Marathwada Road Trip –

 

Marathwada Road Trip – I – Nanded Gurudwara – In the name of Waheguru !

Posted on August 23, 2017 by HOW

The last week of February this year sprang up a long weekend for Shivratri. Never the kind to let a long weekend go waste, we planned a road trip to the Marathwada or in simple words the Nanded area. For a change, instead of taking out our ageing Figo, we chose the much smaller Alto. We had heard the roads were not too good in this region and we thought the Alto would get a stress test.

The trip plan came up from a long time idea of visiting the Gurudwara, partaking of food at the Langar and doing a bit of service at the Gurudwara. Since we had 3 days, our search on Google Maps threw up possibilities of visiting nearby places of pilgrim interest and so our trip began from Hyderabad on the NH161 to Nanded.

A taste of Gujarat on TS-MH border

The start wasn’t great with a disappointing breakfast at an eatery just outside Hyderabad near the ORR. The breakfast was only to keep us going till we found a better place to eat.

When you prepare for the worst, chances are that you are usually pleasantly surprised, we had heard stories of the sad state of the Nanded highway were braced for a bumpy ride but it turned out that the road was recently laid and in good condition, it was a smooth drive on the two lane highway, complete with big banyan trees, the kind of highways we grew up travelling on.

The traffic was decent, the landscape scenic and before long, we breezed to the Maharashtra border, here is the mandatory border click !

We stopped at a small eating joint a few kilometres away from the border. We were so hungry and our eyes fell on the Fafda exhibited at the counter, we even forgot that the place was a shabby looking shack ! Our friend who lived in Ahmedabad for a while suggested Fafda-Jalebi which we had along with Poori and subzi. What can we say about the Fafda-Jalebi except that 5 months later, while updating this blog, this writer had a severe attack Fafda-Jalebi cravings ! Fafda is technically a Gujarati delicacy, what it was doing on the Telangana-Maharashtra border, we had no idea but when a Bengali, a Telangana and two Andhra people relish it, it only goes to show the unity even in food diversity of our country !

The road continued to be kind to us all the way to Nanded, it took us about 5.5 hours to reach Nanded.

Service to mankind is service to God

As soon as we reached Nanded, we checked in at the NRI Yatri Niwas run by the Gurudwara. The Yatri Niwas is very well maintained and a comfortable place to stay when in Nanded to visit the Gurudwara. When we were planning the accommodation at Nanded, we came across the Gurudwara website but couldn’t book online because the reservations needed to be made 15 days in advance. We had casually sent an enquiry mail and were highly impressed and touched when we received a reply from the authorities with reserved booking.

It was a hot afternoon at Nanded, after freshening up a bit, we straight away headed to the Gurudwara. As we stepped inside, we were quite taken aback, it was absolutely peaceful and serene despite the heat and the people. Beautiful marble structures, greenery, clean, quiet surroundings.

We went inside the Hazur Sahib Gurudwara, the place where the great Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh had held his court and eventually breathed his last. The Nanded Gurudwara is one of the Panj Takths or the Five Seats of Authority in Sikhism. This was our first visit to a Gurudwara and we were in awe of the spiritual beauty of it. The meditative silence inside the Gurudwara, with the low hum of the Guru Granth Sahib being recited is something to experience.

Then, we proceeded to the Langar, where free meals are served to all. The food is simple and it is a humbling feeling to sit among people from all walks of like and partake a meal. After the meal, you can volunteer to help cleaning the kitchen and doing the dishes. One can simply walk into the cleaning area and begin to help in whatever way they can, wash the plates, help co-ordinating the cleaning work, just do your bit as a service to the community, pay for your food in kind by working for your fellow beings.

We spent an hour helping with washing the plates, the satisfaction that it  gave us out did all of our previous experiences in a place of worship. There is no better worship than serving your fellow beings.

For all those helping with the washing, tea was served every 20 minutes, people were chanting “Wahe Guru”, talking, working as a team and living like how humans should be living actually, in camaraderie !

After this unforgettable experience, we left the Gurudwara, relaxed for a bit and then headed to explore a little of Nanded.

Sunset by the Godavari 

Our first stop was the Nanded Fort. There is nothing of the fort left, it has been converted into a water treatment plant. Except for a few boundary walls, there is nothing much to see here but this place is worth a quick visit for a view of the Godavari River on whose banks Nanded city is located.

