Palem Dam, Kongala Waterfalls and Muthyamdhara waterfalls…

Before the Trip:

How did this all begin..

“Nothing great happening in life” this sentence pops up in my mind when I am not productive for a set of days. It was like quite a few days that we been to a day trip to Chincholi and Chandrampalli dam(You can read Chincholi experience by Bharath here). I was like “what’s next?”. We were thinking what can be the next place in and around Telangana as we are aware of the quarantine if we have to travel to other states.

After a day or two, we decided to go to Muthyamdhara waterfalls as an exploration trip. We (Bharath & me) decided to add few more places to the list and make a weekend trip. But as we were not very sure if this waterfalls is allowed considering the coronavirus scenario. We were little skeptical about the trip. Coincidentally I happened to see one of the BCFian’s (we call our travelers as BCFian) whats app status about the same waterfall who is actually from Warangal . This made us little confident about the trip as people are being allowed to the waterfall.

Team..

As we decided, the very next person who we generally approach is Ravi Teja (He was part of Chincholi and Mathura Trip). As a travel enthusiast and always ready to travel, he agreed upon two conditions — first one was that the trip has to happen on Sunday/ Monday (unlike on Saturday/Sunday) and the second one was we need a backup driver in the team. As we decided to travel by car (ertiga), we thought 6 members will be a comfortable number.

Accepting his conditions we asked our other friends (as we got 3 vacant seats) who we thought will be the right people to join the trip and accept the surprises and challenges as they come. Considering the number of people who see our (Bharat’s and mine) whats app status we posted as our status. Fortunately, we got many responses but finally Nikhil (who traveled with us to Rajmachi, Manali etc) , Ahmed (who traveled with us to Rajmachi, Andarban etc) and Hareesh (who traveled around 8 trips with us) joined us as they were okay to take leave on Monday. But just the day before of our trip Hareesh due to some unavoidable circumstances was replaced by Eknath (friend of Ravi Teja).

Finally we were Ahmed, Nikhil, Ravi Teja, Eknath, Bharath and me (rk)

Plan:

The plan was — “Lets start to LB nagar (Ravi’s place) on Sunday by 6 am. we shall meet at his place. Have Breakfast on the way.  Visit Muthyamdhara waterfalls. Then look for camping site and pitch the tents that we going to carry. We shall carry all the Ingredients to cook. We shall cook Aloo+Tomato and rice for Sunday’s dinner.”

Continuing the plan for second day — “Let’s wake up early in the morning. Have some bread Omlette, Maggi which we gonna carry. Give a call to Vinod (whose whatsapp status I have seen) as he is from Warangal and wants to join us on day 2 so that he can be part of our team on day 2. Then we shall visit Kongala waterfalls. If time permits, explore the Kongala 2 waterfalls which we know that this exists but not sure about the location and maps. And then we shall return to Hyderabad by EOD” explained the whole plan to my team. You can see in the pic how we tried to come up with the necessary items and shared the responsibilities.

So it was ideally from Sunday 6 am to Monday 7 pm. Remember this was as per our initial plan. (Ohh yeah.. I am giving you guys a hint 🧐🧐 that the executed plan was different)

Day 1 : Sunday – 19th July 2020

All set to start..

As we were ready with the plan (as I personally felt, that we actually planned only around 60% but I always do this so that we can be flexible and don’t get disappointed) we woke up early in the morning (by 4 am) on Sunday after we had hardly 2 hours of sleep. We (Bharat & me) got freshen up and prepared semia upma (advantages of knowing how to cook 😊😊) as our first breakfast, had the same and started to LB nagar to Ravi’s place by 5:20 am. It was like 35 kms from our place. Meanwhile Nikhil and Ahmed also started from their respective places. We reached Ravi’s place by 6:10 am. Eknath stays nearby and he was there at Ravi’s place even before we arrived. We met Ahmed on the way so we all reached and waited for Nikhil to reach. He too arrived in 10 -15 mins by 6:30 am. As per the plan we bought the water bubble, eggs, bread packets,Maggi, some snacks and other items.

On the way to Muthyamdhara waterfalls, after crossing Warangal we had our breakfast (For Bharath and me it was the second one 😜) just beside the road. We had Idly, Puri, Wada and Mysore Bonda.

Surprise…

By around 11:30 am we reached the base village for Muthyamdhara waterfalls, Venkatapuram. As we already know that its around 6 kms hike to the waterfalls we got ready with the energy bars, water bottles and some biscuits after parking the car. We were seeing few of banners saying ‘Due to COVID 19, the waterfall is not allowed’.

