The idea to visit ARAKU came into my into my mind when I revived my feeling

of joy, I experienced on watching a poster depicting the scenic beauty of

ARAKU, at the age of 12. I got thrilled on getting the GO AHEAD gesture from
my father. I convinced my MAMA and two of my cousins (elder brothers) to
join the party. The very next hour, the news about the onset of monsoon
scared me. It SCARED because, nobody wants the rain to play the villain while
capturing the scenic beauty of ARAKU. I am talking about PHOTOGRAPHY. The
gadgets we are going to carry are not monsoon-proof. Surprisingly, we got a
nod from everyone (including the meteorological department)

Tickets booked, travel bags tightly zipped, lots of plans waiting to get
executed… EVERYTHING SET. This was the situation on the evening of 1st
JULY(day before the journey began).

The sudden onset of black clouds blocked my mind…

The roar of thunders threatened me…

It took the shape of a heavy rain in a matter of minutes. “Are my plans going to
get dissolved in that rain???”. “NO”. Hope kept me alive.

The next day, i.e. the journey day, the sky was partially clear and NO RAIN!!!
I got thrilled.

We boarded GAUTAMI EXPRESS at 9:15 pm to get down in RAJAHMUNDRY.

The train reached Rajahmundry at 6 am sharp. An INDICA car was waiting at
the station to take us to KADIYAPULANKA
KADIYAPULANKA is a small village (only in terms of area, not fame) that can be
found beside NH5. The major part of the area in the village is only meant for
plant nurseries.

It was a 20 minute ride from station to SRI SATYANARAYANA NURSEY (in

Kadiyapulanka). We were provided with an AC room above the office room of
the nursery. We quickly had our breakfast to explore Satyanarayana nursery,
one of the biggest in India. It is a huge nursery stretched over a whopping 170
acres of land with hundreds of varieties of flower, ornamental plants and
different kinds of fruit and vegetable trees.

A young guy guided us through the nursery explaining the details of each and
every variety of plants. The only thing we could do was, getting amazed
listening to the words of that guy. Believe it or not, he knows the scientific
name of each and every plant in that nursery that has nearly 300 varieties! You
show it, he’ll tell its name. All the Asoka trees you see in NEW DELHI were
exported from Kadiyapulanka! Most of ornamental trees you get to see in
hotels, parks, resorts etc in metropolitan cities were once watered by the
workers in Kadiyapulanka!

It took nearly 4 hours for us to completely explore the nursery. We then visited
the cattle-farm owned by the same owner. I was stunned at the sight a cow
5feet tall and 6 feet wide! It’s called as ONGOLE GITTA (Ongole cow). It gives 5
liters of milk at time i.e. 10 liters of milk a day! The cows and buffaloes there
get very nutritious food everyday on-time and a very very good care from the
Paaleru (cowboy).

We then had our lunch at the house of GANGUMALLA SATYANARAYANA, the

owner of that fantastic nursery and cattle-farm. All the dishes were made using
the ghee extracted from the milk of the ONGOLE GITTA.

Then, we visited JEGURUPADU, a village that won Nirmal Gram Puraskar and
GOOGLE’s best village in AP for its tidiness. It is a small but ideal village with a
total area of just 4 square-kilometers. On the way back, we got inside Sir
Arthur Cotton Museum and had some pictures clicked at Gannavaram
Godavari Aqueduct. Our journey that day ended on reaching AMALAPURAM,
my grandmother’s village. Sorry… town!
A family get-together function was organized by our relatives on the occasion
of their new habitat (GRUHAPRAVESAM). We enjoyed very much that day with
all the family members around.

The next day i.e. 5th July, was declared to be a BHARAT BANDH by Indian
political opposition parties. The fate of our journey plan was thrown into their
hands. The public transport system was ceased by the political activists. So we
were forced to book a car for our travel from Amalapuram to Kakinada.
Amalapuram to Kakinada journey is a very pleasant one with paddy fields,
coconut trees and many other kinds of trees on either side of the road. To
spice it up, there was a heavy downpour during our journey. The view of
Godavari from Yanam Bridge (Balayogi Varadhi) is fantastic. The total journey
time was 1 ½ hour. Rain ceased as we reached Kakinada.

My actual plan was to catch a bus for the travel from Kakinada to Vizag that
afternoon. I had to withdraw those plans because of BANDH that day. We have
a lot of relatives residing in Kakinada. We spent some time at each house till 7
that evening. My parents started their journey back to Hyderabad as part of
their journey plan. I joined my Mama and cousin (elder brother) at Kakinada
bus depot. I was shocked to see both of them sitting on a bench, sad-faced.
Knowing the reason, even my face turned sad. No RTC buses from Kakinada to
Vizag till 11:30 pm that night! But….. God sent the driver of a private mini-bus.
There were just 3 seats available in that bus travelling to Vizag! We got thrilled
with that.

