26th March 2018, 16:34
| #1 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Two trips in two months, Kungfu Panda clocked 5000Kms. Got its second service done, and in two weeks the itch for another drive, made us plan another trip. This time to Andhra Pradesh. Made an idea to drive to our own little version of Grand Canyon, Gandikotta. Since we drive that far, plan was to visit Belum Caves and other interesting places nearby. Research was on good roads and places nearer to our planned location. Once I had clarity on how the plan was, told my drive mates to be ready and meet me as usual on a Saturday morning at our official pickup point. We drive out, see the places, stay for the night and return by Sunday evening. Format is the same, location being different. And thus we drive out. Gandikotta, India's very own Grand Canyon  |
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26th March 2018, 16:56
| #2 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Drive Plan (Approx 950 Kms) Format is simple, drive out on a Saturday, reach back by Sunday. Day 01 : 10th February 2018 : Bangalore - Orvakallu - Yaganti - Belum - Gandikotta - Prodattur Day 02 : 11th February 2018 : Prodattur - Kadiri - Horsely Hills - Madanapalli - Bangalore  Detailed Drive Plan Day 01: Started the drive by 04:00AM. We reached Orvakallu rock gardens by 08:00, we reached Yaganti by 10:45, Belum by 12:15 and Gandikotta by 15:30. After spending some three hours at Gandikotta we started to our hotel at 18:30. We reached our hotel at Prodattur by 19:45. Day 02: After a good nights sleep and lazy breakfast we started our drive by 10:00. We reached Horsely Hills by 14:00. We started to Bangalore by 15:30 to reach Bangalore by 18:30 Stay Details BGR hotel, Prodattur. Ok rooms. Has place to park cars, has a bar and restaurant, open air kinds typical of most places. Some 1500 plus taxes per double room. Kungfu Panda ran 940Kms and gave an overall mileage of 15.9Kmpl, thanks to spirited driving and revvs like a petrol. Last edited by laluks : 26th March 2018 at 19:26. |
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26th March 2018, 17:08
| #3 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Some pictures before I start with the daily logs  We some creative stuff from waste  How insignificant we are in the scheme of things, Still we like to stand tall at the very top  Orvakallu Rock Garden  Yaganti  Buddha at Belum  Entry to Belum Caves  Belum Caves  Kungfu Panda at Penna river  |
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26th March 2018, 19:17
| #4 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Penna River and reservoir  Panorama of Gandikotta rocks and Penna river  Temple inside Gandikotta Fort  Masjid  Masjid, Granary and Temple inside the fort  Charminar  Kungfu Panda and Temple inside the fort  |
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26th March 2018, 19:22
| #5 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) We had good food too. Breakfast at Orvakallu.  Egg fried rice. Lunch at Belum  Dosa, Breakfast at Prodattoor  Horsely Hills Rocky view point  Horsely Hills, View from Governors Bungalow  Horsely Hills, India viewpoint   For a tired soul, rice and curry means heaven  . Lunch at Horsely Hills |
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26th March 2018, 19:38
| #6 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Day 01 : 10th February 2018 : Saturday Bangalore - Orvakallu - Yaganti - Belum - Gandikotta - Prodattur This time, we had one more friend joining the drive. He took my other drive mates from the meetup point and drove to my home. He reached by 03:30AM and after parking his car securely at my place, we started our trip by 04:00 in the morning. We had some spirited driving and we reached our first destination by 08:00. We reached Orvakal Rock Garden at 08:00, right in time when they open  We took our tickets  Among the rocks were some art from waste  Creative thinkers  More in the work?  Or is it discarded?  A view of Orvakal rock garden  Kungfu Panda at Orvakal  A stream next to the rocks  My drive mate climbed a tall rock mountain  continued... |
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26th March 2018, 19:48
| #7 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Day 01 : 10th February 2018 : Saturday Bangalore - Orvakallu - Yaganti - Belum - Gandikotta - Prodattur He gets a good view of the stream and rocks  Orangy rocks  The stream  He climbs further up  And me, I climb these  There is a path made along the rocks  I drove Kungfu Panda up there  It looks more than a stream, I believe its just stagnant rain water in the quarry formed by the rocks   Trying to dam the run away water?  continued... |
