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Nandyal - Yaganti - Belum Caves


Trip Log     Total distance covered about 750 Km

The Riders:     
          Suraj - Royal Enfield Electra-5S(TN02 AD ----)     
          Krishna Mohan - Royal Enfield Electra-5S(AP 10 AN ----)

Route 



Hyderabad
      |
Kurnool
      |
Nandyal   
      |        
Mahanandi
      |
Nandyal
      |
Yaganti
      |
Belum Caves
      |
Nandyal
      |
Hyderabad

     

          
I was on speaking with Krishna Mohan over phone, telling him about my ride from Chennai, earlier that week and casually asked him, how about a ride this weekend?.... and he said why not!!!!!.. Told him I call him back later that day or the next day to decide where to ride. I called him later that day and we decided that we would ride to Nandyal, visit couple of temples then ride on to Yaganti and also visit Belum Caves before returning home. Like always we asked each other, start early? I then told him..... there's a small problem hindering our early start - I have to get my bike serviced (oil change/general checkup) as I had just rode back from Chennai the previous weekend.  

        I got my bike serviced only by 1:30 pm, went to Commercial shop where Krishna Mohan was waiting for me. We started from commercial at about 2:00 pm. My plan was not to spend time on lunch, instead get a parcel from Kebab Corner near Tankbund. Our first break was a few kms after Shamshabad at about 3:30 pm where we had our lunch. 


After topping up fuel, we rested for a while in the lawn outside the ‘Ghar Dhaba’ had tea.After entering the Kurnool town, stopped at a few places to check/make sure we are on the right route and finally we were on the NH18 towards Nandyal (7:30PM, 80KM from Kurnool). The road was newly laid and was very good, with trees on either sides of the road we stopped again and wished we were riding on that road a little earlier. After a small break we continued riding towards Nandyal. After crossing a small ghat section, we stopped again wishing we were riding a little earlier on these roads as we felt it would have been more scenic.  We reached Nandyal at about 9:30 pm and we had the same problem ‘finding accommodation’ like in any other ride. After searching for about 45 minutes we managed to find a hotel. After checking in we went to the restaurant only to realize that the kitchen was closed and nothing was available. After speaking to couple of waiters and in-charge we could manage to get 2 small packets of curd-rice (Phew! At last). 

     After making our-self content with the little curd-rice we had, we crashed for the day (it was almost midnight) but were woken up by the ‘mosquitoes’. There were so many of them that we were wondering where they had been hiding. I then told him I guess we are still here in this room 'cause, the mosquitoes have not been able to lift us out of the room 'cause of our size. We could hardly sleep after that.

     We started from our hotel at 4:45 am, after having tea, we rode towards Mahanandi. It was about 15-20 minutes ride. 

Mahanandi

         
A huge Nandi statue is situated outside this temple. 
The temple had two pool of water, on either side of the entrance of the temple. The one on the right (as we walk in), was a designated pool for males for bathing, and the one on the left was designated for females. It had a continuous inflow of water. The inflow and outflow is maintained such that there is always about 4 or 5 feet of water. The water was also very clear. The water outlet leeds to nearby fields. It cannot be seen from the temple. As you enter the temple, there is a large pool of water. Like the two pools outside, this also had continuous inflow of water, clear water, the inlet and outlet is desinged in such that the water level is maintained at 4 or 5 feet. There was a small mandap at at the center of the pool and it housed a small Shiva Lingam. There were some people swimming in it. I was told that the inflow of water in these three pools was below the Swayambu Linga. There was not much crowd, so we was able to have a quick darshan. We were also allowed to touch the Lingam. 

     After Darshan, we rode towards Yagant. Since we did not find any hotels/dhabas en-route we decided to skip break-fast. To reach Yaganit, we had to ride back towards Kurnool(about 10-15 km), until we reached the village Panem. we took the road leading to Banaganapalle. This road was only wide enough for a 6 wheeler (Bus/lorries/tractor tailors). The road condition was not bad, but we could manage to ride at about 70-80 kmph. En-route we visited the Choweshweri temple and Veerabhadreshwara mutt. 

