1st August, 2015 (Saturday)

We started from home (Horamavu, Bangalore) at 615 AM. Since we had planned to see only Belum caves and Tadipatri temple, we started leisurely from home and in no time we reached the Hyderabad highways. We took a break for breakfast just after crossing the Devanahalli toll. This place had good toilets, ample car parking space and was clean.

Since the place was very close to airport, got to see, many airplanes taking off.

More inviting roads to follow..

Road devoid of potholes 🙂 Most welcome thing for any Bangalorean.

We passed many cement industries and finally after 330 odd kms from home got to see the first sign board of Belum Caves.

Buddha sitting in a more serene calm place.

Entry to the caves. It costs Rs 50 per person. That includes a free guide. I would say AP tourism has maintained this place in an impeccable manner. Since no natural lights are there, they have added artificial lights. Better to take your own torch also.

From outside, it looked like a fortress wall.

Entry to the caves by stairs. From now on, until exit we will not get to see natural light at all.

Looks like our ancestors and local villagers are more knowledgeable than us.

The cave houses a meditation hall !!

Well laid out paths. The guide was walking ahead of us.

An honey beehive kind of structure.

Meditation hall at a depth of 50 ft. You have to literally crawl to get to this place. Devoid of oxygen, we started sweating a lot. Surprised to see people meditating here.

This is one of the shortcuts to reach 100 ft depth by crawling just 20 metres. Else you will have to walk.

This is the alternative 200 metres route. You will have to just squeeze yourself between rocks.

Lord Ganesha like structure. From distance the structure looked like Shirdi Sai in his usual sitting posture.

Kotilinga kind of structure.

With flash, it looked better.

An eye like structure.

Serial Bulb lightings to emphasize water flows.

From Belum caves, we left to Tadipatri, 30 kms away to have lunch and see couple of temples built by brothers. Since the timing was wrong, both the temples were closed and hence had to return back.

Entrance was open but we were told it was closed. Maybe the main deity. But we didn’t bother, took a couple of snaps and left for Ananthapur, about 60 odd kms.

We went to Ananthapur Iskcon temple. A different architecture depicting four horses pulling a chariot which is the main temple/gopuram.

Main Gopuram/Chariot

This view captures the horse and the chariot together.

Front View of the temple. We entered the temple by a side gate.

Close up view of the mighty horse !!

Chariot Wheel. Amazingly planned. Who would be the designer?

Black clouds looming large behind the horse. In no time, clouds opened up to a heavy thunderstorm.

Temple keeps getting better with every different angle.

The outside view from within the temple/chariot.

With the rain gone, the artificial lights added to the existing architecture. Golden Horse. Photos do not do full justice.

The temple glowed in the dark. Looked like one of those Jaipur palaces.

Views kept getting better.

The front view was the best of the lot. Glad we were able to make it and the clouds and rain added to the beauty of the temple.

With that, we completed our trip and returned home next day after finishing our personal engagements at Anantapur.