I’m not a big fan of blogging, and am even a little uncomfortable writing this, but if Meena Reddy can find worldwide recognition through her blogs, then it can’t be all bad, right? Wrong. This one is not filled with steamy details of sexual encounters and manage et tois’s because that would then make it a work of fiction. This is a travel blog (sigh!!).
If I were to label my style of travel, it would have to be impromptu and unprepared. So in typical fashion, with traveling companions even lazier than I, Gagan, Pankaj and I headed off to a place called Nirmal, in Adilabad district, in search of adventure. Nirmal is about 260 kms from Hyderabad and all we had to do was get onto the NH7 and it was straight sailing from then on. The roads were unfortunately in a sorry state due to the heavy monsoons and the construction of a 4 lane highway. If all goes well, then this will one day be a wicked drive.
Having cultivated the habit, from my fellow companions, of drinking chai as often as Gagan plays Akon’s ‘Gringo’ on the stereo, which by the way is far more than normal limits, we stopped at a Punjabi Dhaba. While sipping on my disco lemon tea, I noticed that the initial congregation of about 20 Sardars was steadily growing in strength and very soon we were swamped by Sardars (and Sardarnis) on all sides. All I could make out from the banners was that this was the 300th anniversary of the Guru (300 saal guru de naal), which Gagan pointed out was grossly incorrect and it was actually the 309th anniversary of the Guru. Normally if it’s Gagan’s word against a stranger’s I would probably go with the stranger. So I safely assumed that he was talking out of his ass. For fellow travelers reading this blog (ha ha!!) I would recommend it’s melt-in-the-mouth Parantha’s but would advise you to steer clear of it’s disco lemon tea.
After a tough journey, where the car’s shock absorbers’ were tested to their limit we arrived in the city only to find that the city was entirely shut down and a section 144 had been imposed due to communal riots which had spread from the adjacent town of Bhainsa. A section 144 restricts the gathering of 4 or more people so for the time being we were reasonably confident that we could get away unmolested by the police if not the mobs. Having found Nirmal in a complete state of shutdown our immediate concern were the growling pangs of hunger from 3 very hungry stomachs. Communal riots be damned, we were ready to eat. So at the very next (obviously Punjabi) Dhaba, Sher-E-Punjab, we stretched ourselves on the Manji and stuffed our faces with Tandoor Rotis and curries and washed everything down with, yes you guessed it, Chai.
Here’s an observation from a well worn traveler. You are at your vulnerable worst after a heavy meal and tend to go into auto pilot for a while, which is exactly what happened to us. While we blazed away towards the waterfalls, music blaring, the cool artificial breeze of the A/C gently stroking our faces like a virginal princess, we fell asleep to everything around us and by the time we were startled awake from our trance, we found out from 3 extremely ‘tight’ gentlemen that we had overshot the mark by nearly 30 kms! Even passing through a town called Ichoda hadn’t snapped us out of the spell. They say that the true worth of software professional can be judged on how he redirects blame. With Pankaj sound asleep in the backseat, Gagan and I unanimously came to the conclusion that he was to blame for this monstrous bit of miscalculation. Subsequently, every pothole that Gagan ran over was attributed to Pankaj’s negligence.
So we backtracked, rather uneventfully (except if you consider Pankaj taking potshots at innocent pedestrians with banana skins and apple stubs; accidently he claims) and found the right turn to Pochera falls. With the many disappointments I’ve faced when it comes to waterfalls, a leaky faucet would have excited me. Imagine our surprise when Pochera turned out to be the real deal. I admit it was no Niagara but the two step water fall culminating into a massive crater in the earth was a sight to behold. Obviously, we had to get to the other side for a better view, because that was the manly thing to do. So after a great deal of histrionics, which included forming a human chain, throwing sandals from one bank to the other and finally porting my camera on the end of a stick we managed to cross over to the other side. After the usual juvenilities of frolicking in the water and posing for numerous photos, it was time to head on: next stop Kuntela falls.
