All of a sudden I and my wife decided to visit Papi Hills
known as Papikondalu in Telugu. The mighty Godavari flows through the Papi
Hills in East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh and it is known to
be a very picturesque and a good place to enjoy a boat ride. We decided to
drive down from Hyderabad to Rajahmundry, the nearest place.
 |
| Beautiful Papikondalu Hills Papi Hills. Photo Sreenivas J |
We set out on January 11 morning and reached Rajahmundry at
3 pm and checked into River Bay hotel at Goutami Ghat. This hotel is located on
the bank of Godavari and offers beautiful views of the river though I did not
like the hotel room much.
Next, we booked tickets on a boat at AP Tourism office which
is located nearby. The AP Tourism operates only one big boat with 40-odd
passenger capacity. Private operators ply bigger luxury boats with push back
chairs in the air-conditioned lower deck and normal chairs on the upper deck.
On January 12, we reached the AP Tourism office at 7 am from
where we were taken in a bus 40 kms away to Polavaram village. Here a dozen
boats were waiting to pick up the tourists like us. At this point the river is
wide and deep enough to allow the big boats to ply. On one side the Polavaram
Project a multi-purpose irrigation dam, is coming up. When the dam is complete
it would create a huge reservoir which will submerge the beautiful Papi Hills sometime
after 2019. If you love nature and want to see beautiful hills with lush green
forests, you should make a trip to see these scenic hills through which the
river has cut its path through the millennia before they go down under water
for ever.
At Polavaram village, agents guide you to your boat. If you
are carrying any luggage you should be careful because you have to walk down a
steep, muddy slippery path to get to your boat. The journey from this place to
the last point of Papi Hills known as Parentalapally takes almost 4 hours.
Breakfast is served onboard at 9 am. Once you settle into chairs on the upper
deck it is a beautiful view on all sides. The tranquil river, the misty hill
range, small, blue mountains of the Eastern Ghats in the distance, lush greenery
and a gentle breeze make you fall in love with this place. The boat stops
enroute at a riverside village to pick up boxes of piping hot South Indian lunch
for us which is served at 1 pm. Unless
you are a hardcore nature lover who likes to take in the sights and sounds of hill
and river the journey can be boring and monotonous. To keep families and
restless kids entertained, the boats hire youngsters with dancing skills and
they try to provide some entertainment with high pitched Tollywood hits blaring
out of loud speakers. This spoiled my mood for a while and the decibel levels gave
me a headache but a majority of the co-passengers enjoyed it. So, if you are
looking for a quiet ride, forget it. There will be plenty of noise. The boat makes
a stop at a riverside village where a famous temple is located. |
| Godavari flowing through a gorge in Papikondalu Papi Hills. Photo Sreenivas J |
We chug upstream and as we enter the Papi HIls range the
river narrows down to just 400 metres at some places and it is a sight to
behold. The scenery of the river meandering through the gorges and ravines with
lush green hills on either side is magnificent.
After a quick break at Parentalapalli, the last stop of Papi
Hills tour, we start the return trip and reach Polavaram by 6 pm and take the
bus back to Rajahmundry where we are dropped off from where we were picked up.
We thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of these hills which would soon be lost of forever.
We decided to stay the night at Challa Residency which was decent for Rs 1,500
a night.
Hyderabad to Rajahmundry is about 450 kms by road. There are
trains, AC luxury buses, and flights too.
If you are going by road, you take Hyderabad-Vijayawada NH
65, Vijayawada-Rajahmundry NH 16 also known as AH 45 (Chennai-Srikakulam
Highway). The Toll tax is quite high..close to a Rs 900 for both sides journey.
AP Tourism boat ticket is Rs 650 per person. Private boats charge Rs
700. All boats have life jackets and basic life saving equipment. Season is
October to March.
I always wanted to the see the Konaseema region, known as
mini Kerala of Andhra Pradesh. So the next day we drove down that side.
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