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8th October 2009, 09:31
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| 'Xing'ing around ! - Kadapa, Pushpagiri, Gurramkonda & Horsley hills. We had just come back to Bangalore late on the night of 30th September 2009 after driving around for over a week in Tamilnadu and this trip was from the morning of 2nd Oct to the evening of 4th Oct... So two back to back trips. (Yet to start work on the Tlog for the other trip.) Distance covered was 609kms. The trip happened since my parents wanted to visit some relatives in Kadapa (Cuddapah) and we stopped over at a couple of places enroute.  Started off a little late from Bangalore and first stop was near Chintamani. There are very few petrol bunks on this route and those with a clean loo are fewer still...  Excellent roads up to Madanapalle, with freshly laid tarmac in many sections. Around 75% of the route is good; the bad sections are all after crossing Madanapalle...  It was drizzling and cloudy most of the time, making it a cool and pleasant drive...  A random pic along the way, there are two hills near Gurramkonda, one has a rock formation that looks like a 'shivaling' and this one is supposed to look like a 'Nandi'. There is some resemblance I guess...  Drove past Gurramkonda, which I and Sangeetha had already visited during a previous trip. [http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...garimatam.html ]  A second pit stop on the way, close to Rayachoti...  The ghat section between Rayachoti and Cuddapah. Thanks to the rains, the hills are quite green and great... same cannot be said about the road though :-)  Got caught at a railway crossing close to Cuddapah for around 15 minutes... first waiting for the train to cross and then for the traffic jam to get cleared.  A Suvega from the 80s, which my uncle won as a prize in a Nescafe or Bru contest, I remember taking it out for a round or two when I used to visit Cuddapah during my summer hols. Still in good working condition, used occasionally and retained as a memento...  Cuddapah is still the old and crowded town that I remember...   Where the old and the new co-exist...  We also visited the Ameen Peer Dargah that was always quite popular with all religious communities...  The dargah has been in the news of late due to several celebrities visiting the place, including A.R.Rahman, who visits quite regularly and Aishwarya-Abhishek etc.  Thanks to the recent rains, Cuddapah was quite messy.  The ladies went shopping on Y.V.Street... the Comm street of CDP.  Later that evening my uncle’s family was also headed towards the dargah and I got to go there again...  Spent some time with the family and headed back towards Bangalore. Original plans were to head to Chittoor and then the BLR. But some changes in the itinerary meant that we would be driving back straight to Bangalore, allowing us almost a full day to check out some places along the way. We went to a place called 'Pushpagiri' close to Cuddapah, which is an ancient 'Temple town' of sorts. There are or rather there were quite a few temples in and around the village, but most of them are neglected, dilapidated and abandoned. ASI does have a few rusty boards sticking around proclaiming them to be 'Protected Ancient monument', but the 'protection' part is missing :-(     The hill-side is dotted with temples and other old structures. The Chennakeshava temple is well worth the visit though...  We checked out a few temples in and around the village...    Contd... Last edited by hotstuff : 8th October 2009 at 09:32. |
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8th October 2009, 09:38
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8th October 2009, 09:43
| #3 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| Kadapa, Pushpagiri, Gurramkonda & Horsley hills. There is some renovation going on in a couple of places. The ASI has also collected a few statues found around the village and put up an exhibit in one of the temples...         Some traditional Indian games, probably carved very recently by the workers involved in the renovation work...  Some of the temples have a few exquisitely carved pillars...   After a couple of hours, we left the place and headed back towards Cuddapah bypass and towards Bangalore...   A common sight in these parts... that is a Mahindra jeep by the way.  Stopped at Gurramkonda on the way back. Noticed this plane flying high above...  The Rangini mahal palace...  You can walk all the way to the top of the hill, which will be a good 1.5 hour trek.  Spent some time wandering around the palace area before moving on...     There are a lot of 'Sitaphal' trees around the palace...  We wanted to stop at the 'Maqbara' close to the palace, but it started raining quite heavily and we decided to give the place a skip and continued ahead...  Some more interesting rock formations along the way...  It continued to be overcast till we were close to Madanapalle when the clouds started to clear-up and we could see the blue skies again!   Contd... |
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8th October 2009, 09:50
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8th October 2009, 09:51
| #5 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| Kadapa, Pushpagiri, Gurramkonda & Horsley hills. Since we were close to Horsley hills, we decided to drive up and take a break to watch the sunset...  It is a lovely drive up to the top... just need to be careful about the monkeys though. Having gotten used to being fed by visitors, they tend to rush towards your car if you slow down. Just rolled up the windows and continued...   APTDC has built a resort and provided some good facilities on the top, including a restaurant, cottages etc. They have been trying to promote the place as a destination for corporate outings, since it is around 2.5 - 3 hours away from Bangalore.  A good spot to see the sunset...  Some lakes or ponds on the plains below...  Trying to capture the colors of the setting sun...       The show was over by around 6.30pm, had some pakoras and tea at the restaurant and next stop was Bangalore, in time for dinner. |
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9th October 2009, 08:50
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9th October 2009, 11:01
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11th November 2009, 13:36
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12th November 2009, 16:12
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10th August 2022, 16:50
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