[brownianmotion]

Prologue

If you love the red blooming Palash and its early March, it must be Purulia. Yes, that’s the best time to visit Purulia to experience Palash. That’s why we planned to visit Purulia during the Holi weekend. We had been to Purulia 2 years back when we went to Garpanchokot but did not go to Ajodhya Hills. We booked our stay at Eco Adventure resort which is located near Khairabera dam. Khairabera dam is about 360km from Kolkata.



The route

We planned to take the following route: Kolkata-Durgapur-Asansol-Nituria-Raghunathpur-Goshala More (before Purulia town) – Birsha More Jhalda – Koreng more- Khairabera Ecoadventure resort. However, if you see G-maps for route from Kolkata to Khairabera, you see 3 routes – one through Bankura, one through Asansol and one through NH 16 via Jharkhand. Road through Bankura was not good. We were very much interested to go through NH 16 via Galudi and Ghatshila but could not find any reference in Team-bhp - hence decided to take Asansol route. A word of caution : Do not blindly follow G-maps - if you provide Kolkata to Khairabera direction then it shows a wrong road after Jhalda which is not navigable.



Trip starts : Day 1 : 07-03-2020

We started at 4-45 AM from our home at Jadavpur. We took NH 19 (erstwhile NH2) but very soon got stuck near Dankuni in a severe congestion which lasted for more than an hour. So it was about 6-30 AM when we crossed Dankuni toll plaza. It has been raining lightly for some time now. We stopped for breakfast at CCD, Gobindopur and then crossed Palsit toll plaza by 08-00. We topped up fuel at BPCL petrol pump after Panagarh. We crossed Durgapur and turned left from Asansol towards Raghunathpur. It was 10-30 now. We turned left onto Nituria Main road towards Asansol-Purulia road (SH5) which passes through Barakar. Crossed Damodar river after some time. 2 years back we came through the same route to Garpanchokot.




Purulia town to Khairabera dam : Day 1 : 07-03-2020

We reached Goshala More in Purulia town and then took right. Crossed Big Bazaar through narrow congested roads and then turned right onto Ranchi Purulia road. From this point onwards, the traffic became less and we could see Palash trees by the side of the road. After driving for about 45-50 kms on this road, we reached Jhalda, where we turned left towards Jhalda Baghmundi road. The road going straight from Jhalda goes towards Ranchi. Baghmundi road is beautiful with trees and bushes on both sides and small hills nearby. After about 30 kms on this road, we reached Koreng more, from where we turned left. Eco Adventure Resort / Khairabera dam is about 5 kms from Koreng more. This last stretch from Koreng more is a narrow village road with very sharp edges on both sides. So be careful when a vehicle comes from other side.
There was another road which we thought we would try but did not . Much before entering Purulia town if you take a right turn to Chharra road that might take you to Jhalda bypassing Purulia town. But we were not sure and the resort advised against it and hence did not take the route. But it may be worth exploring.





Inside the resort : Day 1 : 07-03-2020

Eco Adventure resort is a private resort situated by the side of Khairabera dam. It is one of the two places at Ajodhya hill which offers best services in terms of accommodation and food – other one being Kushal Pally resort atop Ajodhya hills. There was another Niharika hotel atop Ajodhya hills which could be booked through CADC – but we learnt AC rooms are now reserved only for VIPs. Khairabera resort is at the base of the hill, surrounded by hills and forests and all accomodations are in cottages or tents. Undoubtedly it has the most scenic location ( though Kushalpally may offer more in terms of luxury and frequented by VIPs).




It was past 2 PM and we were extremely hungry. So we kept our bags in the tent and immediately went to have lunch and the food quality was excellent. We roamed around the resort grounds for a bit, saw some Emus and Turkeys and went inside the tent to rest a while.

The Storm: Day 1 : 07-03-2020

At about 4 PM a storm accompanied by very strong winds hit the resort. It seems like a Norwester. If Norwesters happens here then it becomes much more pronounced as it is surrounded by hills on all side. Within a short span of time, the wind and the rain became so terribly strong and noisy that our tent started to sway and things started to fall inside the tent. We were frantically holding on to all objects which were about to fall. Soon rain water was everywhere – on the bed, on the floor. Thankfully by this time we already switched off the power connection. Now the wind was literally howling outside. We had never experienced a norwester like this before. It seemed like the tent was going to blow away. Eventually it ended after rampaging for an hour or so. Everyone came outside their respective tents to see the extent of the damage. We were amazed to see that the supporting pole of our tent which was made of iron was buckled like a rubber. The resort staff said that such a raging storm was rare, even in Purulia. It was 3 years back that they had had a similar storm which had torn their tents. We were thinking that maybe it was not such a good idea to book a tent in a place like this, since the cottages were intact. It took the whole evening to restore some normalcy in the resort. When we were going to the dining room that night, it was chilly. But the sky was clearing up. It seemed that the next day would be bright and sunny.

