24-Dec-2003 -- Our Expedition to the Discovery of 18N 78E

Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 at 1200 hours
Visit by: Praveen Goggi and Chandra Dasaka
Place: Tamplur Village, near Bodmatpalli town, Medak District Andhra Pradesh, India
Distance: 135 Kms NNW from Hyderabad. (1.3 Kms off the road)
Earlier Visits: 17°N 78°E, 17°N 79°E, 17°N 80°E and 18°N 79°E
Expedition dedicated to: Guenter Walser, Austria

It was 8am on December 24, 2003 and we were having breakfast (hot idlis at a road side counter) at Dudada town. Me and Chandra were chatting away our success on 18°N 79°E done early this morning. We also talked about next leg of journey as we planned to cover one more confluence points today, which was 110 Kms from our current location.

After a brief look at the district map, we started our journey towards West of dudada, enroute to 18N78E. The roads were isolated and we had a nice drive through the small and large villages and tows. We passed through Siddipet, ramayampet and medak to come to a village named as papannapet.

Chandra consulted the GPS to find out that we need 4 more Kms towards West. We were lucky to find out a small road leading to Tamplur to the direction we needed. Chandra hoped to find the confluence right at the center of this road and I wanted more challenges in the trip. We drove through the small village only to come to the dead-end of the road. GPS still showed 1.3 Kms towards west.

“There is no road further and infact there was a big pond towards west of the town”, cautioned the villagers. Our expedition would end here and we will have an incomplete entry, we thought for a moment.

We picked up the digital Video camera, etrex and my sunglasses and started my trek towards 18N78E. We walked for about 2 Kms circling the pond, through the pastures and onto the top of a small rock hill. GPS pointed to the footsteps of the hill and we walked down and walked straight into the confluence!!! It was in middle of nowhere, no sight of habitation from this point. We were in middle of 4 small rock hills. With a great sense of satisfaction, we marched back quickly to the car. This time it took just 15 minutes to walk back, while it had taken 30 minutes to reach the confluence.

Chandra found some time for his favorite hobby of educating villagers about our project. He was successful in getting a bunch of villagers but they could not really understand the concept of confluence. We had a quick rounds of snaps and drove back to Hyderabad peacefully, this time again deciding to get 5 more points in next month!!

Contact Info:
Praveen Goggi, +91-98851-98951 or +91-20-295-3090
Chandra Dasaka, +91-40-3090-2105