[Mystic]

I had done many road trips from Visakhapatnam to Tirupati on NH 16 in Scorpio VLX, Crysta Z and Jimny alpha with an overnight stop over in Vijayawada.

In this narrative, I would skip the famous temples of Visakhapatnam ( Simhachalam ) Vijayawada ( Durga Devi ) and Tirupati ( Venkateswara ). I am sure there are many such road trips already covered by all in these 3 places.

We decided ( myself, my wife and mother in law who is 85 years ) to make this particular trip in a detour covering the remote villages but at the same time cover the famous temples not seen by us before. In this regard, my wife is the back seat driver as she knows every temple in Andhra ( Thanks to TTD channel which covers on daily basis as a program ).

We made a plan to cover the Pancharama temples. The details are below. APSRTC arranges single day trip covering all the 5 temples as it is believed that to have darshan of all temples in a single day is very auspicious. We are on our own without guide with help of google maps ( now a days, I am not sure of the reason, the maps is behaving very weird in rural areas wasting a lot of fuel by going back and forth and finally we are saved with guidance of locals ).

Apart from the Pancharama temples, my wife wanted to see the famous and powerful temples on the way also which would be elaborated below. We don’t need any agenda or a timeline. This very thought of driving without any agenda is such a luxury that I had never experienced before.

The surprise in the tour is the annual roti festival in Nellore on the way. We never planned for this as lakhs of people come from all over the world and it is impossible to participate without some local help. Luckily by God’s grace , we met a lady Police inspector sitting with uniform along with us for breakfast in a restaurant and she helped us get VIP treatment and made all the arrangements for us.

Day1: Started from Visakhapatnam in Jimny in the morning and we will plan our overnight stay depending on how we progress in the day. A lot of factors need to be factored like the rainy weather, rural roads condition even though I am equipped with 4L and 4H gears just in case.

We reached Pitapuram in the noon, 30 minutes before Kukkuteswara Temple closes in the afternoon at 12.30 pm. The temple is well known as Paada Gaya. As our next stop is Sri Chalukya Kumararama Bhimeswara Swamy Temple in Samarlakota and the temple would be closed in the afternoon until 4 pm, we decided to have lunch in the famous Subbiahgari hotel for lunch and spend some time at Kakinada beach. We reached Samarlakota at around 4 pm when the temple opens. After the darshan, we proceeded to Sri Kodanda Rama Devasthanam, Gollala Mamidada. This temple architecture is great. We then proceeded to Draksharama to visit Bheemeswara swami temple. This temple is under renovation and temporary arrangement for the Darshana is made meanwhile. Stayed overnight in a hotel opposite to the temple. We were surprised that the rent for an AC room with king size bed is Rs 800.


Pitapuram temple:

Subbiahgari hotel:

Thalli at Subbiahgari hotel:

Kakinada beach:

Samarlakota temple:

Samarlakota temple:

Rama temple at G Mamidada:


Draksharam temple:

Draksharam temple:

Draksharam temple:

Day 1 map:




Day2: We proceeded to Palakolu to visit Ksheera RamaLingeswara Swamy Temple and proceed to visit Sri Someswara Temple in Bhimavaram. On the way, we bought a unique fruit sold in this part of the world called locally as pamparapanasa aka Pomelo. Then we proceeded to Mopidevi Sri Subramanyeswara Swamy Temple to stay overnight in a hotel.

Pomelo fruit sale on road:

Palakol temple:

Palakol temple:

Palakol temple:

Bhimavaram temple:

Bhimavaram temple:

Mopidevi temple:

Mopidevi temple:

Mopidevi Hotel


Day3: Started from Mopidevi and proceeded to Nellore for a halt. We were surprised by the presence of many police and unimaginable traffic in Nellore. We went to dinner in a famous Muralikrishna vegetarian restaurant and by chance talked to lady Police Sub Inspector in uniform in the restaurant who told us that lakhs of people are coming to Nellore to participate in a Roti annual festival. She said she would help us participate in the festival with a pass she can arrange. We felt blessed by her gesture and had an unimaginable experience. We then proceeded to Tirupati.
Nellore Roti Festival:

Nellore Roti Festival:



Day 3 map:



https://getsetgotravels.in/tour_Pancharamalu.html

https://www.mopidevitemple.org/


https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/.../111816184.cms

[GTO]

Mod Note: Thread moved to the Travelogues section! Thanks for sharing. Your thread is on our homepage today

[sukhbirST]

Excellent trip and nice to hear news around kakinada, where I stayed for around 11 years. Just wanted to ask about visit to Bikkavolu temple and Kotipalli temples. Difficult to cover all in one visit.

[Mystic]

Originally Posted by sukhbirST

Excellent trip and nice to hear news around kakinada, where I stayed for around 11 years. Just wanted to ask about visit to Bikkavolu temple and Kotipalli temples. Difficult to cover all in one visit.

Thanks for the suggestion. Definitely I will visit these temples next time in the Godavari districts. In fact , it is my first visit to Kakinada in my life even though I am from Andhra. As I had scheduled my annual free darshan ( donor ) of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala and hence limited my temple visits in this trip. Next time it will be a long temple tour as I am retired.