Srisailam .. ll & lll day

 Next day we had breakfast of dosa Idly on the roadside stalls just outside our lodge and that person served us with so much love that I felt so content. And then our first point was Patal Ganga..  here it is believed that if you take bath there it cures skin diseases.and it is advised not to use soap or shampoo there but people were using it there and water was getting dirty. They have changing rooms for women. First we took ropeway to reach down at the bottom there. Ropeway ticket is 65/- adult and available every 10 minutes from 10-5 pm.It’s only 5 minutes journey but very enjoyable to see the place from there. Once we reached there we just saw the bathing place and offered diya and Prasad to Krishna river.

Then we took the ticket for Akka mahadevi caves. It is 400/ - per adult for to and fro. Total trip takes 3-4 hrs, one hour each for going and coming. Our motor boat started around 10.30. Must be 20-25 people in the trip.we were all asked to wear life jackets all the time and not move here to there much.whenever someone tried to take off the jacket tour driver insisted upon wearing it. One more instruction.he said.. don’t drop anything, any plastic bottle, wrapper in water , even by mistake because tourism department is very strict and always watching, they come immediately and charge heavily and don’t listen to any excuse.

On way we can see some hutments, power houses 🏠 n shores.it is said that Akka mahadevi did penance there and then mahadev appeared in the form of swayambhoo. Shivling. It’s naturally offered water 365 days in a year.It but s 13th century place. After one hour we reached there and then it’s 10 minutes trek to the main place. It’s rocky but has railings, so manageable. Once I reached there I was stupefied to see the nature’s wonder, it’s all rocks, such big ones, one can see with awe only, our culture and history both are so grand.Then there is a 5 minute climb to the real place. It’s dark, rocky uneven and with slush and in the end it’s height is only 3 ft, so one has to bend and May be squatting, and there is shortage on f oxygen too, so I didn’t go but my husband did.. it was tough. And then one more small trek for ganpati darshan and we came back., took the ropeway back..and then we looked for change of hotel and now found a room in Haritha resort ( govt one ) and thank god it’s a good one for 2150/- with complimentary breakfast.

Now lunchtime was gone, so we headed for some hot snacks and tea and then went to see shivaji spoorty stadium.. here shivaji meditated and then goddess gave him a sword. Here we find all memorabilia of Shivaji maharaj. 

Next was Rudra vanam near to this only.. it’s a big park well maintained with few stone sculptures . Beautiful place for nature lovers and one could see whole town also, for children there were swing slides, infact for kids they were there in all parks like Vasav vanam too, that is also a big park with landscaping and stone carved pillars and all but in all this area there were lots of locusts flying over all the time, so I didn’t feel like sitting and enjoying.Nearby is tribal museum too, we were tired so didn’t go inside.

Ill day… we packed up.. time to cherish the memories and go home. Coming back we saw Sakshi Ganpati temple, here it is said that pilgrims is complete only when you visit ganpati and tell him your gotra, so that he will tell his father shiva and will be a Salzgitter to your visit.

Next stop was Paldhara panchdhara.. here five streams are coming and it is believed that it is coming from Pal. Head of shiva.. again it’s 160 steps down and then coming back is little tiring for us.

All done and now lessons learned from this trip..

1-Always book your accommodation in advance.

2-Weekends

are always crowded, so if you want to enjoy leisurely go in midweek only

3-When you go to Akka Mahadevi caves, take some water and snacks with you, in that trip of 3-4 hrs you will not find anything.

4- For main darshan take a dhoti with you.

5..Tiger reserve is a half day trip and you have to book in advance and it opens in October only , so we missed it.

Srisailam..first day

 This was on my places to see list for a long time , so when I got sometime , I started planning. First the duration of visit.. and I thought I would go for four days and see everything leisurely but when I searched I found most of the people visiting for a day or two only, so I was in dilemma and then thought .ok I will make it for 3 days atleast. Next mode of transport.. again I didn’t find any good buses on the route and train also doesn’t connect to the main place, so it has to be a cab only. I wanted some recommended service , none in my known circle recommended Ola for outstation, I checked savaari.com and Cabbazar.com.. , first one I didn’t find good reviews and second one most reviews were from north. Again I was skeptical about their sincerity  and Customercare, so I gave a feeler to my friends to find some known person and they found me one.. he had a Swift dezire.. good enough for us two people .And the driver turned out to be very good in all respects, caring, punctual, good driver and all. He charged us 12000/- for 3 days, all inclusive.

We started from Hyderabad around 9 AM.. within 30 minutes on the way there is Udupi.. good joint for breakfast. Spent half an hour and we were on the way.Roads are very good and after 70-80  km, forest area starts for 70 km.. Nalla malla forest.. it’s a dense forest and drive is very pleasant. They close that road after 6 from both sides. There are boards everywhere asking not to feed monkeys and no littering anywhere, otherwise penalty is 10000/-.. yes ten thousand, still people were feeding and at some places picnicking also.

On the way first we see a small dam and before entering Srisailam a majestic dam, water there coming in full force and a sight to see.Whole stretch was full of fish selling, drying and all and stinking. And people stop anywhere to buy or take pics without realising that they are creating a traffic jam.

We reached Srisailam around 2.30 and first we saw APTDC Haritha hotel, but there was no room available. We wanted to stay in close vicinity of temple only. And there are lodges in plenty but lot of stairs and some not very clean too  and still full due to it being Monday. Ultimately we found a room on first floor in a dharamshala near rope way.. it wasn’t to our liking but had no choice. Room was for 1100/- but had no facility of any food, tea, porter , even linen wasn’t good. 

We kept the luggage and went for a late lunch. Food is very good there and cheap also. We went to Ganesh Foodcourt and had chola bhatoore and stuff paratha and then went for a ticket to Abhishekam. There it was available for same evening from 6-9 PM, we took it and went for it around 7 PM. As usual camera and phones are not allowed, so put them in cloak room.there wasn’t much queue anywhere.It is mandatory for men to wear vests or dhoti and no shirt, for women it is Indian wear preferably sari , otherwise salwar kameej. My husband bought dhoti over there onlyThere are no signs to tell you anything, so we had to ask at every step, we went inside and collected pooja items and went in. there they asked us to wait , we waited around 40 minutes and they asked us inside in garbhgrah,. It took us 15 minutes to do pooja.. I heard that it’s the only Jyotirling where they let you touch it. After this we came out and one Swamiji asked us to sit and gave blessings.

Then we went to darshan of Ammavari Devi, wife of Mallikararjun Swamy. It is next only but some 20-25 stairs.

Temple is huge and well mainatained and there are many shivlings and Nandi statues but since they don’t allow photography we couldn’t take any memory.

Outside temple it’s very lively atmosphere with colorful shops, selling toys, pooja items and usual other things like bangles, garlands and all.All shops have vesti, shirts etc.

By the time we finished it was 9 pm, so went to dinner and back to lodge