Sometimes casual rides turn out to be awesome ones.
A few days back as I was recovering from an illness I thought of getting some fresh air and went out on a ride on my bike. I thought of checking out a lake nearby Nellore. According to Gmaps, a road runs right beside the lake but when I reached the said road, to my disappointment I found out that there was a bund beside the road which blocked the view. I rode further trying to find a gap in the bund but there was none for a long way. So I stopped at one point and climbed atop the bund.
The lake was nothing much to look at. Huge parts of it had dried and the rest was covered by swamps. I just stood there, a bit disappointed and looked around. Suddenly far away on a hill I spotted a windmill. There it stood in the hazy horizon with its blades rotating slowly. The sight immediately lifted my spirits. I had never before seen a windmill. As I moved around to get a better view I spotted another one beside it. There were two windmills on the hills.
And I immediately decided I must have a closer look. I continued on that road. I took the help of Gmaps to get an idea of the road to take to reach near the lakes.Soon I reached a village which looked the nearest to the windmills. I asked around and got to know that one can reach to the base of the windmills. I was thrilled at this info. Also there is a very famous temple nearby. I learnt huge crowds gather there on weekends. But I was out on a weekday and I found not many people on my way
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There are two ways one can reach the top of the hill. I unknowingly took the longer, pretty lonely road which went around the village. But it has some nice views of the countryside.
The way to the windmills to the left at the entrance of the temple complex. One can take their two wheeler right to the base of the windmill. Nearby is the office of the engineers. While I was just parking my bike nearby I spotted a engineer walking nearby. I stuck up a conversation with him.
He said the windmills were built some ten years back and gave me a general idea of how they work and how the staff takes care of the general maintenance. Each windmill generated 1.25MW of Power. Together they produced 2.5 MW of power. They are maintained by Suzlon.
I then went and stood directly beneath the huge rotating blades. The feeling was absolutely thrilling. The engineer chuckled at my excitement. I couldn’t help but let out a huge smile.
The views surrounding the place are breathtaking. This is the nearest you can get to something like hills from Nellore. I made a mental note to make a plan with office colleagues for a trip here before I left.
amazing travelogue