Trip members: Karthik, Sathish Raja
Trip date: 29, 30 Sept 2017, 1, 2 Oct 2017
Trip Plan : Chennai - Raipur - Rajim - Gangrel - Jagdalpur - Bastar - Chitrakoot - Tirathgarh - Ghatarani - Raipur - Jabalpur (MP) - Chennai
4-days trip planned to explore the not so unexplored parts of India - Credible Chattisgarh. The plan was to visit Chattisgarh for the widest waterfall of India - Chitrakoot and cover areas like Bastar around it. The plan during the Dusshera was an amazing coincidence as Bastar Dusshera is one of the very special celebrations in India.
Day-1
We reached Raipur, capital of Chattisgarh by flight from Chennai by 9 am. We had booked our cab through online portals and got a very good cab Dzire. We started the trip towards Jagdalpur. Jagdalpur is the nearest town to Chitrakoot waterfalls. Enroute, we planned to visit couple of places - Rajim and Gangrel.
Rajim is 55 kms from Raipur. Important places to see here are Triveni Sangam and Rajivlochan temple. The temple is situated by the banks of Triveni Sangam. Three rivers merge here and is very popular locally. Rajim Triveni Sangam is by rivers - Mahanadi, Pairi and Sondur. There are small temples all around for local rituals. Rajivlochan temple is a group of temples with beautiful rock carvings dedicated for Lord Vishnu. The temple looks to be renovated with brick work few years later. The sculptures are quite intricate with most of them resembling naga based. The temple hosts sculptures of various avatars of Lord Vishnu. We spent around 20 minutes in this temple.
We started next to Gangrel dam. Gangrel is 66 kms from Raipur. Gangrel dam is around 11 kms from the NH. It is built across the Mahanadi River. The arterial roads were all hosting Dusshera festivities. The Gangrel dam has a large reservoir and almost a km stretch. We walked across the dam and spent around twenty minutes taking few clicks as the dam had opened couple of shutters. There were no much shops around.
We then set off towards Jagdalpur. The roads were pretty bad mostly. Though is was 220 kms, it was estimated to reach in 6 hours. We stopped for tea and samosa at Dhamtri. Very spicy chutney and hot yummy samosa. Rememberable. As we crossed Kanker, driver told we cant find any other shops later and suggested to have lumch in Kanker. We crossed Kanker and returned back all the way to Entry point of Kanker to have food at Red Chilli. The restaurant looks very posh and stylish. We ordered for royal thali - rotis, two sabji mix veg and bhendi, paneer, dhall, pulao, sweet snd papad. The food was excellent and costed Rs.180. The food was definitely good and very good quality.
We went through the bumpy roads and looked like we could not see Chitrakoot falls on the same day. We planned to see Bastar palace enroute, and reached Jagdalpur by 6:30 pm. We checked in at Hotel Rainbow. The room are very spacious and old styled. The rooms were stinking and so were the towels. However, the mattress were good. During check-in, they told at the reception that the Dussera events are underway and the whole town is festival and suggested us to get the next road, where the whole scene was happening.
By sheer coincidence, we landed in Bastar on Dusshera, where this festival is the longest Indian festival. The festival runs for 75 days. The hotel we landed is just 500m from Bastar palace. This day - the ritual was happening in and around a fully decorated palace. Bastar Dussehra is the Longest Festival of The World. This is celebrated in Jagdalpur, Chattisgarh - Bastar region. Goddess Danteswari is the celebrated Goddess for Dussehra here. By custom, all tribal villages bring their Goddess to the Bastar palace and celebrate Dusshera and performing special pujas for Goddess Danteswari - carried 90 kms from Dantewada to Jagdalpur. They carry and dance with it inside the palace and lead the Bastar Raja to a podium. The whole walk to the podium is celebrated with lots of music, dance with the Chattris of Goddesses. The festival was a great exhibit of history and local culture. With thousands of localites gathered, next, the Raja welcomes Dantadevi Mata from Dantewada - 91 kms from Bastar. After the rituals, the Raja lifts the Chattri of Dantedevi and march to the palace. The whole place is fun with fireworks, music, crazy crowd, crowd chanting and much more. The event starts around 7 and went till 11 pm.
We had dinner in the restaurant of Hotel Rainbow. The food is quite good. The hectic travel was totally blown over by the Bastar festival.
