Journey begins.
Five of us - Sudharshan Reddy, Sudhir Reddy (My brother aka the Pro Driver who drove for 2500 km on this trip), Jaya (my aunt) and 2 kids of my aunt.
Started the journey at 4 am in the morning and reached our hometown Venkatampeta by 11 am. Covered approximately 370 km with speeds around 100-140 km/hr.
Wonderful drive covered with fog and a beautiful road.
Stayed for 2 hours in our hometown,took blessing from lord Hanuman.
Meet and greet everyone in our village, had lunch and left towards Rajahmundry at 1 pm.
Very good roads and the National Highway is just fantastic, we can easily cruise at speeds of 140-160 km/hr.
Traveled 800 km and reached Gopalapuram, Rajahmundry to visit a friend and rest for the night.
Lovely place and also love the hospitality of the people here.
Gopalapuram - West Godavari District is bliss in the morning. Great views as we wake up to the scenic beauty of nature.
Journey to Singanapalle to get on the boat tour of the famous Papikondallu.
As you can see in the pics, mornings are just amazing.
It's wonderful to see lakes and plantation alongside the roads everywhere, birds chirping and clam weather setting a very lovely mood, giving peace of mind while driving.
Took us about 2 and half hours to reach Singanapalle, crossing narrows roads and the passing through the famous Polavaram Project.
Boats are lined up one after another waiting for people who have reservations to reach the boat point, so it would be better if you are on time so you don't keep others waiting up for you. The boat will leave if you are too late.
About the boat trip on the Godavari River in the Papi Hills region,it is quite spellbinding and romantic. Boat trips are available from Bhadrachalam, Rajahmundry and Kunavaram.
The hills cover a forest area where each village on the banks of the Godavari has its stops and individual specialties.
The boat we took - Punnami Smart, the entertainment on the boat was ultimate. 2 guys stole the show, amazing talent, witty with words and made everyone on the boat dance, laugh and enjoy their time. (PS - You need to understand Telugu to get the jokes)
Breakfast and lunch is provided on the boat by staff and the taste was really good.
We also got the first taste of Bamboo Chicken made by the tribals who will rush towards your boat to sell the bamboo chicken, it was yummy but certainly not the best that I had in the trip.
Contact No of the dancer, Bharat- 8332851820. You will not be disappointed.
Boat tour ends at 5 pm and I have to tell it's certainly one of kind experience, you would have to be there to feel it.
You can also choose a 2 days package and visit Bhadrachalam with stay in the resorts along the Pappi Hills.
We didn't so heading towards our room in Rajahmundry.
Reached our hotel 'Aditya Palace' and the rooms are really good.
All the hotels might be booked out so better book online using some offers and save some money and time.
Had dinner in a restaurant next to our hotel and time to doze off now.
Started driving towards Visakhapatnam at 9 am.
Roads are good but a let off from the roads which leads up until now.
You can still maintain the speeds at 100 - 120km/hr or so and that's fairly good.
Had breakfast on the way and ready to explore Vizag.
Reached Vizag by 1 pm.
The streets are clean and the lights are solar powered, the banners mess up the look though.
Just hope all cities are equally clean.
Duration : 30mins to 1hr (including the wait time)
INS Kurusura served the Indian Navy for 31 years and then it was decommissioned and turned into a museum in 2001. With a length of 91.3 meters and breadth of 8 meters, the INS Kurusura submarine played a vital role in a number of wars including the 1971 Indo-Pak war.
The INS Kurusura submarine museum at RK beach is the first submarine turned into a museum in the whole of Asia and second in the world. Various parts of the submarine like the radar room, sonar room, control room, and the weapons used during war are in display in this museum.
Duration : 30mins - 1Hr
After having served the Indian Navy with pride and élan for 29 years, during which it accomplished 30,000 hours of accident free flying, the TU-142M aircraft were given a befitting farewell on 29 March 2017 at INS Rajali, Naval Air Station in Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu. The Govt of Andhra Pradesh and Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority coordinated activities related to converting one de-inducted TU-142M into a museum on the Beach Road near Kursura Submarine Museum.
