[Samba]

From the last few months we were contemplating for a meet & a small drive. The end result was 13 cars and a 700 km drive to a forest and a small hill in Odisha.

The participants-
Bhpian Blackpearl with wife (Bhpian Teesta)
Bhpian AG The Rambler with wife and kid
Bhpian Altimaed solo
Bhpian SouraC with wife and kid
Bhpian Doctorsmile with wife
Bhpian Sayata with wife
Bhpian Avrendu solo
Bhpian Arindamxeta with wife and kids
Bhpian Lovecars21 with wife
Bhpian Delix with wife and kids
Bhpian Samba with wife
Mr.Rana Adhikari with wife and kid
Mr.Arabinda Das solo
Mr.Indranil Chatterjee solo
Mr.Soumyadeep Chaudhury with wife and kids

A group pic-


Bangriposhi is a small town located near Baripada in Mayurbhanj district in Odisha. Its one of the entrance to Simlipal. The main entrance of Simlipal forest is from Joshipur which is 60km from Bangriposhi. The main attraction of this place are a couple of dams, the jungle of Simlipal and the scenic hill road. In monsoon entering the Simlipal forest is closed but one can enjoy the scenic drive from Bangriposhi to Joshipur through lush green surroundings.
The best staying option at Bangriposhi is Khairi resort. The resort is located in a scenic location. The resort is nice with okay food. The non ac rooms are substandard and must be avoided. The AC rooms are okay for night stay with family.
This area is notorious for Falciparum. So please carry enough mosquito repellents.

Few teaser pics-

[Samba]

Day 1

Our assembly point was at Azadhind Dhaba Uluberia at 7am. By 8am all of us were there except Arabinda as he came from Asansol in his K10. He joined us directly at the resort. Had our breakfast and started the drive.
The 6 lane highway with sparse traffic till Kharagpur was a paradise for all of us. We reached Kharagpur pretty fast and from then it was a single lane road all the way till Bangriposhi. Road widening work is going on till Baharagora so there are few diversions and at few places road is narrow. From Baharagora to Bangriposhi road is bad with full of pot holes or rather craters! This 30km stretch had to be driven carefully. We reached the resort by 11-30 am and got freshened up. Lunch was served by 2pm and by 3pm we hired a local guide from the resort and was on our way to explore the places.

Our first visit was to Bankabal dam. We took the ghat road towards Joshipur and from one point we had to leave the main highway and take the interior roads to reach the dam.

Few pics on the way and around the dam.













Our next destination was to Sulaipat dam. Its 15km from here. The road goes through interior village and in between some scenic ghat sections.

Pics from Sulaipat dam.





















It was already 6pm by then and our resort was a good 30km drive on the main highway which passes through the ghat sections of the Simlipal forest.

But before returning we decided to do some photo-shoot of our cars inside the jungle and in some scenic location.

The Tata Zest, Alto K10, Swift Dzire & Swift pics are missing from the shoot as their owners decided to leave their cars in the resort and join us in our cars, but later they regretted for this decision!



























A snap from the return journey to the resort.



Reached our resort by 7-30pm. Had a gala time in the evening among ourselves with chicken and paneer pakoda. By 10-30 pm we had our dinner and retired for the day.

[Samba]

Day 2

Morning breakfast was served around 9am. Post breakfast 7 cars decided to drive till Josipur and enjoy the ghat roads and other 6 cars had to return early so they drove back to Kolkata straight from Bangriposhi. We started around 11 am for Joshipur.

While leaving the resort this beautiful chameleon came to bid us good bye.


Few pics from the drive.















Started from Joshipur at 1-30pm. The return journey from Joshipur to Jharpokria, we were accompanied by drizzles to heavy rain. The drive was a perfect monsoon drive. We crossed Kharagpur around 4-15 pm and reached Hotel Abhijit at Kolaghat by 5-15 pm. We had a late lunch or early dinner over there! The food they provided were really tasty. We all cherished our prawns and the famous Kolaghat Hilsha. Post lunch we bid good bye to each other and left for our home. After having a sumptuous meal i was in no mood to drive! But had to lazily drive the rest 60 km and reach home by 8pm.

