[SaurabhB]

For the travel mad bongs, confined to homes for the past 6 months has been no less than torture. With a constant lingering fear in everybody’s minds it also required herculean mental strength to venture out of our homes. Further the difficulty level was attenuated due to hotels being closed and borders being sealed.

However as the saying goes “if you wish something with your heart god will show the way”. So when GOI announced lifting of inter-state travel restrictions self and two friends of mine started planning and plotting our trip out of this boredom and constant fear. The responsibility of planning the trip and booking hotels fell on me. After a lot of googling and deliberations my better half finalized on Ghatsila and all agreed. I made the bookings for 3 rooms with Hotel Aranyak Resort, approx.. 10 Kms from Ghatsila, near Burudih Lake. There were a lot of good hotels in Ghatsila town itself but we decided to stay in a secluded location to reduce being exposed to crowds.

The Aranyak Resort is only 4 years old and located in a village called "Digha" just on the foothills of Chandil-Dalma mountain range thereby giving it a very very picturesque surrounding full of natural greenery.

Travel Plan
2nd Oct  Kolkata to Ghatsila, check-in at Hotel Aranyak Resort, sight seeing after lunch,
3rd Oct  local sight seeing in Ghatsila, Galudih etc. &
4th Oct  Check out from hotel after breakfast, Kanak Durga Mandir, Chilkigarh Palace & back to Kolkata.

Vehicle details
Tata Hexa XT 4x2 Varicor 400
Ford Eco Sport Titanium Dragon 1.5 Petrol
Wagon R VXI

The Three of us


Day 1

So we started on 2nd Oct morning @ approx.. 8 AM from our respective homes in our respective steeds and met up after crossing Dhulagarh toll plaza. We exchanged pleasantries with each other’s families, obviously overjoyed for meeting in self after 6 long months and started off. We stopped at Kolaghat for breakfast and were surprised at the crowd there. Almost all restaurants were full. Understood that 99% of the traffic was bound for Digha and adjoining sea beaches at Mandarmani, Tajpur, Shankarpur etc.

We spent about an hour at Kolaghat and then started for Ghatsila once again. We were stopped just before the Bengal-Odisha border at Baharagoda wherein the CRPF personnel just took down our names and numbers and our travel plan in their register and allowed us to enter Jharkhand. The entire travel through NH from Dhulagarh to Ghatsila was a breeze.

Empty NH after crossing Kharagpur


It took us another hour to reach the resort which was approx 10 Kms inside, through some dense jungle, villages and narrow roads. I was scared that my Hexa, with its wide body, will get stuck if another car comes from the opposite direction. Fortunately we reached the resort without any such incident and parked our vehicles in the resort parking space. And here my friend in Wagon R got his car badly stuck in the mud and could not pull out.

Our plan was to have lunch and then visit Burudih Lake & Dam and then go to Dharagiri falls. However as soon as we started our lunch, the entire area became clouded and started raining. We decided not to venture out that day considering that the one vehicle was already stuck. The food was really good and the staff behavior extremely courteous. They immediately made us feel at home.

We used the time to roam around the Resort clicking photos of their gardens, lawns, play areas, dining place and even their expansion plans. The resort owners are constructing 5 additional rooms which will be fashioned as tents with facilities such as boating, camp fire etc.

We also went around seeing the effort that the resort owners had put in in terms of farming both vegetables as well as livestock. We understood why the food tasted so tasty, it was their own produce.

My friend's Wagon R stuck in Resort parking


Resort & surroundings pictures

















Day-2

We had planned our local sightseeing as below …

Resort –> Burudih Lake & Dam –> Maa Rankini Mandir –> Ram Krishna Mission –> Gouri Kunj (Home of great novelist Bibhuti Bhushan Bandyopadhyay) –> Hindustan Copper Plant & Township –> Rat Mohana (banks of river Subarnarekha) –> Galudih Dam –> Phuldungri Hills –> Resort.

We stopped at a garden restaurant on NH between Galudih & Ghatsila for our lunch. Once again we were extremely surprised by the good quality of the food served and we all had a very hearty & sumptuous lunch.

We returned to the resort by 4 PM, had good strong tea and sat in the garden for exchanging our notes and taking more pictures. The better halves formed their own group. The kids also had developed their friendship and started playing in the garden and enjoying themselves.

We had requested the hotel staff to help bring out the badly stuck Wagon R using their tractor. When we returned we found that the Wagon R was taken out as well as washed to remove the mud (pleasant surprise).

Burudih Lake & Dam








Galudih Dam on River Subarnarekha


Maa Rankini temple




Phuldungri Hills



Day 3

After breakfast we settled our bills and started on our return journey. From Lodhasuli we took the left turn towards Jhargram and went on to the famous Kanak Durga temple and Chilkigarh Palace.
This is my 3rd visit to Kanak Durga Temple and every time i get mesmerized by the dense jungle surroundings of Kanak Durga temple. My friend, their family and kids really enjoyed their visit.
We also went down to the banks of river Dulung before parting.

Kanak Durga Temple












The Chilkigarh Raj Palace lies in ruins now. In its heydays it must have been a sprawling complex with all the luxuries and lavishness that the Rajas were known to have. I really wish that the State Government should take necessary steps to restore its glory.

Chilkigarh Raj Palace










When we started on our way back to Kolkata we all felt really sad. We had spent 3 beautifyl days together out of city and enjoyed to the hilt. Now we were heading back to our confinements and masks and sanitizers ...

[blackwasp]

Great report there SaurabhB. Nice to see an outing with friends and family. These lockdown days have been tough on a lot of us and taking even a small break from the daily WFH routine is a welcome breather.

Cheers and keep travelling!

[Mile_Breaker]

Thanks SaurabhB for sharing! The resort looks nice! Lot of greenery around How are the rooms ? One friend of mine was posted in Jhargram and we visited every winter on 2013 , 2014 and 2015 covering all the well known and lesser known places in and around Jhargram. The roads were excellent then, not sure how they are now.

[SaurabhB]

Originally Posted by Mile_Breaker

The resort looks nice! Lot of greenery around How are the rooms ? The roads were excellent then, not sure how they are now.

The resort is really good. The rooms are also OK and food is very very good. They grow their own vegetables without any chemicals. They also have their own ponds for fishing and raise their own poultry. The roads are good, albeit a bit narrow near the resort area which is approx. 10 kms inside from NH. The only bad roads that i encountered was near the Burudih Lake and Dharagiri falls.