Madhai - Pachmarhi - Jabalpur - Bhedaghat - Kanha National Park

It was almost two years since I took a big trip to Kerala in November 2015. So this Diwali I decided to once again take a decently sized trip to places in Madhya Pradesh. There has been many ads such as the ones shown below from MP Tourism which impressed me (even though some of them are irritating to other people), so I decided to take a plunge. Since Gwalior, Bandhavgarh and Khajuraho are a bit on the northern side, I decided to cover only the central and east side places. Some of the places such as Bhedaghat or Kanha National Park are part of my daughter's study, so I decided to show those places to her.

We contacted MP Tourism office in Mumbai to book hotels and National Park Safari along with Taxi.

Pune to Madhai: The journey started from my home at 2:30 PM on 20th October when we departed to board a train for Itarsi. For the first time in my life, I decided to book tickets for 1st class in Indian Railway (not that I wanted to travel in it but 2AC and 3AC were full). We had given a preference to Coupe (where there are only two seats) but we were given two seats in a Cabin (where totally there are four seats). So we got some company on the other two seats. Earlier we thought it was a problem but when my daughter mixed up well with the other kid named Anand in the compartment and started playing games with him, it was a relief for us.

We reached Itarsi junction at 5 AM in the morning on 21 October and the taxi was there to pick us up. We departed for Madhai and reached there at 7 AM. Another nearest railway station is Pipariya but all the tickets were full for Pipariya and so I only booked tickets till Itarsi.

Madhai: The sunrise with Satpura range of Mountains in the background was beautiful as shown in images below. MP Tourism has created a new Bison Resort at this place which we selected for our stay. Bison Resort is located on the banks of river Denwa and on opposite side of the river is the gate to Satpura National Park. After reaching there, we asked for early check-in since typical check-in time is 12 PM but were allowed to occupy a room at 7:30 AM only and also had a breakfast done which included Poha, Corn-flakes, Bread-butter-jam and some fruits (watermelon). I had not planned anything for morning so we took some rest.

Satpura National Park has multiple entry gates, Parsapani, Madhai and Jamani Dev. But the one near Bison Resort is Madhai. The booking of safari for this was not done at MP tourism office but was done online from the forest department website.
There are two kinds of bookings done:

• Whole Gypsy
• Single Seat for each passenger

There are two kinds of charges: One that needs to be paid to forest department, which is around INR 600 for 3 people and is paid while booking online. The rest of the charges for Gypsy, driver and a guide is paid at the time of making an entry which is around INR 3000 for full gypsy for long route and INR 2400 for short route but if you are sharing the gypsy with others using single seat, you need to pay only your share. We took our lunch at around 2 PM and then approached the Satpura National Park Madhai Gate ticket counter at around 2:30 PM where they took the rest of the charges for Gypsy, driver and guide from us and then allotted a guide. Since I had done single seat booking for 3 seats, the rest of the seats where occupied by somebody else.
We had sightings of Deer, Bison, Peacock, many varieties of birds and Wild Boar but no Leopard or Tiger. We took the dinner at night at Bison resort.

Pachmarhi: We departed for Pachmarhi at 7:45 AM the next morning on 22nd October and took the route shown here. We reached Glen View resort at around 10:30 AM. Our route had some kachcha roads and the driver was not happy and if you want, another route with state highways go via Pipariya and takes just 7 KM extra.

On way to Pachmarhi, there is a Denwa Darshan point where you see Denwa river flowing in a valley between two mountains as in image below:

Denwa Darshan

After reaching the hotel Glen View, it was already late but we requested and the hotel served breakfast and also allotted a room to us earlier than the usual check-in time.

We freshen up ourselves and started for some points that can be covered in our car from hotel at around 12 PM. The first point to visit was Handi Khoh which gives a nice view of valleys of Satpura range of mountains. The next one was Priyadarshini Point and finally we went for Bade Mahadev and Gupt Mahadev. Since time was running out and it was already 2:15 PM, we didn't cover Gupt Mahadev and departed for hotel back for lunch.

After taking lunch, we decided to start again for Champak Lake and had some scooter boat ride which was a bit costly as it was INR 400 per person for just one and half minute ride. The same on Tapola lake at Mahabaleshwar was for INR 100 per person.

Champak Lake

Finally we went for Rajendragiri sunset point. The point is inside a well maintained garden. Since we reached late, we didn't spend a lot of time here otherwise it is a nice place to visit.

