A drive through the Eastern Ghats

Vivekananda Kadukuntla / / Travelogue

About 2000 kms over a weekend- now, that’s a long drive!

The first weekend of April was well spent in the Eastern Ghats. It was a lovely drive through the forest patches and the never ending Ghat roads. There were of course a few river streams, waterfalls and beaches in the mix. This is also my first visit to Araku valley and Vizag. 🙂

The schedule seemed a little too tight; and the itinerary looked a little too uncertain when we began, but it was a fun trip overall.

Sequence of the places we visited:

5th April, 2012
  • Hyderabad – we started here on Thursday, 3.30 pm.
  • Eluru – night halt.
6th April, 2012
  • Rajamundry – had breakfast, checked out the Kovvuru Rajamundry Bridge and set off to the Alluri Sitaramaraju forest.
  • Rompa Rampa Waterfall – We have very less water flow because of the summer heat I guess, but a place we checked out anyway.
  • Maredumilli – Had a very early lunch around 11am as we might not get anything to eat further in the jungle. This is where we tasted the Bamboo chicken.
  • Mothugudem – The Shabari river that acts as a border for Andhra Pradesh.
  • CLAP Waterfall, Polleru – I wonder why they call it CLAP. Water flow was better than Rompa here. We even got into water and had a chilly shower.
  • Chintapally – This is one of the bigger towns in the Agency. We stopped here for evening snacks and inquired about the coolest place nearby.
  • Lambasingi – Apparently, the coolest place in AP where the temperature falls to as low as 2 or 3 deg. C. Google this name and you can also see a TV9 report telecast a month or so ago, available on Youtube.
  • Paderu – Dinner and night halt.
7th April, 2012
  • Araku Valley – After breakfast, straight into the valley. Wow, what a drive! We just drove through the valley – didn’t stop much to cover any traditional tourist places, except for a few photography opportunities.
  • Anantagiri – Another hill station view point and drive through.
  • Borra caves – We got inside the cave, spent an hour exploring, clicked a few photographs.
  • Raju gari Dhaba, Vizag – We inquired about this place and had lunch at this ‘Sea Inn’, a place known for it’s awesome Non-veg menu. It was good. By the way, Raju won an award in a competition between a few South Indian cities’ seafood competition; hence ‘Raju gari Dhaba’.
  • Bheemili beach – Our first beach in the trip.
  • Erra matti dibbalu – For some reason, the route was closed. So, while we technically witnessed a few red ant hills, aka ‘erra matti dibbalu’ at the entrance, we didn’t get to cover the actual scene.
  • RK Beach – The most happening place in Vizag.
  • Lakshmi Paradise hotel – night stay.
8th April, 2012
  • Sri Sairam parlour – Breakfast at the ‘world famous in Vizag’ food joint.
  • Yarada beach – Nice view from the top just before getting down to the beach. Also, felt like the most dangerous one of all the beaches (shallow).
  • Eluru – pit stop
9th April, 2012
  • Hyderabad – 2.30 am. Good night!

View the complete set of pictures here. 

And, below is the GPS trail of our route.

It occurred to me that I can track my movements on the map only couple of hours into the trip; so this route trail doesn’t start from the beginning. The first couple of “places” were added manually. I actually downloaded this app while resting in back seat, figured out how to use it and here is the result. Am hoping the next trip will be documented a lot better!

Click on it to interact and zoom the map to get more details.

6 Replies to “A drive through the Eastern Ghats”

  1. Hi, I am planing to by the same route, tomorrow morning and I got your post which indeed helped me, BTW: I would like to know how are the road conditions in this reagion?

    Reply

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