We then drove to Kaleshwar temple which seemed to be a popular one. We didn’t know how popular it was until we saw a huge fair and thousands of people flocking the temple, it was Shiva Ratri and the temple was packed. We knew we wouldn’t be able to have a darshan, instead, we chose to watch the sun go down over the Godavari River. It was, needless to say, a gorgeous sight !

While the crowds were teeming inside the temple, the river side was pleasant. Temples located on a river bank with steps leading down the river give you this tranquil feel of a pilgrim place.

A distance away from the temple is the Vishnupuri Dam built across the Godavari, here is a click.

We stayed on until the sun disappeared behind the trees.

We tried to visit the temple but the crowd seemed to have got bigger, so we simply offered our prayers from outside and returned to the Gurudwara.

The Gurudwara was lit up at nightfall and illuminated fountains came to life, the breeze was light – the perfect setting to feel inner peace.

We visited the Gurudwara once more, this time spending more time inside, just trying to sit still and empty the mind.

It felt like we were in a different world for sometime, Hyderabad and our daily lives seemed far away !

Under the lights, the buildings around the Gurudwara with their intricate designs looked even more beautiful.

Next, we headed to a nearby Garden to attend the laser show on the birth of Sikhism and the great Sikh Gurus. The laser show was held in an open air amphitheatre which was crowded beyond capacity. We settled on the stony lawns to watch the laser show in Punjabi. Though none of us knew Punjabi, we could follow the story and the history of Sikhism.

The laser show went on for about an hour, tracing the life of the 10 Sikh Gurus, it was heartening to hear their history and their struggles to stand up for their way of life. One thing that struck us the most about Sikhism is their dedication for the community, their service mindedness. We were deeply impacted our experiences at the Nanded Gurudwara.

We had a delicious Punjabi dinner at an eating joint near the NRI Yatri Nivas. Nanded is like a mini-Punjab !

Info tidbits

• Nanded is about 5 hours drive from Hyderabad, the road is very decent.
• You may not find too many food options on the way, especially if you are particular about hygiene. Finding washrooms could also be a bit of an issue.
• All information about the Nanded Gurudwara can be obtained from their website http://www.hazursahib.com
• If you wish to book accommodation online, you will have to do it 15 days in advance. You can also call or email to reserve booking.
• Eat a meal at the Langar and don’t forget to do your bit of service in return.
• You can plan to visit Nanded as a weekend trip from Hyderabad.

From our visit to the Nanded Gurudwara, we were set the next morning to visit a Jyotirlinga, the Aundha Nagnath temple, 64 kms from Nanded. We started early around 7 AM and decided to have breakfast on the go.

Aundha Nagnath – God resides in the chaos too 

The Aundha Nagnath temple shares honours with the Nageswar Temple in Gujarat as a Jyotirlinga. Based on the Dvadasa Jyotirlinga sloka, there is a bit of a confusion on which temple qualifies as the actual Nagesham of Daruka Vana, the Nageswar temple in Gujarat or the Aundha Nagnath temple in Maharashtra. Since, we were closer to Aundha, we decided to interpret this as the Jyotirlinga temple !

To our pleasant surprise, the road to Aundha from Nanded was a decent, single road, we reached Aundha in about an hour and a half.

We did alright till Aundha but following Google Maps to the temple, we wandered off somewhere and had to reach the temple through pig infested, garbage dumps !

When we finally reached the temple, we were even more taken aback – hundreds of people, no proper parking place, filth, shops, dust, garbage, narrow lanes, dogs – phew, it was chaos at its best ! We tried our best to avoid the chaos from bombing our photo and managed to click this:

It pained us to see the conditions around the temple, why doesn’t our culture, that teaches us all rituals and procedures of purification, teach us the importance of keeping our surroundings clean? Why is this such an impossible task for us?

However, once we stepped inside, the grand, ancient temple almost took our mind off the chaos outside.

The temple structure as we see it today, according to the internet, dates back to the 13th Century. The sculpture is exquisite as one would find in any ancient temple, you will be left dazed. Photography is not allowed inside the temple but a few people were taking selfies and we managed in a quick click of the structure.

Then, we headed for the darshan, bought the Rs.100 ticket for special darshan. It was alright till the inner hall from where all queues merged and chaos broke out. People pushing, pulling, abusing, laughing, doing everything except that one thing you are expected to do in temples, be at peace. We have got the whole idea of God and devotion all wrong !

