Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

Travelogue Approved

Glued to the thread. We rarely get travelogues from Central India.

Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

Waiting for more.

Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

Thanks [MENTION=38603]The Monk[/MENTION] for approving the thread.

Now, all things were decided, we needed good rain gears because we knew that we will face rainfall, me and Inder sir bought rain gears from decathlon store here at Raipur, we also bought rain gear for srinath as he was unable to visit Raipur to purchase it.

Day 1

We planned to leave Raipur at 6 AM and it was decided that I would be meeting Inder sir at Sarona bridge but I got late by twenty minutes because nearby petrol pumps were updating the petrol prices. I reached at Sarona bridge at 6:20 AM where Inder sir was waiting for me.

Our group member Gurteg, also cousin of Inder sir told us that he will be coming to meet us at near Bhilai Institute Of Technology at Bhilai. We reached Srinath’s house at Bhilai at 6:50 AM and loaded his luggage in Inder sir’s saddle bag.

When we reached Bhilai Institute Of Technology to meet Gurteg, we were shocked that he was all geared up with his luggage and told us that he will also be joining us, that was a sweet surprise for us. So, finally we were four guys:

Chandan – Yamaha R3

Inder – Benelli 600i

Srinath – KTM Duke 390

Gurteg - Honda CBR 250

After all this, we left Bhilai at 7:30 AM, and after 40 kms we encountered rain, we quickly wore our rain gears but Gurteg was not carrying any rain gears except his riding jacket’s rain liner. As we proceeded further rain got dense, due to 4 lane highway we were maintaining decent speed of 80 km/hr. We refuelled our bikes just before Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border (also known as Chichola border ).

At 9:30 AM we reached deori, before that Srinath’s bike gear lever got loose. We stopped at Deori for breakfast, ordered tasty idli and sambhar vada along with tea & coffee. In the meantime Srinath approached to town to sort out gear lever issue and Gurteg bought rain gears.

By 10:00 AM we left deori, rain slowed down and at 11:45 AM we stopped after Bhandara to have 5 minutes break.





We reached Nagpur at 1:00 PM, I got separated from the group because of the traffic due to ongoing work of Metro in Nagpur city. Contacted Inder sir, then we decided to meet at Mankapur square. We refuelled again in Nagpur. Frequent fuelling was done just to avoid any sudden fuel shortage. Weather was looking good. We were enjoying the smooth tarmac. Just after Savner (40 kms from Nagpur) we stopped to adjust our saddle bags and click some pics.

Just before Chhindwara we witnessed amazing ghat section with amazing mountain views. We took Chhindwara bypass and had our lunch. When we completed our lunch time was 4:30 PM and rain was making its comeback, pachmarhi was still 140 kms far.

Near Savner



Before Chhindwara







Srinath Posing







Last 100 kms were total fun along with rains, at one point we stopped counting number of corners in the ghat we passed.

Look at the mud





We admit that last 100 kms was fun but out of those 100 kms last 25 kms ghat section which leads to Pachmarhi Cantt was dangerous, a slight distraction can take your life because roads are narrower. We reached Pachmarhi at 7:00 PM but we were not able to locate to our hotel, after 45 minutes we located our hotel and all of us were very tired and after dinner we slept because we decided to go to Sunrise point at 5:00 AM next day.

Day two and three will be updated tomorrow.

Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

The pictures have already made me jealous!
Waiting for the rest!

Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

Neat tripping guys

Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

This really made me nostalgic. Fantastic ride and pics. Pachmarhi is really the queen of Satpuras.

No offence and not intending to hijack this lovely. But since this made me so nostalgic about my special ride, a very close-to-heart ride, sharing few pics from my end:

Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura



Chandan Gajpalla Bhai.... Eager to see some parts of Central India.
@Chandan92 ji

Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

Wow. Central India travelogue. Subscribed

Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

Day 2

As stated earlier, our plan was to wake up early at 5:00 AM and watch sunrise, but we were very tired, me and srinath woke up at 5:30 AM and found that it was drizzling and heavy fog was there so dropped the plan and went back to sleep.

We woke up at 8:00 AM, got ready and had breakfast of poha with tea/coffee. First thing we did was to clean the headlights, taillights and indicators which was covered with dirt.

