[arjyamaj]

Background

In Jan 2020, we did a road trip to Orchha, Khajuraho and Bandhavgarh. Somewhere between Agra and Gwalior, we discovered a small fort on the banks of the River Chambal, on the border between MP and Rajasthan. We decided that we should explore it further someday. That was the Shergarh Fort at Dholpur, which was the spark which led to this trip.

Dholpur, Rajasthan

We set off from our home in Sonipat, around 30 kms north of Delhi at 7 am on the 2nd of January. Took the usual route to Agra, through the Eastern Peripheral Expressway, through Greater Noida and the Yamuna Expressway (they should really construct an interchange there). Breakfast as usual at the Jolly Go highway stop. After crossing Agra, we got onto NH 44 and headed south to make our first stop at Dholpur.

Dholpur is a small town on the banks of the River Chambal and on the border of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh - about 5 hours drive from Delhi and an hour and a half from Gwalior on the Delhi Chennai highway. We spent a couple of days here marvelling at all that this town had to offer and wondering why it hasn’t been developed for tourism more. 

The primary attraction is the Chambal river, along with its fauna - the gharial, the mugger crocodile, tortoises and all manner of birds.





The banks of the river are also unique with their ravines, made famous by dacoits/ rebels over the years. Thus, the well-earned name of the Badlands of Chambal.



One could see why this would have been an ideal location to hide. The ravines themselves are labyrinthine and plenty of hiding spots. Thankfully, the bad old days Bandit Queens and athletes-turned-dacoits are over and we felt perfectly safe here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InbYBZBwnW8

There is a very forgettable sound-and-light show at Muchkund nearby. The next day, we visited Shergarh Fort, built by King Maldev in 1532, later sacked by Sher Shah Suri and renamed.

https://youtu.be/G_RFs1DmOwM

We also went off-roading through the semi-arid forests of Chambal along with a mini-trek.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5h4w-Mloy4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwtDI2EltSI

Lastly, a visit to the Shah-i-Talab, a large reservoir, which is thankfully being renovated rounded off our visit.

[arjyamaj]

Day 3 - Dholpur to Gwalior

Day 3 saw us move from Dholpur to Gwalior with stops at the Eco Park Deori near Morena and the Bateshwar Temples.







The Eco Park is on the NH 44 itself and is home to hundreds of gharials. Unfortunately, gharials are presently critically endangered due to over-fishing, constructions on rivers, sand mining and receding water levels on the Chambal River. However, the Eco-Park at Deori, Morena, MP is trying to bring the gharial back from certain #extinction. They carry out a reintroduction programme in which gharial eggs are collected from the wild and hatched in the park. Once the hatchlings are two to three years old, they are reintroduced to the wild.

Another hour from Morena is the Bateshwar group of temples. These are a group of around 200 temples in various stages of decay and renovation scattered over a large area. These are dated between the 8th and the 11th century AD. The Archeological Survey of India is doing a pretty good job at reconstruction and I look forward to the day when this project will attract more tourists. Thankfully when we visited, we were the only ones there.









The roads to and from Bateshwar have been newly laid as on January 2022 and I’m expecting the MP government to make a big push for this location to become a major tourist attraction.



The general feeling I got from this Dholpur- Morena area was this has a lot of potential for tourist development just with a little care and love from the respective governments and of course, us.

We moved on to Gwalior, which was another hour or so and stayed at Neemrana’s Deo Bagh. Fantastic food and service in a centuries old property. We just had two places to go to in Gwalior - the fort and Jai Vilas Palace.

[arjyamaj]

Day 4 - Gwalior Fort






The Man Singh Palace inside the Gwalior Fort





Views of Gwalior city from the ramparts of the fort







The saas bahu temple at the Gwalior fort is reminiscent of Khajuraho

The next day, we were off to Sawai Madhopur, in search of the big cat. We started out post breakfast at a leisurely pace. Thanks to incessant rains, we didn’t move as fast as we would have liked, but that also meant that there was less traffic. We stayed at the Mount Valley Resort, managed by WelcomHeritage Group. I must say, their service is out of this world. Anything we needed was provided in the blink of an eye.

[arjyamaj]

Day 6 - Ranthambore

The next day, we made a foray into the Ranthambore Fort. We had our tiger safari in the evening. By itself, the fort is pretty imposing as a structure and offers fantastic views all over the Ranthambore National Park.





