A Road Trip from Hyderabad to
Kuntala waterfalls
Being a
software engineer at work and adventurer by heart am always in search of adventurous places in nature's lap. I have been to many such places but this is my
first blog in writing so please do bear with my technical in-abilities.
I read
about Kuntala and pochera waterfalls a year back in team BHP travel tales,
since then this natural destination was on my radar. Many of my previous
attempts to visit Kuntala were unsuccessful as always because of my best buddy
Girish’s habitual postponementJ. After lot
of planning, postponing, pre-planning, cancelling and all other deterrents
finally the day to travel has arrived.
On Travel Day
We hired a self-drive
hatchback (swift-vdi) from http://www.carzonrent.com/, they
maintain a well-conditioned fleet of cars
SWIFTie
As it was
remote place we doubt about proper restaurants, so we packed snacks, lunch
along with camera and other travel routines
On
the day of travel we planned to start at 6:00 AM sharp. But all of us being
bachelors, delays are inevitable. Finally, we started at 6:45 from Balanagar.
In less than an hour we reached NH7 highway. The car was just gliding on the
well laid 4 lane road with green meadows on both sides. Being a fond admirer of
swiftness, I couldn’t resist my urge to test the swift’s max speed and to my
surprise it went 158KMPH with 5 members on board. After hitting the first Toll
with INR 130 we stopped at local dhaba for breakfast, though the breakfast is
not appetizing the tea tasted better.
me
me n my roomies
Just
before reaching Nirmal there is a sign board of Sriram sagar project. It is 2 km narrow, rugged and bumpy tar road which demised into curved road leading to huge
embankment with stunning view of sriram sagar. The Reservoir stood strong and
stubborn across river Godavari on the foundation stone laid by then Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
The reservoir was so huge that its peripherals are
invisible and serves water to majority regions in Telangana state. Our cameras
clicked cool pics in-spite of hot weather on top of the dam gates.
There is
hydro power station nearby, but entry is restrictedL.
SriRam sagar project
From there we continued our drive to Nirmal town with our favorite music flowing all the way. After nirmal the road surrounded by dense green forest, after 35KM drive from nirmal we reached Neredikonda village. We took left here and drove around 6 km through rough road to reach Pochera waterfalls.
State tourism has done landscaping, built few statues but they looked artificial to me and they didn't fit there.
Idols @Pochera waterfalls
River
Godavari from neighboring state flows down the Sahayadri mountain range and
runs into many narrow streams. Here at Pochera all these narrow streams unite with gushing speed and falls from a height of 20 meters and slides into a small
man-made lake and then vanishes into dense forests of Sahayadri mountains.
Water
and surroundings here were not maintained properly but as always it is fun
watching waterfalls hence the conventional photo session has begun.
@Pochera waterfalls
From
Pochera we started to our destination Kuntala waterfalls. Both sides of the
Road to Kuntala covered by gigantic trees, we could barely see the sun. We took
a pit stop at a view point and had our lunch which we have packed from
Hyderabad.
Having lunch amidst of forest is enthralling.
On the way to kuntala
After
spending time over lunch we started to Kuntala, very shortly from here we could
listen the torrential water sound which made us more excited. There is an ample
parking space available at Kuntala. We parked our vehicle there and started
walking down the steps to reach waterfalls. Though there were nearly 400 steps
they never bothered us, as tiredness cannot compete our excitement to watch
waterfalls but am sure it will be at its high on our way back.
@the top of Kuntala waterfalls
Finally
we reached the foot of the waterfalls. Being the highest waterfalls in AP, It
stood tall and offered magnificent view.
After quick photo session we ran into the water and spent nearly 3
hours. As water flow is less we had fun-time in water or else this waterfalls
had very bad history of incidents
@Kuntala waterfalls foot stops
random pics
It’s
time for us to head back as its getting dark soon. As all our energy levels
were totally down in the 3 hours playtime in water, the thought of climbing 400 steps made us go wild. Somehow we made up to parking lot and started back
to Hyderabad around 18:30.
Drive
back to Hyderabad is quite slow compared to onward journey, mostly because
every vehicle in oncoming traffic uses high beam. Using this high beam prevents
both of us from clear view but still people uses it, am not sure how could they
be so unaware of this night driving sense. After reaching four lane road near
Kamareddy we could speed up.
We
reached Hyderabad at 23:00 with pit stops for snacks and dinner. Upon reaching
Hyderabad we thought of having some dessert to finish the buffet (long trip),
so we went to Famous ice cream at Koti and had delicious ice creams of
different flavors and reached home by 23:45.
Trip Info
Date n Time: October 2nd
2014 [06:45 – 23:45]
Places covered: Kuntala
waterfalls, Pochera waterfalls, Sriram sagar project, adilabad district
Telangana, INDIA.
Distance: 265 X 2 Kilometers.
Route details: NH7 Nagpur
highway from Hyderabad.
Members accompanied: 5 - Kishore (myself), Girish, Amar, Hari and Tarun.
Car: Swift Vdi.
Verdict: - Must
visit monsoon gateway from Hyderabad for nature buffs.