We had only one day, so we wanted to cover maximum spots. We left hotel at 10:00 AM. First spot we went for was Handi Khoh, scenic place it was, was just 2 kms from hotel. We spent 20 minutes there.







After Handi-Khoh, we went to Pandav Caves, which was again 2 kms from Hotel. We climbed up at the top of the caves and mesmerising view we witnessed. Took some pics, spent around one hour here.









For next spots we need to get tickets for bikes and ourselves, we headed to bison lodge, purchased tickets which covered entry for Apasra vihar/Rajat fall, Richgarh, Bee fall & Dhoopgarh. Tickets costs Rs. 150/- per bike.



Apsara vihar/Rajat fall gate was 5 kms from Bison lodge of which 2 kms are off road, we had to park our bikes near the gate and next 1 km had to be done in gypsy ( 4WD vehicle ), they charge Rs. 100 one way for four persons. After that we had to walk around 1-1.5 kms to reach apsara vihar/rajat fall. We spent half hour there, to get back to gate, again gypsy had to be hired and at same cost. Time was 2:00 PM when we reached gate.









We decided to have lunch before proceeding to next spots, when we finished our lunch it was already 3:00 PM, we decided to visit bee fall. Bee fall’s first gate was 4 kms from hotel, we can take our bikes till second gate which is 0.5 km from first gate and road is completely broken. At second gate we parked our bikes and again hired gypsy at same cost earlier. To see bee fall we had to walk down 800 meters from where gypsy dropped us, but it felt more than 800 meters, it is easy to go down but it’s very difficult to get back to the top.Persons like me who has breathing issues will find it extremely difficult to climb up because at certain points steps heights are close to 1 feet.









We returned back to second gate at 4:30 PM, where we decided that we will skip Richgarh and give our full time at Dhoopgarh and it was good decision made by us. Dhoopgarh was 12 kms from Hotel. As we were going forward, our faces had huge grin. We were really mesmerised with the nature beauty we witnessed at Dhoopgarh, for Dhoopgarh, bikes go all the way to the top of the peak. We stayed there for 1.5 hour. We reached back to gate at 7:00 PM and headed back to hotel.



















After reaching hotel, we had our dinner at 9:00 PM. We packed our bags at hotel and went to sleep at 11:00 PM because we had planned to check out hotel at 6:00 AM.

To avoid lengthy post, will post Day 3 (return journey) in next post.

Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

Nice read so far!

Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

Fantastic pics. great ride there.looking forward to more. This travelogue refreshed my memories - Pandava caves, Bee falls, Dhupgarh. Simply wow

Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

Pet bharke photu, wah Bhai - Maja aa gaya !!

Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

Day 3

We got ready by 6:00 AM but hotel staff didn’t prepared the final bill which consumed our half hour. We left hotel at 6:30 AM, visibility was not great so had to maintain speed of 40 kmph. We reached matkuli by 8:00 AM and stopped for breakfast. In the meantime some monkeys tore rain cover of my tail bag and Gurteg’s bag.

After leaving matkuli, we faced heavy rains till parasia. As we reached Savner, mild rain again started which we ignored and reached Nagpur at 2:00 PM but this time we took bypass which saved our half hour and from poor roads, we stopped for lunch 30 kms before Bhandara.













After finishing lunch as we reached Bhandara at 4:00 PM, again rain got heavier but again we didn’t stopped and heavy rain was till Deori. We didn’t wanted to ride at night, so we increased our cruising speed as roads were good. We reached chichola border at 5:30 PM and stopped to have some tea. We thought we will not get any rain but as we crossed Rajnandgaon heavy rain started, we reached Bhilai at 7:00 PM and bid goodbye to Srinath and Gurteg. Inder Sir and me proceeded to Raipur and these 35 kms were very annoying because of irritating traffic and Rain. Finally we reached Raipur at 8:00 PM.

At Bhilai



Finally at home



It was a memorable short trip for us, we covered approx 1200 kms of which 99% roads were smooth and without any potholes but more than half the distance we encountered rains. Thanks for reading the travelogue.

Re: Weekend At Queen Of Satpura

One wonderful log!
Wishing you many such rides!