It is almost 10 years back I visited this less known place called Punyagiri. It was our school picnic on a bright winter day in the Hindu month of Karthika Masam. We were nearly 80 teachers apart from the non-teaching and class IV employees. It was a lively bus journey from Visakhapatnam to Punyagiri in the school bus. The bus took the NH (National Highway) 5 route towards NAD and turned towards Pendurthi from here. This is the road route towards Araku Valley. The bus crossed Pendurthi, Kothavalasa and Srirampuram and reached Srungavarapukota, popularly known as S.Kota. From here it is only a 4 Km drive and our bus reached Punyagiri within no time. If you take the rail route to Punyagiri, you have to take the Araku train (Kirandal) and get down at S.Kota. This place is well known for one of the oldest Shiva temples known as Uma Kotilingeswara Temple. As it was the auspicious month of Karthik, we all first visited the temple and had the darshan of Lord Shiva. Image Credit: www....
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