Our journey started to Vizag at 7:20 pm in that AC bus. The bus guy provided
us entertainment by switching on the portable LCD screen in the bus and
played the movie, ‘EK NIRANJAN’. And, heavy rain outside. Though the movie
was bad, the journey was pretty exciting on the Bypass road to Vizag. Journey
time was 3 ½ hours. Apart from the RTC bus fare, the bus guy didn’t charge an
extra rupee. But we paid him extra bucks for making our journey possible at
that time and also making it a very pleasant one. We received a cordial
welcome from my mama’s friend at the Vizag stop. We reached MR.
MALLESWARA RAO (mama’s friend)’s house at 11 o’clock and stayed that night
there. The next day… much-awaited journey to ARAKU!
4:30 am was the time we woke up and started getting ready to board Kirandul
Express at 6:50 am, heading to ARAKU. The train departure was on schedule.
But slight showers started unscheduled. But it died down in just 15 minutes
making the atmosphere very pleasant and left the sky cloudy. Irresistible
temptation for photography originated in me with a brief glance of the nature
from the window. What a beauty! It’s green all over the place (some other
colours are slightly visible though). I tried to switch off the camera many times
but in vain. Slight showers earlier, enhanced the colour green and it turned out
to be a heaven for the photography frenzy. My enthusiasm levels were high
even after clicking countless number of photos.

As the journey proceeded, the sight of greenery slowly started fading out from
our window. Rocks were the only things we could see outside. After sometime,
the train started ascending a hill and the hill rock blocked our sight from the
window. I was amazed when I casually turned my face to the other side. The
altitude of the train started increasing and the glimpse of the scenery from the
window to my left was mind-blowing. We immediately positioned ourselves at
the bogie entrance and later seated there, that took the excitement to a whole
new level.

Thrill boosted up after crossing the SHIVALINGAPURAM railway station.

At a point of time, we reached the highest point where we could see clouds
under our feet. Literally!

While this all was happening, we met a guy named Shiva in the train, whose
uncle runs an auto-rickshaw in Araku. As part of our initial plans, we were to
get down at Borra Caves railway station. But he (Shiva) advised us to get down
at Araku station even though our reservation ticket demands us to get down at
Borra Caves. Later we found that advice very useful. We would have suffered a
lot if we have followed what we planned.

We reached Araku at 12:15 pm and the auto-rickshaw of Shiva’s uncle picked

us. He took us to a hotel named ‘Krishna Tara comforts’, nearly 3kms from the
railway station. The charges for four people in that hotel for one complete day
were Rs. 1450.

We had our lunch in the hotel and started off for an exciting journey in Araku,
at 2:00 pm.
We started off with our journey in Araku by visiting the tribal museum of the
local tribes. It beautifully showcased the way tribes lead their life. The tools
they use, the food they eat, the houses they build, the clothes they wear, the
customs they follow… everything was present there. We had fun playing with
the bow and arrows (not even a single arrow reached the target though).

Our next destination was BORRA CAVES. 7 Kms of ghat road (road along hills) is
part of the journey to BORRA CAVES. We were unable to resist our temptation
to take photographs while we were on the ghat road. We occasionally stopped
the vehicle, got down and captured some breathtaking images. We came
across a place called GAALIKONDA on the ghat road where there will be cold
air currents with almost uniform velocity round the clock. As part of the
refreshment break, we halted in front of a coffee-selling hut. The coffee is
made from the coffee beans obtained from the local plantations. We took
some snaps after getting deep into the coffee plantations and returned
immediately to the vehicle because bears do occasionally attack humans in
that region!

Our next halt was at the highest point of the Araku valley. 3000 feet (nearly 1
Km) above mean sea level! Whole of Araku valley was visible from there. We
clicked more than 70 photos at that place alone!

Temperature inside most of the caves in India will be hot. But Borra Caves is an
exception for this. Temperature inside Borra Caves is around 20 degrees! A
guide named KONDAPPA guided us through the cave explaining (exaggerating)
each and every detail of the cave. My mama cracked a hell lot of jokes
whenever Kondappa showed us rocks of different patterns, naming them.
After the exit from the cave, the sight of GOSTANI River from there was really
fantastic. As expected, loads of photos taken.

We paid 450 bucks to a jeep wallah to take us to KATAKI waterfall, nearly 4

Kms from Borra Caves. No vehicle other than a jeep could go on that road. The
road was full of rocks, highs and lows. Though the waterfall was medium-sized,
flora and fauna around it was fantastic. Paying 450 bucks to the jeep wallah
was really worth it. Our auto rickshaw driver showed his skill driving us back to
hotel at 7 pm in perfect darkness on that ghat road. We slept in the hotel that
night and started our journey to Vizag at 5:30 am in the morning in a Qualis.
Taking a bus was not advised because of Maoist bandh there at that time.
After the marvelous Araku tour, we decided to explore Vizag. My father’s
friend arranged a Maruti Omni van for our pleasant trip there. We first visited
SIMHACHALAM, a 20 minute drive from the city. It is located on a hill with rich
amount of greenery around. View of the Vizag city from the Ghat road was
simply amazing. Most part of the hill was covered with a thick blanket of fog
due to the cold weather at that time. After getting the blessings from God and
having a full meal of “prasadam”, our journey headed towards RISHIKONDA
BEACH.

We decided not to get wet in the over-salted sea water there and limited our
beach visit just to take photographs. After having a beautiful photo session, we
headed to KAILASGIRI.

We stood speechless on watching the breathtaking scenic beauty of Vizag and

the sea shore from the top of KAILASGIRI. We spent an hour there taking
photos and enjoying the climate. It was a perfect CLIMAX to our Araku tour.

We started back to our place with

loads of photographs,

tons of memories and

lots and lots of everlasting experiences….