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Showing posts from July, 2023

Kanyakumari - Kashmir Round trip - Final Day 34 - Hogenakal - Salem - Coimbatore

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Final Day 34 - Hogenakal - Salem - Coimbatore Kilometers Driven - 275 KMs Walking - around 4000 steps As expected, we couldn't enjoy our yesterday's visit to the Hogenakal falls because of crowd. However, we got up early and went to the falls by 6 AM - Cauvery Snan to complete the trip It was deserted and we were the only one to take a dip so early there. It felt like a private falls - no crowd. We spent around 40 minutes in the falls - wowww!!!! This would be the ideal time to visit the falls - you can plan it accordingly.  We came back and had the complimentary breakfast in Hotel Tamilnadu - :) Our initial plan was to reach Coimbatore via village routes until Sankagiri. However, one of my friend requested to bring a small parcel from Salem. We visited Salem and took the parcel, refilled CNG in Salem Dist Lorry Owners Association IOCL pump - Unit 2 near Periya Seeragapadi, Salem. We were super excited completing the trip and were talking about all the incidents that happened

Kanyakumari - Kashmir Round Trip - Day 33 - Chittoor - Hogenakal

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Day 33 - Chittoor - Hogenakal (stay in Hogenakal) Kilometers covered - 256 KMs Walking - 6000+ steps Started by 7 AM from Chittoor, AP and reached Vellore Alankar Hotel for breakfast. It was so delicious - had aapam, idiyappam and sambar vadai :) 2 cups sambar to drink :) and a strong filter coffee. Visited the Vellore District Co-operative IOCL pump to fill CNG & Petrol and Shri Ramesh Babu Agency, Krishnagiri for another CNG filling. Reached Hogenakal by 11 AM. Checked into Hotel Tamilnadu, Hogenakal  and the first visit to the waterfall followed. Mahadevan took an oil massage - I'm not fond of massages and hence skipped it. It was too crowded, we took 20 mins shower in the main falls and came back to the hotel for lunch.  Post lunch, took a coracle ride - Five falls, cine falls, Karnataka border, Manal medu etc.., The government has fixed rates for coracles and it has been standardized now. There's also an option to bargain - depends upon the crowd and shrewdness of

Kanyakumari - Kashmir Round trip - Day 32 - Ahobilam - Chittoor

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Day 32 - Ahobilam - Chittoor (stay in Chittoor, AP) Kilometers driven - 280 KMs Walking - 27000+ highest in this expedition Ahobilam is a town and holy site in the Allagadda mandal of Nandyal district, Andhra Pradesh. It is surrounded by picturesque hills of the Eastern Ghats with several mountain hills and gorges. It is the centre of worship of Narasimha, the lion-headed avatar of Vishnu, to whom the nine Hindu temples and other shrines all dedicated. The main village and a temple complex are at Lower Ahobilam. Upper Ahobilam, about 8 kilometres to the east, has more temples in a steep gorge. There are actually 10 temples including Lower Ahobilam.  The main Narashima Swamy temples at each site were built or expanded by the emperors of Vijayanagara  in the 15th and 16th centuries, then sacked by the Mughals in 1578, then restored and expanded at various times, up to the present day. As they stand, they are a mixture of work from all these periods. 1. Lower Ahobilam - we started the d