[muralisk]

This was a trip I had undertaken during August 09 weekend. Started from Bangalore on August 09 early morning and was back in Bangalore on August 10th evening. The route I had taken for the onward journey: Bangalore – Kurnool – Athmakur – Dornala – Srisailam.

We started at about 4:30 a.m. from our place and had a pleasant drive all along. As many folks had already written, road sections were bad between Chikballapur and Penukonda and then some sections were bad between Penukonda and Ananthapur. The roads got better between Ananthapur and Kurnool. As we were approaching Gooty, we were greeted by the rains and because of the rains, Gooty was bad. It was all slush and large pot holes. Had to crawl through the traffic and once through the town, we had a peaceful drive again.

Just before Kurnool, we took the diversion towards Srisailam and once we crossed the Kurnool city limits, the roads were good and was able to do good speeds till Athmakur.

Once you are through Athmakur, the forest section starts and the initial 15 kms, the ride was good. After that, it was quite bad till about 10 kms to Dornala. With rains, there was no way to guess how deep the pot holes were. Adding to this, there were certain sections where, they were laying cement roads (just one half) and at such places, it’s pretty much a one way traffic.

The road condition improves significantly from Dornala to Srisailam. It was a brilliant drive with rains all along in the ghats. Reached Srisailam around 4:00 pm. We could not get the rooms at Punnami (AP Toursism Guest House), so we got ourselves checked in at a private guest house. Unfortunately, I could not get any temple snaps due to rains.

While coming back, I had decided not to torture my Honda City and hence decided to take a longer route. I had asked the folks at AP Tourism restaurant at Dornala and he had suggested the alternate route, which was according to him about 35 km more. So, I took Srisailam – Dornala – Markapuram - Cumbum – Giddaluru – Nandyala – Kurnool – Bangalore.

This entire road stretch was good and it was about 80 kms more than Srisailam – Dornala – Athmakur - Kurnool. But, there were some amazing sections on this route, which was a treat to drive through. First, we encountered a small forest section just before Nandyala. With rain and mist, this drive was as good as any drive we get in the western ghats. Then we saw some amazing rock gardens about 20 kms before Kurnool. AP Tourism has built restaurant and enabled people to take a walk in the rock garden. The view from the top of the rocks was awesome.

Here are some pics from the trip:

[vnabhi]

Nice pics, muralisk! What was the distance each way? What was the FE like?
What are those tall pillars on the road?

[mjothi]

Clean pictures. Liked the caption you have added at the bottom of the picture with copyright Which software?
Its really enjoyable to go for a drive in the monsoon around these scenic places. Ofcourse, not in heavy rains.

[muralisk]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Nice pics, muralisk! What was the distance each way? What was the FE like?
What are those tall pillars on the road?

Thanks vnabhi. While going, the distance was 560 kms and while coming back, it was another 80+ more. I had managed to get 17 km per litre.

Coming to the tall pillars, I guess they were used for the railway track. Looks like now they have moved to new concrete bridge.

[muralisk]

Originally Posted by mjothi

Clean pictures. Liked the caption you have added at the bottom of the picture with copyright Which software?
Its really enjoyable to go for a drive in the monsoon around these scenic places. Ofcourse, not in heavy rains.

Thanks mjothi. I used Adobe Photoshop for resizing and entering the captions. The ride was quite enjoyable as the rain was not very heavy (except for few small stretches). In fact, we were lucky as there were very heavy rains in north and coastal AP regions (which killed about 50+ people). Looks like, most parts where I drove were spared.

[Ananthang]

Good Travellogue muralisk.

But you drove all through the Ghat roads with Creep ( Hope I am correct) bandage on your hands .

[snaronikar]

Nice pics and travelogue. Do post some pics of srisailam. What is this place famous for? Temple?

[megger]

Where are rock garden pictures?

[muralisk]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Nice pics and travelogue. Do post some pics of srisailam. What is this place famous for? Temple?

Hi snaronikar, Srisailam is famous for the Shiva temple as it is of the 12 Jyothirlingas. This is only temple where every one is allowed to touch the Shiv Lingam. Unfortunately, I was not able to take any snaps of the temple complex as it was quite dark and raining by the time I was done with my darshan and it was the same condition when I left the next day morning. More over, you cannot drive anywhere near the temple to take the shots from within the car.

Apart from the temple, you have a Tiger Reserve, a Dam that is built between two hills and a hydel power plant. The water that is used to generate the power that is run through the generators is again pumped back into the reservior through the tunnels that are built under the mountain.

I feel really bad that I could not get the temple snaps and the other attractions around Srisailam and I am determined to go back and spend at least 2-3 days so that I have cover all the places in peace.

However, for now, I shall try and post few temple snaps from my previous trip (eight years back).

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by muralisk

Thanks vnabhi. While going, the distance was 560 kms and while coming back, it was another 80+ more. I had managed to get 17 km per litre.

Coming to the tall pillars, I guess they were used for the railway track. Looks like now they have moved to new concrete bridge.

They were used when the track used to be Metre Guage. During the conversion to broad guage there was a slight change in alignment and it uses the concrete bridge which Murali is referring

[hrag]

Nice. Where is this A1 Plaza?

[TrueDreamer]

Wow these pics look like out of India esp. the Reliance filling station, Honda and Safari parked pic and the road and monsoon really looks like shot at some foreign country.

Good job

[muralisk]

Originally Posted by Ananthang

Good Travellogue muralisk.

But you drove all through the Ghat roads with Creep ( Hope I am correct) bandage on your hands .

Thanks Ananthang, yeah, I had to do the trip as we have been planning for a while and unfortunately, I feel and hurt my left hand wrist while playing tennis.

[muralisk]

Originally Posted by hrag

Nice. Where is this A1 Plaza?

Hi hrag,

The A1 Plaza is just before Gooty. This place comes first while driving from Bangalore and then you would get BP Ghar. Nice place. The Plaza is now run my private folks who have taken these facilities on lease. This one operational from 6:00 am to mid night.

[muralisk]

Originally Posted by TrueDreamer

Wow these pics look like out of India esp. the Reliance filling station, Honda and Safari parked pic and the road and monsoon really looks like shot at some foreign country.

Good job

Thanks TrueDreamer. I was quite thrilled by the trip. Feel bad that I could not spend much time there.