Pune- Hyderabad - Pune🚗🚗🚗
4 Day Trip to Hyderabad - Telangana - Jaruur Aaana
We had thought of going for a road trip in our new Tata Curvv car. Post Diwali we thought it would be a good time to travel. We searched through the night post our day jobs the location we can travel to in our car. We had to keep in mind that there was only a single driver (me) and we had to plan something that is within our limits. Post lot of search and reading, we fixed that "Hyderabad" is where we will travel. In my teenage, in my college days and there after for work, I had travelled to Hyderabad. So I has some knowledge of the locations and travel options. Leaves were applied for and mid week of Oct 29th we began our travel.
Travel Day - Pune to Pandharpur
On the 1st day of travel, 29th Oct we began our day early at 5.45am as it would be a 12hrs drive from Pune to Hyderabad. We stopped at Pune RTO petrol pump and filled in the tank to the brim. In Hyderabad, we planned to stay is Begumpet area in "The Plaza Hotel" this was run by the Telangana Tourism Dept and was highly rated and centrally located. While planning the travel, we intended to visit nearby places on the highway, our 1st stop was Pandharpur.
1st pitstop was Kamat hotel on the Solapur Pune Highway at Yawat and we wanted to get our tummies full as the next stop was Pandharpur. My wife did not like the breakfast and we both discussed on the way that we could have stopped at better hotels to explore taste and I was of the opinion that we wanted to have safe food :)
On the way we took lot of pics and videos near Ujjani Dam
We reached Pandharpur by 11.30am and quickly wanted to take Darshan and move towards our next stop which was Naldurg.
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| Tanga Ride in Pandharpur |
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| Western Gate of the Pandharpur Temple |
We decided to take Mukh Darshan which cost us around 20-30mins of time and we were able to pleasantly witness Vitthal Rakhumai fast as we had to march on to our destination. We spent around 90mins overall in Pandharpur and we started moving towards Naldurg at around 1pm IST
Travel Day - Pandharpur to Naldurg
While travelling to Hyderabad passing Pandharpur, you also get to witness the Naldurg Fort which is on the way and near the state border. So we had preplanned to visit the fort as it was right beside the highway route.
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| Entrance from Highway to Naldurg |
Naldurg Fort Visit
We reached Naldurg at 2.30pm IST and were going to spend some time exploring the fort and then move on towards Hyderabad.
Bastions of Naldurg Small Entrance to Naldurg
At the entrance we were told that this fort comes under ASI and we cant click pics on DSLR cameras. Such notices are also kept to read at the inner entrance of the fort. While it was a useless board and notice we obliged and mentioned to the guard that we wont take DSLR pics but would click on phone.
The fort is very unique in nature and is surrounded by water in all 3 sides. It has internal waterfall and water reservoir systems. This fort after various kingdoms like Chalukyas, Bahamanis, Adil Shahis, Mughals and the Marathas, pass this on to one another, at the end was under the control of the Nizams of Hyderabad. After independence the Nizams of Hyderabad had decided to remain independent and this fort saw a battle with the Indian Army then. The small battle was named as "Operation Polo"
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| Ancient Fort Court and Police Station |
The Indian forces launched a multi-pronged push on Naldurg and saw resistance from Razakars and the battle is permanently etched in Indian Military history.
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| Ancient Canon Design |
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| Walking by the Bastion Walls |
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| The Nar Mada Gates of Naldurg Water Reservoir |
It took us till 5pm IST to complete exploration of the fort, it was a wonderful experience and the fort was built with lot of planning and thought. We had plans to also visit the Bidar fort on the way, but since it was already late for us, it would take us close to 10pm IST to reach Hyderabad to our hotel. We called our close friend who works out of Hyderabad and he too recommended to us that we skip the next fort as we would not reach in time.
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| Driving on the ORR section |
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| Welcome to Hyderabad Traffic |
We check-in at the hotel and had our dinner in the hotel itself. The next day for us was Ramoji Film City and then we were to also meet our friend in Hyderabad. Await the adventures of Day 2.
