[srvm]

Originally Posted by ravib

Thought of sharing suggested sequence to visit all Narasimhar temples (except ugrasthambam) based on my experience in Oct'2016. Made some quick notes based on what i recollect.
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-Ravi

Originally Posted by ravib

I stayed in Haritha Hotels by AP Tourism.
.......
Haritha Hotels have very basic rooms and a basic restaurant. You can book online from their site. But you have to book well in advance.
......
-Ravi

Thanks a lot, Ravi. Really appreciate you sharing so much useful info in the forum.
I've made plans to go to Ahobilam (my first trip) in the last week of March.
I've booked rooms at APTDC-Haritha for 2 days through their online portal.
Will be starting from Bangalore on the morning of 29th March. Planning to return back to Bangalore by night of 31st March. If time permits, I plan to visit the Uma Maheswara temple at Yaganti on the way back. We are 5 people (4 adults + 1 kid) including my parents. So, I may skip visiting Ugra Stambham, Pavana Narasimha Temple and Prahalada Padi. Planning to see all others. Lets see how it goes.
I'm planning to take Bangalore-Bagepalli-Gooty-Banaganapalli-Koilkuntla-Allagadda-Ahobilam for both onward and return journey. Making detour to Yaganti where necessary.

Thanks for all the info. I'll share my feedack on road conditions and other latest developments after I come back.

[srvm]

We did Bangalore-Belum Caves-Ahobilam-Yaganti-Bangalore over the last 3 days. Here is the route taken and update on current status of the roads.
Many thanks to BHPian ravib for posting very useful details in this thread as well as answering all my queries patiently.

Day-1 (29th March, Thursday):
Bangalore-Gooty bypass - Rayalacheruvu - UltraTech Cement Factory (Bugga) - Kolimigundla - Belum caves

Road conditions after diversion from NH44 at Gooty bypass are okay/average. Roads around Bugga Cement factory are bad due to truck traffic.
Started from home around 6am. Reach Belum caves around 12.30pm. Took two breaks on the way - first at Kamat Upachar (breakfast + fuel) after Chikkaballapur. Second break at Hotel Blue Moon for juice.
Total of 4 toll booths on the way - Devanahalli, Bagepalli, Marur and Kasepalli. Fastag worked in all the tolls with minimum fuss.

We had lunch at Belum caves (we carried from home). We saw caves between 1.15pm to 2.45pm. Outside temperatures were about 40deg C. Local youth came in bunches and were making too much noise inside the caves to spoil the experience for everyone.
Details about entry fee etc. can be found in travelogue by BHPians a4anurag & laluks here and here.

We started from Belum Caves around 2.45pm. Reached Lower Ahobilam around 5pm. Route was:
Belum-Akkumalla (very poor road) - Mukkamalla (average road) - Koilkuntla (average) - Dornipadu - Chintakunta - Hit NH40 (Allagadda bypass) - Take right to Ahobilam. Total distance = 80kms.
Roads around Koilkuntla are very inconsistent. Good, wide roads suddenly become single lane patchy, potholed roads. Vehicle coming from opposite side forces one vehicle to get off the road. Overtaking tractors or overloaded 2-wheelers is nigh impossible. Shoulders are non-existent.

Day-2 (30th March, Friday): We spent entire day at Ahobilam going to various temples. Had booked accommodation in APSTDC Haritha through online mode much in advance. Temperature was about 41 degC. We were lucky to witness Kalyanotsavam at Lower Ahobilam on account of Panguni Uthiram. After the seva, the Utsava murthy is taken by procession along with 5 avatars of Goddess Lakshmi inside Goddess Amruthavalli's sannidhi. Lot of people were waiting to see this beautiful occasion. We returned to our rooms around 10pm.

Day-3 (31st March, Saturday): We started from Lower Ahobilam around 8.45am after breakfast at a local eatery. Took the following route: Ahobilam-Allagadda bypass-Dornipadu-Koiluntla-Banaganapalli-Nawabs Bungalow-Yaganti Temple. Distance of 78kms took about 2 hours. There is a stretch of about 8kms between Dornipadu and Koilkuntla that is single lane and in very bad shape. One has to be careful here to not damage the suspension parts. There is a Annadana Satram in Yaganti which serves modest vegetarian meals between 12.30pm-2.30pm and 7pm-9pm. There is no other restaurant/eateries in this town.
Yaganti is famous for the Uma-Maheshwara Temple and 3 caves up on the hills. There are T-BHP travelogues with details here.

