Srisailam

We had been to Srisailam during last week. Though we thought of going to this place since long time, it worked out only last week that too without much planning.

We were under the impression that getting a Punnami guest house (AP Tourism) or any other hotel at Srisailam wont be a problem. But we were wrong. We need to book at least a month ahead of time during new year season.

What we understood from web is that Srisailam is around 220 KM from Hyderabad and it normally takes app. 5+ hours to reach there by road. And many suggested to go by AP Tourism package.
That would have been a more organized trip. But we chose to drive ourself.

We started from Hitech city in Madhapur at 6:30 in the morning. In search of Srisailam road we reached Uppal as suggested in one of the blogs. Then we headed towards LB Nagar Police Station.

For some reason we ended up in Nagarjuna Sagar Road rather than Srisailam Road. But that is not a major problem as both are more or less parallel. In Sagar road we headed up to Kondamallepalli, which is also called as mallepalli(app 80 km from hyderabad). From this place we took a right turn to head towards Devarakonda. Up to this road is good enough to drive at a speed of 80 to 100kmph. But please mid few speed breaks in between.

From Devarakonda the road is under construction and is a single road up to Dindi diversion(app 40 Km from Mallepalli) . Here your average speed will come down to 30KMPH and is really very narrow road. Dindi diversion is main diversion for Srisailam. Even if you take regular srisailam road from Hyderabad, you will head up to Kalwakurthy and then take a left turn towards Dindi.
In a way you can say that Srisailam diversion is between Mallepalli on Sagar road and Kalwakurthy.

From Dindi the road is good enough except for a patch at Dindi(Tributary of river Krishna).
On this road you head up Srisailam Tiger Reserve forest. This stretch is app 20KM long. Then you will reach the last 80KM stretch which completely in forest region and is a Ghat road section.

You need to make an entry at Forest department check post while entering the Reserve forest zone. Drive inside this 80KM is simply awesome. First we will reach Patalaganga. We reached this place by 11:00 AM. This place has an awesome view point with power generation plant, Srisilam dam, AMR SLBC(Srisailam Left Bank Canal) tunnel and clean Krishna river. We enjoyed boat ride here. Those special circular boats offer a splendid experience.

From here Srisailam temple is just 20 KM away. You need to cross a small bridge across the river.

For us the darshan took just 25 minutes. No need to special tokens or anything else. You can just walk in. Please note that the speciality of Srisailam temple is, you can touch the idol.
But this is allowed only after 6 PM in the evening. We had darshan by 1:45 PM.

Then started return journey at 5:00 PM. Thus reached Hyderabad by 9:00.