Had Lunch at the sea restaurant near the beach and the taste was good.
All the places are close by and it doesn't take much time to visit them, except the queues are too long and time is wasted here.
Reached our relative's house to sleep for the night.
The whole area is built on hilly terrain.
Stared the day at 6 am and got God's blessing.
The atmosphere is really clam and soothing.
Duration : Based on the entry type (free, Rs.20, Rs.100) and on the crowd. As we went early in the morning and special entry it took us 1Hr in total.
The Shri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha temple, Simhachalam is a Hindu temple situated on the Simhachalam hill, which is 500 metres above the sea level in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. It is dedicated to one of the Hindu trinity deities Vishnu, who is worshipped there as Varaha Narasimha.
The Telugu name Toṭlakoṇḍa derived from the presence of a number of rock-cut cisterns hewn into the bedrock of the hillock.
Thotlakonda is an idyllic destination for Buddhists who throng to this place in large number from wide and far.
Thotlakonda Complex is a dwelling of various Stupas, Viharas and Chaityas. This wonderful and peaceful monastery positioned atop the hill gives ideal destination for worship and even exploring the sights. Discovering Thotlakonda will be an utmost experience for anybody. Moreover, one will have beautiful memoirs to take back home.
What a place with such a sweeping arc of the largest Bay in the world, the Bay of Bengal
On the beach road connecting Visakhapatnam to Bheemili, at a distance of 18 KM from RK beach the Ramanaidu film studio is located at the top of a hill. Surrounded by hills in one side and sea on the other side, this film studio is used by several film producers of nearby states to produce movies in national and regional languages.
Better to skip but since we travel so far I guess it okay to just visit for 15-30 mins.
One the most beautiful beaches, the flow of the sea is awesome. Cleanly maintained like the rest of Vizag.
Slat content of the water is also less compared to other beaches.
Rushikonda Beach is located in Visakhapatnam on the coast of Bay of Bengal in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
Beautiful views, breath taking.
Too crowded and people's craze for selfies, dubmash, tik tok is getting out of hand though. PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!!
City Cheat food, Kaju Sweets and little shopping by my aunt and reached home by 7 pm or so.
Dinner and doze off.
With God's blessings, we head to visit the places in Vizag.
Started the day early, had breakfast and . . .
Off to visit Borra Caves, at 8 am
On the discovery of the caves, there are several legends, which the tribals who inhabit the villages around the caves narrate. The popular legend is that a cow, grazing on the top of the caves, dropped 60 m (200 ft) through a hole in the roof. The cowherd while searching for the cow came across the caves. He found a stone inside the cave that resembled a Lingam, which he interpreted as the Lord Shiva who protected the cow. The village folk who heard the story believed it and since then they have built a small temple for Lord Shiva outside the cave. People flock to the temple for worship and the cave to get a glimpse of the Lingam.
Just wow, took almost 45 mins to 1 Hr to cover the whole cave and it was huge.
Head-ups - The bamboo chicken was the best here.
Katiki Waterfalls is named after Katiki, the place where it is located. The waterfall is about 50 ft high and lies around 4 km away from Borra Caves. Katiki Waterfalls originate from the Gosthani River and contains greenery and clear water in its vicinity.
Katiki falls is located between Borra Caves-kasalaka railway stations you can see from the Hills at Tunnel no:44
A small waterfall.
Should take a jeep to reach the point and then walk for like 1 km. Any bigger SUV and you can take the SUV itself.
Ice cold water, legs started freezing.
A good experience but it's the smallest waterfalls I've ever visited.
Resort to chill and rest.
Really well maintained by Andhra Govt., hope all the other governments do the same.
Clean and very big rooms for affordable prices, I'd say it's best to book suck resorts rather than looking for private hotels.
Food in the restaurant was also good.
Was expecting the place to be ice cold and covered with fog but to my disappointment it was just normal, Bengaluru was much cooler and foggy.
