[rkhare]

Originally Posted by Srikji

Is April-May a good time to go there or should I wait for the monsoons?

Keep tuned to this travelogue to find whether April/May is good time or not. Late monsoon is definitely the best time to be in Chitrakote. Unfortunately you will miss the boating during monsoon times. Whenever you plan, sunset is the best time to be there.

Originally Posted by poised2drive

Bhimbetka caves are one of the first documented sites that gave shelter to the proto-humans and they can be dated back to 1,00,000 years .

No doubt Shelters are 1 L year old, I think Santosh / Parimal were mentioning about paintings. While in Bhimbetka we had long discussion on how they decide datings that go back to 100,000 years back. We were told that tools recovered from this site during excavation were scientifically read for carbon dating before experts concluded about real time frame. Those tools are now displayed in Tribal Museum / State Museum Bhopal. Probably I will soon write a day trip to those museums.

[ADI_77]

Fantastic travelogue .... the starting pic of the Chitrakote falls is amazing. I am planning to drive down to Bhopal in March, the plan is to visit Bhedaghat & Kanha and return back to Bhopal.

But after going through your travelogue the Chitrakote falls looks tempting, can this be included somewhere in my itinerary. Pl suggest the best route plan for this trip.

Bhopal-Sagar-Damoh-JBP-Bhedaghat - this I suppose is a good road.

Bhedaghat-Kanha - need suggestions on this road ( NH12A or ...)
Kanha-Bhopal - which road to take.

also if the Chitrakote falls can fit in somewhere.

[nomadabhi]

Awesome write-up Rajnish. After long logged back in to TBHP and glad I still remembered the password.

The flow you took in your words seems to be resembling Dhuadhar falls.

[nomadabhi]

[nomadabhi]

There are lot more as I stayed in Pachmarih for a week. Having a local friend did help me alot as in 2 days we did sight seeing what a tourist do and rest of 4 days we saw alot of places hidden from tourist but known to locals. At times walking so much inside forest did make us insecured but a local assurance was there. I still remember at one place me and my wife lost path in forest and it was scary but adventurous.

[rkhare]

Originally Posted by ADI_77

Fantastic travelogue .... the starting pic of the Chitrakote falls is amazing. I am planning to drive down to Bhopal in March, the plan is to visit Bhedaghat & Kanha and return back to Bhopal.

But after going through your travelogue the Chitrakote falls looks tempting, can this be included somewhere in my itinerary. Pl suggest the best route plan for this trip.

Bhopal-Sagar-Damoh-JBP-Bhedaghat - this I suppose is a good road.

Bhedaghat-Kanha - need suggestions on this road ( NH12A or ...)
Kanha-Bhopal - which road to take.

also if the Chitrakote falls can fit in somewhere.

yes Bhopal - Sanchi - Vidisha - Sagar - Damoh - Katangi - Jabalpur Bypass - Bhedaghat is good road. Same for Bhedaghat - Jabalpur - Mandla - Kanha is excellent
Its better not to include Chitrakote falls as its 500 kms south of Kanha.

[crazyfordriving]

Undoubtedly, this is the best travelogue I've ever seen here. Amazing pictures Madhu, Rajnish, Parimal and Santosh. Now I realise that I should have joined all of you guys.

[rkhare]

Day 1 : 19th February

For me this was the trip start date, and as mentioned earlier I took a wrong decision to take internal roads (to satisfy Parimal desire) instead of Indore Bhopal Highway and thereafter NH12. This decision plus a small confusion over meeting point, costed us another 2 hours. So instead of we planning to reach Bhimbetka at around 7 in morning, we reached around 11.30, and it was a hot day in rocky Bhimbetka.

Bhimbetka Rock Shelters

Though Bhimbetka is not very popular amongst domestic or local tourists, somehow I have special liking for this place. Not only it is World Heritage Site, its history dates to 100,000 years back. The naturally formed caves protected our prehistoric ancestors from rains besides giving them clear view of horizon in all four directions from the hill top.

Bhimbetka is located just 40 Kms south of Bhopal, just 3 kms off NH 69 that connects Bhopal with Nagpur. Over 750 shelters have been found in area and at least some of the shelters were inhabited by Homo erectus more than 100,000 years ago. Some of the Stone Age rock paintings found among the Bhimbetka rock shelters are approximately 30,000 years old. The caves also deliver early evidence of dance. The site declared a World Heritage Site in 2003.

Entrance to Bhimbetka



Official Start of trip, first pic from my camera, Parimal_G (PG) trying to understand what Bhimbetka is all about. He was happy to find out that it was discovered by a Maratha in 1957.



Pre Historic Conference Room (I don't know what made archeologists name this place as 'sabha grih')



Natural Rocky Landscaping on top of hill



Sample Rock Painting depicting group of warriors, probably on horses (How come its believed that horses were introduced by Arabs in India)



Natural rock formation, nothing to do with shelters, I simply liked its shape



Painting showing another wild animal



After the tour, the guide we hired forcefully took my camera for group pic. Naturally I am not happy about it



PG posing for record



While in Bhimbetka, we got call from Madhu, he said he is starting from Nagpur. He confirmed the route he was suppose to take, which was Nagpur Savner Chhindwara (Nagpur Chhindwara is awesome road with good scenic view) Parasia Matkuli Pachmarhi. Expected drive time was around 4 hours from Nagpur and we were just 2-1/2 hours away.
We were all hungry and now it was not possible to take lunch at Pachmarhi with Madhu as planned earlier. After Completing the trip we decided to take fast grub at a Highway Treat Motel of MP Tourism. This Motel is ideally located, bang on NH69 just in the turning which takes you to Bhimbetka. We had nice Aloo Parathas with Dahi and also finished Baigan Bharta which was suppose to be Santosh's dinner for previous night.
A big thanks to hotel staff for allowing us to open Santosh's tiffin as well.

