Ashwath and
yours truly had a nice trip to Eastern Ghats.
Visakhapatnam, the port city was the base. The city is fabulous with good and neat roads.
Day 1
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| Simhachalam Temple |
On day one visited Simhachalam, the hill temple
where the presiding deity is Lord Varahalakshmi Narsimha. It is also the second most visited temple by pilgrims in Andhra Pradesh. There were different
Queues, (one free, one Rs.20 and the other Rs.100/-), it took one hour 15
minutes to come out in Rs.20 queue but the movement of the queue was fast. The temple is on a hill as the name suggests,
nice queue arrangements, free mahaprasadam mandap, etc. You have to keep your mobile, camera and
electronic equipment outside the queue only. Small hand bags allowed.
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| Thotlakonda Buddhist Monastery |
The temple is
one of the eighteen "Narasimha Kshetras", the shrines of Lord
Narasimha, in India. The deity is usually covered with sandalwood paste year
round and can be seen without sandalwood "nijaroopa darshan" for only
12 hours per year. The deity is
in the tribhangi posture.
Our next stop was Thotlakonda Buddhist Monastery
which was discovered in 1988 by the Indian Navy during its aerial survey for
its installation. It is also situated in a small hillock.
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| Royal Bengal Tiger |
Indira Gandhi
Zoological Park covers an area of 625 acres. It is situated in Visakhapatnam and
surrounded by Eastern Ghats on three sides and Bay of
Bengal on the fourth side. It has two entries. We went in through the beach side and were
exiting from Highway side which we were not known. The guard at the highway
side told us there are two entries, this one is highway entry. It was a long
walk back to the beach side.
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| View of Beach Road from Kailasgiri |
Kailasgiri, which is also a small hillock has a
rope-way to the top. Unfortunately, the rope-way was not working on that day at
that time. We went to the top by car. It is a picnic place with a toy train to
take you around the place. Doppler Radar Centre to warn about cyclones is
situated on the hill. As the sun was setting very fast, we decided to call it a
day and returned to our rest house.
Day 2
 |
| 58501 Passenger on KK Line |
AP Tourism is offering different tour packages for
Araku Valley. We opted for two day
package. (Comments about this later).
58501 Visakhapatnam-Kirandul Passenger starts at
0700 hrs daily and reaches Araku by 1110 hrs on the Kottavalasa-Kirandul
railway line which is the highest broad gauge line passing through the 53
tunnels and 82 bridges. It is one of the lines used by heavy haul freight
trains in the country. Only one pair of passenger train runs on the line.
 |
| Padmapuram Botanical Gardens |
We got down at Araku is a railway station. Two day
package includes all inclusive one day stay at the Harita resorts in Araku
Valley. Persons opting for this package will be picked up at the same time next
day. (This is where we felt were let down by
AP Tourism. As they said you either stay in the hotel or go around on
your own, which we did).
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| Chaparai Water Stream |
Padmapuram Botanical Gardens, Chaparai Water Stream,
Coffee Museum were the places we saw hiring an auto rickshaw.
Day3
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| Tribal Museum, Araku |
Next day around 1100 hrs were picked up by the One
day tour party and again saw Padmapuram Botanical Gardens (only 30 minutes
given, as we have already seen we were happy), Tribal Museum before buffet
lunch at Harita Hill Resort.
 |
| Dhimsa - Tribal Dance |
Borra Caves
The high light of the tour is Borra Caves. Borra means Hole in Oriya. The caves are believed to be 150 million years old. It was William King who discovered the caves in 1807. It is one of the biggest caves in India and one of the kind also.
Humic acid in the water reacts with the calcium carbonate in the limestone breaking the stone gradually. The water percolating from the roof containing calcium bi-carbonate and other minerals form mounds on the ground called stalagmites and spear like structure hanging from the roof is called stalactites.
The main entrance of Borra caves is at an altitude of 705 meter above sea level and the interior goes down to 625 meter above sea level. Total length of the caves is 200 meters however, the distance you trek in the caves is about 350 meters. Kottavalasa-Kirandul line (KK Line) passes above the caves. Nearest railway station Borra Guhalu.
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| Gosthani River |
The caves is the birth place of Gosthani
river which flows from here.
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| Ghalikonda via point - KK Line |
Next attraction was Ghali Konda view point which
is 3700 feet above the sea level on Ananthagiri Range. Coffee Plantation on
either side of the road and then Damuku Valley View point were other
attractions. Jungle Bells Resort by AP Tourism was the next point for some
light refreshment. Then returned to Visakhapatnam around 8 pm for our journey
back to Mumbai.
NOTE: Everywhere one has to pay Entry Fee ranging from Rs.10 to 40/-, Parking
(if you go by a vehicle) Rs.20 to 40/-, Camera fees Rs.30 to 50/- depending
upon the place.
Food is laced with generous amount of garlic and
hot curry (chillies). (Those who do not like garlic and chillies have to tell
beforehand.)
Indian bread (rotis, chapatis) is available at
select places otherwise variety of rice everywhere available.
1 comment:
As we go on reading this, we feel ourselves are present at the places. Borra caves pics are simply mesmerizing
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