I heard about Sahasrakund waterfalls almost an year ago and wanted to plan for this in monsoon along with any other places nearby. On couple of occasions we had to cancel the plans at last moment due to some reasons. Finally Myself, along with my friend Krishna Srivatsa decided to visit this place on October 2nd as it was a holiday for both of us
Sahasrakund Waterfalls is near isalpur village in Nanded
district of Maharashtra. Islapur village is on Bhokar to Kinwat Road. This
majestic waterfall on river Banganga is a visual treat for eyes and soul....
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Panaroma view of complete Waterfalls |
The sight of Banganga River suddenly falling down
from a great height is a sight to behold. We have to simply walk down to the other
side of the river by a bridge and roam around to click some good photographs or
can just sit back and enjoy nature's tranquility.
How to
Reach?
Sahasrakund can be easily reached by train from Hyderabad. We can
catch Krishna Express(17405) at 09:00 PM from Secunderabad which reaches
Sahastrakund at 4 ‘o clock early morning. The waterfalls is around 6Kms from
Railway station. One can wait till morning at station and go by rickshaw to
falls or can even start for a nice early morning walk to sahastrakund
waterfalls.
To reach sahastrakund by Road, One has to take left from Nirmal onto swarna road and proceed for Islapur. Distance from Nirmal to Sahastrakund is about 60Kms. Very few buses are available from Nirmal to Himayatnagar at regular intervals via Islapur.
Where to Stay?
The nearest towns are Nirmal
and Kinwat to find a decent accommodation.
Food options?
Couple of hotels are available on the bank of the river
which serve biscuits, cool drinks, breakfast and lunch. One can get few more
food options in Islapur.
The Day
of Journey:
We booked only onward tickets for Krishna Express from secunderabad to sahastrakund road on the night of 1st October.We reached secunderabad station by 08:30 PM. Got biryani parcels from the famous ALPHA hotel and were on the platform waiting for Krishna Express. The train was on time and we hopped in. To our surprise the reservation compartments are almost empty. The train started and we too started with our usual endless discussions on treks and travel related stuff. Meanwhile ticket collector came for checking and when we asked him why the train is so empty today, he replied that there will be hardly any crowd for this train on any given day. We had Biryani and dozed off for the night with alarms set at 03:30 AM as the scheduled arrival at sahasrakund is around 4 ‘O clock early morning.
Early Morning Walk to
Waterfalls:
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First glimpse of the single falls on our side. |
Our train arrived at Sahastrakund around
5’O clock which is almost an hour delay and we are happy to get delayed. It was
still dark and no rickshaws were available outside station. As the weather was
pleasant we decided to walk to Waterfalls which will be around 6 Kms. The route
is very simple, we just need to come out of station walk straight along the
road with no deviations that will take you straight to the river. We passed
through Islapur which is yet to wake up. We crossed a main road where there is
a checkpost. We just re-confirmed the way to waterfalls and headed straight in
that direction. The rest of our walk was through fields on both sides of the
road and couple of villages on the way. We could hear the sound of waterfalls from
some distance.
We reached sahastrakund at around
0730AM. It looks like here River Banganga plunges down from top of a rocky hill.
The place is like a canyon with towering rock formation on either side
of the river flow. There are temples on both sides of the river. A long elevated
platform kind of ramp was constructed to have good views of the waterfalls. We
spent some time here looking at the falls and the river, clicking pictures.
From the side where we are standing, we couldn’t see the complete waterfalls as
the rocky structure in the middle was obstructing the view.
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An elevated Ramp of View Points |
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The Watch Tower. |
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It may look like a surf boat for You ... But its his Life Boat - A fisherman set out on his daily routine |
There is a watch
tower nearby and we climbed on it hoping for a better view of falls in a single
frame. Though we were missing a part of waterfalls to be seen even from the
watch tower, the aerial view of the surroundings was good. We were there for
almost half an hour capturing the views in all directions. There is a bridge at
some distance on the river and we decided to cross it to go to the other side
of the river.
We had our breakfast at the hotel
besides the river and enquired him about bus to Nirmal. He told that there is a
bus to Nirmal at 11 ‘O clock that comes from himayatnagar. After breakfast we
took the small kutcha path opposite to the hotel to reach the bridge. Its about
15 mins walk to bridge and once you cross bridge it’s a tar road on the other
side. The village on the other side is Murli.
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My friend.. Krishna SriVatsa on the way to Bridge. |
We were stunned to see the other
side of waterfalls which is huge and amazing. It is like a mini Nayagara
waterfalls. We quickly moved on further ahead so that we can get complete
waterfall in a single frame. We got off the path and settled on the edge of a rock
patch where we are standing straight and opposite to the waterfalls with nice
panaroma view.
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Me .. Posing before Sahastrakund |
We spent a good 30 mins before we started back. Now its time to
go near waterfalls as much as we can. I sat
at a safe distance about a couple of feet distance by the side of the falls. I
can feel the furious, roaring waterfall from this point with full intensity. I was
spell bound and lost in this amazing act of nature for quiet a few minutes
before Vatsa called me to hurry back as we need to catch 11 ‘O clock bus to Nirmal. After a short Photo session we were walking
back to the bridge. We had to hire an auto for full fare as there are no other
passengers to go on share basis. We
waited for half an hour for our bus to arrive. Thankgod.... its an APSRTC express
Bus.
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Words fall short... U must go, sit there and experience it.. |
As we still have a half day left
we decided to visit Kuntala waterfalls.