Trip to Nagarjuna Sagar

We decided to go for a weekend getaway and what else came to mind - either Nagarjuna Sagar or SriSailam...However after very less deliberations it was decided to go to Sagar because of its scenic beauty.

We(Farrukh,Manjusha, Madhu,Shreya and myself) started off on Saturday morning in our Esteem. Winding through the city roads and reaching Ibramhimpatnam took up more than an hour and then it was a good drive for the rest of 140Kms. On the way we did some bird watching - Rollers, bee-eaters, Robins, Blue Kingfisher, Coucal and a nest of Baya weaver birds.

After reaching Sagar we decided to go to a place called Anupu - Buddhist ruins most probably that of an university ...a very serene place with some of the historical stuff being recreated for tourism purpose. After that we drove down 25 kms to the Ethipothala falls to get a night view of the falls...it was wonderful..the lighting good(eventhough the color lighting equipment had failed). Drove back to Vijaya Vihar(APTDC) - neat and value for money place to stay. Had a decent dinner and went for a night walk..watching the beautiful clear sky with lots of stars, some insects.

Next day morning, Farrukh and I decided to go for some bird watching. In one corner of the property wooded area...we did spot a lot of bird activity - Sunbirds, Swallows, bee-eaters, Asian Starling, Magpie Robin, Bulbul, Parakeets, An Oriole(couldnot photograph it), Coucal, Eagle and some doves...The 2 hours spent was some energizing that we almost forgot that we had to catch the motor boat ride to the Nagarjuna Konda.

The trip to Nagarjuna Konda- An island with Buddhist relic was almost 45 mins.We somehow managed to get place on the launch and the view was spectacular- we spotted couple of River Terns and coromorants. The island had a museum with lot of buddhist relics and the walk around other ruins was also good...We spotted the Hoopee, a bird I had not seen before and there were almost 7-8 of them feeding.

We came back to the resort and departed for Hyderabad. It was a good outing with each one of enjoying :-)