I love road trips! Most of you know this. There is something about them that gives you a sense of freedom and relaxation at the same time. Somehow a 30-minute flight will exhaust me but a 9-hour road trip would refresh me. At times, I wonder if this is the case just with me! Before I begin to share about this road trip, I’d like to tell you that this post doesn’t really have photos. So, if you expecting a lot of photos in this one, I might disappoint you but if you like hearing stories, then go on and read! So, few years back, I did a road trip from Hyderabad to Hampi. I went to Hyderabad for a speaking event but once the road trip plan was on, two of my friends agreed to join in. We then decided to book a cab from Hyderabad to Hampi. After much consideration, the route that we chose was from Hyderabad to Shamshabad, Deosugur, Raichur and Gangavathi, which then led us to Hampi.
Being on the road once again was quite a treat; though I would have liked to be on the driver’s seat because NH7 was a delight with smooth carpeted roads and good scenery. However, this joy ended once we turned after Jadcherla but our excitement was too high to be bothered by some potholes and sketchy roads.
It’s almost 9 hours road trip from Hyderabad to Hampi.
When you visit Hampi, you would be welcomed by mostly ruins and magical landscapes. The exquisite Virupaksha temple which is also known as Pampapati temple is one of the most outstanding landmarks of Hampi. The details of carving and layers of the elaborate tower just make you awestruck. All around you would see ruins, while the temple dedicated to Lord Shiva stands tall. Scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharata can be seen all around in form of beautiful carvings on pillars and walls. Also, a very interesting part of our whole experience was visiting the temple elephant, Lakshmi. The folklore there says that the Elephant is God’s messenger who blesses you with prosperity and happiness.
We also visited the huge Tungabhadra Dam Reservoir which has been constructed on Tungabhadra River. This dam is not just stunning to look at but it is of prime importance serving the state for irrigation, generating electricity and also for flood control. Though there are a lot of religious sites like the Harihara temple, Nava Brahma temple complex along with sites like Lotus Mahal and Archaeological Museum etc. but we wanted to take a break so we halted at a resort where we got a glimpse of local culture and lifestyle of people. Unfortunately, we couldn’t click photos because it had started raining. We just drove around and explored the remaining places from the cab only.
Our last stop for the day was Lakshmi Narasimha Statue at the Archaeological Museum. It is an imposing sculpture standing at a height of 6.7m. The Lord is sitting with a coil of seven headed guardian snake of Lord Vishnu and surrounding him are lion sculptures that are said to be guarding the statue. Originally it is said that sculpture of Goddess Lakshmi was also present but due to the destructions, one can now only see the broken arm that is resting on Lord Narasimha. Again, we couldn’t explore it properly because of the rainfall.
But it was an amazing trip. Sometimes, you need that escape where you indulge yourself into the moment so much that you don’t bother if you clicked photos or not. It was one such trip. We booked a hotel room as it was late night and obviously, the route is not safe at night, because of the dense forest.
This is one of the biggest reasons why I love road trips; you get a chance to be spontaneous. Our cab agency was a very reputed agency so it was easy to work out details with them and they also helped us by booking direct airport cabs in Hyderabad and made our hassle-free trip. We needed to book cabs beforehand because now we were cutting short our Hyderabad stay and would have to catch the airport taxi as soon as we would reach back. This spontaneity gave us a chance to explore Hampi and make the most out of our trip.
But anyway, I enjoyed. It’s been a while for this trip but I just felt like sharing it with you all. I don’t really have many photos of this trip but obviously, have a lot of stories and good memories with my old friends. All I want to say is, travel a lot. It actually sets you free, in so many ways!