If you look beyond the madness, the sanctum of the Aundha Nagnath temple is very interesting. The actual Garbha Griha is located underground and one has to climb down steep, narrow, slippery steps from an opening in the floor to view the Jyotirlinga. The sanctum is almost like a cave with a very low ceiling, one has to bend on all fours. It is quite stuffy inside too. Hauling yourself back to the floor surface from such steep steps is quite difficult, in fact, it is a tad bit scary. Thankfully, there are people to pull you up, we spotted some old, stout women literally being thrown up !

After the darshan, we sat down in the temple premises in silence, watching people jostling around. The morning was still fresh and more and more people were visiting the temple, each for a reason of their own, we do not know what brings them to the temple, what makes them vie with each other in their quest for the divine? Then you think, may be God is this collective belief that something good will happen. If God resides everywhere, he must probably be in the chaos too !

With that thought, we made our way out of the temple and left Aundha. We stopped for breakfast at a food joint a few kilometres away. They served us hot Poha and chai, we had two plates of the Poha, such is the power of Poha in Maharashtra ! We also the asked the hotel guys why the temple was in such a poor state, they only gave us a smile, “woh tho aise hi hai”, the standard Indian reply ! We turned our car towards our next destination.

Divine Feminine of Mahurgad

130 odd kms from Aundha is Mahurgad, one of the 18 Shaktipeethas. While researching for our trip, we happened to come across the Ekaveera Devi temple, considered the 8th Shaktipeetha and we decided to include that in our itinerary.

Time and again Google Maps has tested our cars but neither us nor our cars ever give up, the road from Aundha to Mahurgad started off decently as long as we were on the National Highway 161, and then we encountered a road like this.

We almost panicked for a bit fearing if the road would continue to remain like that but thankfully things did ease up and the roads got better as we neared Mahurgad. The dry winter months had turned the landscape bare but nature adorns a different look every season and you cannot choose which one is better.

Here is a picture of the ghat road to the hilly areas of Mahurgad:

The road winded through the hills offering some breathtaking views of the landscape !

We reached Mahurgad a little after lunch time. Mahurgad is a small village, except for the two important temples and a few hotels, there is nothing much here, it doesn’t look like your regular pilgrim or tourist place. Surrounded by hills and open lands for as far as you can see, the quaintness of Mahurgad seems to transport you to some distant land, cut off from the rest of the world going about at its maddening pace.

We checked into Hotel Krishna Palace and were quite impressed that a small place like Mahurgad had a well maintained hotel like Krishna Palace. We had a simple lunch at the restaurant attached with the hotel and took a quick nap to wait out the heat.

Around 4 PM, we set out to the Ekaveera Devi temple, 8 kms from Mahurgad. As we neared the temple, we were pleasantly surprised to find a direction board in Telugu.

Technically, it should not have surprised us much because Mahurgad is less than 50 kms from Telangana border but it is always a priceless feeling when you see your mother tongue in a different state.

What really did shock us was the Ekaveera Devi temple, in fact, there was hardly a temple ! Located in the middle of some fields was a simple shrine that one would pass off as a local temple.

There was nobody in the temple, no fanfare, in fact, hardly any proper structure at all. The temple is currently under renovation/rebuilding, even the Sanctum is being renovated. Only the idol of Goddess Ekaveera is intact. For someone used to seeing idols of Goddess in proper sculpted form, the Ekaveera Devi idol was interesting, it looked like the idols of Lord Jagannath at Puri. We know nothing about the history of the original temple.

There was only one priest at the temple, who showed us around and asked us to write our comments in a book. Yet again, we were in for a surprise when we saw that most of the people had commented in Telugu, the priest told us that a majority of the people who visit the temple are from Andhra and Telangana, which also explains the signboard in Telugu. Hoping to leave our trail, we too wrote our comments in Telugu.

Beside the Ekaveera Devi temple flows the Penganga River, though the river as we saw it,  wasn’t exactly flowing, we could only see the dry river bed ! Our visit to the Shaktipeetha complete, we headed back. On the way, we stopped for tea, sipping on our sugary tea, we chatted up with the tea shop owner who guided us to the next places we had to visit, the Anasuya Mata temple and the Renuka Devi temple – Mahurgad seemed to be the land of the Divine Feminine. The Jyotirlingas represent the masculine power of the Divine while the Shaktipeethas are supposed to be the centres of the feminine power, the yin and the yang.

We drove to the Anasuya Mata temple first as we were told the temple would close by 7PM and evening was setting in. The Anasuya Mata temple is located on a steep hill and to reach the temple, we had to take the hill roads, pass by the Mahurgad hill fort, the Renuka Mata temple and then negotiate a road less, stony path up the hill. Driving a Maruti Alto, it gave us some serious jitters !

