Many a times we thought of visiting the famous Chittrakoot waterfalls ( Niagara of India) , in Bastar region but ,alway had a dilemma whether it's safe to venture into the Naxal zone ,which mostly sees its space in news headlines about fight between Security forces and Naxalites of the region ....even ,being a tribal area , was never sure of the infrastructure ,good hotel/ resorts availability, so we just kept the visit to this region in the back burner of our list of visiting places across India.
It , so happened this time that luckily my husband planned out a road trip from Nagpur to Jagdalpur ,soon after his training was to get over ....The moment I heard of his plan ,I was very sceptic , above that a 13 hrs road trip is really not everyone's cup of tea ,and so even I was not very sure about how the journey might turn out to be....
It was 24th of Sept 2019 ,that we checked out of our hotel at Nagpur ,very early morning to avoid traffic on the highway to some extent ...... After we hit the highway , its nonstop drive upto Rajnandgoan.....were we stopped for breakfast but was very disappointed ....its was only onion poha and a glass of mosambi juice only......hardly much option available and I was not interested to have samosas for breakfast....After we crossed Rajnandgoan , we were about to start experiencing the flavours of Chattishgarh.....desolate road , few vehicles running up and down ...even hardly any locality.....vast barren lands with teak trees.....rarely saw a petrol pump too .....After some 2/3 hrs more drive , now those vast green rice fields of Chattishgarh started showing up with check dams after some distances ....the land looked very fertile, but where r the residences .....I simply cant see much ...may be all away in the jungles ,that's the thought going on in my mind as we continued our journey across .....to Kanker, suppose to be district headquarters.....But to my surprise, it got some small shops , hardly much eatery to have proper lunch but I badly required a washroom ....we search for a proper place but found non ......I kept grumbling with my husband as I had to wait atleast another 4 hrs+ to reach Jagdalpur resort to go to a washroom......looked as if Swach bharat campaign of our PM modiji has gone unheard in this region of India......Soon the Kanker ghatti started off ...looked like eastern ghat region somewhat.....full of Shal, tenndu, Shisham trees which looked much more older than my age even .......so long the national highway connecting Raipur to Jagdalpur was somewhat good but soon it all vanished off and road turned so horrible ...some 50 kms drive took us more than 2.5 hrs....We kept praying for the roads to turn better so that we reach Jagdalpur before it turned dark .....Night falls earlier in this region than Mumbai, so we wanted to cross over these dense jungle region fast .....next came Kondagoan; we were relieved to see good roads again and without any stop over at Bastar, we speeded up for Jagdalpur.....By the time we reach our resort NAMAN BASTAR , it was 5.30pm ...... it had been a long long journey.......But the resort just brought smile on our faces ....its very beautiful with lovely garden all around ...next 2 nights , it's to be our home ...😀.....
Next morning we woke up to the aroma of Rathrani flowers .....the Fragrance of eucalyptus and the fresh air just refreshed us up and we looked for our drive off to Chittrakoot waterfalls, which was hardly 10/12 kms away from the resort....... After some hot Alu paratha at buffet breakfast, we quickly wanted to drive down to Chittrakoot...once at Chittrakoot, our joy so no boundaries.....its beauty is just mesmerizing......we had enough of photo session there before packing up for other sight seeing across Jagdalpur city....
On our way back , felt happy to see tribal girls riding cycles to school .....its good to see , education awareness amongst the local people ....they r really very poor ie below poverty line in this region ....having a very tough life too....Next we visited the Danteshwari temple, Jagdalpur but I was not aware that it's a Shakti peeth.....prayed there before we visited the king's palace next to it ....the temple was preparing for the Dusherra festival in few days time ....its a famous function of the region too ....The Anthropological Museum was too good for a first time visitor to know the unique culture of the region....But , we skipped out Tirathgargh waterfalls and kanger National Park due to time constraint....
.Yeh , I didnot return back from Jagdalpur without my shopping bounty.....I got myself a beautiful Kosa silk saree and a kosa modi jacket for my husband too ...some artifacts of Kondagoan brassmetal.....But Jagdalpur city doesn't have good eatery ,so its alway better to have food and water at the resort itself instead of trying outside...The handicraft museum was one stop shop for all those delicate artifacts of the region..
Next day on our return , instead of kanker route we took the jungle route ,where the road looked better via Narayanpur- and Bhanupratap pur to Rajnandgoan.....
It had been a wonderful experience of Bastar definitely and a thrilling road trip too from Nagpur to Jagdalpur and return ....
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