One Day Trip to Srisailam From Hyderabad

Srisailam Trip:

One day trip to srisailam from hyderabad, I have completed Srisailam twice before this trip. They are documented here:

My Previous trips:

1st Trip with a motorcycle with wife-Here
2nd Trip with my parent’s in law-Here

I have written a guideline to venture Srisailam in a methodical way. Read here (top 10 places)

This time in December 2018, we (my parent along with me) opted for a quick darshanam for lord Mallikarjuna. I did not get a chance to write on my own. But below write up is taken from my father’s diary.

A Note From My Father’s Diary:

way to Srisailam

Note from My father:

How it Started:

We were in here in Hyderabad for the last 2 weeks. Being Bengali, we were getting little bored as we have little or no activities here compared to my own area(Howrah, West Bengal). We were planning for a short trip around Hyderabad and my elder son came up with this idea to visit the Lord Mallikarjuna in Srisailam. I enquired “srisailam which district??” Kurnool – said my son. Initially, we were not ready for a long drive to this place but later we accepted with a condition that we must stay a day to avoid the lag.

Road To Srisailam

A nutshell description was depicted for a long journey from Manikonda Hyderabad to Srisailam to visit the famous Mallikarjuna (Lord Shiva). Srisailam is one of the 18 Mahashaktipeeth and one of the famous temple of Lord Siva. Our plan was going on 1st December and return on 2nd December of 2018.

Few more details what I noticed:
Srisailam how to reach? It is reachable via various bus connecting from Hyderabad.The best would be to hire a taxi service or explore by own vehicle. I have given a details view of my experience about how to go srisailam?

Amrabad Tiger Reserve Forest

We started at 9:30AM from our home at Manikonda after a quick breakfast. Then reached ORR(outer ring road) at around 9:45AM. We took the check in the ticket and from this place the actual journey started.

We headed towards the Exit -14. Since it was morning, and a holiday, we did not get traffic on the road. At around 10:30 we checked out ORR and took NH 765 (Srisailam highway) to reach Srisailam.

As we have plenty of water with us, we avoided the small water breaks.

we at Amrabad Tiger Reserve Forest

The journey was smooth with very less traffic in the road. We were stopped by the cop to check if we were carrying cash for the upcoming election near Amangaol. After that, we drove straight to Hajipur.

Stop for some quick Snacks:

We stopped at the newly opened Chandra Hospitality Service for some food. At this time at 12 noon, we were not that much hungry for lunch. We were looking for Dosa in this region. Unfortunately, they did not offer much. At that time only the thali was available. They could not offer even other items mentioned in the menu card. We started again. After crossing Hajipur crossing we stopped at Hotel Balaji. It was situated right side of the road. They also did not have many items and took tea here. I must say that they made a nice tea. Both Chandra and Hotel Balaji had nice toilet facility.

Bag provided at gate of Armabad Tiger Reserve Forest

Bag provided at the gate of Amrabad Tiger Reserve Forest

At Dindi dam and Checkpost of Amrabad Tiger Reserve Forest:

We started again from this place. Being noon and not getting a suitable place to park our vehicle we opted out to visit Dindi dam. We drove straight to the check post of Nalla Malla Tiger reserve forest(now famous as AMRABAD Tiger Reserve forest). At the check-post, toll plaza, we were given a jute bag to use as the dustbin. They requested us not to drop any waste material in the jungle. We were very happy to see the effort of the forest department to save the jungle and make it clean and green. After entering the jungle, NH 765 became different. There were a lot of speed breakers with and without a sign. It continued till Srisailam. Enroute, we saw lots of monkeys in different parts of the jungle. Few of the tourists were throwing bananas to these creatures and it seemed they were accepting them and eating with great pleasure, even though forest officials requested us not to feed the animals.

Bag provided at the gate of Armabad Tiger Reserve Forest

Journey through the Amrabad Jungle:

In the middle of the jungle, we saw a safari gate. We stopped for some refreshment. The adjacent shop was closed. We took few snaps here. We started for the last part of the jungle. On the way to Srisailam, we stopped again and took some snaps for our memory. The jungle became more dense and greener in this area. After another 45 mins, we finally crossed the jungle. We were very much hungry at that time. The clock was ticking 2:30PM by then. We were searching for a decent hotel to finish our lunch. We did not get any.

Srisailam road Jungle view

Jungle end and Rajadhani Hotel:

Finally, we stopped at Rajadhani hotel just before the ghat section of Srisailam. The hotel was more of a makeshift arrangement. The meal was costing 60rs/head. We ordered double egg omelet. It cost us 80 rs more. It was a bit more comparing the quality of the hotel. However, After the quick meal we started again for srisailam.

Srisailam Dam:

At 3:15Pm we reached Srisailam dam. are srisailam gates opened? No, the gates were not opened but It was truly a man made wonder, a gem of engineering. srisailam how many gates? There are 12 gates in Srisailam. I could imagine the view during full monsoon with the gate open. We stopped here for some refreshment and took few snaps. My son and wife took icecream here. The road became narrow here. We were driving very carefully. We saw Patal Ganga from the car.No mistake was taken to find the rows of the boat there. With the grace of Lord Shiva and ma Durga, we crossed the ghat sections(both side) without any troubles. I came to know from the signboard that river Krishna was the border for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The Andhra section of the NH-765 was having a lot of speed breakers.

