Monsoon Trek at Araku valley

Yet another Trek with GHAC to the land of valleys - Araku

ARAKU Valley is a familiar Hill Station in the state of Andhra Pradesh. A valley in the Eastern ghats of INDIA. A wonderful Hill station with waterfalls, valleys, streams and greenery all around. Ananthagiri forest is the part of Araku valley surrounded by Galikonda, Rakthakonda and few other mountains. One must experience the climatic conditions and the natural beauty of this valley to relish the fog and to fell the feather bunch of the cloud.
It all started when Chandu & Siri initiated the plan and 11 other GHACians where excited to join the trek. Everyone were charged and eagerly waiting to get drenched in rain and explore the valley. 

Araku View

The day arrived and meetup point was at railway station as we were traveling by train. (Train journey is the bestest way to travel to araku). All set to Go!!
The group of twelve GHACians started from Hyderabd to Vizag and our Super Dude (Read as Professor) Lokesh will be joining us at Vijayawada. Goodbye to Hyderabd for the next three days. The journey started and excitement increased. Fun filled journey with lot of hilarious games, rummy and much more followed by dinner and yeah.. photo session of course! It was almost eleven in the night, the lights in our couch are still ON and were busy playing rummy and here enters our Super dude (Mind you -read as professor) Lokesh Sai Kumar, greeted everyone. And its time for a quick nap, will be reaching Vizag early in the morning 5.30

Red handed

Next Day.. here we come Vizag! Rishi is the one guy in the entire group, very energetic, wakes up first and gets ready. We just had 45 minutes to freshen up and have breakfast and board the train to Araku. All done and boarded the train with heavy back packs and tarps and tents. We planned to camp in the nature, no fun in staying under a roof and between four walls... The train started, it was a scenic view on both sides, thick forest, greenery all around. Pictures captured by professionals Satbeer paaji and Sunil. Time just flew away, we arrived at Borra caves station where we planned to get down and visit Borra Caves. Its a 2-3 Km distance from railway station to Borra Caves, so we decided to walk rather hiring a vehicle. Its like a warm up for the trek which we are going to start post lunch. On the way to caves we ordered the lunch in a small hotel. Visited Borra caves, captured few group pictures, profile pic, cover pic. whatever you say!! Came back, had lunch and here comes the much awaited part of the trip... trekking to Katiki waterfalls, which is about 8-10 KM from borra caves.

way to Borra caves

 

Borra caves

The first kilometer was all good.. as excepted it started drizzling..(we wanted it to pour heavily :)) and the moment we entered the muddy pathways between the patches of green fields.. few of them started to explore new route and other few were following the path.. Cool weather, greenery on both sides, rain,  steep and moderate path in between... imagine the scenic view!! all i can say is, it was awesome! We dint even noticed that we crossed almost 3KM of distance.. and here the fun begins! Priyanka is completely exhausted.. paaji was helping her and motivating her to move on..  just after a while in the midst we saw a water stream and decided to pass through the stream... who doesn't want to get into the water? It's monsoon after all! and we are here to get drenched completely. After looking at the water flow Priyanka's energy level boosted up! and wanted to get into water... we slowly started crossing the stream and Priyanka's "Hatrick fall" into the water... Yes.. she fell for every two steps she take!! We noticed that the water flow is getting high and decided to move out from water. Slowly one-by-one energy levels are getting down.. and now its sunil's turn, want to rest for a while because of leg cramps. The 4x4 vehicles were passing by and the people in it are happily moving with loud music. Than Priyanks says.. why are we walking? we can also hire a vehicle... than we decided to send Priyanka in a vehicle and Laxmi will accompany her.. believe me after that not even a single vehicle we saw :P... by than our Super dude Lokesh was aslo down. We stop many times, just to rest for a while. We almost crossed Seven km, there we can see the vehicles parked. aah!! relief.... we reached the destination... we asked a cab driver, way to water falls. Driver: straight route... just two km from here. One needs to walk from here, vehicles are not allowed beyond this point. What the hell! Still two kilometers? ah! Started again, we have to climb the steps, cross the railway track , pass through the steep slippery way... and there you can see the view of gushing waterfall from a distance of more than 50 feet height. It was a stupendous experience to watch the spray of water cascading down. We are ready to soak in the waterfall. The water was so pure, clean and clear, Very soon we get lost in the beauty of nature. spent much of the time under the waterfall. It was almost past Four'O clock. We were getting late as we have to continue our trek to reach the Galikonda view point before the sunset. Had a tasty & spicy Bamboo chicken! and continued the trek to the view point. 

One of the Hat-trick fall

The trek was a little challenge, not a tough one though. One needs to pass through the forest, the path was little slippery, ascending and descending. A local guy guided us. Gautham and Randy had a little tough time at the beginning, but handled very well till the end. Everyone kept moving, except me and Chandu coz we were accompanying Priyanka. Her energy levels were completely down and too tired. But nevertheless as a beginner she did a fantastic job! Good start Priyanka! Just few minutes before the sky is set to dark, we reached the View point of Galikonda. (View point from top of the hill) yeaah...!! we did it! climbed all over the forest hill.. amazing experience! We hired a cab to reach araku and the actual plan was to setup the tents and camp in the nature, but no luck it was pouring heavily.. so we have checked in at a Hotel.  By the time most of them were tired and drowsy. Post dinner few of them hit the beds and few others were playing cards, chatting and all fun... and its time for a tight sleep.

Way to Katiki waterfall

 

Katiki waterfall

Way to Galikonda View point

Next morning... I woke up at around Six and thought I am the first one to wake up! but as i said it earlier, it was Rishi who woke up first at early morning Five i guess. It was dam chill in the morning, cool breeze and dusky out side due to fog. Without wasting much time, we had a quick breakfast and moved towards Chaprai Waterfalls. Its not exactly a waterfall, its like heavy stream dodging across a huge rock formations. The whole area was covered by gushing stream. We slowly moved towards the top of the slide. The water forcefully makes its way down the slide. The moment we took the position we were dragged away by  the force of water and with in seconds we landed in the pool at the bottom. I bet, You will not find a single water parks that offers you a good slide than this natural slide combined with thrill. The only thing was the water was little muddy, but who cares? spent most of the time here filled with fun and sliding. It was worth spending time there. We dried up and changed & again its time to have the last Bamboo Chicken of the trip! 

Sliding at Chaparai

 

The Group

Than we moved to catch the bus to Vizag, no wonder we missed one bus as many of us were busy shopping ;) we do not want to miss the second one too. so everyone assembled at one place. Within few minutes bus arrived and started towards Vizag. 
 We reached vizag some where around 6'O clock in the evening and our train to Hyderabad was scheduled at 10'O clock. We have enough time to go around vizag, at-least visit one of the beach. So here we come R.K. Beach... spent some good time at the beach followed by dinner and moved towards railway station. Bid a final adieu to our Super Dude as he was boarding a different train. Next morning stepped into the land of Nizams! Apna Hyderabad!!
Now enough of having fun, traveling, trekking and all, hitting the toughest part of all. Getting back to work!!