Break from the... Metro

Well, finally, after quite some time, i get the chance to step outside for sometime. I will be visiting a few relatives in Vishakapatnam and Chattisgarh. Giving a small insight, the journey to Chattisgarh thru Vizag is a wonderful one. THe distance is less than 300KM, but it takes almost 12-14 hours to do that. That's simply coz, the train winds thru the eastern ghats, making the sharpest bends and climbing to the highest broadguage track in india (at Shimliguda, AP), and passing thru tunnels, and giving great views of valleys and lots more. An exciting journey. Some of the important tourist places of AP like, Araku Valley, Borra Caves, etc come in this route. There's only one train daily and that is the sad part. People throng in without reservations and it gets really problematic during the peak summer time like now. The tribal entry starts in Orrisa, and you'll find them sitting anywhere they possibly could, and it continues on till Chattisgarh. The route is actually for freight trains that carry aluminium and iron ores from a place called Kirandul (the last station for this train in chattisgarh) to Vishakapatnam.

But the real thrill comes when you go over bridges (above deep valleys), and immediately enter a tunnel. Generally, its like a sequence while passing thru the hills. Tunnel and bridge, bridge and tunnel. Sometimes this sequence goes on continuously for a few times.



Above, you can see a pic of how this looks like. That's the only passenger train that goes thru this route. Few problems other than the tribal invasion are, some areas in chattisgarh like a Danteshwar District have been scarred by Maoist attacks and there have been a few horrifying incidents. The train is often cancelled indefinitely due to this. The freight trains are generally given more importance (coz they are for the real purpose of this route) and this passenger is stopped for hours (at times) to give way to the freights. The track is single and thus only one train can pass. The only possibility is a station.

And mind you, the stations come up very quickly. It takes about 10min to move from station to station and the trains stops for less than 1 min and at few, about 10secs. You can actually see a station from another if you are on a higher part of the hill. You can see other trains trying to reach this station on some other hill at a far off distance.

Ok, if i go on, i can never end... it's been more than 3 years that i went there, and i am really looking forward to it. Hopefully, this journey turns out to be more exciting coz, i got my cam and it's gonna help me capture some fantastic moments during the trip.

I may not be able to post anymore after this. Just in case i lay a hand on a system with internet in the rurals, i might post something. So, coming back after 29th, till then, BYE. Hope Hyderabad looks different when i come back...