Tirupati Arimanu Bandalu Trek

Day 2

A View from the Watch Tower - Morning 6 am - Day 2

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning. My back was hurting like crazy. The ground was uneven, and it was solid rock. It was extremely painful… Then the morning brought a new experience. There are no toilets in the jungle. Damn… What an experience! I am glad I did it…

Then at around 8 am, we got a cup of tea. Naren was ready with his “Digestive Marie” biscuits… After tea, Mr Ali got a plan of fielding a cricket team for GHAC, just like the corporates do. It was a great idea. So, we began working on on it. We had catching practice for 30 minutes…

Then, it was breakfast time… Light breakfast for all of us… It was good…

From Left to Right, Aamer, Vibha, Jaee, Mrs Razvi, Raza, Sudhansu & Sri Ganesh

Then, we packed up our bags and kept them ready. We were ready to go on a short trek, a cave nearby, along with a few small ponds. Very beautiful places indeed.

From Left to Right, Srimanta, Ram Ganesh, Gauhar, KSREE, Sree Ganesh, Abhimanyu, Ranjan Sir & Jagadish

There were a few caves there… More water bodies…

Budidapunugu Caves - Morning - Day2

There were bats inside, probably porcupines or wild dogs too...

After this, we set out of check another interesting location… It was very cool and serene place.

Sudhanshu found a skull of a dead deer… And then went ahead to discover a Right horn of a fully grown deer… We were happy at the discovery…

Abhimanyu and me with the Deer Horn

Then, it was time for lunch and we headed back to camp. The food was, as usual, Rice, Sambar, Rassam and laddoo prasad from Tirupati temple… I was already missing Hyderabad…

After lunch, the group rested in the shade of trees. The Sun was blazing hot, and not a cloud in sight. I and Ram Ganesh climbed up the watch tower. It was covered  with a roof, and at that height, cool breeze was like a manna from heaven…

Relaxing after Lunch - Day 2

Again, as usual, drinking water was hard to find. Boiled water tasted very bad… and it was in limited supply. In this hot weather, we did not feel like drinking this hot water…

Our Water Supply

Then, at around 3 pm in the afternoon, we moved on with our backpacks to a new destination… We headed towards a waterfall around 5-7 km from our first camp.

From Left to Right, Raza and Sree Ganesh

From Left to Right, KSREE, Jagadish, Me, Ram, Nandu and Moulik

Resting after a hard, long walk - Day 2

Then finally, after a couple of hours of journey, we arrived at our destination. Our tired bodies rejuvenated with fresh energy as we found a beautiful pond at the base of the waterfall. That was all we wanted. That was what everyone was praying for…

Jaee heard the sound of water & was very happy - Near Camp2

As soon as we reached Camp 2, we all rushed into the pond of cool water… It was a scenic place. We were glad we made it…

Oh… Was that fun or what…

From top to bottom, Jagadish, Mamiko, Shivanksha and Ranjan Sir

Almost everybody was in the water. It was relaxing… The depth of the pond at the deepest point was around 8 feet. I am not a swimmer, so I stayed where water was around 5 feet… It was a great experience…

We were dragged out of the water after 2 hours, coz it was getting darker and colder. Also, it was Tea Time…

Then again, we enjoyed Tea with biscuits and Wild Banana Pakodas, while enjoying the beautiful nature around us… It was awesome…

In the evening, we spent our time chatting with each other… exchanging jokes, talking about things… just relaxing.

Then we witnessed something very beautiful. In this wilderness, away from the frenzy of the city, we witnessed a Moon-rise on the horizon above the mountain… Beautiful…

Then after a few more photo sessions with the moon, we got back to what we know best… chatting…

Soon, it was time for dinner. Today, it was the last dinner offered to us by the local group. So, in dessert, we got Mesuk Pak sweets… Great!

Then the rest of the evening was spent talking about different things, singing songs, playing games…

It was a beautiful Poornima night. Later, we found it was the Sharad Poornima, that happens only once in a year. What luck…!

This time, most of the group decided to sleep outside the tent. A good place to sleep was very hard to find. So, I had to sleep inside the tent..