Enroute through the buffer zone to the Ranthambore fort









On the way to the top.



We couldnt go all the way to the top (time constraints), but this gives you a pretty good idea of the views that you get.

There are two types of safaris at Ranthambore. One is on a gypsy which holds 4-5 people and another in a canter, which holds upto 20 people. Slots for both are available online and are usually booked months in advance for the Gypsies. We didn’t plan in advance well enough and had to take a canter. Safaris at Ranthambore are divided into 10 zones which are allocated randomly to tourists. You can’t really control which zone you’ll get or whether you get to see the big cat at all. However, in the winter, tigers tend to step out more in the evening than in the morning. My recommendation is to take an evening safari.

While we may be able to see large fauna in zoos all over the country and indeed the world, seeing a tiger in the wild is a sight to behold. We were fortunate enough to see three at Bandhavgarh in early 2020 and fortunate yet again to see one this time at Ranthambore.

https://youtu.be/nnSAQ9Pp40k

https://youtu.be/3l-_Jx6Tt44

https://youtu.be/dRsK6AGUKkI

We were luckier even, to have seen the tiger chasing a small deer.

From Sawai Madhopur to our home north of Delhi took another 7 hours. Conditions between Sawai Madhopur and Dausa are slightly problematic, with plenty of broken patches. Post Dausa, the roads are better, along with some of the last scenes of the Aravalli hills.



Here's the full route we took.

[sahil624]

Wow you had a fantastic sighting of the tiger. We went to the Ranthambhore in the third week of December and did three safaris. We were lucky enough to spot the tiger in the last 30 minutes of our last safari. However, the sighting was not as good as this. By the way, in which zone was this video taken? We spotted the tigress Noori in Zone 1.

https://youtu.be/8WPkLOBTdVQ

[Dark water]

I have been to most of the places you visited, all are very beautiful. Can you please share the route condition from gwalior to Sawai madhopur, I have avoided this route most often fearing its condition

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by arjyamaj

Gwalior Fort, Views of Gwalior city from the ramparts of the fort

Thank You for the lovely pics. Do post more pics of the Fort and the road leading to it if you have them. You transported me back in time to the late 70s when we used to reside on the fort. I remember our life, and my schooling, as one of the finest that I've experienced.

Some points that I remember from over 40 years ago:

• Entry to the fort was through a dwar at the foot and a dwar at the top.
• A sentry posted at the foot of the fort would dial the sentry at the top, get clearance, and only then allow any vehicle up. This was because there was a very steep gradient close to the top dwar and no two vehicles would be allowed to pass each other on the entire road
• Most sightseeing locations would be at either end of the fort, past the school campus
• There used to be this massive Gurdwara between the junior and senior schools
• When we had get togethers, I remember the top class Roohafza that used to be served in brass/silver goblets

Few memories of the school:

• Scindia School was a beautiful campus - there was the Junior School with three houses(hostels) and the senior, with many houses
• All round development of inmates was a given. Focus was never on academics alone
• the winter uniform would be a white shirt, blue and white tie, a blue blazer, and a pair of light grey pants. Summer uniform would be a white shirt, and light grey pants
• Sharbat would be served to every student in the examination halls during the final exams
• Teachers were an extremely committed lot, and would write comprehensive end of year reports for each student for each subject
• There were two buses - a dark blue 25 odd seater Bedford that resembled the shape of the typical US school bus, and another grey 56 seater Mercedes Benz (Tata) with the flat front. The Benz would offload passengers at the bottom dwar (who'd then walk up to the top dwar) and the bus would go up empty since it only had that much steam.

[arjyamaj]

Originally Posted by sahil624

By the way, in which zone was this video taken? We spotted the tigress Noori in Zone 1.

We were allotted Zone 4, the entry is right opposite the fort. I've realised that getting the big cat is purely a matter of luck most times. Unless if you have serious moolah to shell out. Then the forest officials will sometimes drive the tiger out of its cover using elephants, as they did in Bandhavgarh (perhaps a story for a later time).

I'm given to understand that Zone 1 is closed now. One of the tigers there turned hostile recently.

