The drive from Narketpalli to the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is an interesting one. There is little to see as such but a lot to observe. The approximately 2 hour drive from where we were staying is one that goes through one of the poorest regions of India. This area is called Tilangana. The Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is situated in Andhra Pradesh over the Krishna river. In spite of the poverty ridden region of the State, the Sagar, as it is referred to by the locals, is a testament to modern India.

Andhra Pradesh is mostly on the Deccan plateau, so there are a lot of low rise hillocks to see during most of the journey. These are usually rock and not very pretty to look at. Eroded by nature, to the point that vegetation generally avoids the low slopes, and leaves it barren.

The area has become a fertile after the Dam was finished and the canals that originate from the Dam are responsible for the greenery that is seen on the flats. Rice is what is grown most and carried around in tractors with specially (read:locally) designed contraptions.

Another interesting aspect to observe is the use of largish 3 wheelers for transporting people. These are generally used in the towns to ferry light loads where trucks are not allowed. Here however, these are used to ferry people. These are manufactured by Piaggio, but I am pretty sure that the makers didn’t envision this type of use of their vehicle.

For longer distance travel you have the green and white buses. I couldn’t find one, but I have been told that the buses run with a similar overflowing complement of travelers. Which is not hard to believe as even in Mumbai, during rush hour, all modes of public transport are overflowing.

The man made canals from the Sagar server as not only irrigation water but also drinking water, swimming pools, baths and whatever else the locals can think of doing with water.

There were only 2 other small towns on the way to the Sagar but a lot of roadside huts. In spite of the poverty, it was surprising to see that a lot of the residents have motorcycles and they love to ride them in the middle of the road, without helmets.

The Nagarjuna Sagar dam is located in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. It is about 150 odd kilometers from the nearest large city of Hyderabad. Our drive to the dam took us about 2 hours from Narketpalli, which is about 80 kilometers from Hyderabad. As in most places, the dam is used for both irrigation and for power generation. It is also a popular tourist location, where one can generally take a boat ride to a nearby museum and come back.

We stayed at the hotel run by the Andhra Pradesh tourism department. This is located right next to the water and you can see the water side of the dam from your balcony. The rooms were nice with all the usual stuff. The food was pathetic. Since all the services of the hotel are outsourced to vendors there was absolutely no control on any thing. However, since we were only there for 1 night, we didn’t really care, but if you want to go for a longer time… you’re screwed, food wise.

Since we arrived at the hotel a few hours before check-in, we were able to go and see the nearby Ethipothala waterfalls. These falls are about 10 kilometers from the hotel and are a nice place to go and relax. We had to pay toll to enter the final approach road to the falls. Which was stupid, considering that the road was more of a track.

The stream seems to come out of the rocks and is a decently sized fall. During the rainy season the place is much better in terms of the activity in the falls and also the dam for that matter. That’s when the sluice gates open to release the excess water and the sound, I am told, is like a roar. The falls are within a valley and they are also good to look at.

We stopped over at the falls for an hour or two and then went back to the hotel. The resident monkeys hastened our departure by continually rassing us.

After eating whatever we could at the hotel I went around with the wife taking photos of the various views that I could get from the hotel boundary. The lack of good food was almost made up by the views that we were able to get when the sun was going down. The dam itself was also visible, but was really far so, I was able to take only really grainy pictures of the dam from that distance. I have both day and night shots. I wasn’t carrying my tripod so the night shot is very grainy.

The next day we went to the dam. The drive itself is fun through low hills and winding roads. The structure of the dam is apparent even before you get there. You can see the extremely large Earth Walls of both the left side and the right side of the dam. These have roads on top of them but we were on the road going around the dam catchment area. The hill sides into which the roads have been cut are also really nice to look at. They look like they are made out of really large Lego blocks. You have to go across the river that used to be and that is from where you can see the dam really well. Only then do you get an idea of the true scale of the dam. The Nagarjuna Sagar is one of India’s oldest dams and it is the world’s tallest masonry dam. Yes that’s right… the worlds tallest. The height is 124 meters and the water held in the reservoir is about 11,432 million cubic meters.

When the dam was being built the workers discovered the remains of the ancient Buddhist centre. Since they couldn’t stop making the dam, they relocated and reproduced the entire site about 4 kilometers from the dam site. They also moved some of the artefacts to Nagarjuna Konda which used to be a hill in the area but is now an island. The museum is nice to see… if you are really into that kind of stuff.

So what do you do when you get the dam?

Nothing really!

The only thing that you can do is take the ferry to the museum in the middle of the water. There were some people there who had brought down their rubber dinghies and were boating around there, probably for fishing, but he heat is a killer there and it cant be much fun unless you are an avid angler, or really hungry. Just outside the museum there were more interesting things to see. The beautifully maintained gardens and the old trees. Lots of different types of flowers.

To get to the island we had to take a ferry. There wasn’t much to see from the ferry. Pretty boring ride all in all. There was a temple and a church to see though. Side by side. Ebony and Ivory… so to speak. Sorely needed in these times.

Right after this family trip was over, I was trippin on Kidney Stones for the next few weeks. So all in all I had a bittersweet trip.