[pramods]

Sunday 21st Sep 2008
Nagpur to Chikaldhara Chikhaldara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Last week it was Bedaghat, this week it was time to visit the hills, this is only hills located nearer Nagpur. This time we planned this trip in advance I mean did preparation on Saturday, we packed breakfast and lunch, started early morning, reached there before noon and spent 6 hour visiting most of the sightseeing points [there are total 12 points, out of this only 8 are operational at this time (rainy season)] and spending some quality time enjoying the surrounding. The hills are quite stiff and Scorpio performed quite well.

Route: Nagpur-> Amravati->Partwada->Chikhaldara

Plan was to start by 6AM from Nagpur, but was able to get to NH6 only by 7AM, the road from Nagpur to Amravati is being made 4 lane, so lots of construction work going on this, still the road is good enough, the 4 lane in between for almost 50Km is complete so once you cross 40KM from Nagpur you are on super highway and its really surprising to see this 4 lane, signboard marker and service lane all properly marked and in proper shape, even vehicle following few lance rule, that was a great experience, but it end quite fast, once you are nearing Amravati, you face the worst patch. We stopped for breakfast once the 4 lane highways ended, because we knew it would be tough to get space and location to step out of vehicle and enjoy breakfast.

The road from Amravati to Partwada is quite good, even though this is a state highway, it was well maintained and we were able to attain good speed. The first stop was at a small stream when nearing to Chikhaldara, the water seems to rushing from the hills at great speed, we spent few minutes enjoying this stream, and this was the first test of what to come in Chikhaldara.
Ghat road started and guys it was real fun, greeneries all around, the best part was there were almost no traffic from other side, that allowed to negotiate the ghat quite well and still enjoy the surrounding, We came across quite a few villages on the top and some farms also, stopped near a farm for few family shooting [Camcorder], and was able to get few snapshot of the surrounding too.

Image 1: Ghat road
Image 2: small Lake in the valley
Image 3: Farm
Image 4: My Scorpio

After this stop it was all ghat and we entered Chikhaldara, as mentioned above there are lots of sightseeing points, the main point is Bhimkund, this is the place where there are 3 water fall, 2 big and one small, the valley is quite deep and you can hear water gushing in valley. There are 2 wind mills for power generation, they generate 2 MW of power, guys this is the location where you can feel the air, so fresh that you don't want to leave this place.
Most of the sightseeing points have waterfalls, but the best of them are Bhimkund and Panchbol Point, at Panchbol point there are five hills edge and this also called as echo point.

Image 5: Panchbol point waterfall
Image 6: Pancbol view
Image 7: Bhimkund waterfall
Image 8: Bhimkund waterfall 2
Image 9: Windmill seen from Bhimkund
Image 10: Bhimkund stream

There are lots of other images that I need to offload from camcorder and other cam, I will upload them in later.

I hope you people enjoyed the virtual chikhaldara.

Stats: total kms: 540kms
Time: 15hours
Vehicle: Scorpio 4x2 VLX mHawk
Fuel: 48liter
Average: 11.25, this I believe would be good enough of doing that entire ghat in 1-2-3, with one way without AC and returning journey with AC

-Pramod

[hillram]

The small lake with bushy trees looks really scenic.

[mjothi]

Nice one there
11+ kmpl, thats a good figure.

I hope you people enjoyed the virtual chikhaldara

Yes pretty much and waiting for the rest of the pics.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

I am reading something about Chikhaldara after so many years when read in my school textbook.
As your travelogues reveals, vidarbha has some good sites mostly forest and wildlife oriented. one or two hill stations may be there.
Due to long distances from Mumbai and Pune, people are hesitant to visit these places. Wild life can be best viewed during summer and all know what the vidarbha is during summer and thats main drawback.
As far as hill stations is concerned, Mumbai , Pune people have hill stations like Matheran, Mahabaleshwar and Amboli within striking distance. Hence very few visitors to hill stations in vidarbha from Mumbai and Pune.
Your travelogues giving us exposure to this part of world.
Please elaborate more about driving directions, road conditions, places to stay, food and points to be seen. That will be more helpful.

[pramods]

Ashish, Chikhaldara been Hill station is also part of Melghat Tiger Reserve, so you enjoy both wild life as well as Hills, this is the only place where snowfall happens in vidarbha ;-), I didn't go to Jungle, it a single day trip, but best would be to plan 2 days trip and do a jungle safari and see all the points, regarding accommodation there are couple of good hotels including tourism department hotel and guest houses, I am not aware of more hotels and conditions as I didn't inquired about them, road conditions are excellent from Amravati and with in Chikhaldara.

Few more images, more to follow later in evening

-Pramod

[muralisk]

Very nice pictures (especially, the second one in both uploads).

[mjothi]

Pramod: The 2nd picture looks like a BIG size well Nice one.

[anujmishra]

I also been to Chikaldhara some 8 - 9 years back from college trip when I was in Nagpur. It is one of the rare hill station in central India.
Photos are quite nice.

There ain't much spots are there around Nagpur. Few forest reserves, Ramtek, Panchmarhi (in MP) and some day long visit picnic spots.

[snaronikar]

Good Pics. So, you are the person exploring Nagpur regiion. I read in some other thread that Nagpur and Vidharbha region is neglected. So, do explore these regions and send us the updates. Will help others to know more about this place.

[pramods]

few more Images, the national highway NH6, this is how the road should be, may be after a year or so the complete stretch Nagpur to Amravati will be. Next come the small stream where we spent some time enjoying the gussying water and Scorpio and Me.

[akroy]

Nice pics pramods, that stretch of NH6 looks awesome.
Also, Nice to know a few nice getaways from Nagpur through your posts.

Abhi

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Very nice photographs Pramod. Thanks for sharing.

[pramods]

thanks, Nagpur have some amazing places to visit for wildlife lover, Kanha and Pench National Park are getting open from 1st Oct and I bet people must be waiting to go there, last time when I went to Kanha there were 120 vehicle in the jungle in the morning for safari, assuming each vehicle carrying 5 people it would be 600 people at one time in jungle, the best part is all are diverted to different location and on different route so they generally don't gather at one place, if some one has to see the complete jungle then they should do at least 4 safari.

-Pramod

[Sudipto-S-Team]

I faced something similar to that in Bandhavgarh around Christmas. It felt like a circus. I would much prefer Tadoba in summer than Kanha/Bandhavgarh in winter - just to avoid the crowds.

[agspins]

Nice pics pramod..been to chikaldara some 16 years back,place was in its first pahse of development then.
chikaldara great place to visit around in monsoons.there two forest rest houses some 60-70kms from chikaldara..semadoh and kolkhas very beautiful rest houses and cottages with plethora of flora n fauna ...