[//M]

Some recent clicks at Patratu valley.

[//M]

Some recent pics from my trip to Ranchi.


McCluskiegunj, the recent flick A Death in the Gunj was shot here


















Patratu Valley















Jonha Falls



Somewhere between Gautamdhara and Rahe



Dassam Falls



The last stretch from Intake More to Getalsud Dam



Dhurwa Dam as seen from the Ring Road



Ring Road, Ranchi

[s_scorpion]

Originally Posted by //M

Some recent pics from my trip to Ranchi.

....

Wonderful pictures there @//M. The roads look inviting, specially Patratu. Must have been a lot of fun navigating those in the Honda City. I am planning to travel to Ranchi from Kolkata in the second week of January next year. Would you possibly be able to help me on which route would be a good one. I will be travelling with my wife and daughter and there will be another car with the family of one of my colleagues. I also wanted to ask you about the condition of the roads leading to Patratu from Ranchi, but from the looks of it, its quite healthy.


Thanks,
Sandipan

[//M]

Originally Posted by s_scorpion

Wonderful pictures there @//M. The roads look inviting, specially Patratu. Must have been a lot of fun navigating those in the Honda City. I am planning to travel to Ranchi from Kolkata in the second week of January next year. Would you possibly be able to help me on which route would be a good one. I will be travelling with my wife and daughter and there will be another car with the family of one of my colleagues. I also wanted to ask you about the condition of the roads leading to Patratu from Ranchi, but from the looks of it, its quite healthy.


Thanks,
Sandipan

Thanks Sandipan. The roads are indeed inviting and the scenic surroundings add to the pleasure of driving !


From Kolkata, you may chose either of these routes :

1. Kolkata - Kharagpur - Baharagora - Ghatshila - Jamshedpur - Ranchi

This is the popular route, but at the moment please avoid this route if you can as road widening work is going on currently so there are many diversions.


2. Kolkata - Asansol - Purulia - Muri - Ranchi
Narrow roads but in good shape. You might have to negotiate through traffic in smaller towns like Purulia, Jhalda etc. But overall this is a better option than the Baharagora route. Purulia - Ranchi is mostly single-lane but very scenic and apart from the villages, there is hardly any traffic.


3. Kolkata - Asansol - Dhanbad - Bagodar - Hazaribagh - Ranchi

This is the longest route in terms of distance, but also the fastest (specially if you factor in the traffic through the villages in the above two routes). Straight wide Grand Trunk road upto Bagodar, then a lovely winding road through the jungles till Hazaribagh, followed by a butter smooth 4-lane road all the way till Ranchi. There are no real traffic issues in this route except for the toll booths on the GT Road.


There are a few other routes via Bankura or via Bokaro but again these routes will take you through smaller towns with lots of traffic so its best avoided.


The Ranchi - Patratu stretch is in great shape. No worries here !

[s_scorpion]

Originally Posted by //M

Thanks Sandipan. The roads are indeed inviting and the scenic surroundings add to the pleasure of driving !


From Kolkata, you may chose either of these routes :

.................................................. ...

3. Kolkata - Asansol - Dhanbad - Bagodar - Hazaribagh - Ranchi

This is the longest route in terms of distance, but also the fastest (specially if you factor in the traffic through the villages in the above two routes). Straight wide Grand Trunk road upto Bagodar, then a lovely winding road through the jungles till Hazaribagh, followed by a butter smooth 4-lane road all the way till Ranchi. There are no real traffic issues in this route except for the toll booths on the GT Road.


There are a few other routes via Bankura or via Bokaro but again these routes will take you through smaller towns with lots of traffic so its best avoided.


The Ranchi - Patratu stretch is in great shape. No worries here !

Thanks a lot @//M for providing the update on the available routes. I have decided to opt for the Asansol Bagodar Hazaribagh Ranchi route. Good to know that the Ranchi - Patratu stretch is in great shape.

