St. Augustine Beach - From white to golden brown

St. Augustine Beach is another beach in the stretch of St. Augustine beaches. This stretch of beach is located in the heart of Anastasia Island.

Compared to the Crescent Beach, this beach is comparatively crowded. The color of the sand changes from white to golden brown. Closing watching, it is primarily because of the broken shells which lies all over the beach.

Waves being more here, this seems to be a surfers paradise. We could at least spot some 10 surfers doing their tricks right from the spot we were sitting giving me a chance to capture some good pics. Shell picking can be an interesting timepass on this beach. One can find different varieties of shells here. I gathered quite a few smaller ones for myself.

There are several facilities on or nearby that usually have activities and events available, including the St. Johns County Pier, pavilion, playground, fishing pier, volleyball courts, bait shops, fine restaurants, and more. There are also camping areas available nearby.

However, day came to an end and we had to head our way back to Gainesville after a sip of Starbucks Coffee.

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Shantiniketan

Shantiniketan is a place which does not need any introduction. Yet for those who need an introduction, Shantiniketan is a small town near Bolpur in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India, approximately 180 kilometres north of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). It was made famous by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose vision became what is now a university town (Viswa-Bharati University) that attracts thousands of visitors each year during various times of the year.

Santiniketan is a popular tourist attraction and a weekend destination for people living in Kolkata. Though house of Rabindranath is a place of historical importance, yet there are many other attractions for the tourists.

A Baul performing on the train

One do not need to have special preparation to visit this place. Bolpur is the railway station for Shantiniketan and it takes around two to three hours by train from Kolkata. Trains like Gana Devta Express, Shantiniketan Express, Visvabharati Fast Passenger, Darbhanga Passenger are some of the most convenient trains. It can also be reached by road. Train journey can be made interesting with the Baul songs(folk songs) of the local bauls and home made sweets (which is sold by local hawkers).

Temple at Kenduli

Festivals notable in and around Shantiniketan:
1. Paus Mela - Which starts on the 7th day of the Bengali calender month of Paus
2. Vasanta Utsav - During the time of Holi
3. Rabindra Jayanti - To celebrate the birthday of Rabindranath aTagore
4. Baul Mela - At Kenduli

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Crescent Beach - One of St. Augustine Beaches

St. Augustine's beaches is a stretch of beaches in Florida right from Vilano Beach north of the city to Crescent Beach in the south. Among them Ponte Vedra Beach, North Beach, St. Augustine Beach, Crescent Beach, Butler Beach, Fort Matanzas are few of the many beach access points. The gorgeous coastline is a beach recreation and relaxation for the people of Florida.

Crescent Beach is the southmost beach situated on the Anastasia Island three miles south of St. Augustine Beach on Highway A1A. This is white sand beach and named so because the shoreline has a natural crescent moon shape. This is the most scenic and unspoiled beach.

Crescent beach

Wooden bridges connects the beach with the road at different places. To enjoy the most serene part, you can choose to cross the furthest bridge.

Wooden bridges connecting the Beach and the Road

Some of the common activities include boating, diving, and fishing. You will also find horses ready to take the visitors for a trip on the sand beach. Visitors are sure to enjoy the ocean breezes and white sand on this family-friendly beach.

Kids Playing with Kiteboards

Birds especially Seagulls are in plenty in and around the beach and you can find them roaming all around you. Birdwatchers and Photographers can spend hours together in the lap of nature. They will even come close to you and take food stuffs almost from your hand. Probably that is why this beach is called the pet-loving beach.

Kids playing with Birds

Families come here to relax in the sun, taking the scent of salt water and the gentle ocean breeze, fish, go shelling or hit the waves to swim, kayak, windsurf or kiteboard. It’s also a fun to stay on the soft sand and walk bare footed.

Sit and Relax

For adventure lovers there is also an Alligator farm near this beach where you can enjoy Crocodile Crossing.
http://www.alligatorfarm.com/crocodilecrossing.html

May not be one of the most famous beaches in Florida but definitely not one that can be neglected.

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Medak - a small historic town

Medak is a small town in the Medak district located around 90 kms from Hyderabad. It is an old town and the rocky nature of the terrain forms a natural citadel. It is a historic place and was once known as Sidapuram. This place is an ideal day break for the travelers of Hyderabad.

Places of interest: 

Medak Fort: Medak Fort is located to the north of the city over a hillock. The fort has three main entrances which are marked by lion and elephant sculptures. They are called as 'Lions Gate', 'Prathana Dwaram' and the 'Gaja Dwaram'. As named Gaja Dwaram has sculptures of elephants. The fort was built somewhere around 12th century and during the reign of Kakatiyan ruler, Prataparudra. This is said to be a natural fort.

Sculptures of Elephant

There is also a small pond at the top of the fort which almost dries up during the summer. This was supposed to the source of water supply for the inmates of the fort.

Medak Church is located at a distance and can be seen from the top of the Fort.

Medak Church: Medak Church is the single largest diocese in Asia and the second largest in the world after the Vatican. This is built in Gothic style. One can sit inside the church and enjoy the peace and serenity of the surroundings. No noise is entertained inside the church.


Pocharam Forest & Wildlife Sanctuary: Pocharam is around 10 kms from Medak. To get inside the forest, one has to take permission from the Forest officer in Medak. We managed to go inside the forest by requesting the officials in our own vehicles. The forest is dense but we could not find any animals except for the deers and wild cats.

Pocharam Reservoir: (1.5 KMs from Sanctuary) The reservoir was constructed across the Allair River, a tributary of the Manjira River. The reservoir dries up during the summer but remains water filled during the rainy season.

Edupayalu: Edupayalu a small village near medak is a holy place for hindus as it has a great historical significance.This is the place where seven rivulets meet at a point.

