2 weeks of planning, 1 week of Kaushik doing nothing at office other than researching :) , 8 hrs of discussion on how to take pics , 4 hrs of reminding Kaushik for the tripod .... and then the day arrives when we board the train in Chennai to Belum caves. Located around 300+ kms from Chennai, we land at a place called Ti....( damn, this name never gets into my head ). On reaching there, we took a bus from the place where we stayed to Belum caves. Can you believe that there is a reservation for MPs and MLAs in this bus ? A very colorful bus indeed. Btw, the cave is a one hour rickety ride from the town Ti..( I still cant get that name !!! )Once we were there, its clicking time...
Team Trio
Ranjit Rao – (ranjit.rao@gmail.com)
Avinash C I - (avinashci@yaho.com)
Kaushik Krishnan – (kaushikmkrishnan@gmail.com)
Location
Belum Caves, managed and maintained by Andra Pradesh Tourism and Development. It is about 32 Kms from Tadipatri. Tadipatri can be reached overnight from Chennai by taking any of the Mumbai Bound trains. We took the Mumbai mail which left Chennai at 11.50 Pm and reached the Tadipatri station by 7 Am. The town of tadipatri is very small and is 3 kms from the station. There are many lodges in the only main road (CB Road) that we found one of which is Kanchani Lodge ( 08558 – 220849, 221844) in which we stayed. The tariff is a reasonable 200 for 24 hours.
The Account
We made Bread- butter – banana sandwitch for the morning and had them in the room. We left for the Bus Station which was a decent walk from the Lodge on the same road . On reaching the Station we found the bus in the next ½ hour and got dropped at the Belum Caves gate within 45 mins. A 1-1.5 Km walk from here will take you to the Belum Caves entrance, the entire complex is underground and no activity is seen on the ground, the whole complex was eerie when we reached the spot. The cave system is about 2 kms long and is very beautiful. Once inside we started feeling the heat and started sweating. The only relief was the vent fans coming from the 50 meters above every 10 mins of walk. We took 3 hours to cover the entire system, by the time we came back we were exhausted. The lunch at the Punnami restaurant refreshed us to an extent. It was then time for us to take the bus back to Tadipatri, it was when waiting for the bus when we spotted the common babblers on the tree and started aiming our cameras. Once in Tadipatri we took rest and went to the Vishnu temple which is very old and has carvings on the Ramayana on the temple walls. There are two other temples for which we did not have time this time. It was then time to take the train back by Chennai Mail at 8.05 Pm. A successful CPC expedition came to an end
Photos from the trip @
Ranjit Rao's Pics - http://cpc.fotopic.net/c1074638.html
Avinash's Pics - http://cpc.fotopic.net/c1074651.html
Kaushik Krishnan's Pics - http://cpc.fotopic.net/c1074641.html
It was a different experience shooting at long exposures in tungsten lights all the time, guys in the studios have A/c but 60-100 feet below the earth's surface all you have is humidity and sweat
Team Trio
Ranjit Rao – (ranjit.rao@gmail.com)
Avinash C I - (avinashci@yaho.com)
Kaushik Krishnan – (kaushikmkrishnan@gmail.com)
Location
Belum Caves, managed and maintained by Andra Pradesh Tourism and Development. It is about 32 Kms from Tadipatri. Tadipatri can be reached overnight from Chennai by taking any of the Mumbai Bound trains. We took the Mumbai mail which left Chennai at 11.50 Pm and reached the Tadipatri station by 7 Am. The town of tadipatri is very small and is 3 kms from the station. There are many lodges in the only main road (CB Road) that we found one of which is Kanchani Lodge ( 08558 – 220849, 221844) in which we stayed. The tariff is a reasonable 200 for 24 hours.
The Account
We made Bread- butter – banana sandwitch for the morning and had them in the room. We left for the Bus Station which was a decent walk from the Lodge on the same road . On reaching the Station we found the bus in the next ½ hour and got dropped at the Belum Caves gate within 45 mins. A 1-1.5 Km walk from here will take you to the Belum Caves entrance, the entire complex is underground and no activity is seen on the ground, the whole complex was eerie when we reached the spot. The cave system is about 2 kms long and is very beautiful. Once inside we started feeling the heat and started sweating. The only relief was the vent fans coming from the 50 meters above every 10 mins of walk. We took 3 hours to cover the entire system, by the time we came back we were exhausted. The lunch at the Punnami restaurant refreshed us to an extent. It was then time for us to take the bus back to Tadipatri, it was when waiting for the bus when we spotted the common babblers on the tree and started aiming our cameras. Once in Tadipatri we took rest and went to the Vishnu temple which is very old and has carvings on the Ramayana on the temple walls. There are two other temples for which we did not have time this time. It was then time to take the train back by Chennai Mail at 8.05 Pm. A successful CPC expedition came to an end
Photos from the trip @
Ranjit Rao's Pics - http://cpc.fotopic.net/c1074638.html
Avinash's Pics - http://cpc.fotopic.net/c1074651.html
Kaushik Krishnan's Pics - http://cpc.fotopic.net/c1074641.html
It was a different experience shooting at long exposures in tungsten lights all the time, guys in the studios have A/c but 60-100 feet below the earth's surface all you have is humidity and sweat
posted by Kaushik Krishnan at 6:04 AM
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