My birth land, Madhya Pradesh. The “Heart of India” beckoning its son.

I’ve had a few biking (motorbike) trips here and there but none to my मातृभूमि. I had been planning since 2 years now and everytime it turned out to be fiasco. But this time around Manas suggested we should try out car as our vehicle.

Route

Day 1: Amravati

Dec 13, 2014

We had planned for Jabalpur with stopover at Nagpur, going through Dhule (via NH3 or AH47). The road pretty much pristine all the way. At Dhule the NH would’ve changed numbers from 3 to 6, NH-6, The Central India’s East-West link.

We expected that too be along the lines of NH3, but it wasn’t. The road changed to a 2-lane without a median. The road itself was not in a great condition. We had covered around 300kms in 5hrs but just reach Jalgaon from Dhule (90km) took 2 hrs or so. At 1.30pm when we stopped for food, Nagpur was another 400km away, and out of question as our night halt. It had to be Amravati. The road gave our first breakdown, a puncture somewhere before Akola. Our next stop was in Akola where cops unnecessarily stopped us checking for documents, etc. and had to bribe them for not carrying an original RC Book (we carried just a xerox copy).

Post 5.30 ~ 6pm it was dark and had to trudge carefully on the road with overtaking now becoming even difficult with the oncoming high-beam cars and trucks. Amravati came somewhere around 8pm and we lodged ourselves in one.

Day 2: Jabalpur

Dec 14, 2014

We left Amravati around 7am for Jabalpur via Nagpur – Pench. It was foggy all the way till Nagpur, but the road was lovely, big, wide and with median. This ran till Nagpur where we took an unfortunate by-pass which was so bad that even trucks had to navigate through the potholes as big as the roads themselves, a Maruti Alto was no match. This was where we found the front right in the bonnet was creaking. We tried to find what it was, but couldn’t. The bad stretch was only 2km – 3kms but cost us more than 40mins.

Later the road improved and took us into the Mowgli territory, Pench Tiger Reserve. This forrest was the one that housed the stories of Mowgli like kid. It were these stories that inspired Rudyard Kipling to write The Jungle Book. Pench is divides Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh (MP). As soon Pench was over and we moved ahead of Seoni, the ghat section got back into a big 6 laned highway. We stopped around Seoni for a tea break around 11.30pm.

Post that Manas road till Jabalpur where we had our lunch somewhere around 2pm. We reached my uncle’s house visiting the famous Balancing Rock around 4pm. Jabalpur was chilly.

Day 3: Bhedhaghat Marble Rocks and Dhuandhar, Jabalpur

Dec 15, 2014

After a very heavy breakfast of Mutter kachoris prepared by my aunt we headed out for one of the flagship tourist attractions of MP. First halt was Bhedhaghat Marble Rocks, where the boating through the gorges of Narmada river takes us into a Marble walled serpant flows of माँ नरमदा.

The next halt was Dhuandhar waterfalls which in roughly mean “Misty watefalls”.  The huge falls creating a mist around the area and hence the name.

We also enjoyed a ride over the waterfalls with a cable car (rope-way) which took us to the otherside of the river, where a restaurant at a scenic place served us lunch.

Day 4: Bargi Dam Cruise, Jabalpur

Dec 16, 2014

This morning it was Aloo Bonda that silenced our hunger after which we headed out to see Madan Mahal, walking distance from my aunt’s place. Its more of a watch tower on a huge bolder atop a small hill. Now more or less in ruins, but luckily acknowledged by ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) as an important piece in history. From here one could see the entire Jabalpur city.

The main attraction for today was a Bargi reservoir through a  30km winding road from the Jabalpur city to Khamariya. Where the Bargi dam halts the flow of Narmada and creates a huge reservoir. Its from here where the water flow is controlled downstream which continues through Dhuandhar and Bhedaghat. MP Tourism has setup boating, small-cruise facility over here so that people can enjoy the expanse of the water body. The ₹110 ticket allowed us to go deep into the reservoir an hour long ride that served piping hot hindi-item-number music on its deck so that kids and adults alike could enjoy the chilly breeze with their dance steps.

We were contemplating on our next stop, whether it would be Amarkantak (The highest point in Satpura, MP and also the origin of river Narmada) or Pachmarhi a popular Hill station of Madhya Pradesh. We zeroed in on Pachmarhi.

Day 5: to Pachmarhi

Dec 17, 2014

We had forgotten to see the huge Shiva statue in a temple-sque enviors of Jabalpur. So early morning we left for it. The fog in Jabalpur was thick. When we reached the place, I couldn’t see the statue, it was only as I waked towards the centre of the park the sitting Shankar slowly emerged out of the fog, revealing its massive scale of around 50feet +.

We left around 10.30am for Pachmarhi, via Narsingpur – Pipariya. It was all a state highway but the road was in an excellent condition, just wide enough for 2 cars but neatly lined and smooth. We had lunch around 2pm in Pipariya and left for Pachmarhi at 3pm.

Pipariya to Pachmarhi was just 50km but that 50km was of clean long, winding road. 10-15km ahead of Pipariya was flat, but then the Satpura National Park invited us into its depth. The road became narrower which completely ruled out a possibility of an overtaking maneuver unless we came down from the road on to the flat dusty bed of the road. This road was a continuous uphill climbing to 3555 feet above sea level, the altitude of Pachmarhi.

We booked a single night halt at a hotel along with the next day’s excursion of attractions around Pachmarhi with a Maruti Suzuki Gypsy (Jeep). The dinner was pathetic at a local restaurant which served us an uncooked chicken-tikka which was also tasting bad, we couldn’t have anything of it.

