Breakfast with Sadhus at Srisailam and a wild goose chase from Andhra Pradesh to Telangana || 10th day of our 14 days long trip through east coast of India || Noida to Rameshwaram
If at all there was one morning in our 14-day-long road trip from Noida to Rameshwaram and back via Eastern Ghats when we wished we hadn't started so early, it was on the 10th day. We had stayed at Markapur at night and had to reach the Ghat entry by 6am in order to ensure we got a head start. The morning started with a drive through some pitch dark roads that were under construction. By the time we reached the Ghat entry, there was already a jam there because of a long queue of vehicles waiting to get in. Some of them seemed to have reached there at night and then had to wait for the morning to gain entry.
This was also the day when we wasted considerable time researching national parks where you could go for a tiger safari. The Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve only offers a jungle safari and not a tiger safari. The Jungle safari starts at 9AM and there are no possibilities of spotting a carnivore. The online search will yield conflicting information, but all that is stale. We did not opt for the jungle safari because time was precious for.
When we asked someone outside about Tiger Safari, he informed us that the tiger safari does not happen anymore on the Andhra side of Nallamala Reserve Forest, but it happens on the Telangana Side. So we decided to check it out after exploring Srisailam. It would be exactly on our way to Hyderabad anyways, so we would not need to take a detour.
Srisailam turned out to be a clean town with some interesting breakfast options very close to the Shri Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga Temple. We had pooris and sabzi and idli-chutney there along with coffee. And the lady running the outlet also encouraged us to sponsor the food for two Sadhus. One of them wanted Dosa while the other wanted Idlis. After paying for their food we started our walk toward the temple.
There we realized two things - men are only allowed in in traditional attire Dhoti and angavastra that covers the upper body/kurta pyjama/full sleeves pants and shirts and women are only allowed in if they are wearing saris or suit with dupatta. We we were conservatively dressed, we still did not make the cut for the temple. Also cameras were not allowed inside the temple. Since before this we had not faced this in any other temple as long as we were conservatively dressed, we hadn't anticipated it. Our pointer for this is that when you are visiting any temple or religious place, it is better to research the dress code in details so that you are prepared. Also, at many temples they have now started the practice of enabling sugam darshan if you are willing to pay a fee. Just putting this information out there without discussing whether it is right or wrong.
After this we went to the Srisailam Dam viewpoint which was also on our way to Hyderabad. After clicking some pictures here, we crossed the Krishna River over to Telangana side and entered the Nallamala Reserve Forest there. We were on a lookout for the entrance to the Amrabad Tiger Reserve. After talking to the person manning the checkpost we discovered that you don't ever see tigers in this tiger reserve as well. The entrance ticket too was low which confirmed that this is also just a jungle safari. So we decided to move forward. We still had some possibilities in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh in the form of Tadoba and Pench so we decided to research on that.
For Tadoba we found that you need to book safaris much in advance in order to get a slot. It is recommended to book almost 90 days in advance. Some tatkal slots also open up 3 days before the safari and close one day before the day of the safari, but no tatkal slots were available for our days. For Pench rules are different on Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh sides. There we were able to contact some agents who were willing to provide us safaris on good gate the next day, but the problem was that we were supposed to book the entire jeep which would cost us Rs. 7500. It sounded too steep for two people and there was no option to book two seats, even though the government website mentions that it should be possible. However, through the government website, no slots were available.
We were getting frustrated now and decided to give up on the idea of safari in this trip. After making this decision, our minds were at peace and we started looking forward to exploring Hyderabad and meeting up with an old friend and ex-colleague, Akash Katare.
It also helped that we passed the Dindi Reservoir and the dam which is right next to the highway made for a spectacular sight. Next we headed to Hyderabad and headed straight for the Golconda Fort. Since it was a working day for Akash, we had a few hours with us to explore. The magnificent Golconda Fort took care of those.
After spending the evening with Akash and Ashita and feasting on some wonderful home-cooked food after 10 days, we started finalizing the plan for the next day. We were in two minds about whether we should go to Warangal or head straight to Adilabad and then Nagpur. After some research it turned out that Adilabad to Nagpur worked better for this trip, so with Adilabad in mind, we drifted off to some much-needed sleep.
%20to%20see%20the%20Danish%20fort%20in%20Tamilnadu%20state%20of%20India-3.jpg "Do you know about the 'Danish' Fort in India which is located at a beautiful location round the coast of Bay of Bengal?")
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