A word of caution. The turn into Kuntela is nearly invisible, so keep your eyes and ears open. Even after our initial gaffe we still almost missed it. The lane leading to Kuntela was painfully narrow and to add to our woes we kept getting swarmed by alternate hordes of goats and cows. Kuntela falls, unlike Pochera is bang in the middle of a forest so is quite scenic. It was sun-down by the time we reached and we got a glorious view of gorge that lay beneath us. The water fall (if you can call it one) was quite unique in that the flow of water was more horizontal than vertical and stretched nearly a mile.
Our plan for the night was rather uncertain. We planned to drive on back to Nirmal and hope for the best. Fortunately one of the lodges, Thirumala Lodge, was open and it even had a bar! G and P’s immediate priority was to find out about the India Vs Australia test match. Rather surprisingly, not one person knew the outcome of the day’s play and just like that my opinion of Nirmal went up a notch. In all honesty the bar ‘cum’ restaurant wasn’t such a bad place, if you ignored the pests scurrying around your legs under the table, and the occasional drunk coming upto the table to take a peek at the menu or to get a better look at the out-of-towners. The fish fry was rather oily, but complemented our Royal Stags perfectly. Feeling rather content with our day’s work we then swayed back to our room with that pleasant buzz only an alcoholic can appreciate. What we then experienced will traumatize the 3 of us for the rest of our lives. Room No 401, was a burning inferno; a foyer to hell. A 4-by-4 room, zero ventilation, and a bathroom whose memory I’ve suppressed. If this is anything even remotely close to what hell feels like, then boy am I screwed. For the first time in our lives the three of us were up, ready and eager to leave by 5:30 AM the next morning.
Once we were back on the road and memories of the previous night still lingering, we were consumed by this sudden urge to see wild animals in their natural habitat. So, we headed towards Kawal wildlife sanctuary which came heavily recommended in the one and only blog we went through as part of our research. We turned into the Mancherial road from Nirmal and from then on it was the most pleasant drive we’ve experienced in the state of Andhra Pradesh. A dead straight road, recently laid, trees on either side for a stretch of about 50 kms. Needless to say we made the distance in practically no time. Along the way we stopped at Kadam Dam, which was quite scenic, with the Kadam reservoir stretching as far as the eye could see, and fishermen in surprisingly white canoes randomly speckled across the landscape. After feasting our eyes on the scenery and engaging in some light banter with the locals, we got back onto the road and landed in Kawal. A few kilometers after Kawal we came across a ‘Deer Rehabilitation Centre’, a heavily fenced area which was home to hundreds of deer. We were lucky enough to get inside this by tagging along with another party who had taken permission from the Divisional Forest Officer. All the deer were extremely tame and seemed unafraid of the threat that humans are capable of. It was an extremely surreal experience, to be in the middle of their (semi) natural habitat, surrounded by different species of deer and an eerie calm all around. We were hushed into appreciation by the sheer beauty of our surroundings and dare I say it, for some reason we were extremely moved.
Having spent more time than we had allowed, we suddenly snapped out of newly found spiritual sides and headed into the town of Kawal to meet the Divisional Forest Officer, Mr Raveender Reddy, to get permission to head into the wild of the Kawal Jungle. He was kind enough to provide the services of one of his trackers and we were soon hacking our way into the jungle. The guide asked us to stick together and carry sticks in case we were mauled by a horde of Tigers. Of course, we didn’t see a crow let alone a creature of the wild. The tracker did get rather excited and pointed to a tiger track here and a black panther dropping there, and after gazing at them for a few seconds, opined that they were over a week old. The skeptics that we were, we didn’t fall for that bullshit, on in this case panther shit.
So we ended the trip on a bit of low, having missed out on any carnivores of note, but determined as ever to catch some action on another trip on another day.
Cost listings
Pochera falls – 30 Rs parking
Kuntela falls – 40 Rs parking
Thirumala Lodge – Rs 500 a night (non-AC)
Royal Stag – 440 Rs (full bottle)
Diesel – 38.16 /Ltr