However, as we drove further, the “oh my god” in fear was replaced by “oh my god” in absolute wonderment, the landscape was gorgeous !

Finally we reached the base of the Anasuya Mata temple, one has to climb steep steps to the top, there is no road way from the base. The good thing is there are not too many steps.

There are a lot of monkeys at Anasuya Mata temple, they don’t seem to disturb you much as long as they don’t find anything interesting in your hands.

The Anasuya Mata temple is dedicated to Sati Anasuya, the mother of Lord Dattatreya. In fact, a temple marking the birthplace of Lord Dattatreya is located enroute the Anasuya Mata temple, we had to give it a miss because we were getting late. We had an easy darshan of the motherly Goddess, the temple, like the Ekaveera Devi temple is simple.

We stepped out of the temple and stood looking out at the valley and the hills beyond. We were treated to the most beautiful sunset we had witnessed in a long time. We traced the sun’s path from low in the sky till it disappeared from the horizon.

We sorely missed carrying our bigger lens. It was good in a way, instead of looking the through lens and trying to get the perfect picture, we experienced the bliss of watching the perfect sunset with our own eyes.

Our next visit was to the most famous temple of Mahurgad, the Renuka Devi temple. When you actually search for Shaktipeetha, Mahurgad, the internet will usually show you the Renuka Devi temple. In fact, Mahurgad is synonymous with this temple, though Ekaveera Devi temple is the actual Shaktipeetha. The Renuka Devi temple is dedicated to the mother of Lord Parasurama, the 6th avatar of Lord Vishnu.

This temple too is located on a hill top and one has to climb steps to reach it. The steps are lined with colour shops selling sarees, bangles to be offered to the Goddess.

How far back in time the history of this temple goes, we do not know, the temple as it stands today looks like a modern structure. The idol of Renuka Devi is very similar to the Ekaveera Devi. This temple is very interesting for the temple prasadam, instead of the regular laddu or a sweet, you are given crushed betel leaves. They say the Goddess likes betel leaves and that is the offering usually made to her. The betel leaves are placed in the Goddess’ open mouth and are given to you as divine prasadam. We were actually quite intrigued, we hadn’t seen anything like that before.

We sat for sometime outside the temple watching the devotees offer their reverence and relaxing in the cool breeze.

From the top, we could see the lights of Mahurgad below, here is a random click of Mahurgad at night, how refreshing to see minimal lights compared to the bright neon lights we are used in the cities.

The setting was too pleasant to leave but we had to wind up our visits for the day and head back to the hotel.

Dabeli delight !

By the time we were back to our hotel, it was dinner time. Instead of the regular dinner, we wanted to try out something local like the Maharastra Vada Pav, when one of our guys remembered Maheshwari Vada Pav Centre, he had read some reviews online and so we decided to check it out.

Maheshwari Vada Pav Centre in Mahurgad is so popular that it is listed on Google Maps ! And why not? The Dabelis we had there are unforgettable !

Dabeli is a Gujarati signature snack from the Vada Pav family. Unlike the humble Vada Pav, this one is rich with a lot of fillings inside. We had 2 Vada Pav and 2 Dabeli each ! The flip side of recording this in a blog 6 months later is the severe craving for Dabeli while you type.

Not done with our dinner yet, we went to Ekaveera Dham Bhojanalay, suggested by the Vada Pav guys, we had a simple thali. That we managed to finish a thali after stuffing ourselves with Dabeli, is something we are proud of !

Too full to go to bed immediately, we went up to the terrace of our hotel and watched the brightly lit sky. In the distance, we could see the lights of the ghat road to the Renuka Devi temple. A lot of philosophy and cosmology was discussed and everything left us in awe of this wonderful world we live in.

Info tidbits

• Aundha Nagnath is an hour’s drive from Nanded and Parbhani, two important railheads if you plan to take a train from Hyderabad. If you are driving, Nanded is your best bet.
• The temple is open from 4 AM to 9 PM. There are no great places to stay in Aundha, Nanded is a good idea if you are looking for accommodation.
• Except during Shiva Ratri, we suppose the temple is not very crowded rest of the year.
• Parli Vaijnath, another Jyotirlinga, 120 kms from Aundha. If you plan to visit this temple, staying in Parbhani would be a better idea because it is half way between the two pilgrim places.
• Mahurgad has a few stay options including MTDC accommodation, most of them seemed decent but Hotel Krishna Palace is the best of the lot.
• We are not sure about the timings of Ekavira Devi temple, we suppose it will be open during the normal temple timings of 6 AM to about 8 PM. The Anasuya Mata temple and the Dattatreya temple seem to close by 7 PM because their location is quite remote. The Renuka Devi temple is open till around 9 PM.
• At the Renuka Devi temple you could be hounded by the shopkeepers to buy offerings to the Goddess, they are usually a saree, flowers, bangles etc. They will try and entice you telling you that you can park your vehicle for free but you will have to buy from their shop. The cost of the offerings is about Rs.150 ! Unless you really want to make an offering out of devotion, you can park your vehicle away from the shops and walk to the temple.
• Most of the eating places in Mahur are good. Don’t miss the Dabeli at Maheshwari Vada Pav Centre.

