A Road Trip to the Grand Canyon of India : Gandikota
The only way in which I can explain the relationship among the three of us is to ask you to watch one of the most famous movies – 3 Idiots. Most of my time during my undergraduate years were spent with Sumukha and Chandan (The other 2 idiots). I can write an entire book to speak about the journey we had together over the years. Cutting to the chase, one thing we always missed was a trip, I mean, a trip for just the three of us. We always travelled together with our other best friends. It never occurred to us to take a trip without the others, for there was a part of the family too. After we graduated in 2015 all of us got busy with our own work and the frequency with which we all went out decreased drastically. Nonetheless, we three never let that happen since we continued to work on our research. And one fine day, we finally decided to take a trip on our own. We decided to visit the relatively less-explored, yet one of the most fascinating places that look much like Grand Canyon of the US – Gandikota.
We decided to make it a one-day road trip. Sumukha who stays close-by arrived at my home the previous night so that we could start early (We actually forced him to come home the previous night. He’s one big late Lateef). We had the privilege of picking up Chandan on our way. As per the plan, Sumukha and I started off at around 5:30 in the morning in my Honda City. On our way, we picked up Chandan and embarked on our journey towards the Grand Canyon of India. Chandan did not waste even a single minute before switching on the music player in the car with the “irritating” playlist (While I’ am a huge fan of classical music, he is leaned more towards the “usual” music and so is Sumukha. My taste and theirs’ hardly overlap. Unfortunately, I was the one peculiar in this aspect and had to heed to their orders.) We stopped at Nandi Upachar for our breakfast and had our all-time favourite dish – Masala Dosa with single Vada (dipped in Sambar.)
The road towards Gandikota was inexplicably amazing. Not just the NH 44 and 42 but also the connecting roads of the village, thanks to the Andhra Government. Along our way, we passed by beautiful Sunflower gardens. The gorgeous scenery demanded a stop to savour the view. Likewise, we stopped there to click a few pics. As we drove, we noticed that most of the land towards Andhra is more-or-less flat. But as we got closer to Gandikota we started noticing the red hills that allow the formation of the gorge by the river. At times, we also drove in the valley between two hills, which was a very fascinating experience. We were very much excited about the stupendous sight that was going to be offered by Mother Nature. As we came close to Gandikota we could see the larger part of the river making its way through the hills, although the gorge was not quite visible yet. At around mid-noon, we reached the fort, parked our vehicle and started walking towards the “gorge view”.
Gandikota is a small beautiful village on the banks of river Pennar. The place was once ruled by a Telugu dynasty and several ancient structures stand erected serving for evidence. On our way to the ‘gorge view’ we saw a jail, a granary, a Masjid, Madhvaraya Swamy and Ranganatha Temple. Nevertheless, we did not spend much time there, for the most important part of the trip was yet to be seen. As we moved along the formation of the red hills of Erramala range through which the Pennar River forms the gorge, nature unfolded itself the most spectacular of the scenic views – The Gorge View. As we reached the end of the hill we could tell why it’s often called the “The hidden Grand Canyon of India”. The gorge view rendered us spellbound. The red walls of the gorge stood magnificent while the river calmly made its way through it. If one were to observe the intricacies of the rock formation, it looked as if someone had arranged those boulders. It was an absolute treat to our eyes. We jumped across boulders like monkeys to have a look at the gorge from different points. We clicked pictures with different poses at all possible places. And then we sat there for some time without our mobiles and cameras just to appreciate the grandeur of nature. The view was just not enough. While Chandan was busy with his “VLog” Sumukha went exploring the place without letting us know where he was going. Consequently, I had to keep a vigilant watch on him. We then had a discussion regarding our next destination. We were in a dilemma to pay a visit to the Belum Caves, which is often called the Antelope Caves of India. But, since I was the only reliable driver for the day 300 extra miles did not seem feasible. So we decided to have lunch and return to Bangalore. We did not have any option since there’s only one resort with a restaurant for lunch. We had our lunch and visited the Gandikota Reservoir that’s about 12 km from the fort.
After having seen all the places close by, we started our journey back to Bangalore. This was a non-stop drive. The best part here was when Chandan had us all in for a big surprise. During our Engineering days, he had the habit of recording random conversations just for the sake of it. And he thought it would be the right time to recall those days. We laughed our ass off listening to those hilarious conversations we had back in our days. With only one stop at Nandagokula for some snacks, we reached our homes safe and sound after a 600 Kms road trip around 9 p.m.
India is one of the richest countries in heritage and culture undoubtedly offers more magnificent and mysterious places for travellers and expedition lovers than we already know. At least for me, there are enough places to explore for the rest of my life.
Dream, Travel and Explore.
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