Scuba Diving!!

Netrani is a tiny Island of India located in Arabian Sea, off the coast of Karnataka. It is also known as Pigeon Island. The top view of the Island appears like a Heart shaped besides Pigeon! So the name Pigeon Island. Netrani Island is one of the best destination in India for Scuba Diving specially for beginners.

Scuba diving was on the cards from long time and after many delays and postponement the plan was finalized "Trip to Netrani Island with GHAC". We were a group of Nine and had to board the bus to Murudeshwar from Hyderabad on Friday. The weather now a days is unpredictable!! It was in mid of May.. the sun was shining brighter in the morning and it started raining cats and dogs in noon!! Seven members have boarded the bus which is ready to departure and two of them are stuck in traffic. The unpredicted rain and the Hyderabad Metro happily blocked the roads. The bus departed from the station... after making several requests the driver agreed to wait for Ten more minutes and finally both of them are here.. tension relieved!!

Next day it was Five in the morning and here we are at Murudeshwar! The Dive timings were scheduled on Sunday, so we have entire Saturday to spend and visit half moon and paradise beach and trek all along Om beach at Gokarna. The drive to Gokarna is Scenic.. with mountains and Western ghats on one side and Arabian Sea on other side. Om beach is less crowded and it has a couple of water sports as well. The beach  is unspoiled and has clear water which is beautifully surrounded by the palm trees. Some fun time at beach and than a water sports and finally a boat ride to Half moon and Paradise Beach. Both the beaches are awesome!! and it has an amazing place for camping. One more place added to the list. Will be camping here one day for sure.. Till the time we reached back it was getting dark and we started back to Murudeshwara.

Gokarna

Sunday woke up at Five in the morning and went for a walk along beach. The early morning view was beautiful and amazing... waves cleansing away the foot and the refreshing cool breeze!! Back to hotel and we are all set for the Dive. Picked up the diving equipment and gear. Loaded it in a vehicle and started for training session in pool. After getting acquainted with the equipment underwater, we started towards the Island. Its one hour journey in boat to reach Island. As we kept moving the color of the water is also changing, now it's blue all around!! And so the under water visibility also increased.

 

Panoramic view of Netrani Island

And there we see the Island... Netrani Island. What an amazing view it was!! A tiny piece of land in the midst of the blue ocean! The water was Cristal clear at the Island and were able to see the playful and colorful fishes on the surface water.

Fishes on the Surface water

We put on the jacket, oxygen cylinder, mask and one fall into the water and here... we are into a different world!! Underwater. The creatures with fins and gills moving all around spending free and independent life. No aquarium, no tanks just spacious and never ending place with full of colorful life moving all around.

Sighted a hell lot of colorful fishes and little corals. What not... Experienced many joys, the feeling of weightlessness and the beautiful and colourful sight of under water. The journey beneath the waves is worth and is exciting and adventure.

It was amazing to be under water. An incredible and mesmerizing experience. Everyone had a wonderful time and enjoyed to the core.

Finally reached back to hotel and took a jeep to reach Murudeshwar and boarded the bus back to Hyderabad.

Exploration Trek to Kondaveedu fort and Sunrise at SuryaLanka

Kondaveedu Fort - 'The Hill Fortress' is located in Kondaveedu Village, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh. The Fort was built and was ruled by the king of Reddy dynasty in fourteenth Century and later on it was concurred and was ruled by many kings starting from Vijayanagara Kings, Qutub Shahis from The Sultans of Golkonda have fought for this fort and after that it went into the hands of French and finally The Britishers.

Apart from the main fort, there are two other forts nearby. All the three forts are now in ruins. It is said that treasure hunters are the main reason to vandalize this fort. The fables of abundant wealth buried underneath continues to draw the attention of the treasure hunters and desecrating the few remains of the fort by digging away. Though we have not noticed any such miscreants all through our trek. Not sure if the miscreants have found some treasure here or not but the fort is completely ruined. There's only a small portion of the fort left out by which one can at-least recognize that its a fort.

Kondaveedu Fort

We have planned to hike this Kondaveedu Fort up the hill. Seven others have joined along with me and laxmi. We have planned this trip well in advance and booked the train tickets that were in waiting list. Finally till the day before the journey the tickets were not confirmed and we were pure unlucky in the Tatkal scheme by IRCTC and thanks for the super slow server of Indian Railways!! Since it's just a Six hours journey from Hyderabad to Guntur we have decided to travel with general ticket. So, the task is to get hold the seats for all the nine people. My self and Vishnu got into the running train on the platform and yes!! we blocked the seats for all nine. Task accomplished!! Luckily the train got delayed by an hour.. lucky coz the main person in the group, our celebrity 'Sreenath' was stuck in traffic. (Celebrity coz he look alike Virat Kohli). Our first travel in general compartment and this is what I noticed... On one side the passengers were waiting to grab the seats and other side the vendors selling the stuff... people climbing up and making the luggage place as their berth!! Train started.. but Virat is still not here!! All of us got settled... and here... got a call from Virat saying that he boarded the train and he is in other compartment, will join us in next station. Pheww!! Journey started with intro followed by a fun games and trying to bluff each other. Our destination was still two hours away, so we decided to take a power nap for couple of hours. and here we are in Guntur... that was a different experience, traveling in General. Hired a private vehicle and started the journey towards the Fort. Enroute had a delicious south Indian breakfast. And here we reached Kondaveedu Fort base!!

