About two and half years back in February 2016, me along with my friend went to attend
wedding of one of our very dear friend at Pondicherry. This gave us the
opportunity to explore places around. There were about six of us so we hired a
tourist vehicle and went to see two of the most amazing places. One being
Vishakhapatnam (Vizag) and the other more adventures place was Borra Caves,
about which this blog is all about.
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| Shot from Blackberry Smartphone - NileshSharma |
Borra caves is located in
Ananthagiri hills, of Araku valley which comes under Vishakhapatnam District in
Andhra Pradesh. The caves is of limestones which goes as deep as upto 260 fts
and are considered to be the deepest caves in India.This was the first time I ever
ventured into a cave and that too this deep. I was excited and so were my
travel companions with whom I went on this adventure trip.
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| Shot from Blackberry Smartphone - Nilesh Sharma |
I was not sure what to expect,
whether there will be any light or not ( none of us was carrying Torch light,
thanks to mobile phones, which now comes with a torch) How will be the terrain,
slippery or rough, straight or full of curves? How narrow or wide will the
passage be? There was only one way to find out and that was to just go in
there.
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| Shot from Blackberry Smartphone - Nilesh Sharma |
As we reached the mouth or the opening of
the cave, what I saw gave me a feeling of both the relief and disappointment
all both the same time. Relief because there were enough light and ladders in
most part of the caves, and disappointment because the fear of unknown was
gone. The cave was nothing narrow but was like a huge space of vaccum, as we
descended in the natural light was fading and illumination came from electric
bulbs, with varied range of colors blue, red, yellow, pink etc...
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| Shot from Blackberry Smartphone - Nilesh Sharma |
As we went deeper the light was
minimal and surroundings were showering the scent of lime-stones. The surface
of walls was rough and was very new for my experience, I just loved it and was
wondering how mother-nature ended up creating such profound beauty in places
which til1 1807 was unknown to human kind or may be was not known to many.
William King George of the Geological Survey of India was the one who
discovered them in these deep valleys of Araku hidden amongst the vastness of
Ananthagiri hills.
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| Shot from Blackberry Smartphone - Nilesh Sharma |
As we ventured further deep
into the cave we saw streams of water flowing and it was very fresh and cold.
There was also a small temple inside the cave at place which was slightly off
track but had steep stairs to reach there, only one person could go at a time.
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| Shot from Blackberry Smartphone - Nilesh Sharma |
At several places we saw the
drops of water trickling from the limestones on the sides and from above. We
were later informed that the Gosanthi
river, originates from these caves and flows between the solidifies stalactites
and stalagmites and thus the development of the odd shapes of structure.
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| Shot from Blackberry Smartphone - Nilesh Sharma |
We had enough time on hands so immersed ourselves into the beauty soaking and
absorbing every inch of this beautiful cave. We were there for more than three
hours exploring every inch of this hidden marvel beneath the ground. As we were
coming out we could see the day light in its full glory seeping in through the
narrow opening on the roof of the cave, the view was just amazing.
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| Shot from Blackberry Smartphone - Nilesh Sharma |
This was one of the best
places I ever visited and look forward to visiting sometime again. The
experience for me was simply amazing and out of the world may be because this
was my first chance of venturing into the deep caves, whatever the reason be, I
was glad I came here.
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| Shot from Blackberry Smartphone - Nilesh Sharma |
It was late noon and we were all starving because of
our climbing and descending journey and also because of the fact that we
started early in the morning from Pondicherry with only some light snacks. As
we came out of the area out onto the road we saw people waiting for some local
delicacy at road side joints. They served some mouthwatering and out of the
world chicken cooked in bamboo shoots. Since I love cooking myself I asked one
of the preparation and he said the marinated chicken is stuffed inside the
hollow of the bamboo shoots and is then placed over the coals for cooking. It
takes about 45 minutes or so to get this soft and succulent chicken
preparation. After having our stomach full to the fullest we started for our
next destination
I hope you enjoyed reading this travel-tale
as much as I enjoyed writing it for you all. Please drop in your comments in
the comments section. This is my first travel tale on this blog and I wish to
share more of such stories in my upcoming posts on Vishakhapatnam.
Thank you all for reading and do subscribe for more
such wonderful stories which I will unfold for you from my firsthand
experience, also do like and share so that more people know about this amazing
place.
