We were 19 of us.. To begin with Shivank, Sushim, Ganesh, Anand, Siddharth, Atul, Ajit, Shrinivas, Siva, Pradeep, Vasanth, Prasanna, Pravin, Hema and Vani from Qualcomm and Neetu (Sushims wife), Venky (Ganeshs friend), Manish (Ajits friend) and Kannan (Vanis hubby). Shivank was the main organizer cum treasurer.our karta dharta as they say The means of transportation we had was a Honda City (Sivas), a Innova (Pradeeps), a Santro (Sushims), 4 bikers Ganesh, Venky, Shivank and Anand.

Day 1

As per the plan everyone assembled near Yashoda Hospital, Raj Bhavan Road @ around 6 am to evade the routine traffic and finally set out for Srisailam.. We had to take the directions to catch the highway and get out of the citywhich we did and ultimately got on to the right route.

Our first stopover was at Amulu Family Dhaba, which was the tea/coffee break spot.We stopped there for about 20 minutes, took some snaps and moved furtherThe second halt infact the most awaited one, for breakfast, as people were damn hungry, was at the Punnami, restaurant at Mannanur.pretty neat and well maintained with lot of monkeys jumping outside the restaurant, on the trees, vehicles, everywhere..some puppies were aroundwho were thoroughly entertained and captured by Ganesh.After fuelling ourselves.we proceeded further.to cover some more 160 kms to reach our destination..

The path further was serene, with lush green forests on both the sides and a road flowing amidstwe passed through the ghatswe then entered the Tiger reservea project that comes under the Project Tiger of Government of India.though luckily or unluckily we didnt come across one (luckily becoz we had guys on bikes but unluckily becoz we were in the vehicles ;-)).We took a stop in the ghats and took some snaps and then once again moved further.

We had to cover the Akkamahadevi Caves today.for which the journey was totally amazing, take a rope-way for about 5 10 minutes, reach down and then take a boatthe way to the caves was about 2 kms boat journey on the water .We had one boat entirely for us booked which we boarded after having a quick lunch..it was fun, guys were dipping their hands in the water and enjoying the water journey thoroughly..Since it was the afternoon, some of them even took a cat-nap in the boat and some were gazing at the beauty around moving ahead on the calm waters locked in by the hills on all sides.Natures beauty can never be put in words to describe it completely.The boat guys (2 of em) played some music for us...finally we got off the boat and had to have a mini-trek for getting on to the top of the hill..One of the boat guys accompanied us to the caves.

The place was totally calm, with a small tea and coffee stall also selling the flower-basket for offerings to the Lingam, which is what the main attraction in the caves, there were some sadhus seated outside

We had to follow some set of instructions to get into the caveswhich was given by the boat guy who came with us.he told us only 4 5 people can get into the cave at a time, since the Lingam is deep inside the narrow-routed caveone tends to suffocate because of lack of sufficient air...each one of them should carry a candle or a torch, since it was pitch-dark and moreover occupied by the bats..We all took it very lightly initially, but when we went, the reality was realized.it was totally dark and a lot of bats hanging topsy-turvy on the roof of the caves.a real challenge to tall guys..we were bending down to the maximum possible just to avoid touching those eerie batsit looked very deep since we were unable to see anything furtherafter going a little more, we had to actually sit down and move further, which we did and there was a right turn, where the boat-guy was holding the torch showing us the way to the lingam..againif one needs to go and touch the lingam, it was further narrowed, so one had to move sideways, touch the lingam and worship and return back so that the next person can go in.The first enterers were Pravin, Ajit, Vani, Kannan, Ganesh and Venky..All came out sweating like hell..but it was an experience of its kind.may be something new to people who havent visited Vaishnodevi yet.

Then, we had some tea/coffeetook some snaps out thereand had to rush back to the boat..returning back the journey was lively, we played antakshari, wherein people just intruded with songs of their liking, sometimes their own lyrics even and it was a cosmo-antakshari.which had no particular language as a yardstickone could hear Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil songs.we reached and again went back to the rope-way came up and then there was a big discussion on whether to visit the temple or no.during which it was realized that Shivank had left his tri-pod in the boat and he had to go down to get it againwhich luckily was in the boatultimately after a lot of suggestions and advice, we decided to go the temple the next day, since we had a plan of campfire at the lodge that nightwe started towards the Punnami in Dornala, where had to spend the night.this was again some 45 kms away from Srisailam.

We reached the lodge, we were all too glad to see the Government property maintained soooo well.it was a quiet place, hill-locked with some farms behind the cottages. totally clean.We all decided to meet for the dinner around 8.00 pm, which we all did..meanwhile Shivank and Ganesh went to get some woods and diesel from the nearby village for the campfire.and after the dinner we assembled and we arranged the woods with the help of two of the hotel guys and lit the campfire..we all decided to start with dumb-charade, the actual fun began thenwe all were laughing, cracking pranks on the person acting and all were having a great gala timesome of them were have drinks and enjoying the whole thingsome playing Uno on one side.few of them were just casual spectators not happy not sad kinda.we were there around 12 oclock in the midnight and then headed to our rooms, since we had to get up early morning the next day to go to the temple before the temple gets crowded and the next day being a Sunday..But some 6 of them, Ganesh, Pravin, Prasanna, Anand, Sid, Atul did have fun till 2 am and then went to sleep.

Day 2 :

As decided, surprisingly, everyone assembled for breakfast @ around 8.30 amwe finished the breakfast and started to the temple around 10 am. Got the entry-tickets and had a good darshan, came out in 45 minutes time..The temple was a very old one, constructed in 1404 AD by King Harihara Raya and rejuvenated some years back.Its one of the 12 Jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva Shrines.

After the darshan, we went to the nearby Punnami restaurant had lunch (supposed to be a buffet but with some restrictions) and proceeded further.Siva and Pradeeps vehicle were always together and we reached near the dam where there was tappa ride, which we were longing to do at the time of going to Srisailam. We called the other guys who were left behind i.e. Sushim and all the 4 bikers and informed them about the samethe tappa ride was again an adventurous one in the Krishna watersthe rowing looked so easy to eyes, but its that difficult if you try to row it yourself..it was damn sunny there but when we got into the boat, the pleasure made all the heat vanish and we were just enjoying the ride.when we were little away from the bank, the bikers and Sushims car came in and they took the tappas far inside almost near the dam..since it would have taken them about an hour and a half to reach back, we thought of proceeding further..and we moved.all were tired and totally contended with the wonderful tripwe reached the city around 8.00 pm.

Next day got to know that 2 bikers probably Ganesh and Atul. lost the way and Sushim and other 2 bikes had to wait and may be bit worried as the guys were not in sight for a long time, finally they got the right way, met and dined at the Amulu Dhaba and returned..

As the saying goes All good things come to an end..this trip also ended with fun and pleasure"