Road Trip From Hyderabad To Kuntala Waterfalls

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 2^nd 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.