Srisailam road Jungle view

Sakshi Ganapati temple:

We reached Sakshi Ganapati temple by 3:45PM. We parked the car in the temple parking bay. It was Lord Ganesh’s temple. It came to our notice that there is a very long queue for darshanam. Yet bow down our head to Ganapati. We requested him in mind, for his blessings and prayed for a safe darshanam of Lord Siva. And also prayed him to note down our names in his notebook as the witness of Shiva darshanam. It is said that without taking the blessings of Ganapati, the very purpose of visiting Shiva would be lost. This Ganapati was very unique in style, He was holding the notebook in one hand and a pen in another hand. It was said that he keeps note whoever enters into Srisailam.

On the way Srisailam in Dense forest

At Srisailam:

Thereafter we reached the holy place at 4:20PM. We parked our vehicle at the parking slot near the temple. To answer the call of nature we found green toilets for men and women. But I was sorry to see the instructions were not proper. No information was provided on how to open the gates. Like many others, we tried coin of 1 rupee,2 rupees, and 5 rupees. All our effort went in vain for men section. My wife somehow managed to open the gate with 2 rupees and 5 rupees. she was not sure which coin opened the gate.

Inside of the car

Now as per our itinerary, we needed to get a room for three of us. We tried all known options like Gouri Sadan, Ganga Sadan. There were all full. We tried from pillar to post to have a room on rent. But could not get any. We learned that there was a festival called Karthik Sankranthi from 1st December to 3rd December and all the hotels were full. Also tried CIR office too without any result. CIR office told us that the darshanam would start at 6PM and end at 8PM. We made up our mind and headed towards temple for Lord Shiva darshanam.

Amrabad Tiger Reserve Forest

At the holy temple:

Mobiles and cameras were not allowed inside the temple. We had to deposit our mobile in the mobile deposit area and deposited shoes at the shoe rack. Mobile deposit cost us Rs15(Rs 5 /mobile). Shoe rack was free. There were 3 queues for darshanam. One queue was for free that might take 1 to 2 hours. Next was rs 100 INR queue, the average delay would be 45 minutes to 1 hour and lastly, there was a VIP darshanam.

View from famous Srisailam dam

Visit To The Holy Temple

VIP darshanam was rs 300 INR/head. It used to take 20 mins for darshanam. We opted for VIP darshanam. We entered the campus of the temple at around 6PM sharp. From distance, we heard the enchanting of Om Namah Shivaya (the famous mantra of Lord Shiva). When we reached nearby, we saw many disciples of the temple, blowing their khanjani, harmonium, danka, and other musical instrument and were singing this mantra. The situation was electrifying and magnificent.

View of The Holy Temple

It was a very charming sight and we enjoyed with deep joy. We made our darshanam quick. On the way back we saw Lord Balaji, Lord Vishnu etc. We took prasadam and hurriedly came out from the temple. The temple was properly maintained by the authority with lots of security personals in place. We were very happy to see to disturbance from so called pandas. The workforce was very friendly and very supportive. It was suggested to wear a dhoti instead of jeans or pants. For ladies, it was suggested to wear traditional sari or salwar with urni or chunni. We even noticed that nearby shops were selling churnis ranging from 150 to 200Rs

Amrabad Jungle view

We were dam hungry at this time and went to a nearby restaurant to grab Masala dosa and tea. At this point, we had to take a decision. Either we could wait and search for hotels(locals suggested to search in sunnipenta village as well) or leave the place as the jungle check post would close at 9PM. We decided to leave over the table. Accordingly, at 7 we started our return journey. Srisailam being a small city, we never had to ask anybody for the roads. The city was well maintained with lots of clear signboards.

Ghat road at Srisailam

The return journey:

The road was pitch dark. With great patience and again with the grace of Lord Shiva we crossed the ghat section. We reached the jungle check-post at 8:30PM.We were given a plastic carry bag this time and charged Rs50. We crossed the gate and stopped for taking some rest. As the previous section was ghat and the journey was anxious. I tried to capture the ghat road with my son’s mobile. It is given below:Frankly speaking, in the pitch dark night with narrow roads, the ghat gave us a thrill. We were frightened too. We could only see the road illuminated by headlight and other car’s headlight through this zig-zag way. On the way back, in a silent area, we spotted a dear, gently gazing.

one day trip to srisailam from hyderabad

Beautiful Ghat road at Srisailam

At around 10:00PM we came out of the jungle. We stopped for a cup of tea. There were public pay and use toilet available. We re-energized ourselves a bit and started again at 10:30PM. The road was again empty. The roaring sound of the car engine was breaking the quietness of mother nature while the headlights were engaged in high beam position for a steady 90KM/hr speed. At 11:10 we reached again near Hajipur crossing at Hotel Chandra Hospitality.