Anantapur - Belum Caves - Horsely Hills

2-day weekend trip to Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh) for teammate's marriage - Naresh Gupta ! We managed to visit two places - Belum caves and Horsely hills.....

Dates :: 8th and 9th February 2012
Route :: Chennai - Anantapur - Belum Caves - Anantapur - Horsely Hills - Chennai
Members :: Karthik, Sakthivel, Pranesh, Premkumar, Ramesh Kumar, Harish P, Sanjeev, Vednath, Shaik Kashif, Deepan

On 7th Feb evening around 6 PM, we drove to Anantapur in a Tempo Traveller. - a 450km drive. We reached Anantapur by 5 AM in the morning and rested for couple of hours at Hotel Sampoorna. After having breakfast in a kai-yendhi-bhavan (yummy-yummy dosa/poori/vada/idlis), we started to BELUM CAVES !

90 kms from Anantapur through the Tadipatri road is Belum Caves. On the way at 20 kms is Singanamala lake. We decided to stop there when we return and proceeded further. A road where no greenery can be sited and quite dry. Thanks to our decision of taking a AC cab from Chennai worked out !

We arrived at Belum Caves - history from Wiki :-)

Belum Caves is the second largest cave in Indian subcontinent and the longest caves in plains of Indian Subcontinent, known for its stalactite and stalagmite formations. Belum Caves have long passages, spacious chambers, fresh water galleries and siphons.

The caves reach its deepest point (120 feet from entrance level) at the point known as Pataala-Ganga.

3.5 km of the cave has been successfully explored, though only 1.5 km is open to tourists.

The caves are of hard limestone and we heard from the guide that the whole cave maintains a temperature of 33 degrees irrespective of the climate outside ! Oh yeah .. we were sweating already ....... It was nice to walk through all 1.5 kms tourists were allowed to. The guide was quite helpful to understand and also patient enough to let us take photos at will. Also, he did his best to keep us excited us adventurous at times !

There is a "linga" at 120 feet below ground and there is water at the linga alone ! We heard that the whole of the cave formation was because of water movement - naturally formed. After 2 hour stint under ground, we were very hungry and had the spicy Andhra food on the way back to Anantapur.

After attending the reception and marriage functions, we started back to Chennai. On the way back, 28 km ahead from Madanapalle - right side from the highway. It is a small hill station meant to be a chill out ! It was very sunny on the day we went but the views were guide good. It also hosts a park for children and a restaurant.

 

Trip around Pollachi !

A 2-1/2 day trip with family - parents, wife and daughter !

Dates :: Republic day weekend - Jan 26, 27 and 28 2012
Trip :: Coimbatore - Pollachi - Udumalapet - Pollachi - Top Slip - Coimbatore

Day 1 :: Coimbatore - Pollachi - Thirumoorthi falls - Thirumoorthi dam - Amaravathy Dam - Crocodile park - Pollachi
Day 2 :: Pollachi - Monkey falls - Aliyaar dam - Maasani Amman Temple - Top Slip
Day 3 :: Top Slip - Coimbatore - Chennai


Day 1, after taking the morning break at a relative's house we started towards Pollachi and booked rooms at Nivetha Inn - clean and convenient rooms above Hotel Gowrikrishna (get one of the tastiest food here). We drove towards Thirumoorthi dam and falls. This is 50 kms from Pollachi and around 23 kms from Udumalapet. A simple trek of 900m (not recommended for elders) from the Thirumoorthi temple leads to the falls. A short but rapid falls is an excellent place to take bath ! We did pack our lunch from the Gowrikrishna hotel as there are no good places around to eat. We could not have the food at the falls as there were too many monkeys around. We trekked back and had the packed lunch near the vehicle and came down to the banks of Thirumoorthi dam. The breeze was quite nice for children to play in water for some time. Then, we drive to Amaravathi dam - 25 Kms from Thirumoorthy Dam.

There is a crocodile nursery hear the dam - 60+ crocodiles are there. A short time pass is worth here and a walk around the dam ended the day. We drove back to Pollachi and stayed overnight at Nivedas after dinner at Gowrikrishna hotel.



Day 2, we decided to start early to Monkey falls. We packed the breakfast from the hotel and started around 7 AM. 24 kms from Pollachi is monkey falls. Luckily, we were the first on the morning and the water was sufficient for few people to take bath. 20 mins of shower on the cold and fresh water was awesome. Drove back by few kms, we reached Aaliyaar dam. Climbed to the top and took few photos around.

After visiting Maasani Amman temple, 20 kms from Aliyaar dam, we drove uphill to Topslip. We got a decent cottage for undisclosed amount (:-)) around 12:15 PM. We had a decent lunch there in the canteen and drove with our vehicle to the Kerala - Parambikulam check post. Took few photos there and drove back to the cottage. We then drove to the Elephant camp by 5 PM. We witnessed the elephant being fed and allowed to take photographs with the elephants. Not too many animals were sighted during the drive and night stay at Topslip this time ! Few deer, lone Bison and peacock and lots of Wild Boars.


Early morning around 7 AM, we started from Topslip reached back Coimbatore by 10:30 AM - relaxed a bit and started back to Chennai by afternoon. A nice and short trip with family.