It was cold Sunday morning of 7.Jan.2018 in Vizag where a “Pinkathon” was being organized at the Beach Road and 15 employees of BARC Vizag unit decided to go on a trek to Simhachalam hill.
The employees gathered around 6:00 am at Madhavadhara temple from where the broken steps lead to Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple, Simhachalam (around 900 year old temple). It typically takes about 1 hour to reach top of the hill which is at a height of around 280 m. The trek participants started at 6:15 am from the temple and within 1 hour, they reached top of the hill. They took rest for about 15 min and started the hill trek. The total distance towards the Hanumantha waka Junction is around 12 km.
This stretch is known for spotting of leopards & wild boars. The trekkers were always in a close group and made a head count every 1 hour. The entire trek is muddy with gravel as there was an earlier plan of the state government to commercialize this route, but the plan was shelved for some reason. In patches, there was 5 feet grass and bushes on both sides of the route.
Enroute, the trekkers stopped at 2-3 locations to take rest, eat and to hydrate themselves with water. They also took pictures. Being winter, the sun was not too harsh. The only sound they all heard was chirping of the various birds and sound of commercial aircraft taking off from the nearby Vizag airport. At one point, they heard the sound of traffic and soon realized that they were going down the hill and nearing the destination.
After about 5 hours at around 11:20 am, all the trekkers reached the highway near Hanumantha waka Junction. It was a successful trekking experience for all employees some of whom are regular trekkers. To some, this was the first trek and they too enjoyed the time spent.
The following employees participated in the trek :
1. Aaditya Majalee
2. Partha Banerjee
3. Bhaskar Bisi
4. Premanand Dey
5. Sukant Mishra
6. Anil Dokhe
7. Yogesh Nikam
8. Nitin Waghmare
9. Vishal Mehra
10. Surender Sharma
11. Santhosh Rao
12. Sandeep Gaur
13. Deepak Shinde
14. Jitendra Misal
15. Gokavarapu Avinash
After the trek, everyone congratulated and thanked everyone else and went back to their homes with a big smile of their face. Reported by Shri Aaditya Majalee
