[SKavuri]

It was 08:30 on a pleasant Saturday morning with clear skies when we started from Hyderabad to explore Medak.

Medak it is not a destination for outright fun, frolic and excitement - no beaches, waterfalls, amusement parks. It is a place for unwinding and recharging - have a nice drive, leisurely trek with family and nature, click a few birds, visit a temple and a cathedral and have a delicious lunch before heading home to face that cranky client on Monday. This can be covered in a morning-to-evening sort of drive, but we chose to have a sleepover to catch the birds early on Sunday morning.

100km is not more than a couple of hours even for a sedate driver like me since most of it is was on highway. Our car was driven was by a spirited professional so it took us even less. The only stop we made was for a sumptuous MLA-Pesarattu and filter-coffee at Kamath, Secunderabad.

First we visited a temple Edupayala Vana Durga Devalayam a 16km drive from Medak town. We were happy to note that the roads leading to the temple, though not the best, were being widened and also a Haritha Hotel is under construction near the temple. It is an old temple built adjacent to a hillock. Edupayalu literally means seven streams. As the legend goes, the Manjira river has seven streams that flow around the temple. Truly enough, the temple is surrounded by streams and one need to walk across a small bridge to reach the temple.

Then we visited the Medak Cathedral. Incidentally 2014 is centenary year of the beginning of the construction of the cathedral. I was just expecting a biggish church (since it is not a big city) but I was quite surprised to see a majestic, well maintained gothic cathedral. The stained glass scenes around the altar, showing three scenes from Christ's crucification to ascension are really breathtaking. The lawns are well manicured and adorned with quaint old garden lamps. There is a parking lot infront and a footwear-stand near the entrance. There was no service when we went inside so it was empty. The pews, organ, wall decorations, etc all have a real old world charm. A must visit.

Early next morning we drove from the town to Pocharam Wild Life Sanctuary - a 12 km drive through lovely morning mist and cool breeze. When we entered the place at 06:30, we were the only bird watchers at that time. It was absolutely clean and serene (except for the bird calls) - not a empty-water-bottle-and-cigarette/gutka-packets-dump with noisy, frolicking piknikers. The animal trackers (forest department staff) have a office camp on the other side of the entance gate. Though there is a ticket system for entering the sanctuary, I suggest to talk with the staff the evening before, especially if the plan is to come early in the morning. We did that and didn't waste anymore time the next morning. The staff are quite helpful.

First thing we noticed were deer - many of them - prancing all around, all of them healthy and lively. One of them stopped and stared at us from a few meters - we didn't let go of the chance to click!

We didn't find exotic birds or migratory birds - but there were many birds and it was quite noisy with bird calls. Clearly the birds were not used to human visitors and would fly off when we were 100 yards away! We had real tough time catching them steady enough to click. A sample of those I managed, thanks to my Panasonic FZ150 24X Zoom. We were told that some migratory birds land in December and stay till January - could be the best period to visit for those interested in birds.

More pictures can be seen on my flickr page at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kasi67/

Useful information:

Places to stay:
Thanks to my friend, we stayed at a sarkari guest house (just a room with a bed and attached toilet). There are a couple of small lodges near the bus stand. Tourism department is building two Haritha hotels (one near Edupayala Vanadrga Temple and another at Medak Fort). Apart from these, the nearest EXISTING Haritha hotel is at Ananthagiri, about 50 km before Medak. It is also a good idea to stay at Ananthagiri on Saturday night and visit Medak early Sunday morning.

Restaurants:
There are a couple of good restaurants near the New Bus Stand - We ate there, and they are good. Excellent food, prompt service, fairly hygienic, family safe and open till late night.

Other places to see:
- Dam on Manjira and an old British mansion near the dam the locals told us - we skipped them.
- Medak fort - looked interesting from the pictures we saw on internet, but finally we skipped it.

[GTO]

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