Finally we started off from Highway Treat at around 1.30 , and cruised towards Pachmarhi leisurely stopping at few places for photo shoots. Santosh was enjoying the drive and was happy to see Wheat Crop while PG was amused at big agricultural machinery (Harvesters) in Madhya Pradesh.
We reached Pachmarhi around 5 and were happy to see the arrangements Madhu had made for night stay. Madhu who reached half an hour before us, was successful in getting camping ground of Bharat Scout. Though we were carrying our own tents, Bharat Scout guys gave us a bigger tent with proper mattresses. Normally Bharat Scout which has huge National Training Setup in Pachmarhi, doesn't allow private individuals to camp in their campus, but all we can say was we were lucky and it was our day.
As we were running late, we decided to take charge of our tent later and instead rushed immediately to Dhoopgarh, which is a Sunset point with nice view of Satpura's. All I can say was the Drive to Dhoopgarh and the view from top was out of world.

Parimal driving Madhu's car towards Dhupgarh



Some more rock shelters, this time in Dhupgarh



Few Pics of Sunset :









PG our official photographer, hunting for correct angle



Salman, Madhu's ex student from Bangalore who is native of Pachmarhi. He was with us most of the time and that helped us a lot.



After the sunset we headed back to our tents, dumped our goods inside tent and rushed back to Pachmarhi town in search for food. Few locals advised us to go to Rasoi Garden Restaurant, and it turned out to be good choice. Post dinner when we reached our camp site, it was pitch dark outside and the calmness was divine. We soon retired just to realize that throughout the trip we will compete against each other for loudest snoring.

PG taking his selfie just before retiring

[TheG2]

Dear Rajnish,
I always maintain that MP is far more beautiful than just what shown in the Incredible India ad. Your pictures and MP'Logue validates my point further.

Great going so far, waiting for more

[psurelia]

Wonderful pictures and great narrations! I was totally engrossed into your story and waiting for the rest of it.

[poised2drive]

Originally Posted by rkhare

No doubt Shelters are 1 L year old, I think Santosh / Parimal were mentioning about paintings. While in Bhimbetka we had long discussion on how they decide datings that go back to 100,000 years back. We were told that tools recovered from this site during excavation were scientifically read for carbon dating before experts concluded about real time frame. Those tools are now displayed in Tribal Museum / State Museum Bhopal. Probably I will soon write a day trip to those museums.

That must have been Uranium-Lead dating [ one of the methods of Radiometric dating among which radiocarbon dating is also an another type]
Actually, radioCarbon dating is a very renowned method used by historians to estimate the age of the fossils of organic content [ carbon content] and is easily confused with the other types. IT cannot be used to date the non-carbon prehistoric artifacts.

Originally Posted by rkhare

Sample Rock Painting depicting group of warriors, probably on horses (How come its believed that horses were introduced by Arabs in India)

I hope you meant Aryans.

The Arabs are a bit late entries into Horse-taming .

Nevertheless, there are researches going to prove that there were Horses present in the Indus valley Civilization even before the aryans migrated into the Subcontinent and this is a very hot topic in the realms of Indian history.

Sorry for being too

[paragsachania]

This one is unique, with 2 set of folks starting from 2 different locations and meeting at one place and then starting the actual trip and then this seems like a well tailored Travelogue from each one of you members showcasing the hidden Jewel of India, in your own individual style !

The only instance I drove to MP was incidentally in Madhu's Punto 2 years before and loved every bit of it. Roads, People and couple of monumental beauties. Looking at this pics, I would love to visit these places sooner.

Keep this coming Santosh, PG & RK!

Voted a well deserved 5*s mainly for showing us that MP is also an awesome place to drive around on a holiday.

I believe you folks also met Avinash (Ravenavi) and spent good time at his hometown of Jagdalpur as I see few updates from him on his Honda city thread.

[santoshr]

Technical reasons not allowing Madhu to post his pics and write his side of the story, and so I will be doing it on his behalf --

Madhu had left the previous day early evening. His plan was to reach Panchmarhi and met a student of his. Let left Bangalore on the eve of 18th, Rajnish was following up with him on where he has. He took a couple of hours break in Nagpur and then drove on what he said one of the best roads in India Chindhwara to Panchmarhi. Too bad he did not get us pictures of this route.

Here are a few pictures from DhoopGarh

[rkhare]

Originally Posted by santoshr

He took a couple of hours break in Nagpur and then drove on what he said one of the best roads in India Chindhwara to Panchmarhi. Too bad he did not get us pictures of this route.

I believe he meant Nagpur to Chindwara, which is in awesome condition currently.

[joshuakeys]

Initial 2 captures taken from boat are Breath taking, Thanks for making me aware of Bhimbetka caves, Never heard about them before.

Thanks for the Share

Cheers
josh