Pachhmarhi - The tallest Queen of Satpura
- Publishing Date: 20-May-2018
- Category: Adventure
- Starting Date: 01-Oct-2014
- No of Days: 2 Days
- Location: Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh, India
To read the same blog in Hindi, go to setting gear showing on the right hand side and change the language selection to Hindi.
2014 October, 2nd October was an office holiday, due to which I was getting a long weekend holiday, where I could go somewhere. This time, there was a desire to go somewhere else of Uttarakhand, while searching one name came to my mind and it was "Rani of Satpura - Pachmarhi".
Pachmarhi is a hill station in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh state of central India. It has been the location of a cantonment (Pachmarhi Cantonment) since British Raj. It is widely known as Satpura ki Rani ("Queen of Satpura"), situated at a height of 1067 mtr in a valley of the Satpura Range in Hoshangabad district. Dhupgarh, the highest point (1,352 m) in Madhya Pradesh and the Satpura range, is located here. It is a part of Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve.
How to reach:
By Air: Pachmarhi is about 260kms from Jabalpur city and 230kms from Bhopal city. Both the cities have their own airports. Jabalpur airport is having flight connectivity with Delhi, Mumbai, Indore whereas Bhopal airport have direct flight connectivity with Delhi, Ahmedabad, Indore, Raipur, Hyderabad. Third options is Nagpur airport which is about 285kms from Pachmarhi and has more better connectivity with cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Indore, Kolkata, Sharjah airports.
By Train: Nearest railway station for Pachmarhi is Pipariya railway station (Railway station code: PPI), located at a distance of 50kms/01:30hrs. Pipariya station have direct train connectivity with important cites and tourist destinations like Jabalpur, Bhopal, Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Howrah (Kolkata), Agra, Gwalior, Ahmedabad, Nagpur etc. If you don't find direct train to Pipariya station, then second option is to reach Itarsi railway station at a distance of 150kms from Pachmarhi which is an important railway junction.
By Road: Pachmarhi is well connected by road. Although you are coming by flight or train but last journey will be done by road. Being Army cantonment is located here, road condition remain good and maintained. It is open for visitors throughout the year. You can easily reach Pachmarhi by road from nearby cities like Bhopal, Jabalpur, Nagpur, Indore, Kanha national park, Pench national park etc.
Best time to visit:
This hill station is open for visitors, throughout the year, but rainy season is the best time to visit this place.
- Bee Fall
- Dhoopagarh
- Chauragarh temple
- Jata Shanker Cave
- Rajat Prapat
- Apsara Vihar
- Pandav Caves & Garden
- Ducth Fall
- Jata Shanker Mahadev mandir
- Pachhmarhi Catholic Church
- Handi Kho
- Mahadev Temple
Information Source: Madhya Pradesh Tourism & Wikipedia
Since this trip was planned suddenly, the train ticket from Gwalior to Pipariya was taken from Tatkal in NDLS Jabalpur Shree Dham Superfats express. Sridham Express from Delhi to Jabalpur runs from Gwalior at 06:55 in the evening and its timing for reaching Piparias is 04:25 in the morning, on that day the train was delayed and we reached Pipapriya around 05:30 in the morning.
Outside the Pipariya railway station, you will find a lot of taxis, which take 3 or 4 persons in their cab on sharing basics upto Pachmarhi, the number of riders depends on the car capacity. Apart from this, Pipariya has a bus stand on the other side of road, from where there is a bus service for Pachmarhi at every half an hour, whose fare is less in comparison to taxi.
Well, we were not aware of the bus stand at that time, so we took the shared taxi, we were with Shiva and Akanskha, these both are more strollers than me. The best thing about stroll is that you get an opportunity to connect with people, get the chance to know the places they are from.
Scenic view of road
The taxi was running and in a few minutes we were on the winding paths of the hills while passing through flat roads, cold winds from the car windows were welcomed to us. The Best thing you can find in Madhya Pradesh's taxi is that here most of the taxi driver's play good songs, they are not traditional taxi songs. Whole route was full of greenery, these scenes were enough to eradicate the fatigue of the last night.
Denawa river
After entering in Pachmarhi, the driver stopped the vehicle at a point, there was a river named Denawa flowing beneath the mountains, driver told us that this is an echo point, echo point is a place where your voice comes back after striking with stones or resonates. We heard the voices of people's returning here.
After spending some time here we moved further and reached Pachmarhi's main market, we did not book the hotel, and because of the long weekend we found it difficult to find the hotel and found a little expensive hotel than expected, but the hotel's room was great, it's a value for money kind of deal. Our hotel was just behind the bus stand, and there was a good market around.
Here, I would like to tell you something, most of the area of Pachmarhi comes under the Forest Dept and you have to take permission to visit that area, and most of the tourist attraction places don't have paved road, and because of that only 4*4 driving vehicles are allowed here and that's why each end every tour operator is having at least one 4*4 Gypsy, Gypsy is the first 4*4 driving vehicle in India.