Day-2
Started the day by 6:45 towards Chitrakoot. This is around 33 kms from Jagdalpur. The roads are quite good. We reached the broadest falls of India and known as Niagara of India by 7:30. The falls is just 100m walk from the parking area. We get to view the waterfalls from several view points by the side. The water though looks slow in the river part, it gains lots of momentum and looks ferocious where it falls. There are really no barriers for the tourists, we need to exercise caution. WOW moment guaranteed for the sound it makes and the color of muddy water! We took some photographs at peace as the crowd was very less early in the morning. There are steps to climb down and reach the base of the hill to see the waterfalls from ground level. The steps and walkway towards the steps are well laid. Once we got down, we can walk by anywhere as the rippling falls gives a shower like feel. There is boating facility and we were told it starts service by 10 am.
We had breakfast at the government restaurant, a walk of 1 km from the falls. We had poori and sabji and were quite average. By 8 am, the sun was already shining bright and we were sweating. We decided to move on and not wait for the boating. There is a small temple - Lord Chitrakooteswar near the falls. The temple is in the shape of Linga. We did some local shopping of tribal arts. This is the only area in Bastar region including Jagdalpur, where we could buy some souvenirs.
The next destination was Tirathgarh waterfalls. Tirathgarh falls is another very popular waterfalls in Chattisgarh. Tirathgarh is around 65 kms from Chitrakoot falls. We have to cross the forest checkoost of Kanker valley national park and enter this falls. There is a ticket counter where they charge Rs.25 per person and also for the car. Tirathgarh falls is around 5 kms from here on the right side of the counter. The Kailash and Kutumsar caves are located in the left side - around 30 kms from the counter. Unfortunately, we could not visit Kutumsar and Kailash caves as they were said to be immersed in water during the monsoon. They are open only by November and the tourists are taken through a gypsy.
Tirathgarh falls - we need to climb down few steep well laid steps. Tirathgarh has water rumbling down in step like rock formation. They are five in number, aside each other and we get to see three of them in one sight. Walking further down, we could see all five. Tirathgarh is one the amazing falls that I have seen so far for its formation and the number of diversions it has. These five falls combine and become 2 streams of water and become big waterfalls again at the next level. We can see the next level below given an amazing view - a lake formation - waterfalls in a canyon like place and forming a big lake - wow guaranteed. One can reach further down through quite steep steps, difficult for elders to climb. We spent quality time here and the visit is definitely a memorable one.
It was around 1 pm by then, and we stopped by a local hotel at the base of the hill for lunch. The road side food was quite normal and was ok for the day. We reached back to the room and took some rest. We were very tired for all the climbing we did at the falls and this rest would help us better for the evening events of Bastar dusshera. It started raining quite heavily in the evening was quite a spoilsport for the celebrations. We went out by 6:30 to Bastar palace and understood things were about to start. We saw the king as well. We went around at the palace and some exhibhition like places and had some hot snacks like aloo tikki, wada, tea and popcorn. We also had dinner at a local hotel - hot yummy masala dosas.
Then, the chariot festival happened. The chariot was pulled across the streets by the people who were carrying the chattris previous day. We witnessed the Bastar dusshera chariot festival in our life and ended the day happily.
Day-3
6:30 am and we glanced the Bastar palace once in daylight and were on the highway towards Raipur. The route was quite foggy until 8 am with visibility as low as 10 metres. We stopped at a shop for breakfast by 8 am at Kondagaon. We had masala dosas and they were very good. The plan was to visit Ghatarani. Around noon, we reached Abanpur and has a mediocre lunch.
Ghatarani hosts a temple amongst a waterfalls. The place is quite remote and only tiny villages are seen enroute. It took us around 75 minutes to reach Ghatarani from Abanpur via Rajim. The temple for for Goddess Ghatarani is amongst the falls with well laid steps and organized walk ways for the crowd to navigate. The place also hosts dieties Annapoorni, Mahalakshmi and Linga. We spent around 45 minutes here.
The driver the took us to a small cave by the parking area. One had to crawl literally with totally bent backs and limbs and was quite difficult to get through. Nice experience. When we came out, we witnessed heavy rains.
We had our train to Jabalpur at 7 pm. It was around 4:30 we reached Raipur. We went to Magneto mall, regarded as the best in the capital town. It had all branded shops and food outlets. We spent around an hour and also accommodated dinner from the mall shops. We took the train - Amarkantak express to Jabalpur.