We started back from Yaganti around 1.30pm. Plan was to join NH44 near Peapully. Route was: Yaganti-Nawabs Bungalow-Chulamaliabad-Jaladurgam-Rangapuram-NH44 near Peapully.
Distance of 52kms took 1hr 45 minutes. Extremely frustrating section where wide smooth 2-lane roads suddenly narrow down, become single lane potholed section with no shoulders. Some sections have no roads at all. Add to it trucks carrying sand/cement emitting fine dust particles in their wake. AVOID this route if you can. It was a great relief to finally hit NH44.
After that, we filled fuel at BPCL COCO (near Ghar dhaba, Kasepalli Toll plaza). One more snacks break at Kamat-Chickballapur around 6pm. We reached home around 8pm in CV Raman Nagar.

Grand total of 907kms. Vehicle for the trip was Zest Petrol. Overall fuel consumed: 56 liters.


Now for some pictures:


Onward journey on NH44




Entrance to Belum caves




Pooja and Temple timings at Ahobilam




Views of Ugra Stambham from below (we did not climb it)







Walking route to Jwala Narasimha







Lakshmi Narasimha Temple at Lower Ahobilam













Wide, smooth road from Lower Ahobilam to Narasapuram with farms on both sides of it




Nearing Yaganti




Hills around Yaganti Temple




Agastya Tank at Yaganti Temple




Views of Yaganti Temple from surround caves/hillocks







Famous caves in Yaganti

[raghuram.cg]

Update as of Nov 2021 - Bangalore to Ahobilam
Route taken : Bangalore-Hoskote-Chintamani-Madanapalle-GurramKonda-Rayachoty(Bypass) - Kadapa(bypass)-Allagadda-Ahobilam

Last 10kms to Ahobilam is very poor
Roads are good between bangalore-Chintamani and Kadapa Allagadda.
Everywhere else, very average roads
Journey time with break is about 7.5 hours (safe speeds)
Roughly ~ 350kms
FWIW - was able to do all the 9 temples + Ugra Stambam in 1.5 day

Return was Ahobilam-Gandikota-Bellum Caves-Tadpatri-Kadiri-Yelahanka-Bangalore
Roads except the NH 44 are very average and speeds in the range of 60-70 kph

Hope this helps

[Landkruzer]

Last week I went to Ahobilam from Bangalore. While going took the Kolar-Palamaner-Madanapalle-Royachoty-Kadapa-Allagadda.

Road conditions
Palamaner-Madanapalle(NH42) - Good wide 2 lane road. Toll booths are getting ready.
Madanapalle-Royachoty(NH340): Most of the road is in good condition. However road work is going on at around 5 places. Sudeenly the tarmac road will disappear. So need to watch out for it.
Royachoty - Kadapa(NH40): Good two lane road.
Kadapa - Allagadda(NH40) : Very good 4 lane toll road.

While coming back we decided to take a different route and turned out to be not so good. We took Ahobilam-Allagadda-Kadapa- Pulivendula-Kadiri-Gorantla-Bangalore.
Road conditions:
Kadapa-Pulivendula(SH51): Surprisingly Good 4 lane road, for a state highway. However there are too many speed humps, many unmarked, which hampers the pace.
Pulivendua-Kadiri(SH60): This is the bad part. Broken roads, huge potholes, unmarked bad speed humps. This road is not recommened
Kadiri-Gorantla-Kodur: In ok condition, too many humps though.

So overall, madanapalle route is the recommend route for Bangalore to Ahobilam.

[srvm]

We went last week (1-4 Dec) to Ahobilam from Bangalore. Details of route conditions are below:

Day-1: Left Indiranagar at 2.45pm. Route was via Hoskote-Madanapalle-Rayachoty ring road - Kadapa. Crossed Madanapalle at 5.30pm. Reached Kadapa at 8.15pm.

Good wide 2-lane roads from Hoskote up to Chintamani bypass (railway under-bridge). From there until Lakshmipuram (comes after Thadigol cross) roads vary between super to no-roads/kacha roads (this stretch is about 20km). The next 18-20kms from Lakshmipuram to KA-AP border is horrible with lots of potholes and under construction/widening roads full of dust. I was able to do 20-30 kmph only in this stretch. Will be a nightmare to do this after dusk/before dawn.