You can visit most of Pachmarhi's points in 2 days, for this, you have to get the help of the tour operators here, they have a 2-day plan, in which they take you to all the spots where 4*4 vehicle is required on first day, and for that they have to pay the entry fee to forest department and that cost is shared among all the tourist present in that vehicle. On the second day those points are covered which do not require 4*4 vehicle, these people take 8 to 9 people in a car.
The most funny thing here is that all these gypsy looks like same, then how will you know which one is your among 50 gypsy standing on each spot? For this, there is a tag line on every gypsy, like "Raja Hindustani", "Chalti ka Naam Gadi", you can find your gypsy from such a tag line.
Forest department office
Our gypsy came around 10 o'clock and we moved, Entry Gate of the Forest Department was in front of our hotel, inside which we had to get the entry pass by paying a fix amount of money, after getting the entry pass we go ahead and reached our first point of the day i.e. Pandav Caves.
Pandav Caves
Pandav caves located in Pachmarhi are a group of five small hills. It is believed that during his expulsion the Pandavas took shelter here. Archaeological evidence suggests that these caves were constructed by Buddhist monks in the first century because they used to use this place to take shelter.
Aerial view of Pandav Caves Garden
But among the locals, the stories of Pandavas are more famous. Those traveling to Pachmarhi must do a walk here. Pandav caves are naturally carved caves. In front of these caves there is a very beautiful park, whose greenary attracts you.
Silver Fall
From here we move forward to the next stop "Silver Fall", which is a very beautiful waterfall between the dense forests. Its name is Silver Fall because the water of this waterfall falls from such a high level that the particles of water appear to shatter in the air like silver. You can not go near this waterfall, but the views which are visible from far away are also unmatched.
Spending some quality time :)
There was another place near the Silver Fall that, I do not remember its name, there was also a waterfall flowing, overall it was a very beautiful place. Here some small tanks were made on the slopes, through which the water of the spring was flowing, it was good place to spend some quality time by putting your feet in the water, and we did the same.
From here we move towards our next stop, "Bee Fall", this is a very beautiful waterfall, but you have to take a lot of stairs to reach the waterfalls. There are some stories about this name, which are as follows: The water falls from a heighten place, and passing from the stones, which makes such a sound as if there lot of bees below and they are creating so much noise.
Bee Fall
Apart from this there is also a story that before this waterfall, there were so many honey bees used to make noise in this place so its name is "Bee Fall". Anyway whatever is the reason, we were here to take a bath in the fall, so without wasting any time we jump in the stream of fall.
After a while we came out and changed the clothes, before we started in the morning, we were told that Bee Fall is in the today's plan, so we went along with extra clothes. From here we moved to the side of the car, it was a very tough climbing, but somehow we did it. From here we move towards "Priyadarshini Point", this is the place where there is a large flat area with greenery, a team here offers para sailing and some other adventure activities. None of us had this activity before, so it was an exciting place for all of us.
Para sailing at Priyadarshini Point. Pic Courtesy: Youtube
A lot of people were doing para sailing here, during para sailing the person is worn by a lot of safety gears and is tied to the parachute, and then a jeep pulls the parachute at a very fast pace, causing parachute to reach in the air. And the person remains in air for about 2 minutes (depending on the speed of the train, the speed of the wind and the train goes far away), like a bird.
The charges for this activity was Rs 600, and before starting it you have to fill a declaration form, in which you have to fill some basic information related to yourself and at the end of the form there a line - "If I have any kind of injury in doing this activity then I will be responsible for it.", just by reading this line, I surrendered myself and we missed the para sailing adventure there.
In all of these, no one has given attention that the sun is going to be sunk, and at this time we should have on the "Dhoopgarh Sunset Point", there is a different kind of experience to see the sunset from there.
Sunset from Dhoopgarh Sunset Point. Pic Courtesy: http://mapio.net/pic/p-84241325/
The driver tried a lot, but until we reached the sun sets. I did not know the importance of seeing sunsets from such places at that time, so I did not have any particular interest in it, this importance came to me later, when I saw the sunset in the Diu, or at the height of 10,000 feet in Chopta then only I understood its significance.
Well, we did not saw the sunset, but the sun's redness was still visible and it was gradually decreasing. A lot of people come here to watch the sunset in this place. So, the locals have opened small food shops where you can take a cup of tea in your hand and see the sunset, it is very relaxing.
We spent half an hour there, mild darkness started as the day is over as well as today's trip was. Everyone sat in the gypsy and we were heading towards our hotels, and we do not know which group will be with us tomorrow?
After reaching our hotel we took some rest and after that we were in mood of exploring some good food joint where we can get some local taste, and while doing the same we smell some great combination of spices comeing from a Dhaba, and we did the dinner there. After having dinner we need a good sleep, there was a lot of fatigue, so I did not know when I was sleeping.
This is the first part of this trip, I hope you enjoyed it. On the next part I will take you to some other exiting places like Jata Shanker Mahadev etc.
To read the second part of this blog, click here
Happy traveling
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