13-Mar-2004 -- Our Expedition to the Discovery of 16N 77E

Date: Saturday, March 13, 2004 at 1100 hours
Visit by: Praveen Goggi and Chandra Dasaka
Place: Near Manvi Town, Raichur District, Karnataka State, India Visit for more info: http://www.kar.nic.in/raichur/
Distance: 4 Kms from Manvi Town
Earlier Visits: Please click on the respective names to view earlier visits.
Expedition dedicated to: Guenter Walser, Austria.

Summer has set in. Andrapradesh and nearby states were getting warmer day by day. Having done 11 DCPs till date and wanting to do more, Chandra and me agreed to do couple more this Saturday despite the heat. We also agreed to take a break for a month and a half when it’s really heated up out there!

As we had covered all the nearby points, it became tougher to decide on which two points to visit this time. We thought to explore the South-West which was untouched till date! After a 60 minute discussion on 2 state maps and mapquest.com, we decided to go 16N 77E (near Raichur town in Karnataka state) and 16N 78E (Near Kurnool town in Andhra pradesh state).

As always, Chandra, very meticulously chalked down the exact route and the distances before we parted on Friday. Early morning on Saturday, I drove to Chandra’s place, picked him up and we hit the highway before half past six to avoid all the city traffic. As we had planned to go to Raichur first, we took a diversion at Farooknagar town and drove through the state road for about 200 Kms to Raichur. The drive was quick because of less traffic and we did not halt anywhere except for a quick breakfast at Mahaboobnagar. Contrary to our expectations, this town was well developed with good Engineering and Medical colleges and well laid roads. Discussing about the progress made during the last 5 years, we had a very sumptuous breakfast with Streaming Idlis, Vadas and Dosa. Now we were sure, we were full and lunch can even be skipped. We then proceeded towards Raichur.

Driving 35 kms south-west of Raichur, we reached Manvi, when GPS showed just 4 kms (pointing straight on the road!)... Chandra hoped to find this point at the center of the road (to avoid all the walk!). But to his disappointment, the GPS has shown a right angle showing a distance of 1km off the road in the dry and barren fields. We parked our car on the main road, picked up the camera and GPS and started walking towards SW as the GPS directed us. The CP was in the middle of a dry agricultural field. Apparently there are no rains here in this part even last year. Sympathizing with the plight of the farmers there, we have taken the snaps as required for our expedition.

After spending few minutes there, and wishing that there would be sufficient rains for the ground to start contribute to the agricultural product this year, we started walking back towards our car to visit the next CP we have planned for this afternoon.

Contact Info:
Praveen Goggi, +91-98851-98951 or +91-20-2295-3090
Chandra Dasaka, +91-40-3090-2105