The next day on 23 October we had hired a Gypsy as it is recommended for some points such as Bee Falls and Dhoopgarh to have a four wheel drive due to steep slopes and inclines. The Gypsy cost is INR 3550 per day which includes INR 1400 fees for Pachmarhi forest department and rest for Gypsy, guide and a driver. Also at these places, the private vehicles are stopped much farther from the site and you have to walk long distances to reach the destination so local Gypsy is much more convenient.

The driver sharply reported at 9:30 AM and took us to Bison Lodge Museum from where the forest department permit is to be obtained. There is a museum at this place which gives an overview of Satpura National Park wildlife and vegetation.

The next destination for us were Pandav Caves. Here there are five caves where it is assumed that Pandavas stayed during their exile. Even the name Pachmarhi is derived from words Pach - five and Marhi - cave.
The next destination for us was JataShankar Cave/Temple. The guide took us to the cave of Lord Shiva. It require a walk of almost 15 minutes on stairs below ground level to reach the cave. In monsoon, this gets filled with water and remains closed.

We then departed for Bee Falls. There are almost around 500 stairs to walk including both up and down to reach the final waterfall. The waterfall is very big but the rocks are not arranged properly and when it is crowded, there is no proper place to sit and the surface of rocks sometimes is too slippery to even walk and there is always chance to fall down. The waterfall is around 100 feet tall and is worth visiting though but be careful. The name of the fall has come from the fact that if you sit under the water flowing from the fall, it feels like thousands of bees are making noise in your ears.

We then departed for lunch at the hotel. After lunch our first destination was Parasailing place in Pachmarhi. The charges are around INR 300 per person for a 5 minute parasailing activity. You along with a sail is tied with a rope to the back of a Gypsy and then it is toed fast to fill enough air in the sail to generate lift. You will hang in air at around 100 or so feet and will be able to see the surroundings.

After parasailing, we were supposed to go to Reechhgarh but we didn't have enough time so left for Dhoopgarh. On the way, we go past Echo point where there are beautiful hills and nice panoramic views.

After the sunset, somebody flew a Drone at the site as shown in the images below. This activity lasted for almost 15 minutes and generated a lot of curiosity in the minds of the visitors there.

After Dhoopgarh, we went back to hotel and departed for Jabalpur the next morning.

Bhedaghat: We departed from Pachmarhi on 24th October at 8 AM via this route to Bhedaghat. We reached there at almost around 2:30 PM. Our stay was at Motel Marble Rocks which is on the banks of the Narmada river overseeing the beauty of marble rocks. While we were waiting for lunch, I couldn't resist to take some snaps at the hotel.
We decided to visit the Dhuandhar Water Fall in the evening itself. There are multiple activities that you can do at the water fall.

• There is a cable car/rope way which takes you from this side of the river to the other and gives you a nice glimpse of the water fall on the way. On the other side of the river, there is a jeep ride which takes you to marble rocks, but since we were already going to go to Nauka Vihar, we didn't take this one. The last rope way back is at 6:30 PM so you better be back earlier than that otherwise you will have to take a 23KM route to come back on this side of the river in a vehicle.

• There is a Boating ride available at Nauka Vihar. The shared boat costs INR 50 per person for half an hour and INR 100 per person for an hour. I had heard that the full ride takes you till Dhuandhar water fall but they cut the route half way only. A complete boat of 5 people can cost INR 500. There aren't any motor boats. The person rowing the boat was quite humorous and you can hear some of his jokes in the video below.

• There is a private route (which charges INR 100) that allows you to take your vehicle till the starting point of the water fall and since my wife's legs were paining, we decided to take this one. The water fall at night too looks beautiful and the water droplets that keep the air humid are clearly visible in the photos below.

Finally when we arrived back at the hotel at around 6:30 PM, we came to know that there is a Laser Show conducted at the nearby location by MP Tourism itself and is quite good. Multiple songs were played and 3D laser was used which generated good effect. Initially there was a musical fountain which was used.

The next day on 25th October, I woke up early and decided to visit Chousath Yogini Temple. Since the temple has around 150 or so stairs to climb, my wife gave a miss on this one. The temple has 64 Yoginis but some of the idols were damaged. The shape of the temple resembles that of Khajuraho. The temple is almost one thousand years old.

When I came back to the hotel room, we started for Bargi Dam via this route. There is Tilwara Ghat on the route where we spent around 15 mins or so. Water of Narmada river is considered very sacred same as for the Ganga and many people take bath here.

Bargi Dam can be visited from both the sides. One route takes you to the point from which you can have a view of large water reservoir. The second route takes you to Maikal resort where you get a chance to have some boating on the reservoir.

