Trip to Srisailam & NagarjunaSagar

Well this was a totally un-planned trip.. Untypical of me.. But it just happened :)

My roomie Ganesh and his mom were planning to go on a trip and since it was there sangha (caste) group going, I had no inclination to go. Had a treat (For being in a team that reached the soccer match finals in MS soccer fest) in Ohris Banjara and reached only at 12:00 MidNight. Suddenly Ganesh and aunty said I should join them and it would be fun. After the initial NO-NOs, I accepted.

We got up at 5:15 and got ready. At 6:30 we reached Secunderabad (Manju theatre) and we started the bus journey from there. On the way we had to pick up people from Other parts of secunderabad,  RTC X roads, Tarnaka, LBNagar  etc. We watched the Arya movie (1st CD in the bus). Had food on the way. Then the old age people said they couldn't sit in the back and hence all bachelors/spinsters were made to go back :-)

So the main Back benchers were Ganesh, Vinay, Sampath, Sameer, Sushma and I. We played Anthakshari and as usual I echoed along few words.

The view of the Srisailam dam was breath taking. It was amazing with the 3 flood gates opened. Imagine how it would have been if all the 7 gates were opened.

 

Reached Shakeshwar Shiva temple at around 3:00 in the afternoon (This place has a Nandi from whose ears we can view the 3 lingas of Srisailam).We had lunch and then headed to the room to take bath. Changed cloths and headed to the temple. Since there was a heavy rush, we took the 100rs tickets . Viewed the Shiva Linga (One of the twelve jyotirlingas) and then went to the Bramarambi temple (Bee Goddess) - one of the 16 shakti-peetas, which is also inside the same complex. After resting for few minutes in the temple and buying the prasadas (Laddus), we had dinner and headed for the lodge.

The room was a typical temple town lodge. The fan was excellent without a regulator and we had nice ideas to make it work - One of them staying up the whole night rotating the blades.. We thought that might be faster than the current speed in which it was running :-)

So on Sunday, we got up at 5:30 AM. Got ready and viewed the Sunrise from the terrace of the lodge. Took few snaps and then headed out for breakfast.

After that we headed out to Srisailam Ropeway. This is a small ropeway to reach the river from the top of the hill and takes 3 minutes for going down (and 3 mins for up). We stopped in the bottom and walked to the Pathala Ganga (Krishna river). There we took the motorized boat and went near to the Srisailam dam. Came back up again view the ropeway and then headed to the Sakshi Ganapati temple. Ganesha here is supposed to witness (sakshi) everyone who goes to Srisailam to workship lord Shiva.

Then finally, we headed to Nagarjuna Sagar. It was 6 hours journey. So we slept around for a lot of time. And ofcourse we had to listen to Ganesh's PJs and Sushma who was really a non-stop chatter :)

We reached the the Nagarjuna Sagar - and got a view from the top. But vehicles were not supposed to ply over the dam and hence it was view from far.

 

We played in the river bed near the broken bridge for some-time. Then we headed to the Ethipothala waterfalls view which is around 10-15 kms from the dam site. Here the underground water from the hills surrounding collects and falls over as 2 falls. This starts as 2 small tributaries that join the river Krishna.

 

After getting our eyes drenched with the Ethipothala waterfalls, we headed to the waterflow below - 1/2 km trek. We had scenic views from there but since it started raining, we had to head back home fast.

Headed back home and reached at 12:00 Midnight sharp.

Dates: 08-Sep-2007 and 09-Sep-2007.