Ajodhya Hills : Day 2 : 08-03-2020

Indeed the next day was sunny. After having a good night’s sleep and a very heavy breakfast, we set out to see the Ajodhya hill. To go to Ajodhya hill, you have to take a left turn from Koreng more and drive on Baghmundi road for 26 km. At about 8 km from Koreng more you reach a village called Charida, which is famous for ‘Chou’ mask. We stopped there to see the artists in the village working on various kind of masks, mostly Gods & Goddesses. You will find an artist in almost every home in the village. We bought a few masks and drove on towards Baghmundi. Be careful to park your car as sometimes there may be some odd nails on the road here and there which is used by the artists - keep your tires safe

Charida village : Artisan's cottage


After crossing the Baghmundi market, you will arrive at Ajodhya more where you will see a statue of Netaji. You take a left turn from the statue and you will enter Ajodhya hills road. From here the road is narrow and part of it is a little rough for a short span till you reach the base of Ajodhya hill. Once you start going uphill, the road is good and the view gets better and better. After a while you can see the lower dam and a little later you will reach the upper dam.

Ajodhya Hill road


Lower Dam


Upper Dam


Upper Dam


After enjoying the beautiful scenery for some time we decided to go to Ajodhya hilltop. Ajodhya hilltop is actually very flat and you can see the hills around you only if you go to the edge of the hill. There is a Govt tourist lodge and some small hotels and homestays there. We wanted to have lunch at Kushalpally, at Ajodhya hill top, but the security told us that the restaurant is not open to non-residents. So we drove through Ajodhya hilltop and went to see the Bamni Falls. There are a few places to visit at Ajodhya, like Pakhi Pahar, Bamni Falls, Mayur Pahar etc. which are within a few kilometres of each other. Bamni Falls is a medium sized waterfall surrounded by trees and you have to climb down quite a few steps to get to the last view point. But the drive to the waterfall is much more beautiful than the waterfall itself.



Bamni Falls


After seeing the waterfall, we started return journey towards our resort. It was only 4 o’ clock, but though this place was very beautiful, one thing it didn’t have is any toilet facility anywhere for visitors. We saw Pakhi Pahar on the way back. It’s a rocky hill on which some artists have sculpted images of birds – hence the name Pakhi pahar, meaning birds’ hill.
The return journey was even more scenic than our morning ride, because of the color of the setting sun on the trees and the hills.



Koreng mor to Khairabera dam


Coming back to Khairabera, we had a refreshing cup of tea in the lawn overlooking the dam. It soon became dark. We had an early dinner and spent the evening walking on the dam and a little towards the forest on the other side. It was a bright moonlit night and the air was pleasingly cool. The sparkling river water and the quiet surroundings created a magical atmosphere.

Evening at Khairabera dam


House pets inside the resort - peacocks, turkey, emu



Return journey : Day 3 : 09-03-2020

We decided to take a different route on our return journey, a more picturesque route than Purulia-Jhalda (I wonder we could have taken this route while coming as well). We would cross Ajodhya hill and then go past Sirkabad through Baghmundi hills and then turn left towards Purulia at Tamna. From Purulia it was the same Purulia-Raghunathpur highway to Asansol. The entire route is : Khairabera -Koreng More – Ajodhya More -Sirkabad- Tamna – Raghunathpur – Nituria – Asansol – Kolkata.



After breakfast we roamed around the garden watching the emus, peacocks and turkeys. Today was equally brilliant as yesterday. At 09-00, we bid farewell to Khairabera and started on our way back to Kolkata. The road to Ajodhya hilltop was almost empty as today was Holi in Bengal (Dol). Some young boys were playing with colors, but nobody disturbed us. We drove on towards Sirkabad. The road through Baghmundi was spectacular.





The picturesque Bagmundi road






The rest of the journey was uneventful except when a group of boys tried to stop our car near Purulia town, but some local dada stepped in and they let us go. At most localities, we saw that people were enjoying Holi and the local authorities were alert. We topped up our tank at IOCL petrol pump in Raghunathpur.

We reached Durgapur at 1 O’ clock but could not find any place open for lunch as it was Holi. At last we saw a Haldiram’s shop which was open and had lunch there. From there the road was absolutely clear and we reached Kolkata in 2 hours (about 170 km).