Day-4
Jabalpur is in Madhya Pradesh. We reached Jabalpur around 5 am, slight delay from the schedule. Railway retiring rooms were not available and we located a below average room for Rs.500 for refreshing. The hotel Bluemoon was quite terrible indeed with nasty bathroom; however, we managed to complete our essentials and out by 5:45. We hired a cab near bus stand for Rs.1800 for Jabalpur local sight seeing and drop to Jabalpur airport.
First, we visited Balancing rock. This is quite smaller and similar to the butter ball at Mahabalipuram. A rock is having minimal surface contact with a rock beneath and manages to stick to it.
Just opposite to Balancing rock are Madan Mohan fort and Sharada Devi temple. We first visited Sharada Devi temple - a small temple, visited by localites. We saw some people preparing for some rituals.
Madan Mohan Fort is reachable through 100 steps. We climbed them and they were quite ok to climb. The Madan Mohan Fort is carved out of a single big rock and remains locked because of poor maintenance. We spent jut five minutes and here and back to the car.
Next, was Dhuandhar waterfalls. The second best place in Jabalpur after Bheda ghat. One has to walk for around 10 minues to reach this falls in excellently laid and well directed path way by the banks of river Narmada. The falls is quite small but gives a nice downstream view, with water navigating through deep and narrow canyon like place. The place is thronged by marble art shops and one can buy souvenirs here. We spent around 1 hour here.
We then left to first rated place - marble rocks - Bheda ghat. The place is very serene, unique and special with the river going through narrow and deep gorge made up of marble stones. One had to pay Rs.100 for one hour trip. We get to see a different world altogather in the boating. Marbles of different kind - blue, yellow, white and black are seen as we go through the waters. We get very nice photographic opportunities, but, the direction of sunlight matters. The whole experience is enriched by rythmic and funfilled commentary by the oarsman. We thoroughly enjoyed the one hour and were encouraged to tip the boatmen. The boat trip is a group trip. Looks like the boating happens sunrise to sunset.
We then left to Jabalpur airport, which is around 20 kms from the city. We were quite early for the flight, however, that is all Jabalpur holds for the tourists.
Trip date: 29, 30 Sept 2017, 1, 2 Oct 2017
Trip Plan : Chennai - Raipur - Rajim - Gangrel - Jagdalpur - Bastar - Chitrakoot - Tirathgarh - Ghatarani - Raipur - Jabalpur (MP) - Chennai
4-days trip planned to explore the not so unexplored parts of India - Credible Chattisgarh. The plan was to visit Chattisgarh for the widest waterfall of India - Chitrakoot and cover areas like Bastar around it. The plan during the Dusshera was an amazing coincidence as Bastar Dusshera is one of the very special celebrations in India.
Day-1
We reached Raipur, capital of Chattisgarh by flight from Chennai by 9 am. We had booked our cab through online portals and got a very good cab Dzire. We started the trip towards Jagdalpur. Jagdalpur is the nearest town to Chitrakoot waterfalls. Enroute, we planned to visit couple of places - Rajim and Gangrel.
Rajim is 55 kms from Raipur. Important places to see here are Triveni Sangam and Rajivlochan temple. The temple is situated by the banks of Triveni Sangam. Three rivers merge here and is very popular locally. Rajim Triveni Sangam is by rivers - Mahanadi, Pairi and Sondur. There are small temples all around for local rituals. Rajivlochan temple is a group of temples with beautiful rock carvings dedicated for Lord Vishnu. The temple looks to be renovated with brick work few years later. The sculptures are quite intricate with most of them resembling naga based. The temple hosts sculptures of various avatars of Lord Vishnu. We spent around 20 minutes in this temple.
We started next to Gangrel dam. Gangrel is 66 kms from Raipur. Gangrel dam is around 11 kms from the NH. It is built across the Mahanadi River. The arterial roads were all hosting Dusshera festivities. The Gangrel dam has a large reservoir and almost a km stretch. We walked across the dam and spent around twenty minutes taking few clicks as the dam had opened couple of shutters. There were no much shops around.
