Srisailam, the much awaited bike trip, finally happened and this time it was only bigger and better than the previous one. We gathered at our rendezvous and took off at 2 PM in the afternoon. It took us 6 hours to reach our destination, all thanks to the numerous breaks and the photo sessions we had on the way. 

The ride had it all. We blazed  past the expansive highways, cut through the idyllic country roads admist the corn and paddy fields on the either side,  swept along the loopy ghats and eased through bumpy mud roads. At a particular point during the ride, we  had a magnificient view of the imposing mountains that lay right ahead of us. It was a terrific sight  to behold and the fact that we were riding amongst such  glorious beauty of nature is quite exhilirating and one has to experience it to understand it better.   By the time we passed the outskirts  of Dhone,  it was about quarter to five in the evening. The moment we entered the forest zone, we could experience a sudden drop in the temperature by about six degrees and it got quite chilly.  This stretch of the ride was the best part of the whole lot.We were greeted by a troop of monkeys at various points during the course.  The traffic was very sparse and the serenity and calmness of the forest looked like a far cry from the bustling city life. Just about 30 kms from Srisailam, we paused to catch a few bites of hot Mirchi Bajjis and a cup of warm tea  to cope up with the freezing wind. We all owe many breaks to Naveen and his serious apetite. The darkness has spread its wings by the time we set off again. We caught a glimpse of the Srisailam Dam  under lights. It also provided us with birds eye with of the temple town and the lights just added to its beauty.  At this point of journey to the top, Vivek and Naveen spotted a reindeer, which immediately rushed back in to the bushes up on seeing the lights.

On the way we had a nice darshan of Lord Sakshi Ganesha. It was 8 PM by the time we reached our place of stay to night. We quickly parked our bikes, dropped our luggages and headed to the temple to seek Dhuli darshan of Lord Mallikarjuna. The moment we stepped into the temple, we  could sense divinity in the air. The place was serene and induced a soothing effect on all of us. We could feel none of the weariness of the 6 hour ride. There were few devotees who were singing bhajans and we were more than happy to sing along with them. That has taken away any sort of annoyance one would face because of the long queues. The darshan was surprisingly pleasant and hassle free.  The prasadam served was so tasty that we all went back in the line to relish it for another time. The ended quietly with all of us heading back to our rooms and hitting the beds right away after a long day.

Next morning, we all paused to have a glimpse at the Phaladhara and Panchadhara, as well as near the dam. After a brief photo sessions at each locations we headed to Mallelathertham waterfalls.  We needed to trail off on a bumpy mud road for about 8 kms to reach the location. The pillon riders, Saketh and Nagendra suffered the most during this stretch. We had to ankle down a series of 400 steps to get to the waterfalls. The ;lace was stunningly beautiful and it had been very difficult for us to  leave the place the breathtaking beauty. During this time, Nagendra  displayed some serious acrobatic skills with a short leap over the stream of water. We had to inevitably climb those 400 steps to get going and it has been a real test to our physical fitness and felt completely exhausted by the time we finished climbing.

We started off and during our enroute to Hyderabad in the next 4 hours we hardly stopped. It was dusk by the time we reached Hyderabad  and all of us had some amazing experiences and great memories to carrry home. We parted ways feeling relaxed, revived and recharged to face a new day with renewed vigour.