We then decided to go back to Jabalpur and reached the Indian Coffee House at around 3 PM. The reason for choosing this restaurant was that we were completely fed up of eating punjabi food at all the MP tourism hotels since last four days. We had tried eating South Indian on way from Pachmarhi to Jabalpur at Gadarwara but we didn't like it much. The food at Indian Coffee House was much better and the filter coffee was good too.

Jabalpur - Indian Coffee House

After lunch we decided to visit the places in Jabalpur city and the first such place was Balancing Rocks.

Just next to this place is Rani Durgawati Fort. There are quite some number of stairs that you have to climb to reach this place. You will have the view of complete Jabalpur from this place.

We then decided to go for Bhawartlal Garden. There is a Rani Durgawati Museum just next to the garden but it was already closed by the time we reached there. The garden was quite big and also had a big skating ring inside it but there was no facility to rent skates so we just spent an hour at the place. 

Since we already had South Indian food in the morning and was eating Punjabi food all days in the previous four days, we decided to go for some Pizza at Domino's. We then came back to hotel and decided to take rest. Typically the hotel gives breakfast at 8 AM but I had asked them to serve a little early as we wanted to depart for Kanha.

Bhedaghat - Breakfast Motel Marble Rocks

On 26th October, we left for Kanha National Park at 8:30 AM from Bhedaghat. There are multiple routes to reach but we took the one shown here. The entry to the National Park has big gate as shown below.

Kanha - Entry

Our stay was at Baghira Jungle Resort and we reached there at 1:15 PM. We then were given a room and went for lunch as the jungle safari was at 2:30 PM. The gypsy picked us from out hotel at 2:35 PM and when we reached Kisli gate, it was already a queue of 10 people for verification of identity. At the gate, you need to show Aadhar or any other government issued ID card for the names you have made bookings for. Here too, there is around INR 1200 charge of forest department, INR 300 for guide, INR 300 for driver, INR 300 for hotel pickup and rest INR 2400 for Gypsy totalling around INR 4500 per safari. The evening safari is only between 3 PM to 6 PM while the morning safari is from 6 AM till 11 AM. Our evening safari was in Kanha zone and morning was in Kisli zone. There are other zones too such as Mukki, Sarhi and Khatia.

We had sightings of many birds, Deer, Bison, Jackal, Chital and Barasingha, a Bear and a very short sighting of a Tiger (mostly its back and tail) by my daughter. Unfortunately, neither me nor my wife were able to spot a tiger when our guide and driver pointed out to us but my daughter had a sighting and then the tiger went away to hid in grass.
For the first time in my life, I saw what is called "Jungle Ka Kanoon" in "The Jungle Book". The monkeys were eating fresh leaves on the trees and whatever was left was being thrown on the ground which was getting picked up by deers. What a great cooperation among the animals!

We completed one safari at around 6 PM and came to hotel room. While coming back on the way itself, there was a deer that was sighted on the road. The driver told us that sometimes even tigers are sighted in this manner on road but we were not that lucky. We had our dinner at the Baghira Resort hotel and had a good night sleep. We had another safari in the morning at 6 AM for Kisli zone but there were not many animals seen.

My recommendation to you is you reach Kanha in evening and stay for two nights and take two morning safaris and one afternoon safari. As morning safaris can go on for 5 hours, there are more chances of seeing tiger.

Kanha - Dinner

We completed our safari early at 10 AM and then departed for Nagpur at 10:45 via route shown here. We had a short break at Haldiram HotSpot after 4 PM where we bought some sweets for our neighbours and office colleagues and had our lunch with Chhole Bhatura, Paper Dosa and Papdi Chat. We reached the Nagpur station at around 5:30 PM and then took the train at 6:30 PM.

All in all, I found the trip very refreshing for me and my entire family. During the 1050+ KM journey, I saw heavy road construction activities going on in Madhya Pradesh and I felt that five years down the line, Madhya Pradesh would have a very different image in terms of infrastructure. Surprisingly, during the same time, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Chauhan was in Washington DC and he also made the statement that roads in Madhya Pradesh are better than that in Washington DC. You can call this a coincidence or serendipity but I felt there was something in it.

Our taxi actually was of Nagpur and so the owner had to pay INR 150 per day for 8 days in Madhya Pradesh for taxi permit. If the taxi was hired from Bhopal, it would have costed us just 1 day permit to drop us at Nagpur station and we would have been able to save INR 1000 or more. This was a mistake that costed us more for taxi fare so please keep in mind.

I was carrying a tripod and a good SLR camera but I didn't realise that many of the places were nice to capture the Milky Way. Since we were tired, I didn't try it but away from city with low lights some of these places are ideal to capture the Milky Way at late nights. Maybe I will try this next time. Happy Journey to you!