Araku Journey

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description

An e-book version of by Araku travel experiences

Transcript of Araku Journey

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The idea to visit ARAKU came into my into my mind when I revived my feeling

of joy, I experienced on watching a poster depicting the scenic beauty of ARAKU, at the age of 12. I got thrilled on getting the GO AHEAD gesture from my father. I convinced my MAMA and two of my cousins (elder brothers) to join the party. The very next hour, the news about the onset of monsoon scared me. It SCARED because, nobody wants the rain to play the villain while capturing the scenic beauty of ARAKU. I am talking about PHOTOGRAPHY. The gadgets we are going to carry are not monsoon-proof. Surprisingly, we got a nod from everyone (including the meteorological department)

Tickets booked, travel bags tightly zipped, lots of plans waiting to get executed… EVERYTHING SET. This was the situation on the evening of 1st JULY(day before the journey began).

The sudden onset of black clouds blocked my mind…

The roar of thunders threatened me…

It took the shape of a heavy rain in a matter of minutes. “Are my plans going to get dissolved in that rain???”. “NO”. Hope kept me alive.

The next day, i.e. the journey day, the sky was partially clear and NO RAIN!!! I got thrilled.

We boarded GAUTAMI EXPRESS at 9:15 pm to get down in RAJAHMUNDRY. The train reached Rajahmundry at 6 am sharp. An INDICA car was waiting at the station to take us to KADIYAPULANKA

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KADIYAPULANKA is a small village (only in terms of area, not fame) that can be found beside NH5. The major part of the area in the village is only meant for plant nurseries.

It was a 20 minute ride from station to SRI SATYANARAYANA NURSEY (in Kadiyapulanka). We were provided with an AC room above the office room of the nursery. We quickly had our breakfast to explore Satyanarayana nursery, one of the biggest in India. It is a huge nursery stretched over a whopping 170 acres of land with hundreds of varieties of flower, ornamental plants and different kinds of fruit and vegetable trees.

A young guy guided us through the nursery explaining the details of each and every variety of plants. The only thing we could do was, getting amazed listening to the words of that guy. Believe it or not, he knows the scientific name of each and every plant in that nursery that has nearly 300 varieties! You show it, he’ll tell its name. All the Asoka trees you see in NEW DELHI were exported from Kadiyapulanka! Most of ornamental trees you get to see in hotels, parks, resorts etc in metropolitan cities were once watered by the workers in Kadiyapulanka!

It took nearly 4 hours for us to completely explore the nursery. We then visited the cattle-farm owned by the same owner. I was stunned at the sight a cow 5feet tall and 6 feet wide! It’s called as ONGOLE GITTA (Ongole cow). It gives 5 liters of milk at time i.e. 10 liters of milk a day! The cows and buffaloes there get very nutritious food everyday on-time and a very very good care from the Paaleru (cowboy).

We then had our lunch at the house of GANGUMALLA SATYANARAYANA, the owner of that fantastic nursery and cattle-farm. All the dishes were made using the ghee extracted from the milk of the ONGOLE GITTA.

Then, we visited JEGURUPADU, a village that won Nirmal Gram Puraskar and GOOGLE’s best village in AP for its tidiness. It is a small but ideal village with a total area of just 4 square-kilometers. On the way back, we got inside Sir Arthur Cotton Museum and had some pictures clicked at Gannavaram Godavari Aqueduct. Our journey that day ended on reaching AMALAPURAM, my grandmother’s village. Sorry… town!

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A family get-together function was organized by our relatives on the occasion of their new habitat (GRUHAPRAVESAM). We enjoyed very much that day with all the family members around.

The next day i.e. 5th July, was declared to be a BHARAT BANDH by Indian political opposition parties. The fate of our journey plan was thrown into their hands. The public transport system was ceased by the political activists. So we were forced to book a car for our travel from Amalapuram to Kakinada. Amalapuram to Kakinada journey is a very pleasant one with paddy fields, coconut trees and many other kinds of trees on either side of the road. To spice it up, there was a heavy downpour during our journey. The view of Godavari from Yanam Bridge (Balayogi Varadhi) is fantastic. The total journey time was 1 ½ hour. Rain ceased as we reached Kakinada.

My actual plan was to catch a bus for the travel from Kakinada to Vizag that afternoon. I had to withdraw those plans because of BANDH that day. We have a lot of relatives residing in Kakinada. We spent some time at each house till 7 that evening. My parents started their journey back to Hyderabad as part of their journey plan. I joined my Mama and cousin (elder brother) at Kakinada bus depot. I was shocked to see both of them sitting on a bench, sad-faced. Knowing the reason, even my face turned sad. No RTC buses from Kakinada to Vizag till 11:30 pm that night! But….. God sent the driver of a private mini-bus. There were just 3 seats available in that bus travelling to Vizag! We got thrilled with that.

Our journey started to Vizag at 7:20 pm in that AC bus. The bus guy provided us entertainment by switching on the portable LCD screen in the bus and played the movie, ‘EK NIRANJAN’. And, heavy rain outside. Though the movie was bad, the journey was pretty exciting on the Bypass road to Vizag. Journey time was 3 ½ hours. Apart from the RTC bus fare, the bus guy didn’t charge an extra rupee. But we paid him extra bucks for making our journey possible at that time and also making it a very pleasant one. We received a cordial welcome from my mama’s friend at the Vizag stop. We reached MR. MALLESWARA RAO (mama’s friend)’s house at 11 o’clock and stayed that night there. The next day… much-awaited journey to ARAKU!