But to try our luck, we started towards the waterfall assuming they would have posted the same during the months of April / May when it was complete lock-down. After walking around 1 km, when we were just getting excited as everything was going as per the plan,
“Hello.. where are you guys going?” a guy asked over there. We were perplexed and replied “Muthyamdhara waterfalls” “Can’t you see the people not crossing this line?” he asked.
Yeah actually there were group of people who were already stopped by those guys and learnt that they are from the forest department. We requested them to allow us but unfortunately we were not. As it was Sunday, there were many people like us who were disappointed and returned.

It took hardly minutes to understand that our whole plan shattered and its time to come up with a new plan (Disaster Management 🤪). All that we were able to do is click few pics of the waterfall from 5 kms away as the waterfall was visible to an extent and we decided to come the next day early in the morning even before someone arrives to stop us 🙂🙂

Palem Dam (Our unplanned first place)

We swapped our plan from day 2 to day 1, and decided to start to Kongala waterfalls with ‘n’ no of questions. But on the way we happened to see a dam. The dam was far away from the road. Out of no where, this dam has come into our plan. We don’t even know the name of the dam then. But we decided to visit the dam and learnt that its been called as Palemvagu reservior.

All the four gates of the dam were open and it was worth a visit. This project is a medium Irrigation Project across Palemvagu stream, a major tributary of river Godavari. It is located near Mallapuram village, Venkatapuram Mandal, of Mulugu District (Details about the dam are taken from here and for your reference here is the location).

We reached the dam by 1 pm. It took us around 30 mins drive from Muthyamdhara’s base village. We spent around 1.5 hours at this place and had few good pics. And we also got into water thinking if we really get a chance to visit Kongala waterfalls and dont wanna regret afterwards for not getting into the water. (There was a hint from police at Muthyamdhara, that villagers are not allowing outsiders into their village especially people from Hyderabad. Thats when we decided to say that we shall say my hometown, Mancherial everywhere through out the trip)

Kongala Waterfalls..

After spending some good amount of time at Palemvagu reservior and clicking some selfies, we headed to Kongala waterfalls trying our luck. The locals call this waterfall as a ‘V-fall’. The height of the fall is about 70 feet, the Loddimadugu Vagu (stream) fall merges into Kongala tank in the village. We reached by 3:30 pm to the base village of Kongala waterfalls. Much to the surprise we saw many vehicles and a lot of people (for sure no one is afraid of Coronavirus 🙃). We asked few people over there and learnt that they are coming from the waterfall. A sigh of relief!

Without wasting much time we just started to the waterfalls. It was like around 2 kms hike through the fields to reach the waterfall. There were no directions to get there. Thanks to the crowd who were returning, otherwise it would have been tough for us to find the waterfall. Cool breeze, green fields, walking on the field gattus (embankment) made our day. We have to cross 2 streams in between which added to the fun. It was a lovely evening and a memorable 2 kms walk through the green lushes. I was lost in my own thoughts. Our guys clicked few selfies too. I missed those clicks 😛 

Finally we reached the waterfalls. We were surprised by the crowd at the first instance. It was heavily crowded. Since it’s monsoon the flow was good enough to enjoy taking a bath. Back of the mind corona fear was running. Only Ravi teja, Bharath and Me got into the water initially. We just tried to go underneath the waterfall and enjoyed the fall directly on us. The kinetic energy of waterfall hitting you will make you feel like kind of water massage 😛 😛. Later Nikhil too joined. Ahmed and Eknath just clicked few pics.

The beauty of this waterfall is we can dive into the water from a height. You can climb to the waterfall from the left of the waterfall. And towards the right side it looks like a pool. I swam for sometime. Its dangerous for someone to get into this if we cant swim. Even though I swam only for few mins, felt pretty nice.

After clicking few pics and enjoyed the waterfall, we made a move to parking. Its just near to Bogatha waterfalls. Must visit place!

Finding a place to stay…

By 5:45 pm we reached the parking place. It was slightly drizzling. We not yet decided our camping and also not very much sure if we can get something considering the rain and the fear of strangers and coronavirus in the villages. We decided to get some place before light completely fades out. Eventually we came to a junction where a lady along with her son was selling sweetcorn in a hut which was just beside the road.

We just inquired about the options and chances of pitching our tents in and around. We were also aware of the fact that we have to cook our dinner. Considering that we don’t have enough time (it was like almost 6:15 pm) we were like lets stay in the same hut and we can use the same 3 stone stove.. and it will be easy to cook…etc., all kinds of suggestions and ideas being poured by our team. Mean while another elder person (may be father of the kid) came to our rescue and suggested two places to stay 1) A nearby School 2) A nearby Church. We thought of checking the places and then decide.

