Nagpur-Pachmarhi trip

Hello everyone...🙏

First of all, I apologise for not updating my blog since almost 2 long years. I was so busy in everyday task, or may be, my mind was so preoccupied with the works that I couldn't get time or intent to write blogs. But one thing is very sure that I eagerly wanted to go to a calm and peaceful place for retreat, to forget all the tensions, to relax in the lap of mother nature.

So, I knew that this week, there were two holidays, first, Mahavir Jayanti on April 04, Tuesday and second, Good Friday on April 07, but due to my Husband's hectic job, I had not planned anything. However, in the evening of April 04, my husband gave me a pleasent surprise by telling me that there were three continuous holidays this weekend and we can travel to 'Pench national park'. I thought that in summer season, we might not get that amazing feeling, which we expected, so initially I didn't get excited from the idea...but, later after thinking again and again I entered in a mode of thoughts about jungle safari in the morning & late eveing hours watching wild animals. Next day, (April 05), I tried to get booking done for either Pench or Tadoba National park, as a colleague of mine told me that Tadoba was better option to visit than Pench to see tigers. But, I could not get booking of any of the national parks as both were already booked on given dates....so I checked on internet for any other tourist place nearby and finally decided to go to 'Pachmarhi', Madhya Pradesh, which was nearest major tourist place and hill station, where we did not require such bookings. In the evening, after coming back from office, I asked my Husband about Pachmarhi and he agreed. However, he was tired from his office work, so he fell asleep without any further discussions about hotel or bus/taxi booking. I also wanted to sleep as I was also tired, but before sleeping, I checked for hotel rooms.

Next day (April 06), as soon as I woke up, I asked my husband whether he saw the link of hotel room I sent on his mobile last night. He told me to book another hotel. As the time was passing by, the availability of hotels for April 07-09 got reduced. So, after consulting with my husband, I immediatly booked a hotel, and also a cab from Nagpur to Pachmarhi (April 07, 4 pm) and return (April 09) through Makemytrip website. My husband had to visit Pune for some office work on April 06, he returned at 2 am on April 07. He took rest in the morning of April 07. I was also not feeling well. We had lunch at 2 pm, took rest and got ready for the journey. As soon as we got ready, it started raining. Weather became pleasent. Cab driver arrived at about 4:40, so our journey to Pachmarhi started at 4:45 pm.

Due to pleasant weather, our happiness got double. I was curious to know the places falling in the journey to Pachmarhi. I noticed that after Nagpur city, we traversed through 'Koradi', where we saw two huge chimneys throwing out smoke. On asking, my husband told me that these were Adani's power plants. Then we passed through 'Saoner', Nagpur district, where I saw many big posters of Congress MLA Sunil Kedar of Saoner Assembly Constituency. After that, we arrived at Madhya Pradesh border, where our driver asked ₹720 as State tax and went in a room with a file in his hand. We didn't know that besides toll tax, there was another tax named State tax. We enquired from driver that we had never paid such tax in Uttarakhad, UP, Delhi,etc. He replied that the tax was not levied on private vehicles.

After passing through Maharashtra-MP border, the driver stopped at a Devi temple. After offering prayers at the temple, we came back to our cab, and moved forward. I asked the driver about the name of the temple. He informed that it was Banjara Devi temple. He further told that all the drivers offer prayers to the devi while passing through this route to take her blessings. During journey, I observed that in this region, there were plateu type structures alongside roads. Trees beside road were of bamboo. I confirmed from driver whether these trees were of bamboo. He replied, "yes madam, here mostly bamboo and teak woods are in prominence". Gradually, it started getting dark. Next main city on the way was Chhindwada city, MP. At about 10 pm we reached Pachmarhi. At 10:30 we were in our hotel room. We ordered dinner at our room. After having dinner, we fell asleep.

Next day (April 08) we had our breakfast in hotel and asked cab driver to take us to the place, where we could get Govt gypsy for all the toursit spots. In Pachmarhi, for tourism, one has to book Govt gypsy and buy Govt pass, otherwise entry to many places was not allowed. Cab driver took us to 'Bison Lodge', a Govt. museum, near which, one has to stand in long queue to buy entry pass and gypsy pass from counter. In the gypsy, we moved towards Pandav caves, our first tourist destination in Pachmarhi. The place resembled with Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves, where (Bhubaneshwar trip) I had visited in 2015 with my parents and my mausi. However, here we had to climb more steps. We clicked some pics and came back to gypsy. After it, Gypsy driver dropped us near Bee falls. We had to do trekking for more than 500 mtrs. Stepping down more than 350 steps, we reached Bee falls, where, the water was flowing down from a very high rock and many people were enjoying beneath the falls. Many big rock stones were there in our way to the falls. Besides, huge crowd kept us far from falls. After clicking some pics and videos we started to go back. Climbing those 350 steps was very painful and tiring. In the half way, one has to sit, drink water, relax and again start climbing. Finally, we reached to our gypsy.

Gypsy driver asked us to have lunch before moving towards our next spot. We had lunch at a restaurant nearby and thereafter proceeded towards "Reechhgarh", as mentioned by gypsy driver. Here also, we had to do trekking for about 500 mtrs, up & down. There were caves made from red-brown hard rocks. My husband had got cough and cold since last night. May be that's why, he was not looking in a very good mood while trekking to any of the destinations. However, I clicked some pics and videos of the caves and asked my husband to take some pics of mine while climbing rocks.

Coming back to gypsy, I enquired the driver about how many spots were left. He replied that only Dhoopgarh was left, which was mainly famous for the views of sunrise and sunset. It was about 4 pm then. Suddenly, mobile of my husband started ringing. He had a call from his office, wherein his Bosses were calling him to attend office to do an office work, though it was holiday that day. He became tensed due to the sudden orders and decided to return to Nagpur the same day (April 08). Anyways, dhoopgarh was also a rocky place from where we could see the green mountain range far away. Otherwise, rocks in Dhoopgarh were black solid rocks. Driver told us that black substance was "Shilajit". He said "ye pahadon ka paseena hota hai." He told that there were many "jadi-buti (medicinal herbs) in these mountains. My husband asked him about any shop which sells these herbs. He said that he would take us to one such shop. So after Dhoopgarh, he took us to the said shop. We bought some products, all of which were very costly.

Gypsy driver dropped us back to Bison lodge, where our Cab driver came to pick us up. Meanwhile, my husband was very stressed due to his office work and was continuously busy on phone all the while. We came back to hotel, packed our bags and returned to Nagpur. On the way back, driver again stopped at banjari devi temple and gave us prasaad of the temple. He also dropped us to a Hanuman temple where we had darshan, offered prayers and took prasad. We reached Nagpur at about 10 pm.

If I look back, the journey was cool. In only one day, we could see so many places, learned so much from everywhere, especially about the terrain of middle India. As we always travel to Uttarakhand by flight, I never got a chance to see the terrain of middle India.

I think, journey to our favourite places is the time, which we cherish so much. There is always a curiosity to reach our beautiful destination while enjoying places on the way. Besides, during journey, we get so much precious time to think about so many things in our life. Otherwise, our routine is-home to office and office to home. At home, household works and at office, office work and tensions. So, I suggest u all to choose a beautiful place and make a plan to visit there.