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Hashtags. Instagram hashtags in particular have fueled many dreams and pushed people to take those journeys which they would have never otherwise. I was also pushed to make one such journey this month, to Gandikota and Belum Caves!

The spectacular photographs of the canyon and the geographical wonders of the caves were simply too amazing to not go and finally the road trip to visit these destinations was planned. There were three of us, with Madhuri as the designated driver in her Hyundai i10 car and we were all set to head out. The plan was to leave on Saturday early morning, head to Gandikota first and watch the sunset. Then head to Anantapur for the night and visit the Belum Caves on Sunday morning and reach Hyderabad by nightfall. Well, we did stick to the plan, of course with some hiccups included!

Alarms & Google Maps cannot be trusted ALWAYS

What’s a road trip which doesn’t start on time?! No road trip ever! So, being the time keeper of the group I was assigned the role of getting out of home on time but 05:00 AM is too damn early and for a change I was woken up by Madhuri! We finally got out of home at 07:00 AM but I love spoiling surprises so let me assure you we did reach Gandikota at the right time.

I am the designated navigator in Madhuri’s car and Google said that we would reach Gandikota in approximately 7 hours with 410 KM to go. Now, I have always trusted Google Maps blindly and it has never deceived me but it was intent on doing it on this trip and right on the Hyderabad ORR at that! You cannot really go wrong on the ORR but as I realized Google led us on to a service road which just kept getting more and more kaccha, eventually leading us to a dead end. But some common sense and with a bit of help from Google again, we did go back out on the road.

We took the Jadcherla – Mahbubnagar – Kurnool – Orvakal – Jammalamadugu route to Gandikota and it was a fairly good drive. The roads were amazing till Kurnool and we racked up almost Rs600 in toll fees. It was worth it for sure!

We had stopped for breakfast near Jadcherla, little we knew that was our only meal till night!

Murphy’s Law prevails

We reached Kurnool fairly on schedule, made a few stops for sugarcane juice and fruits till we realized that our car speakers were just not working. Contemplating the long drive to Gandikota that awaited us we could not imagine going through it without any music. Google Maps came to our rescue again! We searched and found car décor shops in the area, however the roads in Kurnool were of no help and navigating through some of the worst roads we finally did reach the shop. It turned out the speakers were fine, but the AUX cable was the issue! We continued the journey with a brand new AUX cable, but the entire exercise had eaten up another hour of our time and we were way behind our ETA.

We were still 150KM away and about 3.5 hours from Gandikota, and after what seemed an incredibly long drive we finally reached. We had no lunch along the way because right after Kurnool, the scenery just becomes bleak. You can find swathes of dry land interspersed with windmills on the plateaus but the hot sun truly made it seem out of a Western Hollywood movie! We even saw dust storms! Definitely this road trip would have been better done during or right after the monsoons when the temperatures are cooler and the scenery not so much a sore to the eyes.

Grandeur of Gandikota

Google Maps will guide you right to the Jama Masjid at the Gandikota Ruins, last 30 mins of the drive was extremely beautiful with the long roads heading straight to the plateau. You couldn’t imagine what was beyond the horizon! On reaching the top of the plateau you could see the Tatireddy Narasimha Reddy Dam behind you, all these views could certainly be better if the sun didn’t hammer your head.

We parked our car near the Jama Masjid and started our short walk to the Canyon, touted as the Grand Canyon of India. Being a Saturday there were quite a few people there, mostly from Bangalore which is as far as it is from Hyderabad. There were also a lot of riders; apparently many enthusiasts also camped near the canyon.

The short walk was really short for about 10 mins when we stumbled upon a big pile of rocks and in a matter of minute you will sight the river snaking down its way in the canyon.

“It’s just like the Instagram pictures!”

Trust me, the world is divided before Insta and After Insta, I could only think that “Damn! This place is actually as beautiful as the photographs!” In a world of filters and great cameras, you are really not sure of how beautiful the place really but the Gandikota Penna River Canyon is truly a beautiful place. We went ahead to the rock formations, we could see a group trekking down the canyon however we didn’t attempt it on this trip.

You can also climb on the rocks and get a better view of the canyon. But then that’s what the canyon essentially is, a beautiful spot to admire the landscape. We took the customary photographs, watched the sun set behind us and called it a day! The right time to visit the canyon is after 05:00 PM as otherwise the sun is too hot to sit and enjoy the place.

We took a quick break at Haritha Resort for coffee and water, we had planned to stay the night there but the place had been booked. Although we couldn’t see a soul at the resort, it also seemed poorly maintained, we weren’t sure if the resort usually had guests.

We had a long way to go to Anantapur, we didn’t find any other city or town to stay in close by from where we could also reach Belum Caves. We stayed at the Masineni Grand, it was the best hotel in town and way expensive but it was worth it. The rooms were great and the food amazing; however a lot could be said about the service! They really need to cater more to a cosmopolitan crowd rather than just the local people.

Breath-taking Belum

Belum Caves were about 2 hours and 90 KM away from Kurnool and the drive was super boring. There was absolutely nothing to look out for! I was really wishing I had done this road trip in the monsoon even more, because despite the AC being on the heat was all percolating. It is the cement belt and all famous cement companies like Penna Cements, L&T cement had their factories in the area. The heat was so bad that a politician from Anantapur had died due to sunstroke that day!

We finally reached Belum right on time; the entire landscape was as flat as possible and in the distance we could see a see a hill with ‘BELUM’ written on it with rocks. We reached the entrance and could see a tall Buddha statue; the statue was made of cement and sparkling white. It was the serene expression on the face that attracts, the Buddha seemed so calm and at peace. We were certainly not at peace! As soon as we got out of the car, the heat caught up with us and we were raring to go to the cool caves, we couldn’t be more wrong!

Belum Caves are the second longest caves in India and were found in the 1800’s but tourism was started only the last decade. Taking the tickets, we entered the mouth of the cave, it felt cool for a bit as we read the instructions at the gate. They were asking us to walk slowly, enjoy and take a break at the air vents! Oh that sounded scary!

The beauty of the cave hit us as entered; the entire place was pleasingly lit up with yellow lights which accentuated the geological formations. There was a big cavern which then led off to smaller alleys and cave systems. As you kept going deeper, it got more claustrophobic, but the caves were large enough to comfortably stand and at heights of 10 feet at least at most points. It started getting hot and we were sweating and craving for a breath of fresh air when we stumbled upon an air vent. These air vents were letting air out at full blast and were a savior!

The caves were beautiful at places, while there weren’t many stalactite or stalagmite formations, the general forms were very interesting to look at. The entire cave length is about 3 KM and took us an hour to walk through. Despite being a Sunday there weren’t as many people, because it could get really difficult to walk through if there were more people.

We couldn’t wait to get out and the sunlight after getting out felt like heaven! We finished off with a glass of buttermilk right outside the caves and got back on our journey.We stopped for lunch at a Dhaba near Kurnool and then for a break near Jadcherla, reaching back to Hyderabad by 8 PM.

Overall, it was a good trip as we got to witness these amazing geological wonders of Gandikota and Belum, however we wished that we had taken this trip at another time when the weather didn’t play tyrant!