The great canyon of India! Gandikota.
You should have heard about it. But u know I'm from Kadapa district and this is hardly 30kms from my home but stil i went to it only when I'm 24.
As the saying goes, doorapu kondalu nunupu i.e. We keep thinking about far away things assuming that they wil be good ignoring the near by ones. Like how people wanted to visit foreign countries before finishing awesome places in India.
Finally i went to this in Sep'18 with a friend in car and again in Dec'18 with family.
You can get a direct bus to Proddatur from chennai or bengalore. Or atleast to Kadapa from major cities. From there u can take a car.
Here u can see:
Entrance: This is similar to Golkonda fort entrance and Delhi Red fort. The way they built was to save from the enemies attacks.
Then charminar : immediately after entering left side u can find it. Though not similar to Hyderabad charminar. They named it as such.
U can go firther in car inside but road wil b very small.
Park the vehicle.
Go to temple on left side.
U can try to climb above the walls and see the view.
Go inside and check out the sculptures.
See the outer parts of the main temple.
Then come back to parking area and go right and find
Kattula koneru : a small lake where they used to wash the knifes after a war. Right side. Third time only I went near and saw so many fishes.
And left side u can find a masid kind of structure, place where horses used to b staying, a big building to store the rice.
Move further and find another temple kind on left side. From here also u can get good view of canyon.
Here comes the big thing.
Move forward after coming back from above and u can see the big canyon. U cannot express the feeling after seeing it.
The red rocks all over this area u can find while u r driving also.
AP govt hotel is also there very near to it if u want to stay back. People wol b doing camping also here. Try to see the sun rise in canyon and sun set in first temple that i have told.
U can ask people and get to know the boating and kayaking place which is harldy 5km from fort
On the u can get to see Mylavaram dam also if u r interested. You can drive the car one the small pathway which is next to dam.
And if u r interested try having food in my hometown Proddatur.. Kaaram dosa, uggani, sangati..
Also capturing my 3rd time experience here on 28-Nov-20
After 2 years I could go again today. Much needed safe outing near by in this WFH on bike.
The weather was great today after 2 days of continuous rain. As the rain stopped, little sunshine came which is just enough. It would be great if we have weather like this every day. No heat, cool breeze, full clouds and no rain.
There will be so much to explore further in each visit. Full credit to Nivar Cyclone. Otherwise today would also have been hot as usual.
We sat for hours as it was so cool. It was fully clouded that we could see the full reflection in the water. People try to take these kind of reflexes but when I saw this in photo, it gave excitement. In one lake there were so many fishes waiting for visitors to feed them.
And then observed that we could ride the bike at 60kmph for almost 2 km switching off the engine while returning because of slope.
And on the mylavaram dam one special gate, when I stood, I felt like I was on ship which is moving. Like the way we feel that trees are going behind when we are in train.
We got to sit and watch the water getting released from dam and vapor of water that's coming out.
