Views of MP

Madhya Pradesh (MP) neighbor state of Maharashtra. I got chance again to visit MP for friends wedding. So we planned wedding plus tourism. We all were fourteen. Old company staff also so excited to meet. MP is reputed for dense forests. Most of the people here engaged in agriculture. Our first destination was barman a small town on bank of narmada. Its a holy place. We started from narsingpur the distance is around 40 km. Narmda called as life line of Madhya pradesh. People call as Maa Narmada. It originates at Amarkantak. There was a barman mela a large fair. Devotees come here to take blessings of Maa Narmada. Evening atmosphere was very good. Nicely looking Narmada ghat and temple. The water of narmada was flowing calmly. There were so many shops in the mela. Wall of death i.e. mout ka kuwa one of attraction in the fair.  

Second day early in the morning we started for Bhedaghat nearby jabalpur which is situated around 90 km from narsinghpur towards Jabalpur. One can go there from Jabalur. Its famous for marble rocks. We headed towards dhuvandhar waterfall. We had to wandered though the marble market to reach dhuvandhar. There are so many shops of sculpture/artifacts  of marbles. The artifacts are very attractive. One can stop to see. After some time we reached at dhuvandar waterafall. The platforms are built up to enjoy the view. There is grand view of waterfall. There is 10 meter drop of water of narmada. When the water falls it looks like a smoke. Thats why called as Dhunva. It looks very much attractive. There is roaring sound of dhuvandar. Our driver provided the information that there is one point in narmada where marble rocks are close to each other so monkeys can jump from one to another. So its called as bandar kodini. After locking the beautiful moments in the camera we headed for Narmada boat safari through the marbles. The boat can be booked around Rs 100 per person and the duration is 45  minutes  to one hour. We got into the boat to take the wonderful experience. The boat is driven by three persons two rowers and steerer who roles as guide also. The boat started upstream through the marbles on the both sides. What a spectacular view that was! There are crocodiles in the river so one cannot dip hand in the water. The journey began slowly. The guide started his commentary. His commentary sounds so interesting. He tells the story and provide information in poetic way. In between  he gives so many references like shooting of movies, historical etc. He correlates the shape of marbles like bramha ,vishu, shiva, elephant, horses etc. I still remember his dialogue "Samaje to art nahi to modern art" . Only thing we have to imagine these things to correlate. Sun is up in the sky. We can enjoy the different colour shades of marbles also. The view is literally wonderfull.  After watching this grand views we should salute the nature. Our marble safari ended.

Next day we were three me,Anand and Sameer planned to go jungle safari. Our destination was Madhai forest. Our journey began for pipariya by Shatabdi express. Pipariya can be reached in 1.15 hour from narsingpur. We alighted at piparia. We did not have plan how to go. We inquired taxi for madhai but we were only three and rate was too high. So we headed to bus stand which was 15-20 minutes from station. In MP there is no much government buses. Most of the private buses run. We got one bus. One can start from suhagpur. Its 20 km away. The road is good like makkhan. Finally we reached and got down. But still we had to cover 17 km more to reach Satpura national park ie Madhai. There is gate for Madhai forest on highway. There was a person on duty provided the information that bus is at 12:30. So we had lunch and waited for bus. Bus came at 1 pm. Bus entered the forest. We were near the nature. After some time we reached final stop. That stop was Tillu da dhaba. Dhaba in the forest. Tillu suggested us economical lodge. The lodge is situated bank of backwater of Denva river. One can directly see the madhai which is situated on another side of river. The place called as Sharangpur. We rested in the afternoon. We went out to explore the nature. We were wandering along the bank of back water. The boat riding was going on in the back water. We saw madhai on another side of river. The backwater is surrounded by mountains. The view is stunning. We watched lots of birds around. The  sun was setting so we settled down to view that. We stared our eyes towards horizon. The sun was saying goodbye slowly. Sky was colorful. Colours of sunset sky were reflecting in Denwa backwater due that there was creation of wonderful environment. We were enjoying that environment. Sunset was enhancing. We captured these beautiful moments in our eyes and in camera also. Sun synced totally now its was time to go back to lodge. Our owner was very talkative person. During disscussion with him we got lot of information about madhai.  Madh means to bow something like rice wheat. Due to that name given as Madhai. Madhai i.e. Satpura National park is reserved forest all families are migrated to another place.

Satpura national park is spread over 1427 sq km. Its largest park in MP. Its name come from satpura hills. We woke up early in the morning because safari starts 6:30 in the morning. We had already taken the permit for gypsi online. We taken the Lagada round which is around 35 km. Satpura national park is lesser known as compared to other parks in MP. So there is no big queues. There are limited number of jeeps allowed. In this forest one can experience the wildlife by walking through forest like trek. We met our guide Vishnu. We had to cross backwater of Denva to start our safari. The atmosphere was very cool. After wearing life jackets journy began towards Madhai. We reached another side. Gypsy and driver waiting for us. We got into gypsy. The guide did not do bombardment of instructions. He gave basic instructions and we started. The guide and driver are very much trained and skillful. At starting point we saw lots of spotted deer. We penetrated into the deep forest. The environment was peaceful. Birds were chirping. Sun was rising. Upon rising of sun the lake view in forest was awesome. We spotted a bear. was engaged in recharging. Later on big,mighty bison was spotted. Driver stopped the vehicle. What a big animal that was around 1000 kg. He was giving some signles to another bison. Our guide was very sharp. In the forest animals calls are very important. Calls tell something. We spotted very rare birds , deer, crocodiles, bison etc. Guides knowledge about birds and trees was stunning. We amazed by his knowledge. We were experiencing all this closely. One of the gypsy spotted tiger and leopard. So we also moved to search tiger. Guide tried to trace tiger with the help of footptints and calls we wandered so much but no luck. We did not find tiger and leopard. But still we enjoyed the safari. There is place called view point. Actually it is the rest point during safari. These views are simply great,amazing. Our safari ended around 11 am. We crossed the Denva again with great memories of dimond of satpura. We packed bags and had lunch at Tillu da dhaba and waited for bus. We called up bus driver and got shocking news that bus cancelled due to lack of passengers. We were in trouble because there is no single transport option to escape. We asked gypsy of one of hotel but charges were high. Tillu and his cook helped us and they dropped us on their motorcycles on main highway. One can not depend on the bus on this route. Better way to hire cab/taxi. We caught bus to pipariya and headed to Mumbai by Kolkata Mail with lot of memories of incredible MP.