Our first Long Road Trip - Central India

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. ~Anatole France

November 2004:

A long road trip was overdue. Something that would last maybe 10-15 days, with some basic planning but with all the flexibility to do, see and travel at will. The jungles were an obvious choice and Kanha & Bandhavgarh were still to be visited. But dil mange more and we merged it with the vibrant culture and historic locations of Chhattisgarh. As we planned our journey, we toyed with the idea of driving through Melghat and then proceeding to Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

The route finally read as:
Mumbai – Nasik – Jalgaon – Bhusaval – Khamgaon – Shegaon – Akot – Melghat (Kolkaz) – Parathwada – Achalpur – Morsi – Nandgaon – Nagpur – Bhandara (forests of Nagzira & Nawegaon) – Raj Nandgaon – Bhilai – Raipur - Kanker – Keshkal – Kondagaon – Jagdalpur (Chitrakote Falls – Kangerghati National Park – Dantewada ) – Narainpur – Raipur – Chilphi – Anjania (enroute Mandla) – Kanha – Ghughwa Fossil Park near Shahpura – Bandhavgarh – Jabalpur – Nagpur - Mumbai.

We tried to bounce off the route with many of our friends and acquaintances. Responses varied from “Just the two of you and such a long trip?” to “Its not safe, Chhattisgarh especially”, “Roads are bad in MP, you will have problems”. We got the basics on car maintenance and trouble shooting for the Wagon R, while getting it serviced. State maps were bought and scrutinized to locate the best possible routes. We also wrote to Outlook Traveller seeking their advice on the feasibility of the route plan (the response was published after we returned from the trip in the next month’s issue).

When the mind is made up, nothing really stops one from going ahead with what one has planned. We packed in the travel kit and also the sleeping bags and tent just in case we got stranded somewhere. Hotels were booked at Nagpur, Raipur, Jagdalpur, Kanha & Bandhavgarh. Rest we would manage as we went along.

Day 1: With a prayer on our lips we set off on the first day with an ambitious plan of reaching Melghat by late evening. How were we to know that a one hour delay in starting time could completely upset the plan! The journey upto Nasik was fairly uneventful with the entire concentration being on getting to the destination before 10 AM. With two way traffic on a single road we managed to reach only by noon. Two and half hours later we were crossing Jalgaon skirting the Yaval WLS enroute to Malkapur. Malkapur is a dusty village and we tanked up here to enable us to get to Melghat and out. Also discovered the network of SBI ATMs – one of the largest and probably accessible anywhere and everywhere! By now we knew that it would be next to impossible to get to Melghat the same day. At around 7:30 p.m. we were nearing Khamgaon and were told by the villagers to proceed to Shegaon which was a pilgrimage city and it would take a further 4 hours to get to Melghat via Parathwada since alternate routes were bad. We arrived into the noisy, festive atmosphere of Shegaon where the pilgrims thronged to pay their respects at the Samadhi of Gajanan Maharaj. Wearily, we checked into a tourist lodge near the temple complex, had a quick dinner and slept. Our first learning –never plan to do more than 450 kms in a day for it be an enjoyable journey.

Day 2: Started at 7 am and drove through the sunny fields to Akot onward to Parathwada. Melghat was 50-60 kms away. The route had started filling up with dense deciduous forests and the woody smell of that’s so typical of forests and we eagerly waited to get to Kolkas Rest House. By around 10 am we were at Kolkas and rest house provided us a stunning view of the semicircular-shaped river Sipna down in the not so deep valley. The guide shared with us anecdotes on sightings of the tiger and sloth bear. There is a canteen nearby where we asked the caretaker if we could have lunch. As he scooted off to buy the rations and cook, we cooled our heels at the rest house admiring the brown-green forests and soaked in the bright sunlight. Members of the avian variety kept us company till noon. Lunch was piping hot and spicy but tasty. Post lunch we started for Nagpur through the ghats via Parathwada to make up for the lost time, till we hit the main highway at Nandgaon towards Nagpur. It was already night by the time we reached Nagpur.

Day 3: Journeys have a way of throwing up pleasant surprises and we suddenly found ourselves in the thick green jungles of Nagzira & Nawegaon while crossing Bhandara on our way from Nagpur to Raipur. The weather had cooled off considerably and with the highway not having too much traffic, we proceeded towards Rajnandgaon on smooth roads lined with lush green trees on either side. We stopped somewhere midway to feast on oranges and were almost tempted to pitch our tents and stay put. We drove on and like all good dreams coming to an end; the lush green jungles were soon replaced with the concrete, polluted industrial jungle of Bhilai. We sped on till we reached Raipur by noon and spent the rest of the day lazing in the luxury of the hotel room.

