WEEKEND TOUR TO BEAUTIFUL HILLS AND RIVER SITE : SOMASILA AND AMARAGIRI (TELANGANA OOTY)

 

        In this times of Sankranti Festival holidays on 13.01.2022, I and my friends Naren, Jakeer, Ravi, Vishnu and Raghu Anna suddenly decided to visit a small place in the Nallamala forest area, a distance of 60km from our home town Gadwal and 180 km from Hyderabad. This small places are called as Somasila and Amaragiri where there is a Beautiful resort (Haritha Resort), Krishna River, Srisailam Dam's Reservoir area, surrounded by the hills and trees.

I and my Friends at Kollapur Junction 

        It was a just one day tour which brought about a nice feeling and a great relief from our daily routine work burden.

        We started our journey from Gadwal at around 7:00 AM. After reached at Yerravally X Roads we had breakfast and moved to somasila through Pebbair, Jatprole and Kollapur. Finally we reached our first destination Somasila at 10:00 AM. 

        It took three hours to reach, but the reason was not a bad road or weather condition it was because of the beautiful greenery scenes and rainy conditions during the journey. we found many picturesque locations, we stopped and clicked so many extraordinary photographs.

    

        We went on a car and the road was really good. Some part of the journey is single lane road and that part is not going good as well. 

        After reached the Somasila we went to book a room in a Telangana State Government's Cottages (Haritha Resort) but rooms are not available. They told us you have to book the room online only and there is no booking for another five days. So while we have no option to book a room at this scenic destination.

Haritha Resort Cottages at Somasila

      Somasila is one of the famous attractions in Nagarkurnool district of Telangana for hills surrounding the Krishna river site. This Somsila village is located at a distance of 9 km from kollapur and 54 km from Pebbair.It is a very silent and thinly populated village but it turned out to be an over crowded place on the festival days with devotees visiting the temple in very large numbers on bikes, cars and buses from nearby and far off places. The whole place was reverberating with devotional songs, temple announcements could be heard on the loudspeakers.

Somasila Temple

        It was built in the 7th century by Chalukya rulers. it was magnificently constructed and supervised by the state branch of the Archaeological Society of India and the Endowments Department.

        A little away in the river lies Sri Sangameshwara Swamy temple, totally submerged in the water and surfacing once in a while in summers. Before our visit to Somasila, we came to know that it has partially surfaced and the temple Gopuram is visible. However, that time we made up our mind and tried to go to this temple but there was only one boat and he would not take us until there are twenty passengers and for just the six of us he was demanding the charges of all 20 passengers and it seemed dangerous for just the six of us. So we decided not to go. 

        we moved to temple premises and our friends after washing their hands and legs went to the temple for Darshan with a mask or maintaining social distance and came with prasadam. we are all taken some rest under the tree and had it for half an hour.

    Up to afternoon we wandered around the river and resort area with taking some breathtaking pictures in the pleasant climate on beautiful locations of beside the river and the between the hills.

               

Ravi at Haritha Resort

        Get one jio sim if you are visiting this place because you will not get any airtel or Idea network here. There is no mobile signal, no disturbance. It was amazing. We also did off-roading there as you get few areas off-roading. People at Somasila are really helpful so if you stuck anywhere don't hesitate to ask for help

        

SAM at Swimming pool (Haritha Resort)

         after spending up to late afternoon we moved to Kollapur town which is just 10 km away from here. Kollapur was a princely region under Nizams ruled by Hindu rulers. Most of the Nallamala region along the Krishna River was under the control of Kollapur. There is a huge palace built by the rulers of Kollapur in 1871. The famous temples of Kollapur include Sangameshwara and Malleshwara temples. 

Amaragiri

        We searched some time for hotels in Kollapur but we didn't find a rich hotel after some time hardly we find a group of three hotels which are adjacent to each other. We ordered some food, fruits and water bottles. 

        Actually in Amaragiri you will not get much to eat. Make sure you carry good food from Kollapur only. It is a rural area and a very small village. There are living only fishermen. So you will not get good food to eat here. but some type of drinks are available here.

        after that we started our car and moved to Amaragiri which was just 6 km away from Kollapur. The road was very worst it was mostly off-road.

Beauty of Amaragiri

        

        Amaragiri is a weekend gateway because you don't have much to do here but to stay in a peaceful calm environment. You can do boating with seeing beautiful greenery scenic views between the hills.

        Amaragiri was surrounded by hills, pleasant atmosphere, amidst the beauties of nature. Non-polluted people in this village who depend on nature for their livelihood. Every step of the way to the village is full of sweetness. The village is a paradise on earth for nature lovers.

   

        After entering into the Amaragiri Village a person came and asked me for rent his boat for river riding. we decided to see backwaters of srisailam reservoir on this boat. So we agree for Rs.1000/- for more than one hour boat riding.

    

        After half an hour journey on boat we stopped and visited a Hanuman temple which was between the hills and we saw some place to eat our food which was taken from the hotel of Kollapur and had it with pleasure. That lunch was unforgettable.. because wherever we see there are all hills with breathtaking greenery.. that was amazing.. 

        After returning the Amaragiri on boat we send off to boat and starts our return journey to our home town Gadwal. 

        The journey was amazing and the destination is so cool, but if you are going on the bike just be sure that you have tubeless tires because if you go off-roading roads are really dangerous and full of stones. It's not a mud road, it's full of big stones only.

Jakeer at Amaragiri

         This outing will always remain in our memory for the visit of  ancient and historical temples, the beauty of Somasila and Krishna River, the long ride amidst fields, forests and hills and a very comfortable boat ride in Amaragiri. After a long time, we were happy to see a lot of birds, including the house sparrows and squirrels which were at one time a common sight.