With the Christmas and New year nearing and I being in Bangalore made it obvious enough that I would be travelling somewhere over the long weekend. My friend and I thought about multiple places like Goa, Valparai but finally settled for Gandikota for the reason that it is closer than Valparai and assuming that it will be less rushed than Goa (Bummer!)
We wanted this trip to be an impromptu one so we didn't book any hotel to stay and didn
t plan anything except a list of things to carry. We planned to do road trip with camping so we carried our tents, sleeping bags, utensils and some basic food to cook.
Considering the OCD which Ruby has, I assumed we will leave at sharp 5 am but well she is on a little low with her OCD's these days and so we left only by 9 am ( Bad idea)
The roads to Gandikota are pretty good. There is a way via Anantpur which is a little long but definitely a better option compared to the state highways and AH which google showed us. Few stretches had pot holes which made driving a bit uncomfortable as well. We stopped in a small village for our lunch and OMG the poppu/pappu dal which they give in Andhra is to die for. It was so yummy that I must have taken some 7-8 servings of that dal.
After our more than needed full tummies, we continued for Gandikota. Finally around 5 pm in evening , we reached Gandikota fort. There is a resort named Haritha resort which you can book on www.aptdc.gov.in. As we wanted to camp so we didn't book the room.
You can get a already fixed tent for 1500 INR in Haritha resort or outside the resort. As we had our own tent, the guy said initially that he will charge 500 INR for fixing our tent in his land. Finally they agreed for us to put our tent at the pretext that they will help us to fix our tent for 200 INR. Vinod and Shekhar helped me to put the tent which was fixed in like 10 minutes ( Thanks to my practice in Roopkund :)). We made the masala chai in the wild and left to see the Pennar river view during the sunset.
From Haritha hotel its 1/2 a km walk to the fort.You can ride or drive in the fort as well. Few bikers even offroaded a long way to rocks. From there it's a 200-300 meters walk to the view. There were many people cherishing the beautiful sunset in a pretty noisy way. Without caring for them, I moved to a beautiful spot. At the view , it was breezy though not very cold. After clicking some photos and selfies, we left back.
While coming back we realized that , you can even put your tents on the stones with help of Vinod and Shekhar. There is a water tank provided in the fort near rocks but I believe, if we stayed there on rocks, the morning ablutions would have been quite difficult.
Once we reached back to our tent, against our initial plan of cooking Maggi and salad, we ate rice and poppu dal at Haritha hotel for 90 INR rice and 60 INR dal.
Now, we were all set to get into our cosy tent and retire for the day but Alas! we see 4-5 tents coming up near our beautiful tent. Disappointed but without any choice we went in our tent for final settling around. Just when we were about to pass into the other world under starry sky, we heard blaring music of 'Bichu mere naina, badi zeherili ankh maare' and my lord this blaring music from both the sides continued till 1 am in the morning ( We went in our tent at 8:30- 9ish). Finally when I told myself no worries I still have 5-6 hours of more sleep, we started hearing live music with guitar from Harisha resort. Even though it was not as piercing as the previous music, it definitely didn't let me sleep till 3ish in the morning.
Finally my alarm rang at 4:45 am as we didn't want to miss sunrise at the Pennar river view. We went to Haritha resort brushed, took bath, got ready and left for the fort. And to our dismissal even at 5:30- 6 am in the morning, whole world was there. I finally made my peace with the noise and shouting of people and moved up in the rocks for the better view.
To be honest , you don't have to wake up so early in the morning because the sun came up only by 6:45 am. I took few pictures sat there for a while admiring the beauty this universe has to offer. I closed my eyes and got that beautiful image in my head carved even though it was in the midst of the stark sounds of people laughing and talking. We left the hills at around 7:30 am. Went to the 2 temples. One of the temple didn't have any god inside and the other temple was locked. After clicking some beautiful pictures in the amazing light of morning sun, we left back for our tent. We packed our tent, had another round of masala tea, ate oats with milk as our breakfast and left for Belum caves which are around 50 km from Gandikota.
Belum caves
The road to Belum caves are not very good and it took us around 1 1/2 hour to reach the caves and there was a sea of human beings specially school kids.
The caves are really big but a major part of the caves was closed due to restoration work as rain had collapsed some part of the caves. The map outside the caves actually tells that you can go around the complete cave and some parts are pretty low and require some flexibility in your spine ;).
There is a beautiful buddha also on the other side of the caves. Due to restoration work and too many school kids, we left from caves within half an hour though if you do the complete trip inside the cave, it might take around 2 hours.
Next we ate spicy poppu dal again in a small restaurant near caves and left for Bangalore. Apparently the route from Belum caves showed 5 hours to Bangalore. So without much break on the way, we left Caves at 12:30 pm and reached Bangalore by 5:30 pm.
One can also go to Lepakshi temple on the way. We didn't go there as we plan to go there with another friend of ours who is in town next week, so wait for updated on Lepakshi until then :)
And Merry Christmas and a happy new year! Be safe and have fun this festive season! Love!