Once inside AP, roads are fine but narrow with truck/bus traffic. Difficult to overtake them. Also, speed breakers are present at every village.

Madanapalle town to Angallu junction is another pain. Somewhat narrow roads, truck & bus traffic, plenty of 2-wheelers with less road sense, speed-breakers etc make progress and overtaking slow. Also, since I crossed this section after dusk, everyone was on high-beam (looks like no one knows about existence low beam here!).

The best part of this route is after Angallu junction. Very peaceful, WIDE, 2-lane load with minimal traffic. The ghat section just before Kadapa is short, very WIDE but has speed breakers. Easy to do even after sunset. Only bother is the heavily-loaded, very slow-moving trucks that need to be overtaken.

Our night halt was at Kadapa APTDC Haritha Hotel (opposite SP Bungalow). Rooms are very ordinary. Needs renovation. Location is fine. Parking is HUGE.
It was ok since our plan was overnight halt only.

Day-2: Left Kadapa around 8am. Reach Ahobilam at 10.45am.
NH40 / NH340 is super with great roads and super scenic. Crossed Allagadda bypass and took right, went past Narsapuram. Roads are ok till ISKCON center / Sai Baba temple. After this (last 8 kms to Lower Ahobilam) the road is narrow and potholed. Needs careful and slow driving to avoid scraping of under-body.

Stayed at Malolan guest house. Quickly checked-in and had darshan of Chatravata and Yogananda Nrusimha temples. Had lunch and left by (1.45pm) Jeep for Paavana Nrusimha and Bhargava Nrusimha. After back-breaking and fun ride came back to guest house at 6pm. Our Jeep broke-down on the way to Paavana Nrusimha temple in the jungle route (brake oil leakage). While the driver fixed the leak (about 15 minutes), me and my daughter got down and took lots of photos with the super scenic forest area.

Visited Lower Ahobilam temple in the evening and called it a day after dinner at a local eatery.

Day-3: Checked out and started early from guest house at 5.45am. Reached Karanja Nrusimha temple at 6.00am and parked our car there (vehicles are stopped here itself on weekends and festival days). Walked to Upper Ahobilam. And straightaway started trek to Jwala Nrusimha temple. Reached Jwala at 7.30am and my wife waited for the temple to open. While myself, daughter (12 years old) and our guide trekked to Ugra Sthamba. Reached there at 8.45am. Started descent soon after and reached Jwala Nrusimha temple at 10am. Had darsan and started descent at 10.30am (temple was crowded by then). On the way down, we had darshan at Malola Nrusimha and Varaha Nrusimha temples.

We reached Upper Ahobilam (Ugra Nrusimha) temple at 12 noon. Completed darshan and had our lunch at Annadana Satram. We then reached Karanja Nrusimha temple, had His darshan and drove back to Lower Ahobilam. We checked into APTDC Haritha hotel.

That evening, we again had darshan of Lower Ahobilam temple. Had dinner and retired for the day.

Day-4: We had morning Vishwaroopa Darshanam at Lower Ahobilam temple (a cow is brought to Sanctum when the Lord wakes up). After breakfast, we checked out of Haritha and started at 8.45am. Our next destination was Vontimitta Kodanda Ramaswamy temple. We reached there (via Kadapa bypass) at 11.30am. Had peaceful darshan there (not much crowd even though it was Sunday). We left after lunch.
Route after that was: Vontimitta - Kadapa bypass - Rayachoti ring road - Madanapalle - Hoskote
The stretch between Chintamani and Hoskote had lot of broken top layer. The opposite lane was smooth and fine on the onward journey.

Had early dinner (6.30pm) at Hoskote Shree Paakashala restaurant. Food was decent and restrooms were ok/decent.

Reached home at 8pm after some dense Sunday evening traffic at Hoskote-KRPuram stretch.


Overall a fantastic pilgrimage trip with family. All of us enjoyed it.

Happy to answer to any queries regarding route, accommodation, food etc.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by srvm

Happy to answer to any queries regarding route, accommodation, food etc.

