The tour was planed by Mrs. Sridevi, Secretary of Women’s welfare association of ONGC Employees with family members. We are all reached the boat station, opposite to Markendaya swamy temple.We are about 50 peoples including children’s got ready to start this papikondalu tour by boat.
The boat got ready 6.00 am. Finally our long waiting journey to Papikondalu is about to start. I brought a camera with me.
This kind of boats are very commonly seen in this area, particularly used to cross the river and occasionally this kind of journeys. But now a days this is more often, as AP Tourism also focused on this. AP tourism also offering packages for this tour costs RS 500 for each individual, includes lunch. They have different kinds of boats much bigger and faster. Those who are feared about these kind of journey can opt for those packages.
Our boat may accommodate more than 40 people, This boat has a separate passengers room, engine and crew room and a small kitchen and toilet. But the one very interesting thing is we can sit on the top of this boat, so we can enjoy fully.
Almost for all of us this kind of journey is new. Our heart got thumping and slowly got to normal as the boat moving. The boat is moving very slow at most 10 KM per hour because of the upstream from the river. I asked the driver about how long it's going to take for the journey. Our destination is 40 KM from our starting point. He told about 6 hours!!!
The day is shiny, so we are unable to sit on the top for along time. We noticed on other boats they are arranging some tent on the top.
The driver is our guide for the journey. These people doing the same job for almost 30 years, i guess the boat is also 30 years old. But it is very strong and equipped with an engine of 140 HP to tow in strong streams.
The first landmark we observed is Pattiseema temple which is located in the middle of the river. After moving for about 20 minutes another hill with temple on the top ( Seen in telugu movie Jaanaki Ramudu). It is solid single rock surrounded by water on the four sides. After crossing that we noticed some construction work going in the bank of the river. We asked the driver. It is the proposed site for Polavaram project.
After moving ahead for about one hour our boat stopped near Devipatnam. There is a police station for river patrolling. There the boat crew have to sign. Later on some of us playing housy in the boat and rest moved to the front of the boat. There we are sitting ahead of the drivers compartment leaving place for the drivers view. We noticed the river getting narrowed to about one kilometer. The same river has 3 Km width at Rajahmundry.
Slowly there a difference in the place around us. We are moving deep into forest area. We noticed some small villages each having hardly 10 houses. There are some birds standing on the sand beds which are submerged just below the water level. I am unable to take the snap as i don't have a good camera. The driver carefully driving as these sand bed are dangerous to the boat. Nothing hardly will happen to the boat except one has to get down of the boat and push the boat again into the deep water. These crew are very experienced and can easily manage these things.
we still have wait for one hour more for our long waiting trip for papikondalu. These are the hill with full of greenery and tall up straight. We finally got to the place, the starting point of papikondalu. This is one of the best place i have ever seen. I have seen many hills. But this place is entirely different. We are in the middle of a river surrounded by these beautiful scenery. It appears as of the river is originating from here only. All the four sides to our view is filled with these hills. Sharp turns for the river making us feel amazed at the new scenery. The river current is high and the boat engine taking more rev. The Hills are upstraight and stoned on the foot of the hill got polished because of the water flow. On the way we came across the boats coming from Bhadrachalam.
Now it is the time to stop. It was 2.30 PM, We are in Parantalapalli. This is the place most of the people come to worship. There a small temple on the hill. The climate was excellent. Full of greenery. There was a small water fall too. People saying that the water coming from the fall will be through out the year. We stayed there for about one hour and finally came back to the boat. We had our lunch in the boat.
It is very nice and timely. Slowly sun got disappeared behind the hills. It does not took much time to come back because of the down stream.
It was almost dark around the boat. There are hardly one or two lights appearing very far. Still there is half an hour time to reach our starting place Rajahmundry. Now we got some problem. The boat is moving on a sand bed under the water. We heard some strange kind of sound. The boat is touching the sand bed, still able to move. The crew quickly able to move the boat into the deep water.
Finally we are back at 9:30 PM. On the return trip to Rajahmundry.