Originally Posted by Dark water

Can you please share the route condition from gwalior to Sawai madhopur, I have avoided this route most often fearing its condition

I just realised we took a different route than the one shown in the post above. We drove through Palpur Keno Wildlife sanctuary. It's a dual carriageway from Gwalior to Mohana. Then mostly undivided MDRs and SHs all the way to Sawai Madhopur. The road is mostly alright, with a few bad patches, particularly around Sheopur. The Pali bridge over the Chambal has been heavily damaged in the last flood and while they're re-building it, the makeshift bridge offers a hair raising experience.

However, we were driving through the rains and there was very little traffic. I would expect more traffic during other times. Here's a small clip of the route which we found, could belong even in the Himalayas.

https://youtu.be/P2oxQoyRHco

Originally Posted by vigsom

Do post more pics of the Fort and the road leading to it if you have them.

Here you go . Although I dont have too many of the road leading up.


This is from the bottom of the hill. Cars going up are often stopped here to make way for cars to come down from the top.





There are gorgeous rock-cut Tirthankar statues carved right into the rock. Some of them are believed to be the largest rock-cut statues in the world.



A large Chhatri-like monument as soon as you enter the fort premises on top of the hill.



Soldier's barracks courtyard





Random architectural elements I found interesting in the main courtyard of the Man Singh Palace





A couple of other views inside the fort.

[ABHI_1512]

Originally Posted by arjyamaj

[b]
Another hour from Morena is the Bateshwar group of temples. These are a group of around 200 temples in various stages of decay and renovation scattered over a large area. These are dated between the 8th and the 11th century AD. The Archeological Survey of India is doing a pretty good job at reconstruction and I look forward to the day when this project will attract more tourists. Thankfully when we visited, we were the only ones.

Wonderful travel arjyamaj, Shergarh Fort is wonderful and I missed visiting it due to paucity of time few months back. Regarding Bateshwar, that place is indeed wonderful. The group of temples have been painstakingly rebuilt by the efforts of a single man- Mr KK Mohammad. Ever since he retired from ASI, the reconstruction has almost come to a stop and that’s a tragedy. One can see the scaffoldings are left to rot now. I hope someone in the ASI wakes up and takes the reconstruction forward.

I wonder what made you miss the Padavali and Mitaoli temples since they were very nearby the Bateshwar group of temples. Mitaoli specially is of immense importance and so is Padavali. I have mentioned the places in my recent travel-

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...-calcutta.html (Bundelkhand Chronicles - Chasing History and Wildlife from Calcutta)

Wishing you many more travels in that lovely vehicle of your’s. Compass deserves the good travel as much as you, thanks for sharing.

Regards.

Originally Posted by vigsom

• Entry to the fort was through a dwar at the foot and a dwar at the top.
• A sentry posted at the foot of the fort would dial the sentry at the top, get clearance, and only then allow any vehicle up. This was because there was a very steep gradient close to the top dwar and no two vehicles would be allowed to pass each other on the entire road
• Most sightseeing locations would be at either end of the fort, past the school campus
• There used to be this massive Gurdwara between the junior and senior schools

Great to know about your student life vigsom, during my recent travel, I was awed by the location of the school. I was wondering about the students who would be taking that wonderful route daily just reach the school. I can understand the royalty of the school to this day and I can well imagine how it was some forty years ago.

The ritual of two sentry at both the gates is just as same as it was forty years ago and so is the Gurudwara. In fact, when we went there was some congregation going on and we couldn’t enter the premises of the Gurudwara.

The road leading to the fort.


The road leading upto the fort is truly wonderful. I have shared some pictures of the fort in the travelogue mentioned above, if possible you can go through it for nostalgia. The picture of the mighty Jain rock cuts are also in the travelogue. Adding some more pictures of the road for you, regards.

The view of the upper gate.

[arjyamaj]

Originally Posted by ABHI_1512

I wonder what made you miss the Padavali and Mitaoli temples since they were very nearby the Bateshwar group of temples. Mitaoli specially is of immense importance and so is Padavali. I have mentioned the places in my recent travel-

I know, I wanted to cover Mitawali especially. However, it slipped my mind completely on the day. There were also plenty of time constraints. I gave myself the excuse that I'll drop by some other day. After all, it's only 7 hours away.

Your travelogue actually helped a lot when we were doing the Delhi - Kolkata - Delhi in November. Next to the Satkar restaurant where you had lunch is a hotel by the same name. Very useful for a stopover in Varanasi, in case you dont want to get into the city. Basic, clean rooms and good wifi.