Deccan Trekkers

14-Oct-2006
Sridhar, Basu, Venki and myself thought of having an adventurous trek this weekend. We hit upon Google Earth and found a small hill range near Phirangipuram and decided to trek this small hill. Since we did not had any information about the place we were bit apprehensive about it. Ater a small discussion we thought this would be adventurous. The only information we had was from Google Earth – Aerial view of the hill range  and Sridhar had a bit of information about the places nearby the hill range.The only thing we had abundance of raw enthusiasm to do something different for the weekend along with the Google earth Map of the Area.

Pic 1.
As the Delta Fast Passenger train slowly started from Secunderabad we again revisited our plan of going about crossing the Kondaveedu hill range. After some chit-chat all of us went to sleep. I was woken up by Basu at around 4:45 AM when we were about to reach Guntur.From railway Station we moved on to Bus Stand.Having a quick breakfast we boarded the bus to Phirangipuram. After 45 minutes of sleeping in the bus we alighted at  Phirangipuram. The Starting point of the Trek was from Kondaveedu Village which was at the base of the hill.We started around 7:15 by following a walkable path and after 45 minutes of climb we reached near the fort ruins and took a break. There the path Ended.

Pic 2.
We broke up in to 2 teams with myself and Venky taking the shorter but challenging route and Sridhar-Basu taking the longer and the easy one. After some crawling between rocks and Venky getting hurt and some more searching for a path, we finally were able to hear Sridhar and Basu shouting for us. After taking some rest we continued our trekk, trying to find a path with some help from the cattle dung lying around.

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After some more getting lost and walking around aimlessly we took some rest and had our lunch.We had biscuits, chips and some fruits. And  we had only a little of water left with us.After lunch we again started to move and approximating the direction of the Highway which was seen earlier by one of us. All the time we had broken ourselves in to teams while searching for a path to the Highway which could be seen very faar from us.

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Everywhere we tried to stick to the path of the now-dried water stream. This would our best bet for reaching downhill and this would be the nearest path to reach the base of the hill.As we took turns and tried to follow the dry  stream, we could hear some voices of Shepherds. That gave us a huge relief. After contacting the shepherd on the direction of the descent and the village, we luckily reached the base of the hill. By this time Sun was already burning at its highest and our water was over. Seeing a pond nearby was a relief but it turned in to disappoinment when we realised the water in the pond was useless for us to wash ourselves.

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After some time taking rest near the pond we started towards the Gopanapally village main road through the Eucalyptus plantation. As we reached the village, we quenched our thirst from the boring well and took an Auto to Boyapallem. Reaching Boyapallem all of us had coconut water and boarded the bus to Guntur.

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Realising we had lot of time at our end, we went to ‘Pogaru’ – a Telugu flick, thinking of sleeping in the A/C movie hall. Instead I got engrossed in the movie and just did not sleep through the movie. As we  had dinner and boarded the bus to Hyderebad, we were wondering how this trekk was accomplished.

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After our trek, we tried to map the path which we had taken and we were astonished to find the path which was originally decided and the path which we took was entirely different. Thats what happens when anyone does trekking based on Google earth without a GPS system!!!!!

Starting Poinnt- Kondaveedu Village, Phirangipuram
Destination-  Gopanapally/Boyapallem Village
Photos -

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