Exploring Madhya Pradesh-Pachmari and Ratapani

After exploring quite a lot of south, and on a long holiday at home, i was a little bored until this friend of mine rode all the way to Bhopal on his sexy Enfield just to meet me. I wanted to take him around and show him a little of the state I was brought up. So yes, after a lot of confusion on where to go, we settled on to Pachmari. First, it’s a hill station( even though equally hot as Bhopal) and second, there are waterfalls to jump in to after roaming in the hot sun.

Rata Pani Wildlife Sanctuary

So this is how the plan was made-

A night before, the four of us(Mona, Kiran, Anand and me) went out for a drive at the Bhopal-Pachmari road and saw a board that said Pachmari 195kms, and we knew it all!

 I love how random trips could get. It was just Pachmari anyways. Staying out of home all these years forgot what it is like to go out on a trip with friends being with parents. We woke up in the morning and were all set to go, but my parents weren’t. With no plans at all, I just happened to answer a rapid fire game by dad. My answer was pretty much constant "Ehh..i dunno..we'll figure out something". So yea, dad had to book the rooms and a driver to pick us up half way and mum could not let us go out empty stomach. And for bonus she packed up a lotta food too.” Mom please! There is something called a restaurant!”

1,2,3

 Anyway we let them do their chores and left home at 8am, happily driving our way through this single lane road with my sister and her brilliant history of no driving experience on the highways. So the adventure had already started. I guess we were all pretty strong hearted. Thank god mum packed food, there is nothing called  a “restaurant “on this route. 

click :D

So yes we picked up the driver from Piparia, around 60 km away from Pachmari and drove our way through the dry leaf fields around those sexy curves. 

The best way to enjoy curves is to turn back and to watch everything go away from you through the rear glass. It gives a weird satisfaction. Everyone knows it, we’ve all done that atleast once in our childhood.

We stopped at Nandan van around 2pm. That’s where we were to stay. Threw our bags in our rooms and left for the waterfall.There will be guides waiting to take you around the place.You could hire them if you want, or just explore the place yourself. A jeep drive down to the falls, almost falling off the cliff and here we were " Bee Falls"

That was just the beginning

drive to the falls

 

our personal chaiwali

A lot of walking and 190 steps definitely scared Anand, but it wasn’t too tough. Rather, getting into the water was. Freezing cold! I can feel the icy-chilled water hitting me while I type this.

But we didn’t wanna come out of the water, not coz we were enjoying too much, but coz we’d have to climb those deadly 190(felt like 400), 2’ high steps. Staring at them didn’t help and no strategy would work. “Just climb lazy bums”.

After 20 minutes of pain in the right knee, we got a slight view of the jeep waiting for us. I wanted to go hug the jeep guy but somehow controlled my feelings.
Pachmari is a day place, and unlike other tourists, we didn’t wanna go to our hotel after sunset and chit chat on the swings. Rather we decided to know the city a little better, and so we headed to the market. And we saw Neelam tea stall. Hot refreshing ginger tea is all we craved for and Mona decided to add some glamour to the stall. But we had a horrible bad luck with food. After the burnt-eggless-egg biryani at Khalsa plus the stale cheese Pizza and the hairy burger at “Pizza Café chino” (the place was cute though), we kinda lost all hopes. Maggi was such a savior! It saved me the pain of getting up at 3 in the morning and going for a treasure hunt to satisfy my tummy to continue dreaming.

Pachmari catholic church

Feeling satisfied as hell, we reached our hotels and jumped onto our beds. Before sleeping, we had a very healthy discussion about ghosts and spirits, about real life experiences, and what we know and have heard about them. We kinda got a lil too involved in it and scared the shit outa Mona with our ghost stories who had to listen to Hanuman chalisa before she slept. Poor girl with that puppy face was trying to defend herself, saying she was not scared just that she didn't want the lights off. With that Hanuman chalisa in the background, even a retard could tell.

We did get some sleep though without any of those "Highly awaited ghost rendezvous" . Early morning, we went to this tiny church nearby to put those thoughts away from our minds. Actually no,we went there for a not-so-tiny photoshoot. Ahh..these girls u know :P

Out of all the tourist attractions our driver had planned for us (Dhoopgarh, Chauragadh,Gupt Mahadev, Jata Shankar, Handi khoh), we went only to 2 of them “Handi Khoh and Gupt Mahadev”. We were too lazy and exhausted to go anywhere else. Plus, I had something else on my mind- Rata Pani.

So we drove back, dropped Mr Driver at Pipariya and headed towards Bhopal. Rata pani was just 40 km before Bhopal. To our luck, we knew nothing about that place. I forever thought it’s a dam where I’d already been and that’s it. I mistook it as Kolar dam. So what we saw and experienced was totally unexpected. After asking a few people and convincing the guards with our theatrical skills to let us in the sanctuary since we were half an hour late, we finally drove in. 

They said the dam was 11 km from there and that we would take time to reach. We started at 4:30 and trust me those 11 km took 45 min to cover, with the condition of the car and the roads and also,all our waste efforts to capture flying peacocks. But it was all worth it! What we saw then, after the 11 kms of deadly slow driving, is stamped on my heart and brain. It was exquisite! How could I never know that a place so serene and mesmerizing sat so close all the time? Well they say it right, you need to have an open eye and an open mind to explore the beauty around you. 

Breathing serenity

We sat there quietly with our feet inside the water watching those puddles creating a pattern on the setting sun’s reflection. Inner peace kinda stuff!

There was even a tower from which you can see the entire 360 degree panaromic view of the water forming an abstract art on the surrounding land.

Stuffed with a picturesque memory in our brains, we left Rata Pani at 7 pm and by 8pm, we were back home.

PS: There is a resort inside the Sanctuary, staying there for a day could be a pretty good idea.