Epilogue

As we were hanging the Chhou mask on our bedroom wall little did we know that this Purulia trip was going to be our last road trip before the lockdown due to Covid-19 breakout. Even now as I write this travelogue, I do not know when we can go out again. We have made so many plans but ...

[haisaikat]

That is one beautiful journey @brownianmotion. My home is close to yours (Dhakuria) and we had headed for Puruliya around the same time just one day earlier to yours i.e on 6th March. We covered Garhpanckot, Baranti and Maithon quite comfortably leaving out Ayodhya for another time. While you met a heavy traffic in Dankuni Toll, we met with a diversion and had to go around it through interior roads.

Seems your Saturday was very adventurous, would have loved to see some pics of the tent. In fact on Friday 6th March evening while we were at Garhpanchkot there was a very strong storm followed by night long downpour but Saturday was completely clean with occasional cloudy skies. Here is the link (To the Spring time Wonderland of Garh Panchkot, Baranti and Maithon in an Innova Crysta) to the travelogue







On 9th, the day of Holi like you, we also halted at Durgapur for the lunch and after a lot of searching found some good places to eat close to the Junction Mall. While searching our target was simple, aim for the hotels that offer accommodations, their kitchens and restaurants are bound to stay open.

Any pictures of the scenic road through Baghmundi or hilltop pictures from Ayodhya? Would have loved to see a photo of the Ecosport too amidst the beauty of nature

In fact I also echo your thoughts that little did we know that that in just a matter of 2 weeks everything will be locked down. But I do believe that if we had at least taken the next weekend we may have been able to witness better views of Palash and a little more in abundance.

[vb-saan]

Thread moved from Assembly Line to the Travelogues section. Thank you for sharing!

[brownianmotion]

Originally Posted by haisaikat

That is one beautiful journey @brownianmotion. My home is close to yours (Dhakuria) and we had headed for Puruliya around the same time just one day earlier to yours i.e on 6th March. We covered Garhpanckot, Baranti and Maithon quite comfortably leaving out Ayodhya for another time. While you met a heavy traffic in Dankuni Toll, we met with a diversion and had to go around it through interior roads.

Seems your Saturday was very adventurous, would have loved to see some pics of the tent. In fact on Friday 6th March evening while we were at Garhpanchkot there was a very strong storm followed by night long downpour but Saturday was completely clean with occasional cloudy skies.
On 9th, the day of Holi like you, we also halted at Durgapur for the lunch and after a lot of searching found some good places to eat close to the Junction Mall. While searching our target was simple, aim for the hotels that offer accommodations, their kitchens and restaurants are bound to stay open.

Any pictures of the scenic road through Baghmundi or hilltop pictures from Ayodhya? Would have loved to see a photo of the Ecosport too amidst the beauty of nature

In fact I also echo your thoughts that little did we know that that in just a matter of 2 weeks everything will be locked down. But I do believe that if we had at least taken the next weekend we may have been able to witness better views of Palash and a little more in abundance.

Just read your TL. That’s an excellent travelogue. 2 years back we went there. Came back via Maithon but did not stay in Maithon. Fantastic photos too. Another 3 weeks later we could have seen much more red blossom . But in current context thank god that we did not keep it for March end . Did not take photo after the storm as we were busy arranging stuff . Uploaded more photos of the trip as last time due to some reason photos were not uploaded correctly.

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by brownianmotion

We planned to take the following route: Kolkata-Durgapur-Asansol-Nituria-Raghunathpur-Goshala More (before Purulia town) – Birsha More Jhalda – Koreng more- Khairabera Ecoadventure resort. However, if you see G-maps for route from Kolkata to Khairabera, you see 3 routes – one through Bankura, one through Asansol and one through NH 16 via Jharkhand. Road through Bankura was not good. We were very much interested to go through NH 16 via Galudi and Ghatshila but could not find any reference in Team-bhp - hence decided to take Asansol route.

Have used multiple routes for Purulia, via Asansol and Bankura. And multiple routes for Bankura, including via Kharagpur. At one time, some of those roads were terrible, esp. the Kharagpur - Bankura. But of late (I'm talking a few years back) Road condition wise more or less equal. Have the roads deteriorated of late?

Nice short travelogue.

Regards
Sutripta

[Samfromindia]

Purulia always brings back fond memories of Ayodhya Pahar, one of my favorite spots in West Bengal. Few scenes of this recent bengali movie was shot there (From 29 Secs)

https://youtu.be/z-yaMjSzv-8?t=29

This travelogue made me nostalgic as i have been there with same car 4 years back Nice & short write-up. Will surely help new travelers looking to explore the beauty of Bengal !