Yaganti

          
The temple had two pool of water, on either side of the entrance of the temple. The one on the right (as we walk in), was a designated pool for males for bathing, and the one on the left was designated for females. It had a continuous inflow of water. The inflow and outflow is maintained such that there is always about 4 or 5 feet of water. The water was also very clear. The water outlet leeds to nearby fields. It cannot be seen from the temple. As you enter the temple, there is a large pool of water. Like the two pools outside, this also had continuous inflow of water, clear water, the inlet and outlet is desinged in such that the water level is maintained at 4 or 5 feet. There was a small mandap at at the center of the pool and it housed a small Shiva Lingam. There were some people swimming in it. I was told that the inflow of water in these three pools was below the Swayambu Linga. There was not much crowd, so we was able to have a quick darshan. We were also allowed to touch the Lingam. 

     After Darshan, we rode towards Yagant. Since we did not find any hotels/dhabas en-route we decided to skip break-fast. To reach Yaganit, we had to ride back towards Kurnool(about 10-15 km), until we reached the village Panem. we took the road leading to Banaganapalle. This road was only wide enough for a 6 wheeler (Bus/lorries/tractor tailors). The road condition was not bad, but we could manage to ride at about 70-80 kmph. En-route we visited the Choweshweri temple and Veerabhadreshwara mutt. 
          
After darshan, we went towards the caves. The first is the Agasthya guha, we climbed the steep steps to reach the top. It is believed that Sage Agyastya did meditation here.The second is the Venkateshwara Guha and to reach the top where the idol of Venkateshwara is located, we had to go through another flight of stairs. It was easier to climb this guha than the Agayastya guha. Visited the third cave where a saint had done meditation (I cant remember the saints name). This cave had a small and low entrance. I asked my friend if I should try entering as I had a feeling I would get stuck. Luckily I did not get stuck. I was already sweating due to heat and walking, we rested for about 15-20 minutes near the caves. It is said that there are no crows in this area(around the temple) due to Sage Agastya's curse. As we were about to start from there we asked about the 'White Palace' like structure and we were told that it was the Nawab's Palace. Due to time constraints we decided to skip visiting it(first of all we were not sure if it was open to public).

     We rode towards Belum caves hoping to find some hotels/dhabas for lunch but did not find any. We bought half a dozen of bananas as we did not manage to find hotels for lunch at Banaganepalle and continued our ride. At a junction we were mis-directed and rode about 10 km when I had a doubt about the route. I checked with a local if I was on the right route – he said something in Telugu …I thought he was trying to tell that I was not on the right route. Waited until Krishna Mohan caught up with me. After about 2 minutes of discussion, we started our ride back until the junction and then take the right route. After about 2 km I checked again with a local villager if I was in the right route, and indeed we were on the right one. The road condition had worsened – there were no-more roads. There were quarries all over the place, where truck loads of stone slabs were being transported. The queer thing about the quarries were that the cross-section of the slabs were layered. It was worth a good sight. Finally we reached Belum by about 2:15 PM. We had cold drinks and some snacks. 

Belum caves

The historic cave is know for their unique formations like icicle, columns, pillars and is now a monument of national importance. These unique formations as said to have been caused due to mineral deposits. Belum cave is probably a part of a huge cave system. Only about 3.5 km of the cave system has been explored, however only about a half of this is accessible by visitors. The cave system got its first record of existence by british geologist. It was also explored by german speleologist’s. 
The entrance to the cave system is like that of a pit cave but it becomes horizontal.

         

We bought the entry tickets and got ready to descend into the caves. As we roamed about in the curvy tracks leading to the interior, it felt a little spooky. But the caves were well lit and ventilated too. There were sign-boards to lead us to various halls in the “cave-system”. The passages were narrow at times and sometimes the ceiling height was also low. Sometimes we had had to almost crawl to get to some hallways. After spending about an hour inside, we came out and we were fully drenched and sweating. Many of the passages were closed. 

     We took rest until 4PM and started towards Nandyal and reached there by 7:00 PM. That night we stayed at the same hotel, only this time we were ready to battle the mosquitoes with our own “ODOMOS”!!        

     The next day we left @ 6AM after having tea and visited the Ayappa Temple in Kurnool. Had breakfast @ Ghar Dhaba after Kurnool and started towards Hyderabad at 9:30 AM. We reached our homes on Sunday by 1:30 PM.

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