Speciality of edupayala:- The manjira river (a tributary to Godavari river) is divided into 7 streams in which the first rivulet is divided into two i.e., vashishta and jamadaagni, then from vashishta the vishwamitra will start flowing from the back of the temple and combine with the vaashishta which flows front of the temple. The two rivulets gowthama and bharadwaja bore from the jamadaagni and flow in the back of the temple. Then the aathreya and kaashyapi flow from the front of the goddess which makes edupayalu of Sri Vana Durga Devi. Pilligrims believe that in rainy season the river water flow in heights and reach the legs of goddess Vanadurga Devi.

Unfortunately we could not go inside this temple as it was already late and place was too crowded due to some festival in progress. But this is a place which one can definitely try to visit when time permits, but make sure you visit during the rainy season else there will be no water and you would not be able to identify the streams.

Probable Routes:
Route 1: NH7 Route: Kukatpalli -> Bowenpalli -> Get on NH7 -> Go all the way till Narsingi -> Ramayampet -> Take a left to Medak

Route 2: JNTU -> Medak Road -> Medak (Shorter)

Route 3: Medak is around 85 km on the Dundigal highway and Pocharam is another 10 km from Medak

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The Wrong Turn made our Day

Initially thought to be a photographic trip, few of our photo enthusiasts office colleagues planned for a trip to Ananthagiri hills near Vikarabad. Vikarabad is around 70 kms from Hyderabad. It is the place from where the famous Musi river originated. Ultimately 11 of us became part of the trip and we decided to take 2 cars - an Invova and a Polo.

Morning being the best time to take pictures, we decided to start early and meet at around 6 near Kondapur. However, we end up starting at around 8.30 when everyone joined.

The Gang

Taking the second exit from the Outer Ring Road, we made our way towards the Vikarabad road and stopped near the Chilkur crossing for having breakfast. Initially many was of the opinion of not having anything since they already had something while they left from home or was not in the mood of having anything at that time; But no-one could resist once we reached the dhaba. It was not long before, ultimately everyone started gulping more than a single plate of Idli's, Puri's, Dosa's and Upma. Fully loaded we started again stopping in places to take pics of the beautiful curvy roads.

Finally, stopping at Vikarabad, we bought snacks, water bottles and cold drinks for the day. Our destination was Ananthgiri Hills, a little ahead of Vikarabad. We took a wrong turn and reached the APTDC Haritha Guest house. Realizing the mistake, we again made our way back to the original route and reached the Anantha Padmanabha temple around 6 kms from Vikarabad Mandal.

Parking our cars there at the parking lot, we went inside the temple for darshan. Padmanabha is another incarnation of Lord Vishnu. There is a small cave, inside which the god resides. After darshan, we collected prasad (Pulihora and laddus) from the counter and decided to have it before we start for our venture.

Having Prasad

Our journey started from the base of the temple following the steps which directly leads to the jungle. Now; It's the time to explore !!!

Groups started getting scattered, some taking pictures of wild spider or butterflies while some others climbing the small cliffs to get a top view of the forest. Lots of other madness carried on for nearly about an hour or so.
It was quite hot and we decided to set back for some other place since till this time, the trip was quite ordinary until we took the WRONG TURN. Getting bored while walking in the sun along the road of red pebbles, one of our friend thought, it would be great if we could take a turn and walk along the jungle way to avoid direct sun.

After going for a little while, we realized that we have lost our way and there was no way forward. The only hope was to follow the bells of the temple. Even that too faded away after some time. Doesn't it sound interesting? We were just hoping to have some adventure like this. :)

There was really no way to go ahead, we had to make our way through the thorny bushes, cobwebs and what not...With sounds of 'Hollas' and 'Ollas' we marched forward. The last thing we were hoping was to have an encounter with a wild animal. Map on GPS on one of our friends IPhone came to our resume. The current location indicator said that we had gone past the temple and will have to turn back to reach our destination. We started clearing the thorny bushes to make our way towards our destination.

It took us nearly 2 hours to be back on the main red pebble road, but we loved every bit of it and it was a great experience which we would have never had if we had taken the main road. Thanks to technology that we were back on the main road in this time, or else we would have been still roaming there inside the jungle for probably few more hours until we could trace our way back or land up in some other place.

Tired and exhausted we thought of taking lunch, but the lust for more adventure did not end yet. Everyone decided to move forward towards the other trek location which is about 0.5 kms from the temple on the way to Kerelli. Some of us still had the zeal to go down and climb up the hills. I choose to stay on the top clicking pictures of the picturesque beauty of the surroundings.

Spending some time here, we decided to go towards the Kotepalli Reservoir which is around 20 kms from Ananthagiri Hills. The lake often called as Nagasamudram Lake is huge, clear and it offers scenic views. During monsoon it is completely filled with water. The entire day was hot, but thankfully as we proceed towards the reservoir, it started raining making our day complete with all sorts of experience. Initially we took the forest route and ended going to the other end of the lake which was equally beautiful. This time as well we did not curse our WRONG TURN.

Side from inside the Forest

Front Side

Later, we went to the Reservoir from the front side as well and spent some time taking snaps and enjoying the cool breeze of the lake. But, hunger forced us to get back to the APTDC Guest House. We reached the place at around 4 PM and was hoping to at least have some thing to eat. Luckily enough we got Egg Fried Rice for Non-Veggies, some plain Rice, Dal and Raita for veggies and that was more than enough for the hungry folks.

Having our late lunch we drove back to the city and reached around 7 PM after having a small tea-break just before entering the Outer Ring Road.

Overall to see, it was a wonderful trip with all odds and thankfully none of them disappointed us. It is definitely a good place to visit for the weekend.

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