Day 1 : 19th February
For me this was the trip start date, and as mentioned earlier I took a wrong decision to take internal roads (to satisfy Parimal desire) instead of Indore Bhopal Highway and thereafter NH12. This decision plus a small confusion over meeting point, costed us another 2 hours. So instead of we planning to reach Bhimbetka at around 7 in morning, we reached around 11.30, and it was a hot day in rocky Bhimbetka.
Bhimbetka Rock Shelters
Though Bhimbetka is not very popular amongst domestic or local tourists, somehow I have special liking for this place. Not only it is World Heritage Site, its history dates to 100,000 years back. The naturally formed caves protected our prehistoric ancestors from rains besides giving them clear view of horizon in all four directions from the hill top.
Bhimbetka is located just 40 Kms south of Bhopal, just 3 kms off NH 69 that connects Bhopal with Nagpur. Over 750 shelters have been found in area and at least some of the shelters were inhabited by Homo erectus more than 100,000 years ago. Some of the Stone Age rock paintings found among the Bhimbetka rock shelters are approximately 30,000 years old. The caves also deliver early evidence of dance. The site declared a World Heritage Site in 2003.
Entrance to Bhimbetka
Official Start of trip, first pic from my camera, Parimal_G (PG) trying to understand what Bhimbetka is all about. He was happy to find out that it was discovered by a Maratha in 1957.
Pre Historic Conference Room (I don't know what made archeologists name this place as 'sabha grih')
Natural Rocky Landscaping on top of hill
Sample Rock Painting depicting group of warriors, probably on horses (How come its believed that horses were introduced by Arabs in India)
Natural rock formation, nothing to do with shelters, I simply liked its shape
Painting showing another wild animal
After the tour, the guide we hired forcefully took my camera for group pic. Naturally I am not happy about it
PG posing for record
While in Bhimbetka, we got call from Madhu, he said he is starting from Nagpur. He confirmed the route he was suppose to take, which was Nagpur Savner Chhindwara (Nagpur Chhindwara is awesome road with good scenic view) Parasia Matkuli Pachmarhi. Expected drive time was around 4 hours from Nagpur and we were just 2-1/2 hours away.
We were all hungry and now it was not possible to take lunch at Pachmarhi with Madhu as planned earlier. After Completing the trip we decided to take fast grub at a Highway Treat Motel of MP Tourism. This Motel is ideally located, bang on NH69 just in the turning which takes you to Bhimbetka. We had nice Aloo Parathas with Dahi and also finished Baigan Bharta which was suppose to be Santosh's dinner for previous night.
A big thanks to hotel staff for allowing us to open Santosh's tiffin as well.
Finally we started off from Highway Treat at around 1.30 , and cruised towards Pachmarhi leisurely stopping at few places for photo shoots. Santosh was enjoying the drive and was happy to see Wheat Crop while PG was amused at big agricultural machinery (Harvesters) in Madhya Pradesh.
We reached Pachmarhi around 5 and were happy to see the arrangements Madhu had made for night stay. Madhu who reached half an hour before us, was successful in getting camping ground of Bharat Scout. Though we were carrying our own tents, Bharat Scout guys gave us a bigger tent with proper mattresses. Normally Bharat Scout which has huge National Training Setup in Pachmarhi, doesn't allow private individuals to camp in their campus, but all we can say was we were lucky and it was our day.
As we were running late, we decided to take charge of our tent later and instead rushed immediately to Dhoopgarh, which is a Sunset point with nice view of Satpura's. All I can say was the Drive to Dhoopgarh and the view from top was out of world.
Parimal driving Madhu's car towards Dhupgarh
Some more rock shelters, this time in Dhupgarh
Few Pics of Sunset :
PG our official photographer, hunting for correct angle
Salman, Madhu's ex student from Bangalore who is native of Pachmarhi. He was with us most of the time and that helped us a lot.
After the sunset we headed back to our tents, dumped our goods inside tent and rushed back to Pachmarhi town in search for food. Few locals advised us to go to Rasoi Garden Restaurant, and it turned out to be good choice. Post dinner when we reached our camp site, it was pitch dark outside and the calmness was divine. We soon retired just to realize that throughout the trip we will compete against each other for loudest snoring.
PG taking his selfie just before retiring