Gandikota Trek

I was eagerly waiting for this trek as I had to drop out the coorg trek at the last min and since then I was thirsty for a trek. The day finally arrived and was busy packing until the last min. I was supposed to catch mmts train at hitech city which was scheduled to depart at 6.54 and would arrive at kacheguda at 7.28pm and tht would leave enough time for me to catch venkatadri express which was scheduled to depart at 8.05pm.unfortunately it never happened as planned…

NEVER RELY ON MMTS:: ----------I arrived at HC station and the train had arrived on time and was happy for it, but my happiness did not last long as the train started moving so slow as if people were pushing the train from behind and after 10 min train picked up speed and everything was going on well until the train arrived at secbad station where it was halted for 15 min and it started to bother me again. Finally the train arrived at kacheguda station at 8.20 pm and by then venkatadri express had already left. I informed the same to the grp members and came out of the railway station to check with the bus timings. I immediately called vamsi annaya and he helped me with the directions and I hired an auto and asked him to take me to the nearest travel agency from where I could catch a bus to jammalamadugu and he suggested going to Lakdikapool sayin that there would be many number of buses and I agreed to it .I purchased a ticket at a travel agency in lakdikapool and when enquired about the route the bus would take it was surprising to find out that all the buses would go via kacheguda .the bus started at 10.30pm and arrived at jammalamadugu by 7 am.








Day--1




I met the group members at the jammalamadugu bus station and we had break fast while few of the members had gone out to purchase groceries. At the depot there was a lady who collected money for the usage of urinals, she was a disturbed woman and she liked the sweater that lakshmi was wearing and she wanted it. We gave the woman bananas and saporta to eat. The members of the grp were busy applying sun screen lotion and seeing this the locals had asked if we had come for shooting. we were asked the same question many more times during the trek and it had become a routine question….we all had our breakfast and started our journey .we hired two autos and after 30-40 min of journey we finally arrived at the entrance of the fort where we met sudhanshu who was waiting from 6.30am.we filled the cans with water from an old well. The entire luggage was distributed equally among the members and we started our trek. We had to rest for every 15-20 min as we were carrying heavy loads. After walking for 1 hr we reached the view point and it was so picturesque. We took some photos and started again. We had to cross a barrier of rocks and thorns and on the other side there was a berry tree and we plucked as many as we could and ate. After taking the directions from a local we walked along the wall. After we had walked for 200 mts we had stopped again as we had no clue how to reach the other side of the wall. Diyanat sir came up with an idea of using the rope to descend down the wall and few of the members had some concerns regarding it. Mean while Devyani had done some exploration and she found the SECRET passage and we all were happy .it is so sad that we never got a chance to make use of the rope that we had carried

The passage was a small tunnel along the breadth of the wall. we had our lunch in the tunnel .nimboo paani was prepared by kranti and co and it was refreshing. After resting for a while we all started again and I took the lead. I thought we all were going down to the lake and I walked in that direction. After a while when I turned back to look for the group members I found none. Expecting to meet them enroute I started walking and even after walking for 20 min there was no sight of any of the group members. I heard some sounds and thinking that it could be the grp members I started walking back, I put my bag and the luggage on a rocky elevation and increased my pace and at 1 point I started running, not that I was afraid ,but just to get back to the group asap. After reaching the edge of the gorge to my disappointment I found no one. While running back to pick my luggage a rabbit came out of no where and I was totally taken by surprise and I had to hold my breathe for a min.i picked my luggage and started walking in the opposite direction and after walking for 15 min I spotted the group members who were waiting for me and caught up with them. we had to stop again for a break and we were served with refreshing nimboo paani prepared by ranjitha & co,mean while diya sir and keku had done some exploration and found a place where we could rest for the night. We started again towards the so called- base camp for the trek and after walking for 10 min we finally reached the base camp which was a plain bit of rock. In no time we freed our shoulders and started making preparations for dinner. Ranjitha was the chief cook, under her supervision along with the helping hands from the group members dinner was ready in no time .the dinner menu consisted of aloo+tamatar ,dal ,rice and a spl package of omletes which were made on the portable stove by diyanat sir. After dinner we put up tents and few of us slept while others kept singing. Sentry duties were given and each member had to guard the post for 1 hr. I woke up at 2 am and found vikram and imran guarding the posts,they retired and I along with kranthi took the charge. the night sky was clear and for the first time I had seen so many stars in the sky,it was amazing..after 1hr kranti retired and I did not feel like sleeping and continued guarding the post along with sudhanshu and sukumar. Mean while chaya who kept coughing through out the night woke up to take medication and at the same time lakshmi woke up as she was feeling hungry. they kept talking and I retired to sleep


DAY—2

We all woke up by 7am and I along with daya and sudhanshu had gone to the nearby village to fetch water and by the time we came back break fast was ready. we had vegetable rice, egg burji, bread and cheese for break fast. After taking some group photos we started our journey back.we were supposed to catch a bus to go back to gandikota and it was the only mode of transportation available. As we were nearing the road we had seen the bus and we all shouted and the bus stopped, had we been late by another 2-3min we would have missed the bus and the situation would have been different. We got in the bus and after 10 min of journey we arrived at the gandikota fort. By the time we reached the fort the reporter from ABN news channel was already waiting for us. He took us to a location which was simply superb. If the reporter had not taken us to this place we would have missed it, we are very thankful to the reporter. After a few minutes of talk with the reporter diya,daya,keku,venkat and myself descended down to do some bouldering. After 20-25 min of effort we finally reached the peak. All 5 of us got on to the peak and there r no words to describe the feeling. By the time we reached the peak,rest of the members followed . we returned back to the place where we started while the rest of the members were busy taking some photos. After reaching the starting point venkat had given a good interview to the reporter. Once every 1 reached we went to temple and we all were busy eating pepsis. Every one had eaten a min of 2-3 pepsis and I had eaten 5-6of them. After spending some time we all started back to the bus stop to go to our next destination. The fare for hiring an auto was expensive and we decided to take the bus which left us with spare time of 2hrs. Mean time few of us had gone to the well to fetch some water and we came back.we spent time by singing, playing gilli danda, running for berries, preparing nimboo paani. we
had scrambled eggs, coconut and soft drink for lunch as we had no time to stop again . The bus finally arrived and after 20-30min of journey we reached jammalamadugu .we hired a taxi and all 18 of us got in to a single taxi and after 20 min of journey we reached the dam and most of us got in to the water .it was so refreshing. the sunset was good to watch. We spent an hour and a half in the waters .we then hired 2 autos to get back to jammalamadugu. From there we boarded a bus to prodduturu ,after 40 min of journey we arrived at prodduturu and from there we hired 2 autos to reach yerraguntla station. we all sat down in the waiting hall and had dinner there itself. The train finally arrived and we settled down at our respective seats and had a good night sleep.the train was delayed by an hr and we finally reached kacheguda by 6.50am.we exchanged our contact numbers and took a group photo before dispersing.


link for more photos--http://picasaweb.google.com/pamidipraveen/GandikotaTrek?feat=directlink

This is how you can remember the members of the group

singing troop--pushya,pavithra,vikram,sukumar&kranthi

Chief cook—Ranjitha

Fire expert---Devyani

Anda wala----Venkat(nxt brand ambassador after sachin for NECC)

Youngest------Lakshmi

Guardian-------Sukumar

Animal lover---Keku(he also loves omletes)

Helping hands---Imran

Camera men----Vinit & Jayantha

Water bag------Daya

Translator-----vidyasagar

1st to arrive----sudhanshu

Portable stove---Diyanat

Missed the train---_______