Actually, one of my colleagues had sent me some images of Patratu valley sometime back, and mentioned that the place is near Ranchi and that he intended to go there in his CBR 250. The images immediately spiked my interest, but I must admit that I initially felt the roads in the pictures were too good to be true. So, I searched Team BHP to find out if there are any resources on Patratu. And, voila, I stumbled upon this thread. One of my primary reasons of going to Ranchi is to take my Abarth Punto on the winding roads Patratu. I got the car last year, and I have done two highway trips, one of them to Bankura, and the other to Puri. Both of them involved fairly straight roads, so I was looking out for something to test the car's cornering abilities and Patratu fits the bill perfectly. Great roads, not too far away from my home and would allow family to have a great time as well .

[//M]

Originally Posted by s_scorpion

One of my primary reasons of going to Ranchi is to take my Abarth Punto on the winding roads Patratu. I got the car last year, and I have done two highway trips, one of them to Bankura, and the other to Puri. Both of them involved fairly straight roads, so I was looking out for something to test the car's cornering abilities and Patratu fits the bill perfectly. Great roads, not too far away from my home and would allow family to have a great time as well .

If you really intend to have fun with your Abarth in Patratu, go on a weekday. Weekends are usually full of picnic-dwellers hence more traffic.

Do share your experience after you are back from this trip.

Drive safe.

[s_scorpion]

@M, we would be getting two entire days to explore Ranchi and it's surroundings. I have set aside one of them for Patratu. I guess we would have time for some other places also apart from Patratu on that day. What areas do you suggest? And then I have one whole day. Would love have your inputs on this.

Regards
Sandipan.

[//M]

Originally Posted by s_scorpion

@M, we would be getting two entire days to explore Ranchi and it's surroundings. I have set aside one of them for Patratu. I guess we would have time for some other places also apart from Patratu on that day. What areas do you suggest? And then I have one whole day. Would love have your inputs on this.

Regards
Sandipan.

On Day 1, you may cover Patratu, Patratu Dam, Tagore Hill, Kanke Dam, Rock Garden and Dhurwa Dam.

Day 2 can be spent at Jonha Falls, Sita Falls, Hundru Falls and Getalsud Dam.

All the waterfalls have many stairs to go downhill so do have ample time in hand.


Alternatively, if you are considering the Kolkata - Bagodar - Hazaribagh - Ramgarh - Ranchi route, then you can turn right at Ramgarh towards Patratu and drive to Ranchi.

This way you can cover Patratu on Day 0 itself. So on Day 1, you can visit the Dassam Falls and on your way back, you can take the Ring Road towards Dhurwa Dam and Kanke Dam.

[//M]

Me and fellow bhpian swapnil_alto did a short drive up to Dassam Top and Remix falls couple of weeks back, two places which have not yet made their presence felt in the popular tourism circuit around Ranchi.

Some pictures of these places -


Dassam Top










Remix falls










Rural roads en route Dassam Top

[//M]

Sharing some latest clicks from Patratu Valley and Dhurwa Dam. I had an opportunity to ride my brother's Dominar 400 to Patratu recently. Riding through the twisties, hairpin bends and serpentine curves of the Patratu Valley has always been an absolute riot. I also visited the Palani Waterfalls near Patratu and stopped for a couple of clicks at Dhurwa Dam and Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha en route to Patratu.

[//M]

Some pics from a short ride to Dasam Falls, Dasam Top and Remta Lake from Ranchi.

[//M]

Some pictures from a short drive to Navratangarh and Latratu Dam near Ranchi.

[//M]

Some pictures from a short drive to Nakta Pahad near Ranchi.

Nakta Pahad is a 25-30 min hike from the base of the hill and the initial part of the climb feels very strenous as the trail is full of rocks and boulders. The descent is much quicker though !

