Vijayawada-Rajahmundry-Vishakapatnam-Araku Valley

Tour date: 23rd & 24th March 2012

Tree in Araku Valley, snapped from below

Despite my grievances over the lost photo, it shall not stop me from posting what was left in other sources. Some saved photos was either sent to a friend or was shared in the Facebook. So, I have a few to record my journey. It was an important journey to me when I reached Araku Valley (almost at the border of Orissa State of India). The beautiful charming valley is located about 457km from my apartment in Guntur district. See the map of my journey, in below map.

Due to a long distance journey, I invited Ganesh, an office engineer to accompany me and Phani, who will be responsible for driving. We left quite early on Ugadi Day (public holiday in AP State), heading towards Rajahmundry. I was already very much impressed with the bridges in Rajahmundry that I saw from local in-flight magazine. Therefore, as soon as Godavari River was seen from my visible eye, we stopped for a short while to satisfy my photography passion. The only 2 photos saved near the Godavari river was what I sent to my friend in gmail that I called them as "Washing Day by Godavari River" are now shared in this entry.

Rajahmundry city is known as the Cultural Capital of Andhra Pradesh noted for its versatile Vedic (the Vedas book of Hinduism) culture and intellect. It is a birthplace for the famous Telegu poet, Nannayya and a 7th populous city of AP State, with 1 million people. 

As soon as we reached Vishakapatnam city, we chose a place to stay for a night with a help from Ganesh friend. We went touring to see numerous places of attraction right after we have done with short rest. Vishakapatnam houses several state owned heavy industries and a steel plant. It also has the only natural harbour on the east coast of India. We went to see them before we visited Vishakapatnam's most famous beach at Tenneti Park. The boy in below photo is in the same age of my youngest sun. After I snapped his photo, he followed me just to say "Thank You Sister". I smiled all the way whenever I got to see his face again in the photo. 

Beside the natural harbour, the sandy beaches and the submarine museum, I also went to Kailasagari which is reachable after about 20-25 minutes drive from the city. As it is located on the hill, it gives a spectacular view of the sea from this angle. I had enjoying a moments capturing each one of them, the expression of local tourist, the fresh fruit juice etc etc. I snapped the most beautiful shot of huge sculpture of Shiva and Parvathi (those photos gone now). Since I have recovered from regrets, sorrows and sadness, I put a big smile on my face though I only able to save 1 photo saved somewhere, below. 

RK Beach and Rushikonda beach seen from Kailasari

We had a lovely dinner at a Chinese Restaurant in the city that night. The next morning, we left quite early so that we have ample time to explore the beautiful and breathtaking scenery of Araku. It was almost 5 to 6 hours journey of about 114 km road distance. Since I'm unable to share the pictures with you, you may search all images from the google website to share my excitement that day. What was left for sharing are the faces of tribal people of the hill that I fall deeply in love with. The first time I saw the tribal lady of Araku were from the in-flight travelling magazine. It was a bless to see them in real life.

After I snapped the tribal girl in below photo, I shot an old grandmother taking a water from the pail and a lady sleeping next to the dog showing her back. It was a bliss moments and photos. I kept staring at them over and over again until I lost them. However, the memory remain lingers in my heart.

This is the last photo of people faces before I reached the top of Araku valley visiting their tribal museum and Padmavathi botanical garden. Again, in the garden, I lost in the photography world capturing hundreds of roses and other species of flowers in Araku beautiful garden. While shooting, the reality hits me, when I received a call from the client about the delivery on the next working day. So, I had to leave and back to Vijayawada to attend the office matter.  

Our last stop before saying goodbye to the valley was a short exploration inside the Borra Cave, located in Ananthagiri hill. It has a variety of impressive speleothems ranging from small to big irregular shaped stalactites and stalagmites. The only 1 that I have was a picture of me with the speleothems, below. The cave was discovered by Geological of India in 1807.

Remarks: I have highlighted in bold, various point of interest that you may consider to visit. Beside, Araku Valley is also famous for it's coffee plantation. There is a proper stop for the tourist to record their visit by having a nice picture. I had mine while gazing at the coffee stall. I think I better stop here before it breaks my heart further. That record of mine is no longer retrievable.