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
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.
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