Day 45 and 46 – Panchmarhi National Park
Day 45 – Tuesday, 10th Dec 2013 and
Day 46 – Wednesday, 11th Dec 2013
It’s Tuesday morning 7 am, we all are at the dining table having some hot breakfast. We hear a few car honkings, that’s your car – Atul Uncle says.
Saurabh – our car driver helps us with the luggage and puts it in the trunk. It’s 7:30 am and we are on the road, the distance is 210 kms and takes around 5 hours.
Road to Panchmarhi
The roads are in good condition with a two lane highway all throughout. In rural India, a common sight is that farmers would bathe their cattle in the rivers. We observed a tractor being bathed, we were wondering if he would immerse it completely for a holy dip. haha!
tractor getting cleaned
We make few stops along the way. We cross a bridge over the Narmada river, it’s the 5th longest river in India and major part of it flows through Madhya Pradesh.
parents with Narmada river in the background
It’s 12 pm and we are near Pipariya town. This is the nearest railway station to Panchmarhi national park and we begin our final 50 km climb to Panchmarhi. The temperature was 25 degrees when we were in Pipariya but we could suddenly notice the temperature drop as we neared Panchmarhi. We stayed in New Hotel – Sada Panchmarhi. It’s a government run hotel and very well managed. We check into our room and have some lunch at the restaurant.
It’s 2:30 pm and we head out for a few sight seeing spots. Our first stop was the Pandava caves. The story has it that when the Pandavas during their 14 years of exile had to stay hidden for a certain number of years and could not be traced, they found resort in these caves and hence the name – Pandava caves. The lower section of Pandava caves has been converted into a beautifully formed garden and there is a hut to rest.
like father, like son
garden at Pandava caves
Our next stop is Handi Khoh – It’s a 300 ft deep valley, the story has it that it used to be a lake guarded by an evil snake demon. Lord Shiva fought with the snake and their battle fury dried up the lake and left open a dry bowl shape valley.
Handi Khoh
It’s 4 pm and nearing sunset. We inquire around and there is a famous sunset viewing point. It’s Dhoopgarh and the highest point in Central India at 4500 ft. The area near Dhoogarh is managed by the Indian forest department and we need special permits. These permits are easily available in the central museum.
The road is a steep climb and some suggest that we take a rented jeep there. Our driver was brave enough and suggested that we take our own car and he will manage the steep climb.
We reach Dhoopgarh by 4:30 pm and sunset is about to occur in an hour. Dhoopgarh is like a hill top with 360 views of the world around. There are sunrise and sunset viewing points there. There is also a small museum which we visit.
Us at Dhoopgarh
There were few hundred people there to witness the amazing sunset and true to it’s popularity, the sun didn’t fail to amaze us with its natural beauty and capability.
about to set, trying to stop it from falling.
nice
It’s 6:15 pm and we head back to our hotel. We have some dinner in town and call it a night around 9 pm. The weather was a bit chilly in the night and we had to request few extra blankets.
It’s Wednesday morning 8 am, we are all sipping some hot chai and munching on some snacks and fruits. We plan to cover a few more sight seeing spots in the morning and leave for Vidisha in the afternoon.
There are many caves in and around Panchmarhi and we visit Mahadeo caves. The names go by Gupt Mahadeo meaning hidden temples. We do a bit of walking around the caves. We see a lot of monkeys hovering around, we try to preserve our valuables hoping that one of them doesn’t attempt a snatch.
The roads are one lane but well maintained. Most drivers follow the practice of honking at each turn to announce their presence to other drivers. We found it annoying but hey, most drivers speed on these roads and this promises our safety to some extent.
We visit Priyadarshini View point on our way back from Mahadeo caves. These viewing points have telescopes installed and we could see the mountains and temples faraway.
It’s 12 pm, we are back at our hotel. We check out of our room and bid good bye to Panchmarhi. We begin our drive down towards Pipariya. It’s 1:30 pm and we have some Jain food at Ashok Hotel in Pipariya.
We continue our journey back to Vidisha and enroute, play games, quizzes. Dipti – we remembered you a lot here and we have some new puzzles for you. Come join us!
In our final 25 km drive, our car faced a flat tire. Saurabh immediately pulled to the side of the road and changed the tire in a jiffy. Took him less than 10 minutes, he was on the job!
We reach Vidisha by 7:30 pm and post dinner, relax for the evening. I catch up on my writing and we call it a night around 10:30 pm.
Hope you enjoyed Panchmarhi National park with us. Please let us know by leaving a comment.
Tomorrow, we head to Sonagir.
Best wishes,
Paras