[Bigzero]

Here is a brief travelogue of a short trip made to Konaseema last weekend. A lot of information for the travel preparations came from various threads referring to the coastal AP region in Team-bhp. Thanks to all who shared their travel experiences here earlier!

I dont know whether I will be adding anything new here, as far as a trip report goes. In fact I didnt get to do some of the typical "must do" things when one talks about the Godavari river - i.e., the houseboat trip, Papikondalu etc. So my trip is more of a quick run-through of the place .

OK, here is the quick summary of the route I took:

Hyderabad - Suryapet - Khammam - Ashwaraopet - Kovvur - Rajahmundry ( day 1 - Saturday, 26th Sept )

Rajahmundry - Amalapuram - Razole - Dindi. ( Day 2 , Sunday) , with a short trip to Antarvedi in between.

Dindi - Palakole - GQ - Hanuman Junction (!) - Nuzvid - Kollur - Khammam - Suryapet - Hyderabad ( Day 3, Monday )

Overall around 1050 + Kms .

Car : My 6+ years old Santro Xing, which has seen better days , and have in the past faithfully carted me around south India, especially those Hyd-Kerala trips.

I will share some details about the places I stayed, the experiences in general and a few ( not many ) photos I took, some figures ( distances etc ), and some general observations.

I dont know when I can make my next post, I hope I can do it by end of day today!

Here are a couple of pictures to start with..


Ah, I dont have to drive all the way down to the west coast to experience this!


This is a view from the top of the light house at Antarvedi - one of the highlights of the trip.

[pjay_in]

Excellent teasers! Rest of the report and pics please...

[mobike008]

Nice start there Bigzero. Good selection of the first 2 teasers which will ensure repeat visitors :-)

Btw, a couple of my friends been to this place the weekend before. They were 4 families with about total 15 people in 3 different cars.

They said something about a boat getting capsized in that area and were little worried about venturing out for boating but eventually did since the capsized boat was due to folks drunk dancing and met with a horrible watery grave.

Anyways, lets leave the sad part aside and look forward to more pictures here.

[muralisk]

Wow!! Nice pictures and am dying to see the rest. The road is damn inviting and I am sure that this makes it to the top of the list.

[Bigzero]

Thanks folks for the encouragement

As I mentioned above, I drove to Rajahmundry on Day 1 . Got delayed by close to 2 hours between Hyderabad and Suryapet because of a massive traffic Jam - there was a big accident involving two trucks.

We didnt take many photos on Day one, and our destination for the day was River Bay resorts on the banks of Godavari in Rajahmundry.

On road conditions:

• Heavy traffic till Suryapet, I was unfortunate to get caught in a traffic jam which made matters worse.
• Decent roads from then on - except for some stretches between Khammam and Ashwaraopet with some potholes and speedbreakers, and one nasty stretch between Devarapalli and Kovvur with a lot of potholes.

We had lunch at Khammam, at a placed called Haveli, with strangely dark ambience with electric blue lighting . The food was ok, the AC was on full blast, we were freezing inside.

We reached Rajahmundry at 6.00 pm (started at 6.45 am, but had delays on the road and as such the drive was quite sedate for most part of the way - except when I was feeling hungry! )

About River Bay:

Decent option in Rajahmundry, Excellent veiw of the river from the rooms, Decent food, lawns for the kids to run around, multiple restauran options, a water park nearby, courteous service, and overall decent ambience.

The rooms were impossibly green. Look at this.


The resort has good views of the river.



Thats the super-long road-and-rail bridge in the background.

[Bigzero]

Day 2:

Started off with a good breakfast at River bay. They have a decent complimentary breakfast buffet.

We decided to take it easy this day as the idea was to move around East Godavari roads and finally touch down at the APTDC's Haritha Coconut Country resort at Dindi.