We took the Mandar - Chanho route during the onward journey and Chama - Bijupada route during the return journey. There is a 3-4 km off-road section from either side till the base of the hill and is ideally not suited for low slung sedans. Sadly we were not aware of the off-road stretch else would have refrained from taking a sedan here. We therefore ended up spending way too much time to negotiate every bit of undulation.

Trail sections before reaching the base of the hill






Nakta Pahad visible in the background




Lovely panoramic views from the summit




















Return leg via Bijupada and Chama

[//M]

Sunset from the quiet and serene Marsili Pahad near Ranchi.

[arnab.i@gmail.c]

Hello Everyone. We did a superfast trip to Ranchi and Patratu Valley between 13 and 15th October 2023 from Kolkata. Here are the trip details for anyone who might find it useful.

Trip: Kolkata -> Dassam Falls -> Ranchi -> Patratu -> Jonah -> Kolkata (about 1200 Km)
Group: 2 Cars (Baleno and Nexon) - 3 Families (6 adults + 3 Kids)

We started from Salt Lake at 12 midnight after filling up my Baleno at Wipro More petrol pump at Salt Lake and crossed Dhulagori at 1AM. At Dhulagori my friends Nexon was bruised by a truck at the toll plaza. We tried to reason out with the truck driver (mere ~18 year old kid) but he did not pay heed and not get down from his seat. After a while a police van arrived and blamed us in his opinion all such incidents happen due to "small cars", when it was evident from my dashcam that the truck had to be blamed. After wasting about 30 minutes there we moved ahead realizing that, with the poiice on the truck driver's side, we are helpless.

Next we crossed Kolaghat and Kharagpur without any stop. We took a LILO (liquid in liquid out) break at Behragora. I realized that with great roads upto Kharagpur and even better roads at Jharkhand, my mileage was hitting sky high.

Post that my fellow passengers (wife and daughter) dozed off. Considering the Thursday before that was very busy with school and office. Over time I have been used to driving when everyone else is snoring in the car. With a little bit of Mettalica and Sting (red) it pretty much helps.

I had trouble keeping up with the Nexon as it hit very high speeds which the Baleno could never keep up. But nonetheless I was able to manage within a few Kilometers. My next stop was at Jamshedpur. Here I had some tea and cleaned my windshield. Jharkhand roads become very dusty.

Morning light shined after this and the view of Jharkhand mountains were mesmerizing.

We reached Dassam Falls at 7AM sharp. There was news that Dassam Falls opens at 8AM, so we stopped at where 10KM were left and had tea and used a toilet at Tamaira (Sumit Sweets 6F2W+QX9, Taimara, Jharkhand 835204). This one was a shabby but cheap joint with a mediocre ladies washroom. But we figured there were other better stopping options a little before this place like this one:

Sher-e-Punjab (6G5F+7QW, Nehalgara, Jharkhand 835204),
and Panchabati (5HR3+VQJ, Bundu, Gowaidih, Jharkhand 835204)

Post this we reached Dassam Falls. Its a great water falls and with good water flow post monsoons it was a beautiful experience

.









After spending an hour here we went to the other side where the falls was visible from the top. Here are a few shots from there







The top view was not as exciting as being at the bottom of the falls, where you can interact with the water. But we spend some 15-20 minutes here before heading off to our hotel in Ranchi (Hotel Royal Retreat). Its a good hotel with clean rooms and offers free breakfast. Food is fairly priced (but not cheap) and serves both veg and non-veg.

The afternoon was free, so we wanted to go around the city. We hired a Auto and somehow all of us got in. It was a tight but enjoyable. The auto took us to a park which was closed and an adjoining Aquarium where most fishes were unmaintained. It was really in a very bad state. We also got fooled here as the ticket person sold us 4 tickets for the price of 8. While on the way back we had evening snacks at a sweet shop about 500m from the hotel and I walked back from here while the rest of us took the same auto. The auto charged us 500 for about 2 hours of roaming around. We wanted to see Dhoni's house, but it was seemingly too far and Dhoni would not be there as the world cup had started. I am a pretty big fan of him, and would have loved to see him in person in his house (crazy dream). Our parking at the hotel in picture.



