are the sights at the top, including the Sita Mandir (temple):

After spending around 45 mins on the top including eating a fruit, it was time to head back down. Here are some more photos from the trek down the path as we spent a bit more time exploring small huts, including the one that supposedly Lava and Kusha were born in.

Info for Planning

Here are the things to consider if you are planning to visit the nearby temple and the hill:

  • The place and path up can get pretty hot, especially once the sun comes. So take a hat or an umbrella and decent amount of drinking water. It is best to do the trek early in the morning.
  • You will need to go up a decent amount of stairs and some not so difficult rocky parts. The overall hike up and down is approximately 4 kms and has a ascent of around 185m. So be prepared for this.
  • There can be monkeys on the top. They don’t bother you. But be mentally prepared, especially if you have any food on you.
  • It is considered a religious place by many. So be mindful and respectful.
  • There is no dedicated car parking. We parked our card in front of the temple. The start of the trek up the hill is quite close by. I would recommend doing the same. Here is where we parked https://maps.app.goo.gl/tnWGp4F2hPZaeo4R7
  • There are no restaurants in the nearby village that we noticed. We ended up catching lunch on the highway on our way back home.