Another weekend was about to come and we asked ourselves “where next”! We quickly thought for a minute and decided “let’s try somewhere new, somewhere secret!” Then we asked our dear friend Mr. Google for some suggestion within 300 km from Bangalore and it came up with Gandikota, the Grand Canyon of India located in Kadapa District in Andhra Pradesh. We had been hearing about it for a while but never really thought of traveling to here.
Decided and done! Three friends of ours also agreed to join us for a new adventure. Booked an SUV and we left from Bangalore on Saturday early morning. We all were too excited as nobody had any idea about how it’s going to be as Gandikota was still very much unexplored and very few travelers had explored the place in the recent past.
It was a six-hour drive from Bangalore to Gandikota. It was the second week of September (2018) and the weather was very pleasant in the morning. However, the weather started getting a bit dry and hot later during the day. The road was smooth and the terrain was very unique. On our way to Gandikota, we were also fascinated to see some giant wind turbines on either side of the road.
We reached Gandikota at around ten in the morning. We booked two tents organized by the Haritha Resort and the camping area comes with the view of the gorge and the Pennar River. The Haritha Resort is the only option for accommodation near Gandikota and you can also book cottages in the resort but they have a very limited availability and you might have to book well in advance for the rooms.
On reaching, we had a quick breakfast in the resort’s common restaurant. We had access to the common washroom where we freshened up and left for an exciting day to explore the small ruined historical town. We first decided to go the huge Gandikota Fort having a massive area and a long sandstone boundary wall guarding it which runs along the edge of the gorge. There were two adjacent temples in the fort complex, Madhavaray Swamy Temple and Ranganatha Swamy Temple. These temples display a fascinating art and rich architecture of the past.
We also went to see the Jamia Masjid in the fort premises right next to the temple displaying some classic Islamic architecture. There were also a Charminar, a huge granary, an old jail and a water tank. All these temples and monuments in the fort are in ruins and are no more functional.
We came back to the resort to have lunch and then went to the camping area to take rest for some time with the view of the Pennar River making its way deep down the tall ridges of the gorge.
At around four in the evening, we went for the sunset and the Pennar River view from the topmost point of the gorge. We climbed over the uniquely shaped boulders of pink granite which looks like someone has stacked them neatly to form high walls. A few meters of climbing and we reached the most sought-after point of the place from where one gets the stunning full-length view of the Pennar River flowing through the deep gorge.
What a serene view it was! We chose to seat on a boulder and kept on watching such unique landscape for quite a bit of time. We all clicked a few pictures too with the river and the gorge in the background.
Meanwhile, the sun was about to set behind us. We all moved back towards the fort area and found a spot on the top of the cliff from where the sunset looked beautiful. Felt so fortunate to watch so many stunning natural beauties all in one place. We sat there for a while to get ourselves blown away by the lovely cool evening breeze!
We came back to our camps and had some evening snacks with some friendly chit-chat about traveling and so many things.
After having an early dinner, we all sat on a slab in front of our tents and gazed at the clear night sky. There was a heavy silence around and it felt quite adventurous to be spending the night on top of the massive gorge with only a handful of tents around us. The place is extremely safe though as the resort staffs would be available for any help. We went back to our tents after some time and had a good night’s sleep.
The next morning we woke up with a magnificent sunrise view from our tent. It felt so amazing; the experience can’t be expressed in words. It was finally the time to go back. We had our breakfast in the restaurant before setting out for two more destinations on our way back to Bangalore- the Belum Caves and the Lepakshi Temple. We will cover Belum Caves and Lepakshi Temple in separate blog posts. Click here to read our blog on Belum Caves, the second longest caves in India.
Hope you enjoyed our story from Gandikota. If you love adventure away from the hustle and bustle of the city, this is the place you should consider for a short weekend trip before it gets too much crowded and commercialized!