 

Marathwada Road Trip – III – Mahurgad Fort and Unkeshwar Hot springs

Posted on September 19, 2017 by HOW

In all these years of travelling, our experience has been that, the less known, out-of-the- tourist circuit places turn out to be the ones that amaze you the most. Mahurgad was one such place, we really hadn’t expected to be so taken in by the small, quiet, village by the hills.

Mahurgad Fort

We were up early on the last day of our Marathwada trip to trek to the Mahurgad Fort. It was a fresh morning as we drove up the hill to the fort, parked our car and began ascending the fort.

From where we parked our car, we could see the Renuka Devi temple and one of the bastions of the Mahurgad Fort.

Mahurgad fort was probably a strategic fort of the Yadava dynasty that ruled over a major part of Maharashtra during the 12th-13th Centuries A.D.

The first part of the trek has steps leading up to a level of the hill fort, by the time you reach the half way mark, you will be out of breath.

But, the breaks to catch our breath almost took our breaths away as we saw the rising sun light up the hill of the Renuka Devi temple and the far end of the fort.

Where the steps ended, there was a small shrine and a dried up pond beside it.

There were a few people going about their work, we gave it a miss and proceeded further, there is a nicely laid out pathway to the top.

A short walk on this pathway and we found ourselves surrounded by the woods, there was no other sound except that of the breeze and our own breaths.

Somehow, more than happiness, moments like these fill you with contentment, the feeling of “this is all I ever want” !

After walking a short distance, we arrived at a ruined gateway like structure that opened out to the edge of the hill.

The walls supporting the gateway are massive, they look like two hills themselves !

The fort wall runs along the edge overlooking the village of Mahurgad.

We perched ourselves on the wall and lost count of the time as we sat down gazing into the distance.

Not much was spoken, it was time to just to sit and let everything whirling around in your mind settle in until you take a deep breath and let go !

After about half an hour, breakfast pangs began to set in and we decided to head down and get going with the rest of our day.

While climbing back, we caught a glimpse of the Renuka Devi temple again.

We were for a moment tempted to try and go to the far end of the fort but it look too long a trek and we gave up the idea. May be next time we would, Mahurgad is too charming a place to visit it just once !

Back at our hotel, we were ready for to continue our journey. We had breakfast at one of the many small hotels dotting the main road of Mahurgad, the Sabudana Kichidi that we had there made our day !

Sulphur for better skin !

Leaving Mahurgad, we drove towards Unkeshwar, an ancient Shiva temple, the main attraction of which is a hot spring located in the temple premises.

From Mahurgad, Unkeshwar is only a 40 kms drive but it takes about an hour’s drive on some deserted roads. It was a hot day and we could actually see the heat outside as the dry landscape stretched before us. We spotted this lone bullock cart ambling on the road.

Even sitting in the comfort of our car, we found the heat too much to take, one cannot begin to imagine how hard it must for this person.

The road got even more deserted closer to Unkeshwar, we followed Google Maps religiously, when we reached a stretch like this, we even began to think if it was safe, “what if there were cannibals?”, someone asked, “would we be lead to human sacrifice?”, wondered another !

That’s how eerily beautiful the landscape was and the experience of driving on this road – haunting !

Finally, we arrived at Unkeshwar, a teeny village, deep in the dry forests of Marathwada. Until you actually reach the village, one wouldn’t believe that a village could be located in these remote areas. In fact, we could hardly find any houses. We drive directly to the temple.

This is the renowned temple of Unkeshwar and the grilled enclosure is where the hot spring is supposed to be. Since there were no good rains this season, we were told the hot spring has actually gone dry.

Come rains, the water oozes from this spring and fills up this pool. We were a tad disappointed that we couldn’t see the hot spring.