Great to read your experience. If I look at the route, how about reaching Palamaner, take NH42 to reach Madanapalle and then continue with NH340/40 for onwards journey? This route involves NHs all the way and should be with high speed and peaceful driving. Distance will be more than your route but may take lesser time IMO. I have a plan for Ahobilam but was not sure aboute the route.

[srvm]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

Great to read your experience. If I look at the route, how about reaching Palamaner, take NH42 to reach Madanapalle and then continue with NH340/40 for onwards journey? This route involves NHs all the way and should be with high speed and peaceful driving. Distance will be more than your route but may take lesser time IMO. I have a plan for Ahobilam but was not sure aboute the route.

I did consider this option based on post #34 by Landkruzer where he said that Palamner - Madanapalle is good. But it adds about 65km to the distance over the Chintamami route, so I did not take it. In hindsight, it might be a better option than the route I took. Also it adds lot of options for food / bio breaks - which the Chintamami route absolutely lacks.

Landkruzer's observation on Madanapalle - Rayachoty now needs to be updated. This stretch is 2-laned but now it's wide and absolutely blissful including Rayachoty ring road (western arm).

Good luck with your trip. Let me know if you need any other suggestion. Happy to help.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by srvm

I did consider this option based on post #34 by Landkruzer where he said that Palamner - Madanapalle is good. But it adds about 65km to the distance over the Chintamami route, so I did not take it. In hindsight, it might be a better option than the route I took. Also it adds lot of options for food / bio breaks - which the Chintamami route absolutely lacks.

Landkruzer's observation on Madanapalle - Rayachoty now needs to be updated. This stretch is 2-laned but now it's wide and absolutely blissful including Rayachoty ring road (western arm).

Good luck with your trip. Let me know if you need any other suggestion. Happy to help.

Have one query on the accommodation. Did you adavance book in the APTDC Haritha hotels or on fly? Please provide details if possible. I found it tough to get good accommodation around that area, especially when with family a few areas ago. We ended up in a lodge at Nandyala and that was a nightmare, too horrific experience.

[srvm]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

Have one query on the accommodation. Did you adavance book in the APTDC Haritha hotels or on fly? Please provide details if possible. I found it tough to get good accommodation around that area, especially when with family a few areas ago. We ended up in a lodge at Nandyala and that was a nightmare, too horrific experience.

Most accommodations/rooms in Ahobilam are basic only. Nothing fancy. You won't be disappointed if you have low expectations. Hygienic food is a bigger concern, actually.

I did book APTDC Haritha at Kadapa and Ahobilam through online booking. If you see my earlier post in the same thread (around March-April 2018), I had done online booking of Haritha at Ahobilam online then as well. It had basic, functional rooms. In 2018, Haritha had some parking space, children play area etc which we liked then. All that is gone in 2022, with construction happening for additional blocks/rooms.

But I see that more private accommodation options are available now at Ahobilam compared to 2018.
Please see below links for some contact information on accommodations other than Haritha. Most of these dont have online booking facility. You will have to call them few days in advance and book by phone. Payment once you reach there. I did this way for Malolan guest house.

https://www.ahobalam.com/places-to-stay/

https://www.ahobilamutt.org/us/infor...ngahobilam.asp

https://goo.gl/maps/pfpeG8gR19Atp6Vy8


Another thing about walk/trek to Jwala and other Narasimha temples. It helps (but not mandatory) if you have a guide to take you around. You will not get lost in the jungle pathway and guide will know opening timings of each temple. I have contact number of a guide whose service we used in 2018 and 2022. Very nice person who can speak Telugu, Kannada and Tamil. PM me if you need his contact details.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by srvm

Another thing about walk/trek to Jwala and other Narasimha temples. It helps (but not mandatory) if you have a guide to take you around. You will not get lost in the jungle pathway and guide will know opening timings of each temple. I have contact number of a guide whose service we used in 2018 and 2022. Very nice person who can speak Telugu, Kannada and Tamil. PM me if you need his contact details.

This is of great help. Really appreciate it. Unfortunately I do not speak any of these languages. Does he speak english/hindi/marathi, broken will do in order to communicate to good extent.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

This is of great help. Really appreciate it. Unfortunately I do not speak any of these languages. Does he speak english/hindi/marathi, broken will do in order to communicate to good extent.

I guess you can talk in Hindi with the guides, most Telugu people can speak Hyderabadi Urdu.