The fort is located 1700 feet above sea level, which has steps that takes you to the peak. What's so adventures if we take the steps to climb all over the top? So we decided to explore the place and started hiking from a different route. We have chosen a pretty long route to reach the peak... the group was full on energetic!! none of them got tired till we reach the top. Hike includes lot of scrambling and little climbing. Climbing was little challenging as there were no proper handholds.. we have used a little bit of palming technique to climb up. One by one started climbing and our cameraman 'Saiteja' was busy clicking!!

Hiking

In the midst of hike we found a huge tree with vines!! and guess what.. Its time for some Tarzan swing!! We spent some fun time in swinging and relaxed and continued the hike. After five hours of hiking.... there we are on the top of the fort!! The view from the top was amazing!! a small village at the base surrounded by fields and the blue sky!! It was very hot though. Relaxed for sometime and clicked few group pictures directed by Aparna and stared descending.

Tarzan Swing

Descending was the toughest part though we have chosen a short route, coz it was already noon and the sun shines hot. Rocks burning like hot pan!! and the worst part is descending in hot sun without having a drop of water. Pranav, Akhilesh and Abhilash descended little fast and reached base and were waiting for us at the home at the base village, where we kept all our backpacks. Here ends the hike to Kondaveedu fort and started the journey towards Surya Lanka Beach.

Suryalanka is one amongst many beaches... but with less crowd and less polluted beach. The specialty of Surya Lanka is it's an 'estuary beach' a place where fresh water from the river flows into the ocean and blend with salt water. It was almost dark when we reached the beach... first we setup the tents for camping just few steps away from the beach and ordered dinner at the local hotel and went on for a walk in the beach. Spent some good time at the beach chatting about haunted stories, movies and all... by the time our dinner was ready!! Steamed rice with fish curry was the menu for dinner! and the moment after we had dinner Akhilesh started dozing!! and he is the one in whole group who was sleeping most of the time. We all wanted a good, long sleep now...so that we can wake up early to see the sunrise.

Next day early morning five.. it was little cloudy. Behind the clouds is the sun... Hiding! Raising slow.. we had to wait for long time, but the sun rise was not that good as expected nevertheless we enjoyed the view.

Sun Rise

Early morning at the beach...sunrise time and who doesn't want to get into water..! after spending some good time in the beach we started walking towards the place where river water flows into the sea. It was amazing to see sweet water from river mixes with salt water and at the same time i pity... many people on earth lack drinking water and here it is wasted. And buried with sea water.

It was Eleven O'clock when we reached back to the camping place after spending some good time at the estuary. We still have enough time to spend, so we decided to visit Amaravati Temple near Guntur. Goodbye to Suryalanka!! Came back to Bapatla and started searching for hotels... and Its being a weekend, most of the hotels are filled up... and it was too late till the time we checked-In at a hotel. At last we have to cancel the plan to Amaravati and passed the time with some music and thanks to Abhilash for entertaining us with his mixed and funny facial expressions!!

A wonderful weekend spent with incredible group hiking all along the fort and beach!! Everyone got acquainted very much and decided not to sleep in the return journey as this will be the last night we gonna spend together. Eleven O'clock in the night we boarded the train and all our seats were not allocated in  serial numbers... tried swapping seats with other passengers.. but no luck, we just have to go and have a good night sleep!

Back to Hyderabad on Monday morning and ready for corporate slavery!!

Monsoon memories - Kalsubai Trek

The phone rang.... "Hello!!... have you started? I am on the way... will be reaching in next Ten minutes!" said Siri. Yes, I am on the way too... will be there on time! - I said.

Yes..!! an another trip on the cards.. A weekend trek planned to conquer the Everest of Maharashtra/Highest peak of Maharashtra... whatever you say , its - Mt. Kalsubai this time!! It was all well planned... the route, meeting point and the group was finalized and all set to GO!!