Before entering the temple, we were asked to wash our feet and were directed towards a tank. The water was surprisingly warm, we thought it must have been the heat. We then went inside the temple and had a darshan of Lord Unkeshwar, Lord Shiva as he is worshipped here. Nobody seemed to have an idea about when the temple was built or its recorded history, we were told it has been there for 800 years or so.

There was an old lady cleaning the temple with water and we asked her about the hot spring. She told us the pool would be full only when there were good monsoons, however, the entire premises of the temple had sulphur deposits underground and the ground water was usually warmer than the normal water. She asked us to wash our feet with water from a pipe that drew water from underground and true to what she said, the water was very warm, almost like water from your geyser for a warm shower !

That is why, we were told, there is an Ayurvedic skin disease healing centre at Unkeshwar. The sulphur content in the water is believed to have healing properties, it is not just a religious belief, some research has gone in to show that the water could help healing some skin ailments.

The centre is located within the temple premises with an information desk giving you details of the diseases they treat, success stories and they also sell some health products.

While we were there, a family had just arrived from somewhere in Adilabad to get their son treated. It then struck us that Unkeshwar was more famous for the skin treatment than the hot springs or the ancient temple ! Out of curiosity, some of our guys purchased a few products but haven’t checked if they worked !

As we were planning to leave, the people at the temple asked us to stay back for a while and have the meal that is offered to pilgrims and patients. We were tempted but decided to start back as we had a long drive back home ahead of us.

So, that was our first brush with a hot spring, we were very excited by the hot water emerging from underground, the earth and its geology is fascinating !

A scenic farewell to the trip 

From Unkeshwar, it was going to be a 375 kms drive back home. We started around 12 Noon, for the second time during this trip, the roads were a surprise. We had hoped for some worst roads till we reached NH44 but it turned out that the roads were not just decent but very picturesque.

The drive continued through the dry forest areas with absolutely no vehicular traffic except for our Alto. Here and there, strained by the long tour, the car threatened to go on a strike as the locks opened and closed at its their own will. We switched off the AC, rolled down the windows and travelled like we did in the 1980s !

Close to Adilabad, we spotted this sign board with the distance to Tirupati ! We were quite boggled because Tirupati is no where nearby.

We just settled to think it was some divine intervention !

Shortly after, we crossed the Maharashtra – Telangana border and entered our home state. The border here did not have much fanfare, with the Telangana board half broken and the Maharashtra board covered with some posters.

Just beyond the border, the road width and colour of the tar had changed, it is always amazing how contractors have such precision only when it comes to ending the road construction !

What really caught our interest was the old farmer walking his cattle, while we stopped to click this picture, he simply walked across the border, completely unmindful of the fact that he was entering another state ! If you keep political maps aside, it’s the same land, same nature. May be humans would have done better without political demarcations.

A few kilometres from there, we hit the buttery smooth NH44, coming from the dusty, dry village roads, it felt like a sudden gush of wind hitting your face !

This road is every road tripper’s dream highway !

We should have ideally stopped for lunch at Adilabad but we didn’t want to deviate into the city and hoped to find something closer to the highway but it turned out that we didn’t find a single hotel/dhaba any where. The highway bypassed Nirmal and Nizamabad too and thankfully, we finally spotted a decent looking hotel a little after Nizamabad. It was past 3 PM and we were too famished to even register the taste of the food, we simply wolfed it down.

The remaining journey was a cruise and we reached Hyderabad, just in time for a light dinner. To Nanded and Mahurgad – we’ll be back for more sometime in the near future !

Info tidbits

• Mahurgad fort doesn’t seem to have set timings, there is no entry ticket either. One can trek here any time of the day but we suggest that you don’t venture here after dark. Phone signals are weak and you do not want to get lost.
• You can find autos to take you to the starting point of Mahurgad Fort.
• We did not explore the entire fort, there is no set path, just keep a track of the route that you took.
• We are not sure if you can find buses to Unkeshwar from Mahur. Unkeshwar is better accessed from Adilabad if you are looking to take the public transport. These areas are quite remote and as always, we suggest taking your own vehicle is a good idea.
• One could stay in Mahurgad and make a trip to Unkeshwar as a half a day trip, however, if you are from Hyderabad, you can keep Unkeshwar at the end and drive back to Hyderabad.
• There are no hotels or washrooms anywhere near Unkeshwar, Mahurgad or Adilabad 45 kms away would be your best bet.
• If you can, avoid these routes after dark, since the road looked deserted, we don’t think it would be easy to find help if any problem crops up.
• This region could get extremely hot in summer, ideal time to visit would be post monsoon and winter.