We decided to visit the school first. So just to make sure we can talk to the right person at school we found out more details. we learnt the school is run by a school teacher, who stays in the same village and his name so that we can take his name if some other villager asks us.

Dinner.. and the night at School…

So finally we reached the school at Jagannadhpuram (Mandala prathamika pataashaala – Mandal primary school). The school is definitely a nice place to stay. Its neat and well maintained. For our luck, we got a charging point too to charge our phones in the school. So we dropped the idea of checking the church. Meanwhile Eknath, Bharath and Nikhil went to check if we can get some chicken (the whole plan of cooking Aloo and all.. gone). But Nikhil had a conversation with the chicken merchant and found that there is a cook who cooks well. But initially the cook was hesitant to cook for us considering the current scenario of corona virus and all. So as the chicken seller wants to sell chicken he convinced the cook. Win-win scenario, huh!. (But for us its like win – win – win scenario.. as its good not only for them but for we guys too.)

Meanwhile here at the school, we met the school teacher and had a small talk about how this scenario of COVID-19 going to impact the rural kids. How covid is treating rich and poor so differently. The possibilities of online classes in rural areas etc., He was very nice to us and extended his help if anything required for that one night stay.

By then Eknath visted us, updated the changed plan (Nikhil’s talk with chicken seller and all) and helped us with some bajji. I then just realized that we didnt have our lunch.Thanks to my second breakfast and the snacks in the car!

So after around 2 hours by 9 pm we all went to the cook’s place. He cooked the same rice that we carried with us as per our request. So with chicken curry and hot rice the food was awesome. The moment he served in my plate, I immediately picked a piece and popped into my drooling mouth. The food served our taste buds the best. He cooked really good. Spicy and tasty.. exactly as the way we wanted! (mouth-watering as I am writing.. 🤪)

After the delicious food, we were back to the school. We pitched all the 3 tents. I preferred to sleep outside the tent. So I used the tents cover as my bed sheet. After few minutes, Eknath and Ravi Teja also followed me 😜. Nikhil, Bharath and Ahmed started playing least count. I watched a movie (unlike in any of my trip till date) that was suggested by Ahmed. But it was like no air zone. Disturbed sleep from 11 pm to 5:30 am. Woke up ‘n’ no of times in between.

Day 2 : Monday – 20th July 2020

Woke up exactly at 5:30 am and asked my team to wake up. We packed the tents and our luggage in next 15 mins

No Surprises and only hike…

We reached the base village of Muthyamdhara by 6:45 am. Without much delay considering the previous day’s experience we started the hike after parking our car the other side of the road. This time we were lucky. There was no one to stop us. We carried biscuits, snacks, some fruit cakes and water accordingly for 6 kms hike. When I started my hike, I never felt that I am walking somewhere in Telangana. Through out the hike I was like “how come I did not visit this place before?” The terrain while hiking reminded me of some good treks. At some point it looked like Coorg’s Tadiandamol trek. And some points it looked like Maharastra’s Rajmachi trek. It was so beautiful.

Thick dense forests, a couple of water streams to cross. These streams are little deep unlike the previous day at Kongala. So as we get closer to the waterfalls, we can hear the rhythm of waterfalls. So we all got excited by the sounds of waterfalls. But as the forest is thick you wont be able to see till the last point. Its like you are eagerly waiting for it to see. Kind of suspense thriller.. It is truly hidden waterfall (or almost hidden, as we noticed some plastic litter in the area). The rocks and the boulders reminded me of Sathodi waterfalls. So you know now, If you visit one Muthyamdhara during monsoon its like visiting 3-4 other places.. 😜😜

So from this place we have to cross the boulders and reach waterfall walking against the stream. This crossing of boulders will take atleast 30-45 mins considering you are fit. For elderly people it will take around 1.5 hrs. So after crossing all the boulders we reached the mighty and spectacular waterfalls. It was raining when we arrived there. We felt its like our private waterfall as we only were there. It was so pleasant, peaceful and serene.

Few more clicks for you guys..

While returning, Eknath and me, lucky got a lift on bullock cart for the last 1 km of our return hike. This actually splashed few of my childhood memories connected to cart. I started a conversation with the thatha, who was riding the cart. He was around 75. We spoke about his daily routine, how things changed for a farmer due course of years, and how things treating during this coronavirus,Telangana government welfare activities for old age and for farmers etc., It was some quality conversation of 15-20 mins.