We wanted this trip to be an impromptu one so we didn't book any hotel to stay and didn
t plan anything except a list of things to carry. We planned to do road trip with camping so we carried our tents, sleeping bags, utensils and some basic food to cook.
 |
| Our tent |
 |
| Ruby with all her glory enjoying tea with sunset |
Considering the OCD which Ruby has, I assumed we will leave at sharp 5 am but well she is on a little low with her OCD's these days and so we left only by 9 am ( Bad idea)
The roads to Gandikota are pretty good. There is a way via Anantpur which is a little long but definitely a better option compared to the state highways and AH which google showed us. Few stretches had pot holes which made driving a bit uncomfortable as well. We stopped in a small village for our lunch and OMG the poppu/pappu dal which they give in Andhra is to die for. It was so yummy that I must have taken some 7-8 servings of that dal.
 |
| Yummy Poppu |
 |
| On the way |
 |
| Morning breakfast |
 |
| My Coffee |
After our more than needed full tummies, we continued for Gandikota. Finally around 5 pm in evening , we reached Gandikota fort. There is a resort named Haritha resort which you can book on www.aptdc.gov.in. As we wanted to camp so we didn't book the room.
You can get a already fixed tent for 1500 INR in Haritha resort or outside the resort. As we had our own tent, the guy said initially that he will charge 500 INR for fixing our tent in his land. Finally they agreed for us to put our tent at the pretext that they will help us to fix our tent for 200 INR. Vinod and Shekhar helped me to put the tent which was fixed in like 10 minutes ( Thanks to my practice in Roopkund :)). We made the masala chai in the wild and left to see the Pennar river view during the sunset.
From Haritha hotel its 1/2 a km walk to the fort.You can ride or drive in the fort as well. Few bikers even offroaded a long way to rocks. From there it's a 200-300 meters walk to the view. There were many people cherishing the beautiful sunset in a pretty noisy way. Without caring for them, I moved to a beautiful spot. At the view , it was breezy though not very cold. After clicking some photos and selfies, we left back.
While coming back we realized that , you can even put your tents on the stones with help of Vinod and Shekhar. There is a water tank provided in the fort near rocks but I believe, if we stayed there on rocks, the morning ablutions would have been quite difficult.
Once we reached back to our tent, against our initial plan of cooking Maggi and salad, we ate rice and poppu dal at Haritha hotel for 90 INR rice and 60 INR dal.
Now, we were all set to get into our cosy tent and retire for the day but Alas! we see 4-5 tents coming up near our beautiful tent. Disappointed but without any choice we went in our tent for final settling around. Just when we were about to pass into the other world under starry sky, we heard blaring music of 'Bichu mere naina, badi zeherili ankh maare' and my lord this blaring music from both the sides continued till 1 am in the morning ( We went in our tent at 8:30- 9ish). Finally when I told myself no worries I still have 5-6 hours of more sleep, we started hearing live music with guitar from Harisha resort. Even though it was not as piercing as the previous music, it definitely didn't let me sleep till 3ish in the morning.
Finally my alarm rang at 4:45 am as we didn't want to miss sunrise at the Pennar river view. We went to Haritha resort brushed, took bath, got ready and left for the fort. And to our dismissal even at 5:30- 6 am in the morning, whole world was there. I finally made my peace with the noise and shouting of people and moved up in the rocks for the better view.
Sunrise
 |
| Serene view |
To be honest , you don't have to wake up so early in the morning because the sun came up only by 6:45 am. I took few pictures sat there for a while admiring the beauty this universe has to offer. I closed my eyes and got that beautiful image in my head carved even though it was in the midst of the stark sounds of people laughing and talking. We left the hills at around 7:30 am. Went to the 2 temples. One of the temple didn't have any god inside and the other temple was locked. After clicking some beautiful pictures in the amazing light of morning sun, we left back for our tent. We packed our tent, had another round of masala tea, ate oats with milk as our breakfast and left for Belum caves which are around 50 km from Gandikota.
Belum caves
The road to Belum caves are not very good and it took us around 1 1/2 hour to reach the caves and there was a sea of human beings specially school kids.
The caves are really big but a major part of the caves was closed due to restoration work as rain had collapsed some part of the caves. The map outside the caves actually tells that you can go around the complete cave and some parts are pretty low and require some flexibility in your spine ;).
There is a beautiful buddha also on the other side of the caves. Due to restoration work and too many school kids, we left from caves within half an hour though if you do the complete trip inside the cave, it might take around 2 hours.
Next we ate spicy poppu dal again in a small restaurant near caves and left for Bangalore. Apparently the route from Belum caves showed 5 hours to Bangalore. So without much break on the way, we left Caves at 12:30 pm and reached Bangalore by 5:30 pm.
One can also go to Lepakshi temple on the way. We didn't go there as we plan to go there with another friend of ours who is in town next week, so wait for updated on Lepakshi until then :)
And Merry Christmas and a happy new year! Be safe and have fun this festive season! Love!
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