2-day weekend trip to Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh) ! We managed to visit two places - Belum caves and Horsely hills.....
Dates :: 8th and 9th February 2012
Route :: Chennai - Anantapur - Belum Caves - Anantapur - Horsely Hills - Chennai
Members :: Karthik, Sakthivel, Pranesh, Premkumar, Ramesh Kumar, Harish P, Sanjeev, Vednath, Shaik Kashif, Deepan
On 7th Feb evening around 6 PM, we drove to Anantapur in a Tempo Traveller. - a 450km drive. We reached Anantapur by 5 AM in the morning and rested for couple of hours at Hotel Sampoorna. After having breakfast in a kai-yendhi-bhavan (yummy-yummy dosa/poori/vada/idlis), we started to BELUM CAVES ! 90 kms from Anantapur through the Tadipatri road is Belum Caves. On the way at 20 kms is Singanamala lake. We decided to stop there when we return and proceeded further. A road where no greenery can be sited and quite dry. Thanks to our decision of taking a AC cab from Chennai worked out !
We arrived at Belum Caves - history from Wiki :-)
On the way back, 28 km ahead from Madanapalle - right side from the highway. It is a small hill station meant to be a chill out ! It was very sunny on the day we went but the views were guide good. It also hosts a park for children and a restaurant.
Belum Caves is the second largest cave in Indian subcontinent and the longest caves in plains of Indian Subcontinent, known for its stalactite and stalagmite formations. Belum Caves have long passages, spacious chambers, fresh water galleries and siphons.
The caves reach its deepest point (120 feet from entrance level) at the point known as Pataala-Ganga.
3.5 km of the cave has been successfully explored, though only 1.5 km is open to tourists.
The caves are of hard limestone and we heard from the guide that the whole cave maintains a temperature of 33 degrees irrespective of the climate outside ! Oh yeah .. we were sweating already ....... It was nice to walk through all 1.5 kms tourists were allowed to. The guide was quite helpful to understand and also patient enough to let us take photos at will. Also, he did his best to keep us excited us adventurous at times !
There is a "linga" at 120 feet below ground and there is water at the linga alone ! We heard that the whole of the cave formation was because of water movement - naturally formed. After 2 hour stint under ground, we were very hungry and had the spicy Andhra food on the way back to Anantapur. After attending the reception and marriage functions, we started back to Chennai.