Kalsubai is the highest peak of Sahyadri and heaven for nature lovers.
The group assembled at the meeting point and boarded the train and all were waiting for the Journey to be started. The first phase of the journey started from Hyderabad - Manmad. Everyone got settled and had a quick round of Intro. Rajesh was the only one 'college student' in the group... the youngest of all!! rest all were working professionals :) and in the midst of the trek we came to know that 'there is a hidden Poet in him' (You'll come to know about this later) while Aravind was a good company, earlier we have done Dudhsagar Trek together. Its good to have Avijeeth in the group and its fun to be around him. I've met him in Lonavalla trek. So only Abhishek, Karthik, Chakri and Uma were new to the group. And let me tell you Rajesh is also a professional photographer... and our official photographer of the trip and Laxmi was the regular one in the group, we have done couple of treks earlier... mentioned her in my previous posts as well. To kill some time and to get mingled we played some fun games, taught card games to few and moved on for a quick power nap. 

Next day on Saturday around Seven in the morning we reached Manmad. The second phase of journey is from Manmad - Igatpuri. We have plenty of time left to board the train to Igatpuri, so decided to have some Vada-pav and Poha for breakfast! Its a Two hours journey from Manmad to Igatpuri. The third phase starts from Igatpuri - Goti, the fourth and final phase is from Goti - Bari village in a private hired vehicle. See... there are many phases of travel in this journey!! Excitement increased.
Bari is the base village, from where we need to start the trek.

Bari Village

 The plan was to camp at the peak in night. So before starting off with the trek we have ordered the dinner at the locals there and asked them to deliver it at the peak. The week being a Navaratri season many of the devotees from surrounding villages are geared-up to climb the hill and offer prayers at the Kalsubai temple located at the peak. To reach the summit there are various routes, but we prefered the route that starts from the village Bari. We started the trek from the base village, soon after leaving the village there is a water stream, which we need to cross... though the water level is low compared to the last time when i visited this place.
 

Water steam

  Just after a little up-hill walk there is a Temple. The actual trek starts from here... the route from behind this temple takes you to the peak. Laxmi being a 'Flora lady', she noticed Berries plant just before the temple... and plucked some berries and few of them also tried their hands in plucking the berries. And the trek continued... We stopped at many places just to keep ourselves away from tiredness and to enjoy the picturesque of the place and also spent some time to pose in front of the camera! After an another hour of up-hill trek we saw many local people setting up the food stalls (Its business time for them during Navaratri). and from there you can see the ladder way. Yes... there are three ladders along this route, you have to climb-up to reach the peak. And in between these ladders there are rocky kinda steps. Its an easy hike but at few places its quite steep and the path is little slippery due to the rainfall last night. Its safe to climb the ladders, though these are Iron ladders, most of it's railings are standing with support of the bamboo and tied with binding wire. The first two ladders are easy to climb but the third one was the most Inclined ones. Just before the Third ladder there are couple of tea shops... and we thought one of these will be our camping place for the night. The first one was good enough and has enough space for Ten people to accommodate. The person running this shop allowed us to use this place for camping. We decided to drop our back-packs there and move ahead. And finally... it started drizzling!! Actually we were expecting for it rite from the start of the trek.

Berries

It took almost One hour from the third ladder to reach the peak.. and here we are at the Highest peak of Sahyadri... Kalsubai!! As we climbed up it became cooler and cooler. The view from the peak was simply awesome... surrounded with beautiful valleys and clouds passing through our feet. We spent most of the time at the peak, in the natures lap! Few were busy capturing the nature at its best and few posing for the pictures and others deep-extremely rejoicing the nature. Cool wind was blowing fast... its good that we took much time to climb up to the peak, coz now its the time for Sunset!! The hues of the reddish sun was mesmerizing! You can't take your eyes off it. It was a heaven on the top. Soon the curtain of the clouds covered the sun and we couldn't view the complete sunset. A guy came up and said "aapka Khana ready hai" (Dinner is ready) and is at your camping place. We came down to the camping place... just in front of the camping place there is a well. So, freshened up ourselves and had a not-so-tasty dinner. Post dinner we had some fun time, few narrated haunted stories and self experienced haunted stories :) and its time for a tight nap.

Ladder way

 Next day Sunday, we decided to start descending at Five in the morning.. so that we get some time to visit the near-by waterfall. As it was raining last night, the path was slippery and muddy. Coming down-hill was little difficult. 

Descending

While few of them had crossed the second ladder, Aravind and Rajesh were coming together chitchatting. Pointing towards a tree on top corner of the hill, Rajesh (R) asked Aravind (A)... whats your feeling about that tree? 'A' gave some random answers... but our poetic mind 'R' said that "The tree is challenging the people and says - if it was in the city, you would have killed me. If you are dare enough, come here and kill me". Seriously this silent guy 'R' is something special! and here's one more by 'R'... "Andham aadapilla ke kaadu adavi ki kuda untundi!". (Translated: "Not only women are beautiful... but forests are too!") 

View on the way

 It was almost Eleven'O clock when we reached the base and the vehicle that we have booked was there on time. There was no time to visit the waterfalls. So, we decided to skip it and go directly to Kalyan and catch the train to Hyderabad.

Next day Monday, back to the land of Bifurcation! Apna Hyderabad!!