Papikondulu Trip.... A day long Cruising

After a month long discussion and research, we zeroed down on a place called Papikondulu in Andhra Pradesh. We started to plan an office colleague outing in the month of June. We thought of going out in the first week of July. Initially everyone was very much excited and thought that we will go for a week long tour to Kerala. We did an extensive research of the Kerala trip. We planned completely how to go, which all places to visit, and even what to wear on each day. But slowly out of our group of 10 members, people started saying no for the trip and finally we had to cancel the trip.

Then we changed our destination from Kerala to Vizag and again the same thing, we had to cancel the Vizag trip as well. Finally we thought of going to Papikondulu and we booked our tickets on the day of departure.

Papikondulu: It is a series of lush green hills, located on the bank of river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh.

To reach Papikondulu, we need to go to a place called Pochavaram which is 70 km away from Bhadrachalam (Bhadrachalam is a place where we have this famous Rama temple). We have a direct train to Bhadrachalam from Hyderabad (Machlipatnam Express). Bhadrachalam is around 282 Km from Secunderabad. The fare for a second class ticket in a train from Secunderabad to Bhadrachalam would be Rs. 147 per head. It is the cheapest mode of transport. But as we finalized the trip on the day of departure, we could not get confirm tickets for that particular train. So we had to select another mode of transport. For those who are going from Hyderabad, make sure that you book your tickets at least one week before. We booked Volvo tickets and finally were ready to go.

We started our journey on Saturday at around 11:45 pm. from Lakdi-ka-pool, Hyderabad. I guess there is only one Volvo bus to Bhadrachalam from Hyderabad. The bus was supposed to reach at 5:30 am on Sunday, but we reached to Bhadrachalam at around 7am. The Volvo dropped us near the RTC bus stand. As we did not book our hotel room in advance we had to take a single room just to fresh up and proceed. The charges for a single person to fresh up were Rs. 50 per head.

By the time we took bath and came back, the bus which could take us to Pochavaram was already left. Actually the Launchs start from a place called Sriramagiri and go till Papikondulu and come back, but since the water level is less many of the launchs shifted their starting point to Pochavaram.

As we missed the bus, we enquired about a taxi for both onward and return journey to Pochavaram. They were asking some where around Rs. 1600 for pick up and drop. Then we asked the three wheeled taxies popularly know as autowala and he was ready to drop us at the starting point of launchs and again pick us from there and drop back to Bhadrachalam. He charged Rs. 600 for 5 members.

While our journey to Pochavaram, we saw many small villages in between. Most of the houses in the villages where single storied huts. And while on our way, the morning breeze was so good and we felt so fresh that we forgot the complete strain of our journey from Hyderabad to Bhadrachalam.

We were not completely sure whether we will be able to catch a launch as we were very late. We enquired about it to the auto driver and he said that he will take us to Sriramgiri, from where we can expect launch.

We reached Sriramgiri at around 10.30 am, and luckily one launch was available for boarding. We took tickets and entered into the launch….

You can book a package tour from Bhadrachalam as well to avoid inconvenience. They will charge some where around Rs. 400 per head (including pick and drop from Bhadrachalam and the boat ticket). These people have some kind of boat owners’ association and the fixed rate for a complete Papikondulu trip from Sriramgiri was Rs. 250 per head. This includes a 6 hours boat journey and a lunch on an island near Papikondulu. A P Tourism has a package tour from Hyderabad. I personally found the A P Tourism package a little expensive and thought of going on our own.

Before going on the Papikondulu trip, we did a lot of home work. We tried to find out the best way to go and thought about booking an AP tourism package from Hyderabad. AP tourism offers a two day package tour including stay in a cottage on an island near Papikondulu and also complete food. But could not book AP tourism because of lack of time.

The launch which we entered was double decked. The lower deck of the launch had wooden flooring and cushion seats on all the sides of the deck. They also kept some plastic chairs and stools for sitting in the lower deck. We went straight to the upper deck as it is open and you can enjoy the entire scenery from there. The cruise in the launch arranged beddings to sit and there was a mesh covering more than half of the launch.

The launch started at around 10.45 am. Initially most of the people entered in the launch came on the upper deck as it is open and you can have a clear view of all the scenery. Somehow we came earlier than others so were able to grab a place in the upper deck. The Papikondulu trip is not just about the Papikondulu hills, it is also about the small islands which you can see while on your way to your destination.

Our first stop was at “Perantalapalli.” It’s a very good place with a small but beautiful water fall. We reached there and the cruise told us to come back within half-an-hour. You need to climb around 30 steps to reach a Ramakrishna’s Math.

When we reached there we saw water coming in from somewhere upwards. We thought of exploring and we went to find out the origin of the water. We reached to a place where there was a small water fall. The water here is very clean and cold and you can even drink it.

We played in the waterfall for a while and then remembered about the 30 minutes time. While we were coming back to the launch we found the cruise members in the mid way, they were searching us as the entire launch was waiting for us. We could not even see that Ramkrishna’s Math. We came back to the launch and it started immediately for the next destination.

Our next destination was Papikondulu Hills. I expected these hills to be very different from what we normally see, but there was not much difference. Not to mention, the scenery was un-describable. You need to visit once to believe it. As ours was a one day tour, we did not land on the island near the Papikondulu Hills. I guess the AP tourism cottages were there on one of the island near the Papikondulu Hill.

The Launch took a complete U-turn in Godavari and we started our return journey. We were told that there will be a lunch near the Papikondulu Hills. As everyone was very hungry we were just waiting to land on an island to have our lunch. We saw that all the launches were stopping at one place and there was a huge crowed. We reached this place and everyone got down to have lunch. There was a long queue for lunch. I remembered my college days when I used to stay in hostel and use to stand in similar queues for my lunch and dinner. Soon we reached near the counter and they served all the items. The food was good, we had rice, dal, sambar, cabbage curry, pickle, a sweet and butter milk.

After lunch we boarded the launch once again and were on our way back to Sriramgiri. On the lower deck, on one of the extreme end there was some place to sit. We sat there for a while by leaving our legs outside the launch. Due to speed of the launch and the flow of the water the water was touching our feet. I guess there we have two different rivers meeting each other. We have a river called Sabari and another is Godavari. River Sabari merges with River Godavari near Bhadrachalam. We were clearly able to see two different colored water.

While our return journey to Sriramgiri, most of the people on our launch slept. We reached back to our starting point at around 4:45 pm. Our autowala was waiting to pick us and take us back to Bhadrachalam. We asked him to drop us at the Rama temple of Bhadrachalam. We reached the temple at around 7:15 and took darshanam and once again took an auto to reach the bus stand. Our APSRTC bus was at 9 pm. We spent some time there at the bus stand and finally boarded our Supper Luxery bus for our return journey to Hyderbad at around 9 pm,……