We then set off towards Jagdalpur. The roads were pretty bad mostly. Though is was 220 kms, it was estimated to reach in 6 hours. We stopped for tea and samosa at Dhamtri. Very spicy chutney and hot yummy samosa. Rememberable. As we crossed Kanker, driver told we cant find any other shops later and suggested to have lumch in Kanker. We crossed Kanker and returned back all the way to Entry point of Kanker to have food at Red Chilli. The restaurant looks very posh and stylish. We ordered for royal thali - rotis, two sabji mix veg and bhendi, paneer, dhall, pulao, sweet snd papad. The food was excellent and costed Rs.180. The food was definitely good and very good quality.
We went through the bumpy roads and looked like we could not see Chitrakoot falls on the same day. We planned to see Bastar palace enroute, and reached Jagdalpur by 6:30 pm. We checked in at Hotel Rainbow. The room are very spacious and old styled. The rooms were stinking and so were the towels. However, the mattress were good. During check-in, they told at the reception that the Dussera events are underway and the whole town is festival and suggested us to get the next road, where the whole scene was happening.
By sheer coincidence, we landed in Bastar on Dusshera, where this festival is the longest Indian festival. The festival runs for 75 days. The hotel we landed is just 500m from Bastar palace. This day - the ritual was happening in and around a fully decorated palace. Bastar Dussehra is the Longest Festival of The World. This is celebrated in Jagdalpur, Chattisgarh - Bastar region. Goddess Danteswari is the celebrated Goddess for Dussehra here. By custom, all tribal villages bring their Goddess to the Bastar palace and celebrate Dusshera and performing special pujas for Goddess Danteswari - carried 90 kms from Dantewada to Jagdalpur. They carry and dance with it inside the palace and lead the Bastar Raja to a podium. The whole walk to the podium is celebrated with lots of music, dance with the Chattris of Goddesses. The festival was a great exhibit of history and local culture. With thousands of localites gathered, next, the Raja welcomes Dantadevi Mata from Dantewada - 91 kms from Bastar. After the rituals, the Raja lifts the Chattri of Dantedevi and march to the palace. The whole place is fun with fireworks, music, crazy crowd, crowd chanting and much more. The event starts around 7 and went till 11 pm.
We had dinner in the restaurant of Hotel Rainbow. The food is quite good. The hectic travel was totally blown over by the Bastar festival.
Day-2
Started the day by 6:45 towards Chitrakoot. This is around 33 kms from Jagdalpur. The roads are quite good. We reached the broadest falls of India and known as Niagara of India by 7:30. The falls is just 100m walk from the parking area. We get to view the waterfalls from several view points by the side. The water though looks slow in the river part, it gains lots of momentum and looks ferocious where it falls. There are really no barriers for the tourists, we need to exercise caution. WOW moment guaranteed for the sound it makes and the color of muddy water! We took some photographs at peace as the crowd was very less early in the morning. There are steps to climb down and reach the base of the hill to see the waterfalls from ground level. The steps and walkway towards the steps are well laid. Once we got down, we can walk by anywhere as the rippling falls gives a shower like feel. There is boating facility and we were told it starts service by 10 am.
We had breakfast at the government restaurant, a walk of 1 km from the falls. We had poori and sabji and were quite average. By 8 am, the sun was already shining bright and we were sweating. We decided to move on and not wait for the boating. There is a small temple - Lord Chitrakooteswar near the falls. The temple is in the shape of Linga. We did some local shopping of tribal arts. This is the only area in Bastar region including Jagdalpur, where we could buy some souvenirs.
The next destination was Tirathgarh waterfalls. Tirathgarh falls is another very popular waterfalls in Chattisgarh. Tirathgarh is around 65 kms from Chitrakoot falls. We have to cross the forest checkoost of Kanker valley national park and enter this falls. There is a ticket counter where they charge Rs.25 per person and also for the car. Tirathgarh falls is around 5 kms from here on the right side of the counter. The Kailash and Kutumsar caves are located in the left side - around 30 kms from the counter. Unfortunately, we could not visit Kutumsar and Kailash caves as they were said to be immersed in water during the monsoon. They are open only by November and the tourists are taken through a gypsy.
Tirathgarh falls - we need to climb down few steep well laid steps. Tirathgarh has water rumbling down in step like rock formation. They are five in number, aside each other and we get to see three of them in one sight. Walking further down, we could see all five. Tirathgarh is one the amazing falls that I have seen so far for its formation and the number of diversions it has. These five falls combine and become 2 streams of water and become big waterfalls again at the next level. We can see the next level below given an amazing view - a lake formation - waterfalls in a canyon like place and forming a big lake - wow guaranteed. One can reach further down through quite steep steps, difficult for elders to climb. We spent quality time here and the visit is definitely a memorable one.