Day 4: Raipur to Jagdalpur is a scenic drive through the Keshkal forests. This is said to be the famous Dandakaranya Forest of the Ramayan. We made our way through steep curves on the ghats and the wet fresh smell wafting in due to the slight drizzle drenching the earth putting us in a trance like state. Reached Jagdalpur by noon and were greeted by the manager at Hotel Rainbow. Before starting out on the trip, we had already fixed up with one Mr. Awesh Ali to meet us at the hotel and be our guide during our stay at Bastar. While we finished with our checking in and having lunch, Awesh came over and we quickly charted out the plan for the next 3 days. Today, we were to head out to the Chitrakote Falls – India’s Niagara. Kanger Ghati, Dantewada and Narayanpur were to follow suite.

It was a beautiful 40km drive through the fields to the Chitrakote Falls – India’s answer to the Niagara falls and it was turning cloudy and gloomy. As we neared our destination, we could hear the loud roar of the plunging waters. The monsoon had gone by and water levels had receded, still the 100 ft drop into the valley below was a sight to behold. We walked down to the base of the falls to watch the magnificence of the horse-shoe shaped fall. It was a feast to the senses – the smell of the water and forests around, the sound and the sight of the massive volume of water before us. We felt tiny in front of this mighty creation of nature! Soon it was dark as we made our way up the hill and it had started drizzling. We hustled into the nearby canteen and the caretaker offered some hot ginger chai! Bliss!!

Day 5 – We set off to first see the rare Hill Mynah at the forest conservator’s office. This bird is exclusive to the Bastar region and has the rare ability to mimic human voice. As the guide called out to the bird, we were taken aback by the near reproduction of the same by the bird. After spending a few minute, we proceed towards Kanger Ghati or the Kanger Valley National Park.
The drive was one through the countryside. It was dotted with interesting tombstones which were colorful and varied. Paintings of the things the person had owned eg car, bullock cart etc or the things he did (farming, teaching etc) in his life were depicted on these tombstones. If the person was a prominent figure eg a village headman, his tomb was almost like a shrine. These were along the highway with swaying fields of mustard & paddy behind them.

Awesh then offered to take us on a small detour to a tribal village, where we sampled the main breakfast/lunch of the tribals – a small cup stitched out of leaves containing corn gruel. Awesh informed that this was nourishing enough to quell the hunger through the day. In the evening, mahua (liquor made out of mahua flowers) is consumed along with the evening meal to provide a high. As we explored the tribal culture, we came upon the worship area of the tribals.

Every village has a god man / priest who provided solutions to the ills plaguing each member of the community.The temple consisted of a thatch worship area, a wooden swing (the seat of the priest) and an offering area where animal sacrifices were made. It was an eerie feeling!

From here we proceed toward the Kanger Valley National Park which has a rich biodiversity with a mixed forest of bamboo, teak and sal. It is believed to be the densest forest in South Asia and truly in some places, sunlight struggled to make its way to the roads. There were hardly any roads and we prayed that our poor car would not suffer too badly.

Deep in the forest we came upon a watchtower and alongside were limestone caves called Kutumsar. As we waited for the guide to get the lantern to explore the caves, we climbed the tower to get a birds’ eye view of the park.There were endless stretches of greenery all around – tall trees of 200 feet and above reaching out to the skies. Awesh then signaled that the lantern had arrived and we commenced our descent into the caves. The entrance to the cave was a small steel door not more than 3 ft in height. We crawled in for 10-15 ft through pitch darkness because the guide carrying the lantern shielded most of the light. We ended up bumping our heads against the cave roof as we stepped out to a slightly larger opening and we got our first sight of the limestone formations in the dim light. Further on we came across a shallow pool which we were informed had fish. Despite the absence of light, life forms are supported in this small ecosystem which surprised us. It was soon getting claustrophobic and muggy and we were anxious to get out of the caves before the lantern ran out of fuel.

As we came out, Awesh suggested an interesting wildlife sighting spot – Bhainsa Darha and we soon proceeded towards that. It was past noon and we were also getting hungry. So we decided to stop on the way and have a quick lunch of packed parathas. A tribal walked by swinging a stick making a strange whistling sound. On enquiring, the guide said that this was the local way of warning animals as well as signaling group members. We were keen on acquiring these as artifacts, which Awesh promised to help us pick up the next day at a village mart. We proceeded for about an hour and a half.

