Gandikota - My Canyon Story

Back in my college days, I was crazy about Hollywood, and watching movies all day was my daily routine. One of my favorite movies of that time was “127 Hours”, a great survival movie that is inspiring, thrilling, and horrifying too, but what I liked most about this movie is Canyons. This movie created a desire for visiting the Grand Canyon of Arizona, but I never thought that such a thing exists in India.

Yes, Canyons exist in India!

So here it goes, full speed on NH44 from Bengaluru to Gandikota covering the distance of 320 km. When it comes to bike trips, it’s always unplanned and makes everything less complicated which means I don’t have to think about transportation.

Itinerary:
Day-1: Belum caves
Day-2: Gandikota and it's surrounding

Walk on the road, Kadapa district

A long ride from Bengaluru to Belum Caves was quite amazing, mostly highway and it took almost 6 hours. Before entering the caves, there is a 40 feet giant Statue of Buddha that gives us the feeling of being in the northeast of India. But, history says Jain and Buddist monks lived in the Belum caves centuries ago which explains the Buddha statue in Andhra Pradesh. This place is well maintained and there is an entry fee to caves.

Belum Caves is the second-longest cave in India, formed millions of years ago by the flow of a river which got dried up. The three and a half kilometer long caves are completely natural with a sinkhole, chambers, and freshwater tunnels. The cave formation and pattern looks extremely beautiful from inside, here and there you can find colored lights illuminating all over the place. They have kept air vents in many places, still, it feels much humid inside. I was amazed to see how marvelous these caves have formed. Exploring them was a very unique experience of my life.

Buddha Statue and Belum Caves

Our rough plan was reaching Gandikota by 4 p.m., just 60 km away from Belum caves. But, our plan did not go as expected and it took us 2 hours to reach. Do you know why? It’s because of the LANDSCAPES. We stopped our bike in the middle of the road, the place was so empty and wide open, there were hardly even any trees, it felt like some other planet. I had never seen such vast deserted and beautiful landscapes. We made it to Gandikota around 6 p.m. Luckily we met the guy who arranged a tent and food.

Yes! I was finally in the canyons but, It was dark!
It was a stormy night and I fell asleep in the imaginations.

I was awake by 5 a.m., too windy and humid to sleep any longer. The moment when I came out of my tent, “Damn, I was honored with the finest view of my entire life”. The sights, the sunrise, the canyons, the river, the sky, everything seemed so coherent. I’ve seen the pictures and videos, but nothing could have prepared me for just how huge it was. Gandikota is just a small village which is near to these canyons, the actual name is Erramala hills. I explored the place for about 2 to 3 hours until it was time for breakfast. After a delicious breakfast, we were hiking down to the river for a kayak. Yes, you heard it right, we booked kayaking in the Penna river. From the bottom, the canyon takes on a new shape. The river looks so wide and deep, and my kayak experience was the best.

Canyons and Kayaking

The Gandikota Canyons were formed when the Penna river carved into the land with their rushing waters. Usually, the river keeps cutting through the underlying rock till the river reaches a base. This is the pure art of nature over millions of years and we are just in perfect time to see this. How god damn lucky are we?

Around 10:30 a.m. we started exploring the other places. The first one is the Fort, which is the main entrance to the Gandikota village. The whole village is surrounded by fort walls, almost built in the 12th century by Pemmasani Nayaks. They ruled from Gandikota as their capital for over 300 years. Quite adjacent to the fort, they also built a jail with underground passages.

Gandikota Village and Prison

Next, we visited Madhavaraya Temple and we thought of skipping it but, thanks to god we didn’t. The Temple was so huge with ancient Hindu architecture, similar to Hampi temples because it was built by Krishna Deva Raya of Vijayanagara Kingdom. The best thing was there were no other tourists in the temple (not even villagers), so we spent around one hour to see all the sculptures and carvings on the pillars and walls. Our last place to visit in Gandikota is Jamia Masjid, located beside a Madhavaraya temple. Very rare to see mosque and temple in the same place, because this place ruled by both Hindu and Muslim empires. Masjid was built with the classic Islamic architecture, which looks like Hyderabad’s Charminar. A huge lake (called Kathula Koneru) in front of the Masjid makes it more beautiful.

Madhavaraya Swamy Temple and Jamia Masjid

Biking, Caving, Camping, Hiking, Kayaking, Swimming, Canyoneering, and Exploring! Ahhh, doing all these in just 2 days was unbelievable. But, we did it.

We celebrated our successful trip by going back to Bangalore in the rain.

Check out Gandikota Gallery for more photos.