[SDP]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[siddarthab]

Fabulous photos as usual Samba. Could you please share gpx file(s) if available.

Warm Regards,

Siddhartha

[Teesta]

Samba thank you for organising such a weekend meet! It was well planned and executed. Simlipal looked stunning in monsoon. The photos are splendid.

[Sutripta]

There used to be a very basic stay (Panthasala, not OTDC PanthaNivas) in Bangriposi. Still there?

Anyone know the status of Lulung?

Post GST, any jams at the border?

Regards
Sutripta

[ALTIMAed]

Hi Samba, the trip was well organized and executed. The best part of these kind of trips is that since all the participants are of the same wavelength, the drive and the company is what one really enjoys, rest all is secondary.

I was really surprised on the condition of the so called 'Mumbai Kolkata highway' which can be defined as bad to really horrible, as Samba has mentioned. Once back home, after the trip, I did a bit of research on Kolkata Mumbai route by referring google.

Option 1 - Kolkata > Kharagpur > the route we took till the resort > Bhilai > Aurangabad > Mumbai (1939 kms 36 hours).

Option 2 - Kolkata > Bhubaneshwar > Vizag (superb roads till here as experienced by myself) > Pune > Mumbai (2208 kms 38 hours).

It maybe observed, the difference in distance is 269 kms but the difference in time is just 2 hours. I am pretty sure this difference is to be attributed to the road condition.

[BlackPearl]

Crisp travelogue and beautiful pics Samba! Thanks a lot for arranging a superb weekend getaway with like minded people.

The place was beautiful, specially the drive in the ghat sections. It was fun keeping up with the sedans in a Thar

As usual, the Thar was fantastic on the good roads and the horrible roads, but on the semi broken tarmacs I was having a torrid time keeping up with the sedans, specially the Tata Zest, before finally giving up. The Zest was gobbling up the potholes like nothing else.

The Sherpa!

Originally Posted by siddarthab

Fabulous photos as usual Samba. Could you please share gpx file(s) if available.

Here you go. Please rename the file appropriately

Current.gpx

The track rendered by GPSPrune from the GPX files -



A few pics from the trip -

Originally Posted by Sutripta

Anyone know the status of Lulung?

One cannot stay in Lulung anymore since the buildings were mostly destroyed.

[siddarthab]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

Here you go. Please rename the file appropriately

Attachment 1656187

The track rendered by GPSPrune from the GPX files -

Attachment 1656188

Thanks a lot BlackPearl

Lovely pictures as well !!!

Warm Regards,

Siddhartha

[1100D]

Originally Posted by Sutripta

There used to be a very basic stay (Panthasala, not OTDC PanthaNivas) in Bangriposi. Still there?

Regards
Sutripta

This Resort is the old Panthasala refurbished by a Leasee. Although it seems to be renamed as Khairi resort, this has no other connection to the animal or Saroj Raj's quarters.

[justwheels]

Awesome trip guys. Its great to see so many TBHP'ians traveling together. Loved the photo-shoot of the cars in the jungle. I am sure those who left their cars would be envying the others

It's sad that many of the bengal/orissa destinations are untapped and less developed. The greenery and the flora fauna surely makes for a great trip around there if properly developed. But then, who cares if you have the company of the most community followers. Thabks guys for sharing this with us.

[Sayata]

Thank you very much samba for this wonderful travelogue. It was my first road trip with so many bhpians and needless to say they are not only good drivers but good humans, never felt uncomfortable with their company. Only one regret was by not taking my car for the trail drive but it got compensated as I got a chance to feel the wonderful driving of bhpian Samba in his Etios through the forest and ghat roads. Hats off to your skillful cornering s at the ghat section.
Some pictures from side.

[Sayata]

Finally , a trip remains incomplete without good food, hence we all had our late lunch at HOTEL AVIJIT , kolaghat ,West Bengal with some authentic Bengali dishes.
Some pictures here

[SS-Traveller]

Whoa! Another lovely family trip by the Kolkata Team-BHPian group. You guys must certainly be making a few non-resident Kolkata BHPians seriously jealous & heart-broken. And with such talented photographers in the group, with Samba in the lead, the trip becomes far more memorable than one could possibly imagine! Keep the trips going - I'll catch up with you someday on the road...