Srisailam trip

Long weekend at Srisailam — one of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines, on the Krishna river deep in the Nallamala forest of Andhra Pradesh. Drive out from Hyderabad on Wednesday night, two days at the temple and the dam, back Thursday late.

This is the kind of trip you can only really do from Hyderabad — Srisailam is awkwardly placed if you’re starting anywhere else, but from Hyd it’s a six-hour drive that’s almost entirely worth it once you hit the ghat road through Nallamala.

the temple

Mallikarjuna at the top of the hill. One of the Pancharama and one of the Jyotirlinga — so it gets traffic from both the Shaiva and the Shakta pilgrim circuits, which means the queue is real. We hit it at 6 AM the morning after we got in. The early-morning abhishekam is the slot to aim for.

the dam

The Srisailam dam holds back the Krishna and is one of the largest dams in India by storage. The dam wall view is the standard tourist stop; the underrated one is the spillway when it’s actually flowing. We caught it half-open, which was plenty.

the ghat road

Honestly, half the trip is the road. Nallamala is dense forest and the road climbs through it for forty kilometres before you hit the temple plateau. Phone signal is fully gone for the middle hour. The buses going up and down on this road are an entertainment in themselves — drivers who treat the hairpin bends as suggestions.

practical bits

A few things I would tell next month’s me:

• Carry water and snacks for the drive. The 40km stretch through the forest has zero shops.
• The temple complex closes at lunchtime. If you reach mid-morning, plan for an early-afternoon return rather than waiting around.
• Stay overnight at the temple-trust accommodation if you want the 6 AM slot. Walk-in availability is OK off-season.
• Don’t try to combine Srisailam and Mallela Theertham in the same day unless you’re starting from the lodge at the dam itself.

More photos in the gallery on the site under kavidhaigal — wait, wrong gallery — under the srisailam_trip set in the images section. Browse if you want the full thing.

— Karthik