Laknavaram

For a long time, a friend of mine is making plans to go there. I have seen the pictures of it, there is a lake and a hanging bridge.
Its around 220KM from Hyderabad. 80 KM from warangal. One fine day, I packed things and started off. But I forgot one thing, I.e there was a Telangana Bandh on that day. Every petrol bunk got crowd. I thought of filling the tank at outskirts. But the bandh was strictly implemented at the outskirts, so I had to return after reaching Ghatkeskar.
After two days I embarked on the journey again. It's a four lane road initially, then  single lane. Had breakfast at ghatkeskar. Then stopped at Pedda Kandukur for another cup of tea. The lady at the hotel told me that there is a villages called Chinna Kandukur after that. Don't know why there are so many villages named kandukur in Andhra Pradesh. I made a mental note to learn the meanings of village names and nomenclature of them.
Soon the road become a little more narrow and traffic is building up. " Yelo yelo vennela " song from the movie Eka veera is soothing my heart. But it didn't help preventing the gas formation in my tummy. Bought pantop 40 mg and Eno. Now I need a glass of water to make Eno. Halted at APTDC restaurant. A typical restaurant from tourism department. They treat tourists like terrorists. They will hide inside refusing to come out and will shout "not available " without coming out.
After an hour I reached Warangal. The town is bigger than I remembered.  The replicas of famous kakatiya toranam are everywhere. A typical second class town. The cosmopolitan students of NIT are easy to spot in the town.
I became too lazy to open google maps and find route to laknavaram, so I asked a traffic police for directions, he told me something, his colleague said something else, then they both discussed and finalized on which direction I should go. I missed a theater where I had to turn right and went ahead. After driving for 20 min I asked school kids and they have corrected my path. Time is around 1:30 in the afternoon and acid quantity in my tummy is going up. I stopped at a bakery, bought some food and soft drinks and enquired for the facilities at laknavaram. He doesn't even know the place. I became skeptical on the route I am driving, so stopped near two traffic constables. They saw me and saluted me. I wasn't really sure what to do next. I never received a salute before. This time the directions are very clear. I have to go through Mulugu Road.
The boy at petrol bunk told me that, there are restaurants at laknavaram. So postponed lunch till I reach my destination. I passed the village mulugu and went ahead. Somewhere on this road I have to take right turn and asked fellow traveller on the road. All they could tell me is " after some distance". I asked a shepherd, but he is not local and can't even speak telugu. I followed a scooter who showed me the path. Name of the village where I took right turn charvak.
Laknavaram is about 10KM from Mulugu road, but the condition of the road made it look like 50km. Finally at 4PM I have reached laknavaram. A large lake surrounded by hills. A hanging bridge is constructed between main land and a tiny island. Without the bridge, the locality can easily be confused with srisailam.
I walked on the bridge, reached the island, got disappointed that the restaurant is still under construction. Heat and hunger are testing my patience.
I took few snaps and started back. The chai wallah at laknavaram told me that , tourism minister chiranjeevi is going to come next week to inaugurate the APTDC hotel in the island.  And the village will get continues power supply
Lot of dabhas at mulugu but I have decided to have food at warangal as it is getting dark already.  When I reached warangal I was shocked to observe that the town has more wine shops than ATMs. I was shocked once again, as there are only two dabhas at its outskirts.
It's already dark and I decided to use the technique which I invented in Devarakonda trip to avoid high beams. I.e to find a heavy vehicle which is going at my speed range and ride behind it. This way, high beams from vehicles coming in opposite direction won't blind me and  my headlight covers the distance between me and the heavy vehicle effectively. This technique works great on single lanes at night. The only problem is finding a vehicle which maintains constant speed.
Had biryani at some dabha on the way home and finished the trip safely.

RachaKonda Fort

After kondapally trip I started searching for the nearby forts. That's how I came across  Rachakonda.
Tried to visit that place but nobody shown much interest towards it. One fine day after having hours of chatting in a cafe, we decided to shake our butts and started off to Rachakonda. The climate is lovely and too much of nicotine already excited our heads.

This time, I didn't use my bike, instead we went on a Thunderbird and an Avenger.

Rachakonda fort area is only 40KM from where I live, need to deviate from Ibrahimpatnam  on sagar road. We started the journey placing trust on Google Maps. Google took us there, but made us go through every possible road type which India have,  except ghat road. Complaints aside, we enjoyed the country side, one old guy going in the same route asked me lift, I accepted , hoping to have a nice little chat with the local guy who can tell rumors related to the fort, unfortunately he is not local.

When we reached the village Rachakonda, villagers stopped us to enquire. When we said we came there just to see the fort, they asked us , " to see fort or to dig holes" with a pinch of sarcasm and harshness. I became skeptical and confused with their behavior. But the villagers showed the  way  to the fort with out talking much.

I was really taken aback by the sheer size of the fort area. It's bigger than Golconda and surrounded by mountains in green. The fort occupied not less than 3 hills. We started taking pics. The old guy who came with us felt a little camera-shy but later became comfortable. He said he has to go 4 more KMs through the mountains to reach his village. My heart wanted to go with him through that route, but it's not my bike and I highly doubt my friends will support my idea.

We went up the hill as far as bikes can take us, parked them there and started walking.
There is no visible route to the fort. We are lucky , there was a cowboy ( No hats, guns and horses , a boy who watches his herd ) who showed us the way.

The steep of the hill is too challenging, actually it depressed me. Seems there are seven doors to the fort and there are seven lakes on the hill. If only our ancestors had radar technology they could have built the forts on the level ground, and I don't have to blame myself for not going to gym. Alas, life is cruel .

Cowboy warned us to get down before dark because of snakes. It's already 4:30 PM , so we have decided to come back by sunset.

After passing through two gates out of seven, my heart started thumping like engine of a bullet, my friends were talking and taking pictures but I started comparing the Enfield beat and my heart beat.
Slowly, my heart started beating as if I am riding a bike on high gear. After 3rd gate, I proposed a halt and thankfully everybody accepted. Finished our snacks and soft drinks, and started descending.
When we got down, we came across two constructions, I guessed that they are kind of motels for visitors in the old days. But the sculptures and finishing on walls are too beautiful for motels. Probably , they are dancing halls. Anyway, their architecture is marvelous, even Golconda didnt have anything like that.

The cow boy who showed is the way, was still there and started small talk with us. We started asking about the holes the villagers mentioned, apparently there is treasure in the fort and treasure hunters come and dig holes in the night. Then he showed a pit, which was dug  last night. Hearing that, the ugly character of Good , Bad and Ugly woke up in me, that ugly guy is responsible for irritating my close friend for next two weeks for treasure maps, only because he belongs to same caste the kings of Rachakonda belonged to.

It's almost sunset, this time we enquired the route to Hyderabad, not trusting Google maps and reached city through a Manchal route which is far better than the way we chosen in the afternoon.


 As usual, we ended the trip in the same cafe we started. Just 5 hrs short trip, but no part of it is remotely boring .