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4:30 am was the time we woke up and started getting ready to board Kirandul Express at 6:50 am, heading to ARAKU. The train departure was on schedule. But slight showers started unscheduled. But it died down in just 15 minutes making the atmosphere very pleasant and left the sky cloudy. Irresistible temptation for photography originated in me with a brief glance of the nature from the window. What a beauty! It’s green all over the place (some other colours are slightly visible though). I tried to switch off the camera many times but in vain. Slight showers earlier, enhanced the colour green and it turned out to be a heaven for the photography frenzy. My enthusiasm levels were high even after clicking countless number of photos.

As the journey proceeded, the sight of greenery slowly started fading out from our window. Rocks were the only things we could see outside. After sometime, the train started ascending a hill and the hill rock blocked our sight from the window. I was amazed when I casually turned my face to the other side. The altitude of the train started increasing and the glimpse of the scenery from the window to my left was mind-blowing. We immediately positioned ourselves at the bogie entrance and later seated there, that took the excitement to a whole new level.

Thrill boosted up after crossing the SHIVALINGAPURAM railway station.

At a point of time, we reached the highest point where we could see clouds under our feet. Literally!

While this all was happening, we met a guy named Shiva in the train, whose uncle runs an auto-rickshaw in Araku. As part of our initial plans, we were to get down at Borra Caves railway station. But he (Shiva) advised us to get down at Araku station even though our reservation ticket demands us to get down at Borra Caves. Later we found that advice very useful. We would have suffered a lot if we have followed what we planned.

We reached Araku at 12:15 pm and the auto-rickshaw of Shiva’s uncle picked us. He took us to a hotel named ‘Krishna Tara comforts’, nearly 3kms from the railway station. The charges for four people in that hotel for one complete day were Rs. 1450.

We had our lunch in the hotel and started off for an exciting journey in Araku, at 2:00 pm.

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We started off with our journey in Araku by visiting the tribal museum of the local tribes. It beautifully showcased the way tribes lead their life. The tools they use, the food they eat, the houses they build, the clothes they wear, the customs they follow… everything was present there. We had fun playing with the bow and arrows (not even a single arrow reached the target though).

Our next destination was BORRA CAVES. 7 Kms of ghat road (road along hills) is part of the journey to BORRA CAVES. We were unable to resist our temptation to take photographs while we were on the ghat road. We occasionally stopped the vehicle, got down and captured some breathtaking images. We came across a place called GAALIKONDA on the ghat road where there will be cold air currents with almost uniform velocity round the clock. As part of the refreshment break, we halted in front of a coffee-selling hut. The coffee is made from the coffee beans obtained from the local plantations. We took some snaps after getting deep into the coffee plantations and returned immediately to the vehicle because bears do occasionally attack humans in that region!

Our next halt was at the highest point of the Araku valley. 3000 feet (nearly 1 Km) above mean sea level! Whole of Araku valley was visible from there. We clicked more than 70 photos at that place alone!

Temperature inside most of the caves in India will be hot. But Borra Caves is an exception for this. Temperature inside Borra Caves is around 20 degrees! A guide named KONDAPPA guided us through the cave explaining (exaggerating) each and every detail of the cave. My mama cracked a hell lot of jokes whenever Kondappa showed us rocks of different patterns, naming them. After the exit from the cave, the sight of GOSTANI River from there was really fantastic. As expected, loads of photos taken.

We paid 450 bucks to a jeep wallah to take us to KATAKI waterfall, nearly 4 Kms from Borra Caves. No vehicle other than a jeep could go on that road. The road was full of rocks, highs and lows. Though the waterfall was medium-sized, flora and fauna around it was fantastic. Paying 450 bucks to the jeep wallah was really worth it. Our auto rickshaw driver showed his skill driving us back to hotel at 7 pm in perfect darkness on that ghat road. We slept in the hotel that night and started our journey to Vizag at 5:30 am in the morning in a Qualis. Taking a bus was not advised because of Maoist bandh there at that time.

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After the marvelous Araku tour, we decided to explore Vizag. My father’s friend arranged a Maruti Omni van for our pleasant trip there. We first visited SIMHACHALAM, a 20 minute drive from the city. It is located on a hill with rich amount of greenery around. View of the Vizag city from the Ghat road was simply amazing. Most part of the hill was covered with a thick blanket of fog due to the cold weather at that time. After getting the blessings from God and having a full meal of “prasadam”, our journey headed towards RISHIKONDA BEACH.

We decided not to get wet in the over-salted sea water there and limited our beach visit just to take photographs. After having a beautiful photo session, we headed to KAILASGIRI.

We stood speechless on watching the breathtaking scenic beauty of Vizag and the sea shore from the top of KAILASGIRI. We spent an hour there taking photos and enjoying the climate. It was a perfect CLIMAX to our Araku tour.

We started back to our place with

loads of photographs,

tons of memories and

lots and lots of everlasting experiences….

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