Day Six & Seven
Thursday – 300 kms – Chennai to Gandi
Friday – 500 kms – Gandi to Gandikota to Hyderabad
The next morning, we visited a small mango farm, though there were no mangoes, near Chengulpet. After that we headed off to Gandi via Tirupati. The drive to Tirupati was slow with traffic and not the best of roads till we saw signs for Kumbakonam filter coffee. We stopped and tasted the best coffee we had had in our life. As we left Tirupati and headed into the hills, the view became more beautiful. Google Maps again took us through narrow streets of small villages into the hills and reserved forests of Tirupati. The cool air and the mountains around us, helped refresh us during the long drive. We reached Gandi in the evening and stayed at the Harita resort. We had completed over 2400 kms since we left Hyderabad. BSNL mobile had spotty to zero coverage in that area while Airtel had a fairly good signal. The temple was beautiful as always, serene and peaceful. After an early dinner at 8 pm we called it a day. The next day was Friday and was going to be the last day of the trip.
Lesson 7 – Carry a couple of phones with different providers, to stay in touch
Lesson 8 – Save routes offline, so that you stay on route, even if you lose coverage for an extended period of time
Friday morning, we had a long darshan at the Gandi temple and left the temple at around 7:30 am. We stopped at a small village called Muddanur for breakfast at around 8:30 and as we searched for a place to eat on foot, after parking our car, we got an earful from a lady who said we shouldn't look any further and enter her hotel. We promptly walked in to the small hall where we had kharam dosa, Cuddapah style. She berated us for not stopping the car immediately in front of her hotel and parking at a slight distance and walking back past her hotel without giving her a second look!!! :-) The food was as spicy as Rayalaseema is reputed and known for. We headed out to Gandikota chastened and with a smile! The spectacular cliffs and the river below, has earned it the name of the Indian Grand Canyon. Gandikota has a charm of its own with its fort from the 13th century. We stopped off at the Harita resort to understand what else the place offered and if we could come back for a longer stay. We then headed back to Hyderabad. The roads again were through villages as Google chose a way through Nandyal. The road from Nandyal to Kurnool is not complete and was painstaking at places. We stopped outside Kurnool at the Oravakal rock gardens, with rocks that date back to the paleolithic era and paintings that go back 7000 years. We had lunch and then headed back to Hyderabad. We entered the outer ring road at 5:00 pm where we crossed 3000 kms and promptly got stuck in Hyderabad traffic at Gachibowli!
We were driving a 2012 Toyota Etios VD with 67000 kms on it. Crossed 70000 kms by the end of the trip. A shade over 3000 kms for the 7 days at over 17 kms to a liter. Spent Rs 2155 on tolls and over 12500 on diesel.
 |
| At the mango farm |
 |
| Kumbagonam Degree Kaapi at last |
 |
| Kumbagonam Degree Kaapi on a serene highway |
 |
| The right coffee, served the right way! |
 |
| Highway cuts through the ghats behind Tirumala |
 |
| Gandi temple in the evening lights |
 |
| Leaving Gandi temple in the early morning |
 |
| Gandikota - Pennar river with the Mylavaram dam in the background |
Gandikota - The cliffs, the river - With the gushing wind
3000 kms as we enter Hyderabad on the ORR
2 comments:
Awesome report Ravi. I am now eager to do a road trip myself. You didn't wait till August. Otherwise I would have joined you. Shall we do one in August?
By the way..this is Gopal
Post a Comment