It was around 1 pm by then, and we stopped by a local hotel at the base of the hill for lunch. The road side food was quite normal and was ok for the day. We reached back to the room and took some rest. We were very tired for all the climbing we did at the falls and this rest would help us better for the evening events of Bastar dusshera. It started raining quite heavily in the evening was quite a spoilsport for the celebrations. We went out by 6:30 to Bastar palace and understood things were about to start. We saw the king as well. We went around at the palace and some exhibhition like places and had some hot snacks like aloo tikki, wada, tea and popcorn. We also had dinner at a local hotel - hot yummy masala dosas.
Then, the chariot festival happened. The chariot was pulled across the streets by the people who were carrying the chattris previous day. We witnessed the Bastar dusshera chariot festival in our life and ended the day happily.
Day-3
6:30 am and we glanced the Bastar palace once in daylight and were on the highway towards Raipur. The route was quite foggy until 8 am with visibility as low as 10 metres. We stopped at a shop for breakfast by 8 am at Kondagaon. We had masala dosas and they were very good. The plan was to visit Ghatarani. Around noon, we reached Abanpur and has a mediocre lunch.
Ghatarani hosts a temple amongst a waterfalls. The place is quite remote and only tiny villages are seen enroute. It took us around 75 minutes to reach Ghatarani from Abanpur via Rajim. The temple for for Goddess Ghatarani is amongst the falls with well laid steps and organized walk ways for the crowd to navigate. The place also hosts dieties Annapoorni, Mahalakshmi and Linga. We spent around 45 minutes here.
The driver the took us to a small cave by the parking area. One had to crawl literally with totally bent backs and limbs and was quite difficult to get through. Nice experience. When we came out, we witnessed heavy rains.
We had our train to Jabalpur at 7 pm. It was around 4:30 we reached Raipur. We went to Magneto mall, regarded as the best in the capital town. It had all branded shops and food outlets. We spent around an hour and also accommodated dinner from the mall shops. We took the train - Amarkantak express to Jabalpur.
Day-4
Jabalpur is in Madhya Pradesh. We reached Jabalpur around 5 am, slight delay from the schedule. Railway retiring rooms were not available and we located a below average room for Rs.500 for refreshing. The hotel Bluemoon was quite terrible indeed with nasty bathroom; however, we managed to complete our essentials and out by 5:45. We hired a cab near bus stand for Rs.1800 for Jabalpur local sight seeing and drop to Jabalpur airport.
First, we visited Balancing rock. This is quite smaller and similar to the butter ball at Mahabalipuram. A rock is having minimal surface contact with a rock beneath and manages to stick to it.
Just opposite to Balancing rock are Madan Mohan fort and Sharada Devi temple. We first visited Sharada Devi temple - a small temple, visited by localites. We saw some people preparing for some rituals.
Madan Mohan Fort is reachable through 100 steps. We climbed them and they were quite ok to climb. The Madan Mohan Fort is carved out of a single big rock and remains locked because of poor maintenance. We spent jut five minutes and here and back to the car.
Next, was Dhuandhar waterfalls. The second best place in Jabalpur after Bheda ghat. One has to walk for around 10 minues to reach this falls in excellently laid and well directed path way by the banks of river Narmada. The falls is quite small but gives a nice downstream view, with water navigating through deep and narrow canyon like place. The place is thronged by marble art shops and one can buy souvenirs here. We spent around 1 hour here.
We then left to first rated place - marble rocks - Bheda ghat. The place is very serene, unique and special with the river going through narrow and deep gorge made up of marble stones. One had to pay Rs.100 for one hour trip. We get to see a different world altogather in the boating. Marbles of different kind - blue, yellow, white and black are seen as we go through the waters. We get very nice photographic opportunities, but, the direction of sunlight matters. The whole experience is enriched by rythmic and funfilled commentary by the oarsman. We thoroughly enjoyed the one hour and were encouraged to tip the boatmen. The boat trip is a group trip. Looks like the boating happens sunrise to sunset.
We then left to Jabalpur airport, which is around 20 kms from the city. We were quite early for the flight, however, that is all Jabalpur holds for the tourists.