A word on the booking process - to book rooms here, one has to go to any of the APTDC booking offices ( I went to the one in Yatri Nivas) and make the reservation. Payment has to be made upfront. They will give you a receipt, which you have to carry with you. For Riverbay, I just called them over phoned and they blocked the room till 6.00 pm when I was there.

Back to the story:

I filled petrol from a pump in Rajahmundry and eventually left the town at around 10 am. We touched the GQ soon ( after passing through narrow roads that quite resembled those in some towns in Kerala ), and turned right on the GQ towards Vijayawada.

We soon crossed the Gautami Godavari ( I believe this is the name given to the eastern branch of the river after it splits a little downstream of Rajahmundry. Konasima basically lies between the eastern and western branches of the river - correct me if I am wrong.. ). Another long bridge. Wow, bridges here have to be a minimum of two Kms long to get some respect!

We turned off left ( southwards )from the GQ towards Amalapuram.

And we were in Kerala.

It was drizzling by then, which added to the effect. A canal followed us almost all the way to Amalapuram, and it was great to observe how similar the place and the life here was similar to Kerala.


Even the buildings looked familiar. There were of course subtle changes in the architecture - especially with the shape of the roof and the tiles used.


At Amalapuram, we turned right on NH 214 (I had taken the route from mapmyindia ) towards Razole and from then on to Dindi. The NH 214 further goes towards Bhimavaram and beyond. The road was in excellent coundition, good two-laned road with center markings etc. The pic above was taken on NH214.

But just before Razole, the road suddenly ended and became a narrow dirt track!

I had some sense of what was coming - I had seen that the NH214 crosses yet another branch of Godavari ( the middle one? ), but hadnt seen a bridge marked. Didnt tell my wife because I knew she wouldnt be keen to be in a ferry .

The NH214 looked like this:


And very soon , we approached the ferry.

[rkg]

The railroad bridge at godavari is the Asia's longest rail road @3Km+ wide. One can check in google earth. godavari is around 3-4 Km wide at rajamundry and below at dowleswaram ( dam built around 130- 40 years back by Sir Arthur Cotton. people still remember him)
this dam changed the economy both godavari districts and they became rice granaries of India

[Bigzero]

Yes rkg, thanks for the info. I could find references to Sir Arthur Cotton at many places in Rajahmundry. I think I passed by the Barrage, but didnt stop to check the place out.

[Bigzero]

Day 2 contd..

So we took a small turn between a row of thatched huts to come directly across the river and the ferry waiting for passengers and vehicles.

I drove the car directly up the gangplank and into the boat and parked it in the space available. The guy who was managing the entry of vehicles into the boat asked me to take the ticket at the counter in one of the huts.

I went back and took the ticket that cost 85 Rs. It was drizzling and I ran back to the ferry. My kid was fast asleep in the car, and my wife didnt want to come out lest he wakes up and gets worked up.

I took the camera and got out of the car, and every single eye on the boat was on me. I could see that the bridge across the river was being constructed, though there appeared to be very little activity at the moment.

Very soon, a shaggy fellow with a beard came on board and started the motor. The gangway was lifted, and we were off.


Our poor Santro looks quite helpless on board the ferry.


This was the place where we boarded the boat.






We passed another boat that was going in the opposite direction.



Soon we were offloaded at the other bank, and continued to drive to Dindi, soaking in the scenery on the way.

[muralisk]

Too cool. This is turning out to be a great thread. Awesome pictures and great narration. Keep it flowing.

[Bigzero]

Here are a few pictures clicked on the Day 2 drive to Dindi. It was drizzling all along. You could stop at any point and click pictures like these.



















The tiles used here ( in most cases ) are quite different from the ones I am familiar with.

[pjay_in]

Lovely pictures, really soothing to the eyes with all that greenery and rain-soaked landscapes.

[Anoop RD]

wow, the rice paddy pictures look exactly like some places in Kerala.

[saleem_k]

Awesome pictures. A real treat to the eyes. Please post more!

[nagvasireddy]

Great narration, and even better pictures. Keep them coming.