Thursday, March 3, 2016

PANCHMARHI, THE TINY LITTLE HILL STATION IN SATPURA BIOSPHERE

PANCHMARHI , considered the queen of Satpura Biosphere is located at a height of 1100 mts in a valley of the Satpura range in Hoshangabad  district. It can be easily reached from Jabalpur.

Route: Jabalpur-gotagoan -Narshinghpur -karelia -pipariya -matkuli -PANCHMARHI. 
Places to see in panchmarhi:
Pandav  Caves, boat club lake,Bee falls,Dhupgarh etc...it's a rocky terrain , so every stretch is picture perfect.Many Hindi  movies have been pictured around this location , like ASHOKA, CHAKRAVYUH, TARKIEB  etc.

My visit : 
On our way from Jabalpur to Nagpur , we planned a stop over at Panchmarhi. ..Had our booking done prior  at MPTDC resort...there are lots of hotels around but I found the MPTDC  property well located....should have had planned for a little longer stay. As we started our climb on to the Satpura range, there was chill in the air....very beautiful roads and those trees adorning both side of the roads ,made a picturesque drive across....as such , immediately after we entered Narshinghpur district , the cultivation all across looked so soothing to our eyes.....just loved those coriander fields all across. Now that we are onto the rocky stretch of Satpura range , it too , had a different look altogether. It was mid day that we checked in to our resort.....soon after freshening up and having our lunch , we planned to go across for our visit to chota  Mahadeo  temple some 10kms drive into the biosphere reserve filled with Tendu trees....Oh ,  those monkeys....it's a  really a problematic  issue all around....
What I felt is that mostly people come here for relaxation as tourists were just strolling around...nothing much to do....a portion is Cantonment  area...old British  style bunglows. ...pretty much an old world charm, spreading the essence of peace and tranquillity. Saw people making their way from papariya  to chota Mahadeo, with immense  faith...but ,we took our drive across the biosphere jungle areas to the temple....beautiful Cave temple of Shiva...very well maintained except for the monkeys...heard that devotees,  come all the ways to put Trishul, when their wishes come true here....there were few more cave temples around but I hardly had the energy to trek up and down the jungle stretches to see them all....to visit the highest cave temple , one requires a whole day trekking up and down the hills , thru the jungle stretch. .no proper road.
Just couldn't visit the Bee falls ,as it's still tougher trekking up and down the rocky slopes.Now I realised , that if someone plans for panchmarhi,  so be mentally prepared for long treks and should have at least 3/4 days in hand to explore the whole region , but unfortunately, we had non.... After spending the afternoon in the biosphere  jungles and watching beautiful sunset across the range , we had to return back to the town centre and check out the market areas...but , was bit disappointed to find people from Kashmir selling their stuffs and punjabi  shopkeeper selling all ludhiana woollen stuffs...nothing locale....anyways , we headed for the resort finally as we were damme tired.







It was a beautiful  chilling morning when we woke up the next day.....so fresh and clean air to breathe. ...it was so relaxing,felt like just spend hours in the beautiful  backyards of the resort just doing nothing....but those monkeys, just drove us crazy....Had to rush for breakfast, and also had to get ready fast as we had plans to visit another Shiva Cave temple in the rocks called JATASHANKAR ....it's the same place we're ASHOKA movie was picturized. 
    So we just checked out of the resort and headed for the shiva cave, hardly did I knew that it will be such a long trek through those Sedimentary  rock hills....our driver , who accompanied  us ,kept telling me that it's just a few more meters walk ....but.....truly ,  it's very very beautiful;I was excited to see those metamorphosed  FOSSILISED  rocks , .....I loved the jungle walk in the morning sun .....at last , it's another some 50 steps down to the cave shrine....it's so steep....wondering how deep we have come down ...hope we be able to climb up....surely a great way to lose weight...ha ha .....after darshan, we sat their for a while and watch the rocks....its worth its name JATASHANKAR. ....As we slowly climbed up ,  saw small shops selling ayurvedic  stuffs.....tried to smell a few and did purchase a facepack of Daruharidra, which helps to remove any type of blemish on the skin when applied....Now , it was time to say goodbye to panchmarhi, as we intended to reach Nagpur by sunset.....Overall nice experience of this tiny little town.











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