Trip to Srisailam from Hyderabad
Hello all, welcome you all who are planning to go to
Srisailam for a 2- or 3-day vacation with family or friends, this is going to
be one of the best road trips in your life and will definitely stay in your
memories and in one of your regular pilgrimage shrines if you plan at right time.
Let’s get into the details.
Srisailam is one of the Jyotirlinga temple and is in heart
of Nallamala forest surrounded by lush green and great source of medicinal
trees. The Nallamala forest is divided by Krishna River and this divides both Telugu
states, Telangana, and Andhra. So, if you are travelling in yellow plate car
then you may need to pay boarder tax extra for this trip.
Few prerequisites before you plan your trip:
1.
The forest closed between 9 PM evening to 6 AM
morning. So, don’t plan your trip during this time.
2.
As advice, wear proper clothing which will keep
temple premises and culture healthy.
3.
If possible, carry some home food but don’t feed
to wild animals, also don’t throw plastic and waste on roads. Poor animals may
try to come on roads to eat the food you have thrown and may suffer accidents.
Also, the contaminated food will spoil animal and their herd health. Also, this
would seriously damage the eco system.
4.
Have only vegetarian food to keep your health
safe during trip.
Considering you are starting from Cyber towers; I would
recommend below itinerary to you which will cover almost every place.
The above map link will give you detailed route to Srisailam
from Cyber towers.
It is approx. 270 KM distant from Cyber Towers, but this has many good places
in route which give you energy at every stop.
Start early from Hyderabad. I would suggest you start early
like 5:00 AM.
Have breakfast before you reach Dindi or even before Dindi.
This is because, there are only few hotels after this place and very few of
them has good food available. So better finish breakfast at or before Dindi.
Uma Maheshwaram temple, Rangapur:
The first place you should visit is Uma Maheshwaram temple.
Spend some time like an hour here. Enjoy the small ghat road fresh air. You can
reach the temple using Ghat road. But be careful with monkeys. Roll your car
windows up.
You need
to pay approx. 100 toll fees(car) collected by forest personnel.
Darshanam a nominal 5 or 10
Rs.
Papanashanam
Start from Uma Maheshwaram after Darshanam and start your journey towards Ghat session. Ghat road till Dam sight are normal and easy to drive. The forest starts from Mannanur, you will be paying 50 Rs. forest entry fee here and don’t drop any plastic or food in the forest. You will see a lot of monkeys on the road. Drive carefully. There are almost 10 sit-out places created by forest officers, you can stop there and have some food or take some rest.
The first place you see enrooting to Srisailam after
Mannanur is “Vatwarlapalle”. Stop here and ask locals if the “MallelaTheerdham
Waterfall” is open and forest officers allowing to visit waterfall. (I am
mentioning this, due to seasonal and water availability they stop entry few
months every year). Once you get confirmation. Take left and go to Waterfall,
it is 8 Km from Main road and again they collect almost 100 toll fee to enter
waterfall village. There is a 20 Rs nominal entry fee per head to enter the waterfall.
If this place is open, then spend some good 2 to 4 hrs here.
Either you can finish lunch at Vatwarlapalle if you can adjust or you need to
travel 20 to 30 KM more to find one decent place to eat.
My recommendation is to eat only veg meals during trip else any
other cuisine may spoil because these are tourist spots, there is high chance
that they may not cook same each day since this is floating traffic.
Below are the places I would recommend you plan,
Mandatory:
1.
Uma Maheshwaram temple. (1 to 2 hrs.)
2.
Mallela Theertham waterfall. (Enquire with locals
at Vatwarlapalle stop before you enroute) (2 hrs. to 4 hrs.)
3.
Srisailam Devasthanam. (4 hrs.)
a.
Nandi in main temple (As per Veerabrahmendra
swamy, the Nandi will grow every year and will roar end the end of Kaliyuga so
that all evil people will die)
b.
Mallikarjuna swamy Vayu lingam – Main temple.
c.
Triphala tree, Addala meda, Nagulu- Left side to
main temple. (Behind Nagulu, you will see NagaLinga flower which will have a Linga
Aakruthi inside flower, don’t miss this)
d.
Sri Bhramaramba Ammavari Shakti Peetham Temple,
Srisailam – (There is veda patnam everyday morning, the chanting will drive
peace into your soul)
e.
Sakshi Ganapathi temple. (30 min) – Traffic problem
since this is entry to Srisailam town.
f.
Hatakeshwaram. – (20 min)
g.
Paladhara panchadhara. (50 min) – Collect holy water
in bottle – There are few hundred steps.
h.
Patala ganga. (h and I are same, if you are
going alone to patala ganga, this will take 2 hrs. or more depending on traffic
at ropeway)
i.
Akka Mahadevi caves. (You have ropeway facility at
Patala ganga which will offer trip to Akka Mahadevi caves, this trip takes 4 to
5 hrs. So, plan in the morning hours. This facility also depends on climate and
water level)
j.
Shikareshwaram
k.
Chenchu laxmi tribal measeum. (This is just for
kids and elders to understand chenchu culture. I am sure the trill starts the
entry itself, you will confuse who is who)
l.
Dam site.
Optional:
1.
Shivaji memorial.
2.
Mallamma kanneeru.
Day 1:
Stay: Plan your stay before coming
to Srisailam. You can book Haritha hotel, or You have many community Satra
available too. The traffic will be high during weekends, festivals, summer
holidays, Karthika Masam and Maha Shiva Ratri days.
You can book a stay even after reaching
Srisailam unless this is not holiday.
·
As per trip schedule, you should have reached
Srisailam in the evening hours. Fresh up and go to Darshanam.
·
You can cover the remaining places on Day 2
Day 2:
Darshanam:
·
We always go to Darshanam on second day too in
early morning hours. We start before 6 and try to finish Darshanam by 7 or 8.
·
There is a free Annadhana Satra facility created
by Devasthanam for lunch. You could reach Annadhana Satram by afternoon if you
wanted to finish lunch here.
Pathala Ganga ropeway:
·
Reach Pathala Ganga ropeway point early before 9
am if you are planning to go to Akka Mahadevi caves, Else, you can take your
time to reach here.
·
To Akka Mahadevi Caves, the tickets should be
booked between 9 AM and 11 AM. And this trip may be cancelled if there is a
problem with waterflow are season.
·
Upon return you can cover Hatakeshwaram &
Paladhara panchadhara or Chenchu laxmi tribal museum.
