Day 5 to Sathdhara 15th OCT 2022
We checked out of the hotel at Jagdalpur and the owner was very upset with us for checking out of his shitty hotel, guess he was worried we would manage to get our advance back too, well karma does catch up.
We started this day with a 110 km drive to Sathdhara water body located in Barsur, we found the way easily without getting lost, 5 km before Sathdhara was a army outpost / camp where they took our details and guided us to the water body, very professionally done, the area was mostly forest and desolate but we did not feel alone or scared there was a presence of calm in the people and the army / crpf posted in this area.
We made our way to the waterbody was charged Rs 40 for parking ( which seemed to be the norm) we parked and made our way approx 200 meters to the waterfall, as we approached the waterfall we were on top of the waterfall and the water was flowing quietly by us, so quiet and serene, before it fell with a roar a few feet downhill.
Satdhara-is a mini waterfall at best and interestingly made, with 7 dharas of water making the small waterfall, located in the middle of mountains, we spend a few hours there photographing and taking in the scene here, before we headed back , on our return from Satdhara we stopped at Bersur hamlet/village for breakfast , today would be kachori and kachori and Jalebi.
From here we headed off and then went on to the river Indravati, flowing quietly nearby , on the way we found a map drawn and paying a visitation / parking fee of Rs 40 we drove into the area.
The road led to River indravati, this river would be our companion over the next few days located around the river are a few historic temples from 11th century
there was one where there was a Lord Ganesh statue which is monolithic from 11th Century
Another temple called the :
Mama-Bhanja temple having Lord Shiva statue from 13th century. Build by Chandrak Naga dynasty, rising to a height of 15.24 meter it is Pancharatna on plan n devoid of sculptural embelishment.
All located with a km of each other helped us see them all at a relaxed pace
We were done by 1130 and we had enough time to go visit another site of Lord Ganesh by name of Dholker Ganesh.
We next drove off to look for Dholker Ganesh located 100 km’s away , it was mostly good roads and a few busy patches the last 10 km was offroading, unfortunetly we could not make it all the way because of bad muddy slushy road, there was a Bolero that got stuck, and we decided to abandon the drive, it was too sunny to trek the last 4 km by foot.
Too bad we were so close yet
,,, we did make a few images of the Dholker structure in the mountain from a distance, but no sight of Lord Ganesh's idol
had we made it we were told:
“Dholkal Ganesh is a beautiful spot located 3000 feet high in the Bailadila Mountain ranges in District Dantewada. A 3 Feet beautiful stone idol of Lord Ganesha believed to be made during the Naga dynasty between 10th and 11th centuries is the main attraction of the site. Located 13 KMs from the district HQ Dantewada, this spot is the heaven for nature lovers, and for those who love to trek amidst lush green hillocks.”
this place is called Dholker Ganesh, because it resembles the Ox and its Hump
Like Lord Ganesh who is always hungry we were ready for lunch, while we were coming to Dholker Ganesh, we had at Dantewada spied a eatery that looked inviting, we had marked the location on our GPS, so we back tracked to there, by 1400 and had a good meal. The dhaba was run by a bunch of ladies, the name of the Dhaba is Manwa Dhaba, we had Bhindi / dal / roti / rice food was good and simple.
Lunch done we called up the STF manager and made sure they would be holding a room for us and we were on our way Via Barsur. Even though there was another road via Jagdalpur, we wanted to stay as far from Jagdalpur as possible, and chose the longer route via Barsur, which turned out to be a blessing as the road went through a forest that was lovely and ghat section for quiet a while, I would definitely recommend this route.
The property we were headed
to was located on bank of River
Indravati, tributary of river Godavari.
as we drove torrential rain greeted us along the way, weather resembled like in the mountains, it would be raining torrentially for a km, and then be dry , follow the same pattern all over again we met 5 squalls in our 50 odd km drive to STF, we reached by 1630 hours it was raining so torrentially we had to stay put in the car for 10 minutes after reaching before we could make our way to the reception without getting wet.
This is just one unit, there are 8 such units on the property
We checked in and found out that there was no power, the property was huge but occupancy was low and thus they were reluctant to switch on the generator, we did convince them to switch the generator set on, they could not as the person who knew how to operate the generator was away at the electric office ( I think he was away to have a drink ) after all it was getting dark, and handly any guests so we made do with torch light for a few hours and cursing our luck to have arrived on a day when the power was not there, we drove out to a local Dhaba, Mamata dhaba for dinner, and by the time we came back, power had been restored and we could take a shower and relax.
Looks like all that glitters is not gold, but we weren’t complaining this place was way better then our last Hotel in jagdalpur and we were happy to be here the weather had cooled down considerable.
Catch you at Tandaghumer tomorrow.
#roadtrip #editorialphotography #agreenleafproduction #jampotblues #biketaleswithrajat #travelphotography #stockimage #rajatghoshphotography #storytellingimages #conceptualimages #dailylife #sunset #color #Jagdalpur #2800kmroadtrip #lifeinIndia #hotelreeka #badhotel #waterfall #temple #saatdhara #riverindravati
Very nice and detail description of the root.informatics
ReplyDeletethank u , yes I tried as best as I could remember
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