Journey to Araku Hills.

A travel to a place surrounded with hills and picturesque views, my weekend was made by this trip albeit i wished, secretly, if i could continue my stay for few more days. For those of you who missed the experience, here's a breakup of the entire journey.

The morning was pleasant when we reached vizag but soon the pleasantness was to be taken over by sun god's powerful heat rays. I could feel the temperature climbing when we started off from vizag in the mini bus. Sad for me as everyone had taken the left side of the bus escaping the beams while i had to settle on a seat on the right. The griping was on for sometime but later on it switched to jovial mode when i with other people, started sticking our heads out of the window to have the rushing air hit us. The road, as far i remember, had no potholes and with few vehicles on the road, we were free to stick out as long as we could [though on the responsibility of self]. The only thing i missed during this enterprise of mine was a good song in my player which could sync with the mood and the experience for that time. The initial part of the journey had fields on either sides with small hills in the background. A momentary thought would project the fact that you are far away from the cramped, gaging and high decibel city side. The first stop was borra caves.

Borra caves: primarily contains stalactites and stalagmites, varying from small to large. There are legendary stories associates with this places. The caves, through out, imparts an arty thought with yellow lights illuminated at spots to produce a beautiful image of natural limestone carvings. The cave has small worship spots of lord shiva, who is associated with the legendary stories of the borra caves. The cave gave a low temp. conditioned air for people who wanted to escape the heat. Fews yards of walk and you hear bats crying from some dark corner giving a sense of adventure (if you remember brady barr's episode in a bat cave). Additional point to end the paragraph, lot of pictures [with you in it] to take and arty people would get the best out of it.


Next stop: After the view of the caves, it was time to head to our destination. The journey now was full of stops! Not the check posts but the forceful stops by the tribal inhabiting the region. There were plenty of such stops where we had to give them some money. At certain stops, we saw people getting into fight for not letting them pass through. Arguments flying from both sides. It was alright at first but was nerve wrecking when it went on frequently. I was told, this kind of stops happen only twice a year. Lesson: Validate if such events happen before the tour is chosen.


Reached our place: We reached our destination sometime in the evening. An isolated place with few people which was just right. The place had a hill behind and it was decided that we refresh and trek the hill. So, there it was. A night trek. Four teams were formed and the team reaching the top first received chocolate bars from the organizer. In fact, every team got a bar in the end. How nice is that! The hill was quite steep covered with small bushes. It was fun trekking in the twilight hour. Yes, few scary thoughts of creatures lurking around. Thankfully, none showed up! We reached the 'summit' and waited for all to be there for the awards ceremony. Awards handed out, pictures taken, merry talk and the cool night under the moonlight was something to embrace. After a while spending atop, it was time to descend. We reached our stay place and were awaiting dinner time. We spent sometime relaxing and headed out for dinner. The dinner prepared there was excellent but was marred by delay from the vendor.

Next Day: It was the day to trek a steeper hill. We started out in the morning, again a pleasant one, to the hill. The entire group was split into teams and were free to choose their path for trek. The initial segment was filled with dry plants which left few light scars on teammates arms. Then, followed the muddy and slippery slope and few found it tough to walk over, opting to crawl instead. As we headed front, we got better looks of the hill. Mostly, covered with dry plants. Having said that, there were trees around as well to take shelter and if someone wanted to be mowgli. After a good climb to the top [coupled with exhaustion and panting] and spending sometime there, it was time to get down. The climb down was exciting as we chose to go through the dense trees. The ground here was covered with dry leaves. In spite of a neat path that lay ahead, people opted for random path selection by which they could find their way down. The climb down ended and we headed out to cool ourselves in the small stream of water that was flowing at the foot of the hill.

It was time now to pack up and head to vizag.


We had our packed lunch in the bus, on the drive, after which most of them had a good sleep. When we got up there was vizag. We visited the rama krishna beach. We stepped in for 30 minutes or so as time was running out. After the sand-coated-feet visit, it was time to catch the train back to hyderabad.


All in all, a fantastic journey that i'll remember for a long time to come.