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This was in Sep’17 that i planned a road-trip with colleagues from office to Anantagiri Hills, Vikarabad in Telangana.

This started with the planning a couple of weeks before, with the trip interest posted on Yammer group of the company promoting Adventure Travel.

A few colleagues expressed interest and we started planning logistics on how, when, where, what who and why.

Having this sorted, i used the help of  ScoutMyTrip to plan the route, identify fueling stations en-route, food outlets etc.

Here is the Itinerary with a few places of interest recommended to be added to the portal. Hyderabad – Anantagiri Hills – Kotepalli Reservoir

The day started with all of us meeting at our office around 0700 hrs and greeting everyone. We then started around 0715 hrs and met a few of our colleagues at the ORR entrance.

With the entire team set to explore, we set forward on the ORR moving to the service road and taking a right onto the Gandipet Road.

We were a team of four cars and two bikes. We set course and took the Shankarpally – Vikarabad route (a slight deviation from the originally planned one).

We had good roads with a mix of diversions due to road-widening works. We reached Vikarabad around 0930 Hrs and took our first break for breakfast.

After breakfast and chai, we set forward to reach Anantagiri Hills and we parked our vehicles at Ananta Padbhanabha Swamy temple.

We visited the temple and started on the path to trek around the place.

We continued in this path to see a few other college and enthusiasts either walking in or coming out after finishing their trek.

As we stated moving in, we could see ridges / trees and believe me large spider nests. The spiders were too big and were scary to the core. They were everywhere on the trees with huge webs, in the sky mapping the trees on either sides of the pathway. This could not get any more scary as it can.

We did the trek until around 1130 hrs when the forest officials came and asked us to return back.

We then moved back to our start point Ananta Padbhanabha Swamy temple and took our vehicles to reach to a view point around 1.5 kms ahead.

We started moving around the lush green area, trying to explore water ridges, rocks and the place which was fun with a group of 17 colleagues.

We spent close to an hour here and did some walk around.

We after spending a good amount of time here, realized the time for lunch and we got back to our vehicles to have lunch at Haritha Resorts which was around 2 kms from the place.

We reached to find that only the buffet was available which had OK options and nothing really exciting. A few of us decided to just dive in and a few of us went to explore a bit more in the Vikarabad village.

Having finished lunch, we then started to get restless and then again hit the road to now reach the Anantagiri Hills View Point. This is again close to the temple and just before you reach the temple you would find a lane to the left which leads you to a mud patch that you need to take to reach.

Having reached this place, we did some amount of photo-shooting of the wonderful scenery this place has to offer.

Having spent some time clicking the pictures, we then decided to start back to Kotpalli Reservoir for Kayaking.

But before, we could not stop ourselves in capturing this video from Duster.

Drive from Anantagiri Hills View point to Ananta Padbhanabha Swamy Temple

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We then moved on to the reservoir for Kayaking.

The time was almost 1700 hrs and we started making plans to start back to Hyderabad this being a day trip.

We then segregated and had our colleagues who planned to stay back and spend a while and those who wanted to start back.

We started on our journey and stopped closer to Anantagiri Hills to view this wonderful picture.

We then reached the Anantagiri Hills Viewpoint to stop a while for sunset and also noticed a Nandi statue which we missed in the morning.

We moved on to Hyderabad from this point at around 1730 hrs and missed on the route (courtesy Google Maps) and took a longer way back to Hyderabad which almost cost us an extra 1 hour.

We finally reached office to send off our friends at around 2000 hrs and dropped a colleague on the way before reaching home by 2130 hrs.

Overall, the experience has been great, a few aspects with time could have been better managed that would have given back a great deal of time, however, what a trip would it be without a slight deviation to have a fun, so no  regrets at all.

For anyone who would plan a Anantagiri Hills trip, below would be my recommendation:

1. Start early in the morning at around 0700 hrs
2. Reach the temple, complete your trek, there is another trek route around 2 kms from the temple which you can try as well
3. Do visit Anantagiri Hills View point
4. If you plan your day, you could also make time for Kotpally Reservoir for Kayaking which is fun and cost effective (30 mins is priced at Rs. 400 for two and 60 mins costs around Rs. 600)
5. Carry snacks / water so that you dont miss on having a quick bite and plenty of water to stay hydrated
6. Carry a pair of shorts for Kayaking
7. If you wish to trek, ensure you wear full hands t-shirt and trek pants which suitable shoes to ensure you dont get bit by insects in the forest
8. Finally, do not forget to carry your camera to capture the wonderful moments

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