Friday, November 07, 2014

Road to Araku

From Rajahmundry, we left the coast headed into the hills, to the tribal belt of Orissa. Blandine wanted to check out the nomadic tribes of Koraput and Bastar. Me, I prefer to leave the tribals alone. The way I see it, they have enough troubles of their own without having tourists coming and ogling at them. But Blandine sees it differently, and on these trips, Blandine is the Boss. I am merely the chap who drives T-Bird. Or rather, I'm the chap who does not drive T-Bird, for T-Birds go wherever they please. I'm merely the chap who holds the handlebars and looks cool in a cherry red helmet.
Our target was the town of Koraput, which we were planning to use as our command center for various explorations into the tribal belt. But instead of going all the way to Koraput in one go, we decided to stay the night just 100 km short, in the scenic Araku Valley, which is right on the border of Andhra and Orissa, and is actually the start of the tribal belt.
Here is T-Bird on the road to Araku:

Thursday, November 06, 2014

Going Bannanas in Rajahmundry

While leaving Rajahmundry for the next stage of the trip, we ran into this rather charming morning banana market on the banks of the Godavari. Banana planters and buyers get together every morning on the banks of the river for this impromptu market.

Tuesday, November 04, 2014

Bridges of Rajahmundry

T-Bird needed minor repairs at Rajahmundry. Luckily, there is an Enfield showroom there. Later, we checked out Rajahmundry's main claim to fame: its amazing bridges. It has the second largest bridge in Asia (4.7 km), and not one, but three of them. Here is the road-cum-rail bridge...
The arched bridge:-

Monday, November 03, 2014

Andhra and Orissa trip: setting off!

A couple of weeks ago, Blandine and I set off on a trip to Andhra and Orissa. Blandine and T-Bird on the highway...