Journey towards Araku, started at 10 am
Reached by 11:30 am
Amazing! Well crafted and maintained.
Worth more than the entry fee collected.
Took the toy train and covered the garden in 10mins.
The plantation was all dried up and not colorful, but it is one of the few places in Araku.
Chaparai is a well known picnic spot in Araku valley. A scenic place with water falls and surrounding forest area makes people relax and spend their holiday joyfully.
Most fun we had on the trip was here. Sliding down from the rocky surface and ending up with not a single scar.
Amazing feel it is, a natural slide.
A small place, 10 mins to check it out.
And it was right next to the tribal museum which is next to Haritha Resort where we stayed the night.
Nice work by AP Tourism again, any problem in the room give a single call to the reception and its solved ASAP.
Had dinner and dozed off for the day.
Breakfast at Haritha and leave towards Lambasingi Unfortunately Araku wasn't as cool as we thought, let's check out Lambasingi where people claim it snows.
The roads are all dug up and it was a very bad drive, took us over 4 hours to travel 100 km.
Reached by 1 pm and explored the village.
Strawberry Farms, genuine taste. Whatever we have eaten before are not even close to what we get here.
Having traveled 100 km of very bad roads leading to Lambasingi which took 4 hours, it felt really disappointing to learn that there are no places to check out hear by.
Anyways we had our lunch and decided to stay up till the next day morning to see how cool it gets.
You can rent out tents starting at 1.5k or also rooms.
We didn't find many places to look for expect for a small waterfall on route, didn't really jump in this time :D
The Ruther Fort Guest House, which was one of the places to visit was blown up by Naxalites so we have literally nothing to visit.
So we choose to spend our time at the fire camp, had dinner early, and dozed off.
Woke up early, like at 4:30 and headed out to check awesome weather.
Unfortunately, it wasn't what we were expecting, don't get me wrong, it was certainly beautiful and cool but it just didn't it to me.
Anyways the slopes, mountains, roads were covered with fog and temperature was under 9°c for sure, beautiful experience amidst the hills of Lambasingi.
Reached at night, eat and sleep.
The reason why we were not amused is because we have seen much more scenic beauty and fog covered locations before, be it in Bengaluru, just normal streets at 5 in the morning will be covered by fog and temperatures will be around 10 and why miss Nandhi Hills? Though now it's filled with 10s and 1000s of people. Also Kerala, driving through the plantations covered with fog like snow, Munnar is at -3°C now.
Time to wrap up, we left towards our hometown Venkatampeta, Udayagiri at around 9am after having breakfast as we had to cover almost 1000kms to reach Bengaluru.
Ofcourse the roads were great, cruising at good speeds, spending time signing, playing games which our sisters taught us, fighting, eating junk food and what not to keep ourselves entertained.
Had lunch on the way and reached our hometown by 12am mid night, wow, it's a new day.
Well early morning was really beautiful, we come here every year during summer with temperatures at scorching heat around 40°c to 46°c but this time it was amazing.
12-15°c and fog covered hills were a delight.
Had to wake up early because my grandparents were getting Natti Chicken ready for us to feast on.
Had a full and heavy breakfast and left towards Bengaluru by 10am.
Back home baby, reached my city by 3pm and that's the end of the trip.
I have to say, this is one of the best trip I've been to, enjoying the drive, experience the true beauty of nature and finding a piece of mind everytime.
With 3000km on the dashboard, having travelled in our amazing Etios Liva, spent 10k on diesel, 10k on stay, 5k on boat house, and almost 15k for expenses like food, shopping, goodies back from the trip, it was worth it. So it costed 5 of us less than 40k for such a long trip.
You have to be there to experience the same.
Hope you guys liked this article and yes, feel free to reach out to me or my brother if you have queries or need suggestions in planning a similar trip -
sudhirreddy878@gmail.com or sudhubfabme@gmail.com
Until next time.
PS : Keep checking back the article as I'm updating it when I find time.