Telangana – James Stevenson https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:23:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/cropped-d03b549f-48ff-4f7b-95db-65376f96dae3-1-32x32.jpeg Telangana – James Stevenson https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com 32 32 Telengana https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/03/telengana/ https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/03/telengana/#respond Wed, 03 Apr 2024 14:20:22 +0000 https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/?p=2141
  • I have a new rhythm partly dictated by the heatwave conditions around here.  I shouldn’t have read the newspaper and I wouldn’t have been so much aware of it but I did.  Thus I start out by 7 and find a lodge, which is what “hotels” (places to stay for the night are called here) by about 1 or 2 p.m.  It is also early enough to wash my clothes.    Then, about 6 I find my beer joint and often have lively chats with other patrons of these invariably sleazy establishments.
  • Telengana is completely different from Karnataka and not just in language.
    It is a very prosperous state but I really cannot get any real picture of what this state is all about.  Hindi does work here, but just to some extent.  The last couple of nights I have found lodges in small towns (Deverakonda and Nakrekal) at 1200 r/s.  (a.c.) for a room. Just ok.

    From Nakrekal to Mahbubabad- a hot day on excellent highways and a long 115 kms. I have done about 900 kms. so far and body and bicycle in good order. Lodge here in Mahbubabad is ok at 1700 r/s. for a.c. room.
    Route planning is a challenge and I spend hours every night planning where to go. I have become reliant on Google Maps most of all. I consult the other apps for cyclists, Komoot, maps.me, mapy.cz, and pocket earth, some of these recommended by my Warmshowers guests, and I have the off-line maps downloaded on my phone. Coming up are some remote areas in Orissa, Chhattisgarh and even Andhra Pradesh (tomorrow) and I have to 1, take a route that will have a lodge approximately 100 kms. distant and 2, have roads that are in decent condition. The latter cannot be deduced from Google Maps, but the former very good at listing hotels even though in google hotels (restaurants) and Lodges are listed together.
    Thus far my strategy was to avoid Hyderabad and the probable horrific traffic- thus my southerly route (not what Komoot had recommended), and I hadn’t imagined the excellent condition of the roads. Now, I could head to the coast and take the coastal highway up to Kolkata, the most direct route, but instead for as long as I can I will take an inland route through the jungle and tribal areas in Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Wish me luck…..also it is Naxalite territory but that shouldn’t have any affect on me.

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    Mahbubnagar https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/03/31/mahbubnagar/ https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/03/31/mahbubnagar/#respond Sun, 31 Mar 2024 14:52:28 +0000 https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/?p=2134 Sorry folks, no photos today. It was a long highway ride today (112 kms.) on the road to Hyderabad.  I missed the complimentary breakfast starting at 8a.m.  In this heat I cannot afford to miss 7-8 a.m. on the road.
    Crossed the Cauvery river into Telengana after a couple of hours and the language changed.  My fellow travellers on the road, primarily motorcyclists, started chatting with me more than in Karnataka. Maybe just a first impression. Friendly all around, but I do appreciate the loud, smoky atmosphere in the bar where I sit writing this with no one paying me any attention.

    i had a lodge picked out from Google that I was headed to,  but a rickshaw driver who had accosted me, probably for the usual queries, directed me to the best Lodge in Mahbubnagar and thank you, he was right.  At 2300rs. it wouldn’t have been the cheapest, but I am sure it ie the best.

    Mahbubnagar may not look like much on a map, but it is not so small- I would say a small city.

    Tomorrow I plan to avoid Hyderabad and the anticipated hideous traffic and take another route.   This is a tricky bit of route planning  with the added consideration of heatwave conditions in the days to follow. For me it means I do not want to do much more than 100kms. Per day and would like to find accommodation by 1 or 2 p.m.

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