The next day morning was lovely and sunny. We started after the fairly lavish breakfast spread consisting of Indian and English breakfast. We ate our fill and started for Patratu.

The ride was awesome, somehow I found the roads in Jharkhand like outside India (super good quality highways). The road was so good that we actually lost our way and had to turn back from 3 km to take the correct right turn.

The road through Patratu is mindblowing. I made a small dashcam video for the kind of roads and turns. Here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8lc2WnqLD4&t=97s

Here are some more pictures from the Patratu Valley view point:





We reached Sarovar Vihar (Patratu Valley) from here. It was a spulrging propery from the Jharkhand Governmant and could be booked from Jharkhand Tourism website. The service of the property is in gact quite bad. Starting from unclean rooms. When we entered the rooms were dirty with unchanged bedsheets from previous booking. The staff showed quite a lot of reluctance before Mrs Wife started aggressively reasoning out with them. Finally they agreed and somehow managed to change the bed sheets. At 3000 + GST dont dont offer towels and bath kit. They dont even offer free breakfast. Even without extra bed/mattress, they charged Rs 560 for my daughter aged 9 years and another aged 10 years old. The staf blocked us from checking out before we paid the charged and mis behaved with us and said many unparliamentary words. Here are the staffs from the hotel (beware of them):



A great place at Patratu is the lesser known Palani waterfalls. Its about 3km from Sarovar Vihar. I loved the falls because of its gentleness and I could have a personal head-bath at the falls. Must warn you to not try this too much and the stones are very very slippery. I had a mini fall while getting down and hit my knee a little bit. But once I climbed the stones to some 15 feet (I felt like Prabhas of Bahubali) its was heaven. Water was ice cold and for the first few seconds I was shivering. But then it was pure bliss



In the evening I could take the water bike and speed boat ride at the Patratu Lake. Its very cheap compared to other places. We used the services of "Entartica" though there was other local service provicers. The water bike costs 500 for about 3-5 minutes and speed boat (island trip) was for 1000 for upto 6 heads. It takes about 5 minutes to reach the island and they would drop the passengers there. We can have snacks in the island or climb the couple of watch towers and take some pictures. But there isnt much things to spend time there more than 30 minutes. But no one else were there so we had the whole island to ourselves. Its a tiny island but it was a good experience.





The following day it was Patratu to Kolkata via Hundru Falls. The ride to Hundru was great through the forest. While returning from Hundru both cars were lost due to a road suggested by google. While both cars turned back the Nexon found the main road. My Baleno and I were lost but we later found the road far ahead of the Nexon as the road through the forest was shorter by an hour. No google map works, so we took occasional help of local forest dwellers. The road was as wide as the Baleno without side mirrors. Infact in some places it was narrower than that. Uphill and downhill, gravel and loose stones made me struggle at a few places due to underpowered Baleno. But I could eventually manage to pass though it. We reached Jonha at 10AM and the road from Jonah was very beautiful.



Purulia Bundu Road. The quality is not quite good, but you can make out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ptvn1tHmAg

The forest road which we were lost but later found our way out. You can find the path from the Geotracker above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYu5lH81mXw

From Jonha to Jamshedpur there is a stretch pretty narrow. We were almost pushed in by a bus like this. So please be aware on this road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIQ-WTLSnOw

We stopped at Jamshedpur for Lunch (had to park on the left and cross the road on foot). It was Swad Inn (R6V8+5Q Jamshedpur, Jharkhand) served nice freshly cooked food and seemingly the only one we found on the highway.

We returned at home in Behala at 6:30 PM in the evening. My friends Nexon stopped at Jonha Falls and had lunch there and started at 3PM and reached Dankuni at 12 midnight. But there were caught up at Belgharia EW truck traffic and reached home at 1AM

Thank you for reading the long blog. Apologies for making it so long