Day 6: Pandav Caves, Bee Fall, Reechgarh, Dhupgarh, Pachmarhi

Dec 18, 2014

We had to take receipt of ₹900 (₹600 car + ₹300 a guide) to enter into the inner green blanket of Pachmarhi’s Satpura Tiger Reserve. First stop was Pandav Caves, which reminded me of many caves in Maharashtra, typically that of Lenyadri, Junnar district, Pune. 5 caves atop on a small hill – where the Pandavs resided during their वनवास. A beautifully curated garden downstairs gave a good photo opportunity for most tourists.

Back down we had Maggi noodles a tea and headed out for Bee Fall, a water fall named due to its bee like stinging feeling when one sits under it. The fall is some ride to an edge of a moutain from where one has to trek 400m down to the base of the fall to enjoy its beauty, the fresh refreshing fall’s charge drains immediately as we have to climb back up to the jeep.

There was still time for lunch and we decided to check out another attraction, Reechgarh. Its a big cave like place with a cave like entry to an opening which has a periphery of huge rocks around it and giving a very small opening at the top almost 90 feet above. The other side of the entry is an edge of the mountain also known as the Echo point. An echo of a shout is heard almost after 2 seconds and is a lot different in experience from the normal echo points that tourists typically enjoy.

Lunch followed, a good Veg Gutte ki subzi. The next stop was the last for the day, Dhoopgarh / Dhupgarh. The highest point in the Satpura range. But to get to it one has to travel well over 10kms from Pachmarhi along steep and narrow roads through the mountain ranges. Dhupgarh named after its all-day sunny blast atop the mountain. The edges to both the east and the west labelled as Sunrise and Sunset points gather tourists. Since most of the tourists are from Madhya Pradesh and surrounding regions where the concept of a hilly terrain is not common, its quite a place to see the sun set for the honeymooners that frequent the hill station. MP Tourism has created a nice little Amphitheater to enjoy the sunset.

Post the setting sun, our driver took us back to pachmarhi in his Rally Sport styled driving. We had guts to try another Chicken dish, but yet again fell flat on our faces, this time yet another restaurant to hit us. Another dish going to waste we had to calm our stomachs with good old omelette-bread on a road-side shack.

With MP’s tour and major attractions getting over, we were left with just our journey back to Mumbai. This too would require a night halt and we decided to go via Indore and atleast enjoy its Chappan Chat street.

Day 7: to Indore

Dec 19, 2014

We checked out early by 7.30am, but Manas couldn’t find his pouch of electronic gadgets and it cost us another 30mins before we finally headed towards Pipariya, around 9am along the road we pulled over and ate our breakfast that we had bought the earlier day, Cream rolls, Cake and Chakali.

At Pipariya we headed eastwards towards Hoshangabad. At Hoshangabad we enquired about the route towards Indore, a via-Bhopal or via-Harda. Most of the guys suggested us via-Rehti-Khategaon. So we floored the pedal along NH59A. Around 1.30-2pm we had reached Kategaon and were looking for a good restaurant, but couldn’t find any. We settled for a cleaner version of dhaba, a bhojanalaya. The food was really good and tasty. Veg. though, Manas had given up hopes of having a Non Veg. in MP.

Indore was just 110km from Khategaon, but the restuarant owner said we’d take around 2-2.5 hrs to reach. He was right the smooth road went bad thanks to the extremely high plying of heavy trucks coming in and out of Indore. We reached the outskirts of Indore around 4.30 – 5pm. We settled for Ginger Hotel. The heavy traffic in Indore reminded us we were back to mad-civilization. Chris-cross cars, bikes, trucks, signals you name it.

We dumped our bags in the room and headed out for Chappan Dukan (56 shops) chaat street. Where we were welcomed by groups of teenagers and elders alike storming across multiple street-side shops for chat and sweets. We stopped across Vijay Chat house. While others were buzzing ordering stuff, we wondered what we could order, Khopra Batata Kachoris or Batata kachoris, etc… We ordered Coconut Potato Pea kachoris and various other forms of it. While doing that we ordered Shikanji, though normally a sweet lime water concoction, but here in Indore its a thick rich drink made up of Shrikhand, Rabri, Milk and Dry fruits. The shop owner was quick to spot us as tourists reading the available food items and offered us the drinking and ensuring that we try to identify the taste of its varied ingredients.

Post our diabetes and cholesterol killer food we were back to our hotel room.

Day 8: to Mumbai

Dec 20, 2014

We had around 600km to cover, so we headed off early by 7.30am but not without a visit back to Chappan. This time for its famous Pohe, Poha / Pohe a dish of Rice flakes with tasty garnishing of farsan, sev is a mouth watering dish. Yet again we saw hordes storming early morning. But MP is known for its love for food, time and age doesn’t matter.

With a sumptuous filling we finally head out for Mumbai, back on NH3 or AH47. We crossed the border around 11am and soon had crossed Dhule. The chilly MP weather had turned into a warmer dry barren air. We had our food 30km North of Nashik around 2pm, with this speed we could’ve been home by 6.30pm.

But as Mumbai neared, the traffic became worse, had to wait for 30mins at Kalyan Murbad phata. and then things got slower as we reached Thane. The SCLR was quick but Kalina was just long red tailed lines of cars.

But relatively the 600km took us only about 11 hours, thanks to NH-3.

Photos

Madhya Pradesh Road Trip December 2014