Weekend trip to Kondapalli

Hi friends....

Well, this trip was made on Dec 21st, 2008........Most of my childhood friends r studying in distant places.....It was the end of semester and all have come back....it was saturday evening and we were discussing about some place to escape the bustle of the city....Some of our collegemates have done a trip to Kondapalli near Vijayawada.....so confirmed it....

It was our first long ride and careful planning need to be done...so I was incharge....called up some of my friends in Vijayawada asking for the routes.....It was all confirmed..... It was a total of 5 bikes.....

Karizma (Ajay,Susheel)
Karizma R (Ratna,Hemanth)
R-15 (Riky,Prudhvi)
P180 (Sujay,Surya)
Passion (Saiteja,Harsha)

We planned to start by 8 in the morning the next day (Sunday) but were delayed by an hour approx as many got up late.....well, we started at 9.30 from Guntur after filling petrol we stopped on the highway a few times to get some snaps.....then reached Vijayawada by 11.00am. We had to stop near the entrance for about an hour as we waited to pick up a good friend (Harsha) from tat place. He would be the pillion on Passion.....Unfortunately he lost his way and we were delayed.....finally we found him and started from there at around 12.00pm.......turned left and left for Ibrahimpatnam.......

From there we found out tat Kondapalli fort was a straight drive and Kondapalli town was a right turn.....We headed straight.......We lost our way and had to turn back for about 10km after finding out from the locals......The way was adjacent to Nimra Engg College....and we stopped again under some tress to get some good snaps......The fort was midway on the road to the top....we at first headed to the top of the hill, only to find out tat it was a restricted place(Doordarshan Telecast station)...took some snaps quickly, got scolded by the guards and headed down to the fort......

We enjoyed a lot over there......took a lot of snaps....by now the time was 2.30pm and we started to feel very hungry....so we decided to return........the ride to the bottom of the hill was mind blowing.....there are a lot of beautiful scenaries on the way.......We reached Vijayawada by 3.15pm, had our lunch in Lotus Riverside Restaurant.......spent sometime there and returned Home by 5pm..........Well friends......this may be a very small trip for most of you......but this is the longest i have ever gone on a bike till date...and the place is amazing.......worth a weekend trip.... tripmeter reading 200km....Ajay

Adventure Ride: Guntur-Srisailam

Studies...Studies...Studies...

Bored with the routine college life, me and some of my friends decided to ride to some far off place to spend sometime with the beautiful nature....Lots of searching over the internet made me mark my destination as Srisailam which is about 220km from Guntur...

What really attracted me was the gorgeous ghat road which is about 50kms long. So,made this trip in 2 days in which we covered most of the local site-seeing places.

We are a total of 4 guys on 2 Karizma's (Struggled a lot with the luggage)
Total Ride Distance: 501km (100km ghat roads)
No. of Days: 2

Ok, here is the triplog....When i first brought up this idea of riding 230km on bike, most who heard me thought i was crazy...but after somedays 6 guys agreed to ride with me...but as the ride day came nearer the number slowly fell to 3. I had my Karizma serviced recently so i didnt bother much about the bike..just filled fuel to the full just before the day prices rose..So, we decided to do the trip anyway

Day 1:We planned to start at 3 o clock sunday early morning so that we can reach srisailam by 10 o clock,but none of us are usedto getting up so early....it was 4.30 by the time we started anyway...Our route was Guntur-Narasraopet-Vinukonda-Dornala-Srisailam.We took our tea break at Perecherla junction which is 10km from Guntur, then started to Narasaraopet which is 50km away...The roads were pretty decent and we could do 100kmph easily...took the bypass next to Vinukonda.....Here in a stretch of 25km till santhamaguluru junction are one of the worst roads i ever saw.....potholes everywhere..Could barely do 40kmph maximum.

After that the roads are smooth till Vinukonda that is 40km furthur..We had our breakfast here....not many hotels, just a small tiffin centre....Here we have to turn left to Dornala that is 78km away...To my surprise the roads here are so nice that we can easily cruise at 120kmph easily...There are very few villages till Dornala so if your bike develops any trouble its difficult to get help. From Dornala we have to take a right,we can see the huge entrance to srisailam ghat road......if we go straight its Kurnool...

Ghat road.....What can i say about it?? its 49km of pure heaven....The tarmac is newly laid and is soooo smooth i just wanted to sleep there itself. There is also a significant change in the weather too...the air has become very cool...We stopped at any place we could to take as many photos as possible.I was able to clock 105kmph in a stretch here.....This road is mostly uninhabitated..So its not uncommon you would get lost in the forestif you keep wandering staring at the beauty of the place....very less traffic too....Finally reached Srisailam at 11.30am....Found a nice A/C room in Hotel Ganga Sadan (Govt owned) for rs.650/- a day.....

Since, we woke early in the morning, we were very tired, had a bit of tiffin and retired into out cool beds till 4.30pm...After getting up, we decided to check the dam site so drove there which is 10km away......the dam is wonderful, unfortunately thereis little water in the reservoir and there is no way the gates are gonna be opened soon....Came back to the room by 6pm....Went for darshan of Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy, one of the 12 jyothirlingas, and bramarambhikadevi....Free darshan was always crowded,we took a 50rs ticket so everything was over within 30min.......We were lucky to touch the sivalingamwith our foreheads...Took some snaps near the temple, did a bit of shopping, had dinner in hotel ilapuram just beside our hotel and slept dreaming about the places we would visit the next day....

Day 2:Well guys, back with day2 log .....The next day i woke up early at around 6 and made some phone calls to friends and my mom......Others woke at 8am... The previous nite i enquired from a home guard if we could ride our bikes till Ishtakameshwari temple....the answer was a simple no....only commander jeeps could do it...so we had to skip that program....Then i had another thought...Akkamahadevi caves...made up our minds to go there.....the only problem is we have to take a boat ride for 16km (sad that we cant take our bikes). To reach the boating point,we had to reach patalaganga first..you can either take the ropeway for rs.40/- to n fro or take the steps.......ride to the caves is rs.160/- per head. our boat started at 10.30am....the journey took about an hour...Meanwhile there was a muslim guide, Basha who was explaining the hindu mythologies so fluently i was amazed...

We we arrived at the caves there was a little trekking to do....the path is bit risky, so old people better avoid it and stay in the boat..The entrance to the cave is formed out of a single huge block of stone...amazing...Now for the tricky part...all of us had to buy a candle so that we can walk carefully into the 60 foot deep caves(pitch dark)...As we moved furthur into the caves it gets bit suffocating...little difficult for the obese people as we have to stoop a little and walk sideways...touch the small sivalinga and return outside..i made it with ease, but my friends were not so lucky....they had to struggle a bit..

It was 3pm by the time we returned to the boating point, so we were behind schedule to reach home....checked out of the room...put on the bags...started home.....Descent down the ghat road was equally exciting...averaging 60kmph by the time we were in dornala, stopped at Haritha highway resort for lunch...but there was nothing except tea and coffee..skipped that place...i was a little low on air pressure in my front wheel...none of the compressors near dornala were functional...so continued like that for about 40km until i found a working one....had lunch in a nearby small hotel, which didnt even have spoons...

We took some breaks in between and reached home by 9.45pm.....BTW, it was raining throughout out return journey until we reached narasraopet....driving in rain in ghat road is a very memorable feeling for me....

My 3yr old karizma returned an average of 35.6kmpl in this trip...Happy......Completed my part...Now its your work guys...replies...... Ajay...