Day-6 | 09-June-2011 | Jabalpur-Bandhavgarh National Park | 228.9 Kms | 1861.5 Kms

At last, the day had come for me to make my long back dream come true! Hurray… Yes! It was my long back dream to set out for a jungle safari in jeep & today I would be heading to Bandhavgarh for the same causeJ. But I would be leaving to Bandhavgarh by NOON & thought to finish off with the sightseeing of Jabalpur by then. It was 7:15 AM when I was heading towards first & important place in the list. It was Duhadhar Falls! After crossing NH-7 by pass & riding for few Kms in Bhopal NH, took a left diversion & moved ahead a little. Morning vista around the village was pretty charmingJ.

Morning Vista!!!

After few Kms, parked the bike in parking place & walked towards the falls. On the way towards falls, there were plenty of shops about marble stuffs in line & bought some unique things for my sisters. Man! What a falls it is! Simply magnificent. The glorious falls was flowing like king. After loads of clicks in different views, walked back & moved towards Bedhaghat where boating is done in the river.

Marble shops in plenty...

Glorious Duhadhar Falls :)

Look at the current in water!!!

Fisher men risking their life...

Side view of Duhadhar...

Duhadhar from distant view point

Other side of Duhadhar...

Good that I got it clicked by some one...

Climbed down few steps to the ghat area & enquired about the boating service.

“thees rupia ka boat ride hain lekin usko kum se kum phandra log hona chahiye! Agar aap private hire karna chahate hain to char so lagega…”

Damn! Very costly affair & I can’t even collect 15 heads for the ride. Mean while when I was clicking the surroundings, there was another family who had hired motor boat for the ride & were waiting for the boat to arrive. I requested one of their family members to take me along with them as I was single & they agreed without any objection. Huh! Finally some arrangement has been done & was bit relaxed. While waiting for the boat, had a casual chit chat with them & they were from Indore.

“Leh Ladakh on bike! Akele?? Very adventerous yaar!” was the comment from them.

Narmada River in Bedhaghat!!!

Boat arrived in some time & was all set for a small 30 mins expedition in a Narmada River flowing between the huge cliffs. The guide had an amazing sense of humour & was explaining the places along with rhyming words! He said,

“Shankar bhagvan ki Jai! Eeshwar bhagvan ki jai! Parvati mata ki jai! Kareena kapoor ki jai!” What?? What is he saying I thought?

But later on, he said,

“Kareena ne yaha joh Raat ka nasha abhi gaayi, aur Bedhaghat main uska nasha abhi tak utra nahin!” J J

Guide told us that there are places where the depth of water is around 600 fts. Man! So scary. While our boat took various routes all I could see was that instead of normal rocks, it was marble rocks all over. He showed us various colours of it like white, black, brown, light blue & so on.

“Yaha pe film ka hero jump marta hain! Lekin asal main uske putle pheki jaati hain! Agar woh jump marta hain to paani se bahar nahin balki duniya se bahar ho jata hain!”

After his entertaining description, was back on the main land & asked the person about my share for the ride & he told,

“Aisa kuch nahin hain! Hum to waise bhi ja rahe the!”

“No sir! I will pay you something at least…”

“Ok then! Pachas dena. Main uss guide ko deta hoon!!!”

White marbles of Bedhaghat...

Closer look of White marbles...

Scary way to go...

Beauty with danger!!!

Huge cliffs!!!

Howz that???

Indore family with whom I had my boat ride...

After thanking him for taking me along with this family, got back to town & filled my tank in HP outlet. Next in the list was Madan Mahal Fort & Balancing Rocks. As both were in the same road, explored both of them in not more than 30 mins time. Madan Mahal fort was not exciting after all it was just a small room & rest were just ruins in ground.

Balancing rocks...

Steps to Madan Mahal Fort...

Madan Mahal Fort!!!

Jabalpur as seen from the fort...

It was already 12:15 PM & got back to room & had lunch in nearby Bhojanalaya! After taking the small nap in room, kept my huge luggage bag in reception & loaded the bike with 2 small bags in box. Settled the bill & enquired the route to Bandhavgarh National Park Tala zone. As Mukesh Burman a guide in BNP had suggested yesterday, enquired for Shahipur road & all were showing me the route towards Bhopal! What the heck. After some distance, enquired with another guy & only then I realised that there are 2 Shahipur’s one in BNP road & other on Bhopal road. Man! What confusion. The person gave me proper route in writing & after several round abouts in city; finally I was in Kundam route.

The road was absolutely charming in terms of junglee look around & road quality. Riding at steady speed in such a super smooth no traffic road was bliss! Made it to Shahipur by 4:10 PM & took a break for a while after which again geared up to hit Tala. After reaching Umaria, enquired a local about the route to Bandhavgarh Tala & he showed me the proper route. The excitement of being in Jungle was to the core as I rode inside itJ. Boy! What a jungle! No wonder why Jungle Book was born between these Jungles…

Beautiful roads to ride on...

Nearing the Jungle...

Cutting edge with nature...

Super smooth road I pass through..

Bandhavgarh, here I come!!!

But the bad part was that last 12 Kms of the road was quite miserable. Thought it might be due to the reason that if there are good roads, then there might be some accidents with wild animals against speeding machines. It was just about 8 Kms to Tala that I stopped for a photo break. A security person nearby came close & said,

“Ab aage kahin be nahi rok na Tala tak! Jo bhi dekna hain, chalte hue dekna bus… Yaha rukna mana hain!”

“Acha ok! Main to isliye rooka kyon ki aap bhi kadhe the tho socha yahin pe rok ke ek photo keechlu”

“Woh main samaj gaya! Per aage mat rookna! Yeh sub jaanvar goomne ki jagah hain..”

“Oh! Toh sher sub aate hain kya yaha par???”

“Yeh to usi ka jungle hain! Kahin bhi aasakta hain…” Man let’s move on & just made it to Tala with no breaks.

Once in Tala, enquired about the Mukesh’s Tea shop & met him their sipping a cup of tea. It was pleasure meeting him & after a couple of chit chats, he arranged a room for 800 bux including breakfast, lunch & dinner. He also told he will try his best to come as a guide with me tomorrow. Reached the room he arranged & it was quite comfy one. Got fresh & with nothing else to do, it was a movie time. Mukesh came late evening to collect the ticket so that he can register it well in advance. He told me to be ready by 4:45 AM tomorrow. Got the dinner delivered to room & post dinner, got little busy writing blog for the day.

First view of Bandhavgarh National Park



Decent Kolkata Kutir...

While I was concentrating on composing the blog, a small snake slowly sneaked out from under the cot. Shittttt! What the heck is happening here???? While it was looking for a route near my shoes, came out slowly & tried to call room boys but they dint turn up. With my mind running blank, called up Mukesh & he immediately called up room boys & they came to the spot in no time. One dude looked at the snake & said,

“Sir aap bahar aayee ye! Yeh Zehareela saap hain!” Duuuummmm! Felt as if my balls busted!!!!

“Pakka yeh Zehareela saap hain??” I wanted to confirm!

“Ha! Maarde ise??” he asked the other guy!

“Are ise maaro mat! Paapa sirf bagaavo bus…” I told him clearly…

He laughed at me saying this is the common thing here & it might have come since it rained here yesterday. After a little play he got the snake out of my room & told he needs to kill it else it will come again. Phattt… He hit the snake hard from stick & after a while, movement of the snake stopped completelyLLL. This entire scene took good amount of time & it was already 12:30 AM by then. As I had to get up early tomorrow, stopped writing the blog, got the room completely checked for any more snake peaks & crashed in fear!

Deadly one which took my sleep away...