The roads were getting progressively worse. On the way we crossed narrow concrete bridges across jungle streams into thick bamboo thickets. We soon realized that we had reached a point which was extremely narrow and the absence of experienced forest guides and a good 4WD could end up leaving us stranded in the middle of nowhere.

We decided to call off the visit to Bhainsa Darha and retraced our way back. We were about an hour from the exit of the park when at one point we had to negotiate a steep descent from the ghats onto a narrow concrete bridge. To avoid hitting the edge of the slab, we inched the vehicle towards the bridge and were almost there, when a small lapse of concentration / patience resulted in the lower chassis and the engine striking the edge of the concrete slab with a loud THUD! Almost immediately, as I (Kartik) tried to engage the 2nd gear, I realized that something was amiss with the gear box. The vehicle could only engage the 1st & 3rd gears. We decided to exit the park as soon as possible hoping that the vehicle would hold out till we got back to civilization.

With great relief we managed to exit the park before dark and reach our hotel, whence we enquired with the manager for a Maruti Service station. While we were discussing with the manager, the guide brought to our notice, oil draining out of the gear box. It was now clear that if this is not fixed, the entire trip is in jeopardy and any significant delay would mean cancellation of our onward bookings. There was a service station nearby but was closing for the day and the next 2 days were holidays on account of Diwali. In panic, we called up the service station to enquire if the vehicle could be fixed the same day with inducements for higher payments. To our disappointment, we discovered that the service station did not have the requisite parts and anyways sourcing the same from Raipur could be done only after 3 days! The manager then came to our rescue citing that he had a local mechanic who could take a look at the vehicle. With lot of anxiety we took the vehicle to the mechanic, hoping to reach there before the oil completely drained out. The mechanic shop was a small one room tool shop with a lathe and we were wondering if he could fix what seemed like a fairly complicated problem. The mechanic then pulled out a small container and drained out the oil completely out of the gear box. He then diagnosed that the impact had bent one of the connecting rods in the gear box and the seal had been damaged. He said he could fix the rod and provide us a temporary seal for the gear box. While he straightened out the rod with the lathe and used shellac to provide the seal, we wondered if this quickfix would withstand the rigors of the remaining leg of our trip. We were yet to cover Kanha & Bandhavgarh. He then allayed our fears to some extent by stating that this would hold out unless we had the same misfortune again and recommended that we get the parts fixed in a more permanent manner at Raipur. We decided to hire a vehicle for the next day, so as to rest the Wagon R.

Day 6 – Today we were to explore the Dantewada region which was coming increasingly under the influence of the Naxalites. We were assured, that as civilians, we were unlikely to be targetted.

We covered a few temples, prominent among them being Danteshwari, Mama Bhanja and the three-faced Ganesh temple. We returned to Kanger region to cover the other main natural wonder - the Tirathgarh falls.

This is a cascade of water at seven levels – the cumulative height is over 100 ft.The first level is a straight fall of around 50 ft and forms into a pool below. With the crowds being thin at this time of the year, it was nice to just sit on the rocks with the feet in the currents and contemplate.

]Below this level as one makes his / her way down the narrow stairs and pathway, the water continues to cascade past a small temple (hence “tirath”) and finally flows as a river into the ravines.

Hot bhajiyas and tea gave us company when we were back at the top. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by to see the Kangerdhara, a smaller but equally beautiful waterfall.

Day 7 – Our last day in Bastar started with a drive to Narayanpur enroute to Raipur. On the way, as promised, Awesh halted by a village market and we entered a small shop having various articles made out of bamboo and wood. We admired the workmanship and bought 2 whistling sticks which were beautifully carved.

Narayanpur, just a distance away, is a handicraft centre. Here we stopped by the house of an artist who specialized in bell metal works. It was fascinating delving into the metallurgical technology of those times and watching the whole process of the casts being made, metal being poured into it, baking the whole thing in a small furnace and finally chipping away at the casts to reveal the breathtaking figures. As we bid goodbye to Bastar, we promised to return to this beautiful region sooner or later. Our journey continued upto Raipur where we halting for the night. And it being Diwali, there was no way we could get our car checked again as suggested by that mechanic. We just decided to go ahead with our onward drive into Madhya Pradhesh and take things as it came.

More about the MP leg in the next blog!