- Hot, dry and winding roads
- Cafe ethnic at Zahirabad - fear factor comes to mind
- Bidar is within reach
- Could be better after a bit of rain
I did this trip on 5 April. It was hot. It would be hotter now. Dry heat and barren landscape greet you. Some may find this beautiful; but not for couple of teenagers in our two car convoy. Plan was to leave at 6am and experience the morning drive through the forest at Ananthagiri Hills. Due to last minute additions and deletions of travelers, we left at 8am.
8:10am, first stop. Fill petrol.
8:20 get breakfast packed from hotel
9:00 stop outside Hyderabad for consuming breakfast
teenagers promptly start sleeping, again
There are decent signs for chevella, Vikarabad. After a while suddenly signs marked "Parigi" come up. The ever common "go straight" was the travel advise at confusing junctions. Indeed it worked out true. The lazy drive was quite good especially with light traffic. It was punctuated by police screening (due to elections). They too were on a drive, to stem illegal currency movement.
At Vikarabad, a T junction presented us with a choice to go to Ananthagiri Hills (Left) and we proceeded. After crossing the rail track (Vikarabad-Parli) the road winds up to hills. We wandered in the cars for a while and returned to the T junction.
[There was a bit of confusion on the return path. It was my contention that the paths are one way as the return from Ananthagiri Hills seems to descend down the hills early. The path from Vikarabad seems to climb early. Anyway we observed two way traffic on the single lane road]
The market yard at Vikarabad was interesting for some - specially the heaps of flaming red, dried chillies. We bought a few kilos with the hope that these turn out to be as potent as the fiery sun beating down on us. We had passed several fields where they had harvested the chilly crop and were sundrying them in the open. Good contrast though (oops no pictures - i was having way too much fun in Type 2 Honda City 1.5Exi)
From Vikarabad, Very quickly the road narrows to a single lane towards Sadaseopet. It rolls over gentle hills, stretches over parched land, crosses the rail track in couple of places and bang we hit NH9 in no time.
Given the overall enthusiasm of the fellow travellers, I excluded Bidar portion and headed straight for "Cafe Ethnic" at Zahirabad. The pitch was that this place serves foods made of millets, maize, jowar, bajra etc. things we may have forgotten.
The sign is innocuous right on NH9 as you enter Zahirabad from Hyderabad side. The resturant (3 huts) are in a lane by the sign post. The family hut has gaddis, low tables for you to eat in squatting; as well as tables and chairs. The meals was simple food as it was served hot. Some of it I didn't find to my liking. After the meal, we lounged on the gaddis. As it was quite hot outside too, suddenly we saw an exodus of cockroaches from a crack in the wall. They poured out like a liquid. This freaked out the city folks and they bolted screaming.
Since the teenagers weren't into this ethnic food, we stopped by BP Ghar Dhaba, outside Zahirabad for lunch, again. This time, the youngsters were fine with paneer, roti, biryani, Coke etc.
As we were nearing sadaseopet, one of our cars, Palio1.2 petrol burst rear driver side tyre. This was tubed tyre. A strip of tyre (2-3" wide and 4" long) tore off from the sidewall. As if someone peeled the strip from the rim towards the tread. Our suspicion was that the last tyre repair shop had damaged the dismounting/ mounting of the tyre on the rim. Probably causing a cut in the sidewall. Anyway we hoisted the spare tyre in and returned to Hyderabad. As paid the toll at the outskirts of Hyderabad, felt funny as if this is the price of admission.
You asked for opinion, and I gave you a travelogue, sort of.