Kollur Mookambika Temple

Eighty kilometres north of Udupi, where the Souparnika comes down out of the Kodachadri hills, stands one of the great goddess temples of the west coast. The deity is worshipped as a swayambhu linga (self-manifested, by tradition) with a golden line across it said to divide the Shiva and the Shakti halves. Families from Kerala arrive in large numbers, and small children are brought here for Vidyarambha, the writing of their first letters. Two to two and a half hours each way makes it a full day. Entry is free, footwear stays outside, the dress code is enforced, and darshan queues run long on weekends and through Navaratri.

A full day's drive for a linga split by a golden line, at the foot of the Kodachadri ridge