A Walking Pilgrimage ...

When I discussed about going to Tirupathi with my friends, one of them was very enthuse in going for a walk and climb the hill. I was little skeptical about this idea in the beginning thinking about my physique and the body conditions. I hardly indulge myself in any physical exerices. But then, with his continued motivation and other friends’ involvement I also joined hands with them to be a part of this exhilarating experience.  Did the usual ground work of reading thru various blogs and googling and built the confidence inside and got geard up for the trip.

As per the plan, we reached the downhill – a place called ALIPIRI- by 01:00 AM (04/07/2012-Saturday). This is the place where the steps for the pedestrian starts. Had a cup of tea with a cycle chai wala there and started our missionJ.  The intial idea was to reach atop -covering around 3550 steps and about 16KM-before dawn, as we are all amateurs and first time climbers in Tirumala. When the clock ticked 02:00 AM we had already crossed 1000+ steps and were elated with the good progress we made. The intial 1700 steps were kind of steep and hard to climb continuously. It would be really tiring for a common man who was not involved much with walking or any such physical exercises. We had to stop for every 300 steps, breathe out and march on. I was little scared before we start the trip about the route as to how well it would be lit and how crowded it would be and the like. But to my surprise, the place was neatly and well lit by the TTD, and a humongous crowd was ascending the hill leaving us with no fearJ.

There are a lot of shops available enroute selling juices, glucose, chur mur, mangoes and anything and everything one would want to keep him active and refreshing while walking. The walk became effortless once we reach 2350 steps. This is the place where we can get the tickets for DivyaDarshan –a special queue only for the pedestrians to the temple. One needs to be present infront of the Web cam there in the counters and will be given the ticket with the image of his face on it. The reporting entrance for the darshan would also be mentioned in the ticket itself.

The next 6 KMS from here would just be a casual walk in the midst of the jungle and the bus route. A deer park would be visible to the left of the walk way. This stretch covers about 500 steps. These steps are not at all steep, they are too simple to walk and cross by. Towards the end of this stretch, we can see a big Hanuman Statue near to 2850^th step. We reached this place around 3.45 AM. After this, again the steepy steps will begin; we have around 750+ which need to be climbed to reach atop. When we reached the top of the hill, the time was around 04:45AM, it was much earlier than what we were anticipating. There is a place called Madhava Nilaya, where the pedestrians are allowed to get refreshed- a locker will be given to keep all the belongings inside- and can take bath in the common bathrooms available there. Once refreshed there, we can go directly to the entrance mentioned in the DivyaDarshan ticket and wait in the queue. We reached the queue around 05:30AM. Since it was a Saturday morning and the summer vacation time, we had to wait for about 5 hours before we finish our darshan. It was 10:30AM when we came out of the temple and went to the laddu counter. Though the walk was a bit tiring, lengthy one, and the wait was very long, when we came out after darshan, our hearts were filled with satisfaction and happinessJ.

From my personal experience, I thought it would be helpful if keep in mind the below points:

1. Start in evening 6 PM or at the midnight around 1 or 2 AM to avoid hot sun or else it will be really tiring and difficult to walk with bare foot during the day time. The max time it could take is 4 hours for a normal midaged individual with adequate breaks
2. Don’t carry any luggage while climbing; it would ease the process of walking and climbing the steep steps. We can drop the luggage with the free luggage counters provided by TTD. The luggage will reach the top before us waiting in the counters uphill
3. Water and all other necessary refreshments shops are available round the clock through out the way. So no need to worry about anything to carry with
4. Mobile phones signals are proper, so no worries about carrying them. It would definitely be handy in case of emergency. After reaching top we can drop the phones in the counters provided by TTD ( this would take more time while getting back after darshan, so better to keep it in our luggage after reaching top)
5. There are a lot of Mandaps on the way, where people can sit/sleep if over tired. So it wouldn’t be very difficult for anyone of any age to climb the hill