Journey to the mysterious island - Yelleswara Gutta

Of late a new trend of going for weekend outings has started in our team. Thanks to enthusiastic juniors who took the initiative, made arrangements, added to the guidance and motivation of experienced seniors. The latest outing in our team (incidentally my first one) was a journey to the mysterious island - Yelleswara Gutta which is near Anupu village near Nagarjuna Sagar. The island has 2 temples of Lord Shiva on its peak in the form of Sri Mallikarjuna Yelleswara Swamy. The island is usually visited by devotees on the eve of Maha Sivaratri during which APTDC operates launches to the island.

On 8 Mar 2014, Saturday a team of 17 members started from Gachibowli at 6:30 AM in a hired minibus. We took the outer ring road to Nagarjuna Sagar circle and travelled via Ibrahimpatnam and reached APTDC hotel Siddhartha in Nagarjuna Sagar at 10:00 AM.

We had done our study and learned that the island is isolated and there are no eateries in Anupu from where we can get food or water. We brought water and packed stuff to munch during the journey and packed food for lunch at the hotel. Upon enquiry at the hotel, we were informed that APTDC was not operating the boats to the island and if we were to go to island we need to seek permission from APTDC. On top of this procedure the boat charge also seemed to be very expensive which was quoted at 3500/- per hour with minimum 3 hrs fee. We thought of trying our luck at the village and resumed our journey at 10:30 AM.

Anupu is a village at a distance of about 30 kms from Nagarjuna Sagar dam. Very little information was available to reach Anupu so we have done our homework and identified a route on google maps. We struck to this route and after travelling for about one km from the dam we encountered our first hurdle. The route appeared to be less travelled (yes it was supposed to be laid for Aviation academy and is no longer used now) and is very narrow and not to mention the shrubs on either sides of the road. 

At few places the road was so narrow, largely because of shrubs, that in spite of closing all the windows, we sub consciously bent down to avoid the thorns which were rubbing against the bus and wondered if we could go forward in this route. Thanks to the driver who complained very little but obliged on our request and took us through the route till we hit a neatly laid tar road. We raced through in the tar road and after proceeding a little further realized that we were missing from our track, thanks to google navigation. We turned back, took the route pointed by google and took another off beat road, this stretch was also narrow but was relatively better than the previous one. A short while later we hit the main road where autos and other vehicles were plying. At this point we have realized that, if we had taken the regular route we could have saved lot of time and trouble. Nevertheless, we enjoyed this portion of adventure and reached Anupu at 11:30 AM. We got down from the bus, picked our food, water and reached the river bank. First sight of the river brought smiles on all our faces.

We could see few boats which are used by villagers for fishing. We enquired with the fisherman and after some negotiations we managed to hire a boat to take us to the island and get us back. Some of our friends utilized this time to chill out in the water.  

We started to the island at about 12:15 PM and reached a little after 1:00 PM. It was very hot but the breeze and the scenic beauty helped us to overcome the heat. It was 45 min to an hour journey  to the island. Finally we reached Yelleswara Gutta when the sun was at its peak during the day. The boat driver also acted as our guide and assisted us in the route to the temple.

Coming to the actual trek, the hike is estimated to be about 300 steps. There were not many trees on the way for resting. We got split up into groups based on the pace and stamina. It took us a little over an hour to climb owing to the heat. The steps were uneven, portions of the hill being steep and at times slippery as well. To put it in nutshell, it was not too difficult but the time of hike was not right, it was very hot which left us exhausted and dehydrated. The spirit remained with all of us, some of us slowed down to give company and encourage others and all of us reached the top. All the difficulty, pain and exhaustion vanished up on reaching the first temple at the top.  The second temple is visible from the first one. The stretch offers 360 degree view of river Krishna. We spent close to an hour on the top of the hill, had our lunch while enjoying the scenic beauty. The only plain ground that we could see in the entire hike was the stretch between the two temples. 

We started our return at 3:30 PM and got down in 30-45 mins. Although the descent was lot easier, we had to be extra careful on slippery portions. We reached Anupu by 5 PM, while some enjoyed the swim in the waters, others chatted on the shores. After a while, I took a walk to cover the heritage site called The Amphi Theatre. 

We were all hungry by the time we got onto the bus, plunged on the reserved food and started our return journey at 6:30 PM. We reached hotel Siddhartha at 7:30 PM, had our dinner and left Nagarjuna Sagar, with tired bodies, tanned faces but loads of happiness, full of memories and GBs of pics.

Although we faced few hurdles, which I suppose are part of every trip, having a wonderful team helped us to overcome all the minor hiccups and we managed to complete the journey to the mysterious island. If you are wondering about the expenses, it costed INR 1100/- per person. A big thanks to a wonderful team of enthusiastic people for taking initiative, making the arrangements and organizing a memorable trip. Cheers !!