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26th March 2018, 20:02
| #8 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Day 01 : 10th February 2018 : Saturday Bangalore - Orvakallu - Yaganti - Belum - Gandikotta - Prodattur Drive inside Orvakal Rock garden You can see the cottages of APTDC in the video Orangy rocks  Kungfu Panda amidst the rocks  Isn't he full of grace?  After spending an hour at the rocks, stretching our legs from the 4 hour journey, it was time to fill our tummies with break fast. We came down to the APTDC hotel  Return to the hotel Wow!! First round of hot hot Puri  I like this. AP tourism, Happy Tourism. Hey! Its my first time in AP for the record, other than the border visit to Lepakshi.  APTDC Haritha Rock Resort, Orvakal. They have cottages and rooms here to stay if you fancy.  Nicely marked so that you will not miss it from the drive.  By 09:30 we are off to our next destination, Yaganti  continued... |
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26th March 2018, 20:14
| #9 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Day 01 : 10th February 2018 : Saturday Bangalore - Orvakallu - Yaganti - Belum - Gandikotta - Prodattur By 11:00 we reached Yaganti  The formation and structure of the hills with slates like stones placed in precision made me wonder  Yeah, he doesn't know its a garland. Poor fellow  We visited Shankara cave  Entrance to Shankara cave  The formation of the hills is impressive, and intriguing at the same time  Another cave at Yaganti  Steps are made to the cave  Entrance  View from the cave, that's Yaganti Temple  continued... |
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26th March 2018, 20:28
| #10 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Day 01 : 10th February 2018 : Saturday Bangalore - Orvakallu - Yaganti - Belum - Gandikotta - Prodattur Next we went to Rokalla Cave  Steps to Rokalla Cave  The hill structure is amazing  I have never seen anything like this, stone placed in parallel to form a hill   Inside Rokalla Cave     Yaganti Temple from Rokalla Cave  continued... |
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26th March 2018, 20:34
| #11 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Day 01 : 10th February 2018 : Saturday Bangalore - Orvakallu - Yaganti - Belum - Gandikotta - Prodattur It's really amazing to see this hill and cave   Yaganti temple   By 11:15 we left Yaganti temple towards Belum Caves. We reached Belum Caves by 12:15. Buddha at Belum Caves   Belum Caves Ticket counter  Visiting Hours  Ticket Cost  There is a notice that the caves is under repair and not all places can be visited. I don't know about the next warning though   continued... |
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26th March 2018, 20:58
| #12 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Day 01 : 10th February 2018 : Saturday Bangalore - Orvakallu - Yaganti - Belum - Gandikotta - Prodattur We got our tickets by 12:30   Map of the cave  The caves was opened to the public in 2002  Cave Entrance     Some information   continued... |
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26th March 2018, 21:01
| #13 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Day 01 : 10th February 2018 : Saturday Bangalore - Orvakallu - Yaganti - Belum - Gandikotta - Prodattur We entered the cave  Some facts  Caves was well lit  Simhadwaram        continued... |
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26th March 2018, 21:03
| #14 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Day 01 : 10th February 2018 : Saturday Bangalore - Orvakallu - Yaganti - Belum - Gandikotta - Prodattur Some pictures from the cave           continued... |
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26th March 2018, 21:07
| #15 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: S-Cross'd : India's Grand Canyon (Gandikota) Day 01 : 10th February 2018 : Saturday Bangalore - Orvakallu - Yaganti - Belum - Gandikotta - Prodattur Some more pictures from the cave     Facts again   We exited the caves. I was not much impressed!  It was 13:00 and we were hungry. We gave order for egg fried rice. The preparation going on  Egg Fried Rice for lunch   By 14:00 we left Belum Caves towards Gandikotta. Our timing was perfectly matching with our plans. We wanted to reach the fort by evening, and we were perfectly on time. continued... |
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