[winterfell]

Trip to Ujjain finalised in Just 10minutes

Background

In the month of sawan in August, we made a plan to visit Mahakaleshwar temple, Ujjain. Homework for deciding Routes, accomodation and places to visit were finalised but unfortunately, the plan was cancelled. I was disappointed, but since there is a belief that when mahakal wants then only you can make visit the temple (jab bulawa aaye tabb hi ja sakte).

The trip story begins

16-09-2023 Saturday
It was a fine saturday morning, was having my morning juice. My father came and told he got 4 days of holiday(saturday-sunday-monday(teej)-tuesday(ganesh chaturthi)). I asked him casually that then lets visit ujjain. And interestly he took it seriously and replied "why not". I was bit surprised because it was already 10:30 AM and i hadnt took bath yet ! It took us 10 minute to plan and Permission was granted from other family members as well. Since we were only two people going, initially we decided to take Dzire, but as we were already late and owing to poor safety rating of Dzire, it was not safe to take it on such long journey on highways. Comfortable ride and handling was also a factor for which we finalised Toyota Fortuner to take along,. I rushed to washroom, took shower, got ready in just 10min and packed the bag with whatever cloths were ready in cupboard, took breakfast and we left home (Raipur,Chhattisgarh) at sharp 11:55AM. As per the plan, today’s destination was set to Jabalpur (MP) in Google map. It was showing 8hours for 348 km via NH30.

As it was heavy rainfall for past few days, Shivnath River near Simga was running full, with water almost touching National Highway. After 177km / 3 and half hours of continuous drive, and crossing Chilphi ghati of Kawardha, we took a halt at Natraj Hotel in Chilphi (Chhattisgarh border).

This section of NH30 till Chhattisgarh - MP border is super smooth and fortunately there were no cows on roads that day. In monsoon, Chilphi ghati is occupied with Lush green forest. 15km after chilphi, Madhyapradesh border starts. This section onwards of NH30 is surrounded by buffer zone of Kanha Tiger reserve. This route crosses from inside the lush green dense forest. In general, if you are travelling from Raipur to Jabalpur, Kawardha onwards, 95% of the route is covered with forest.

In this route, only town we crossed in the route was bichhiya and rest were small villages. Mandala city is bypassed. After the Mandala bypass, highway runs side by side to river narmada. This section of roads has large abrubt potholes. major concern are on the bridges. road is up and down and there are heavy holes on bridges, one need to drive very carefully as concrete is chipped off and sharp TMT rods are clearly visible which can puncture the tyre.

After driving 143km/ 2hr32minute , at 6:40pm our next stoppage for 10min tea break was at Kalpi bus stand. We continued remaining 47km/1hr9min of journey toward Jabalpur and reached Hotel Royal orbit at 8:03pm.
Hotel Royal Orbit is located on national highway 34 which bypass the Jabalpur city. Its on the outskirts of the Jabalpur city. Ratings for the hotel is excellent. apart from that one reason to stay here was since this bypass heads towards our next day route to Bhopal so next morning we can get rid of morning city traffic.

17-03-2023 Sunday
Next morning when we woke up, witness this beautiful scene which was invisible in dark the last night.

We checked out at 7:26am. Our todays destination was Ujjain.

After crossing Narmada bridge, from one place Andhua(outskirts of Jabalpur) we switched on to National Highway 45 which connects Jabalpur to Bhopal (obdullaganj). Famous Bhedaghat and Dhuadhar waterfall is on the bhopal highway. 60km after jabalpur, this road is full of lush green forest. we stopped at one place for refueling and continued for next 167km/2hr5min to take halt for breakfast at the outskirts of the town Bareli. One thing need to be mentioned, as soon as you leave jabalpur, there are number of cows sitting on the overbridge. yes , you read it right, they sit above the bridge and while aproaching, they are not visible to until you reach at certain height on bridge and vehicle need to be slow down very quickly. very carefully driving is needed. we spotted atleast 10dead cows and few dead dogs on this section of road. this is the first time in my life I witnessed such a large number of dead cows in the single section of the road.

NH45 passes through forest and one section of the road near Hiran River is just recenlty built.

Although the road is smooth but there also heavy potholes at starting and above the bridges. Traffic is very less and we witnessed few trucks only.
At obdullaganj intersection, left NH45 and swicthed to NH46 for entering to Bhopal city. There is a seperate lane for BRTS bus service in middle of the NH46. Since destination was still far, at 12:34pm we reached to takeaway Dominos pizza from one Habibganj outlet. In the slow moving traffic of Bhopal city, we had our lunch inside the vehicle only, after crossing Bhadbhada lake in Bhopal city, there is a shortcut road (Two Laned) between Neelbad to Khajoori sadak , which passes through fields and connects to NH86 for onwards journey till dewas.

NH86 is four lane and there is around 8-10feet of gap (instead of divider) between two way. NH86 is smooth but has potholes. there are huge traffic of bikes- trucks-containers but lack of access road slows down the speed. After bypassing the Sehore city, At 1:45pm, we took a tea halt in front of Kubereshwar dham gate.

After continuing journey onwards for another 1hr30min , it was time to leave the NH86 and join the NH52 for few km and then switch to Ujjain - Dewas State Highway 18. This section of four lane road is newly built and super smooth.

Upon descending from one overbridge, we were welcomed by the local police with a challan of 1000/- for the offence of overspeeding. They had the speed camera but even upon asking, they didnt showd me my vehicle speed. Speed limit is 80km/hr but obviously while descending from the overbridge, vehicle speeds up but one peculiar thing i noticed was all the vehicle they stopped for overspeeding was from another state like one dzire from Chhattisgarh (CG08) and one private bus with AR registration. Also, a Fortuner with MP09 registration was not stopped which was travelling beside us. Anyway we paid the challan, and moved on. I am not defending myself, and writing all this thing because be careful while driving in this road.

Finally we reached our destination Ujjain at 4:30pm, checked in into Hotel Crystal Inn. I didnt took the picture of hotel since online rating was good but the hotel was bogus, small room and no ameneties. After getting refreshed, we left for the mahakal mandir darshan at 5:30pm and spent the evening inside the temple premises. We took our Toyota Fortuner to the mandir gali. It was very crowded and conjusted, full of auto and e-riskha, I still wonder how did I managed to get it there without any scratches. If you want to go with your own four wheeler, There are 3-4 parking nearest to the temple, choose one in google map and then only proceed.

It was our first time visit and we were fortunate enough to be able to attend MahakalArti at 7:15pm. the vibes and atmosphere during the aarti is very amazing. If you want to attend the aarti, book the sheeghra darshan pass online or there is a counter near bade ganesha ji mandir for offline pass and take guidance of the local guards. they are very helpful and will assist you in entering the temple at right time. otherwise, you will end up having darshan in 10min and will be removed by security guards inside the nandi hall area since you cant stay there for longer time. Bhoga prasad counter is located on same office (outside) and one is inside the temple complex.

After the darshan, we had Tea and Kesar milk in the mandir gali, there are plenty of shops in the crowded mandir gali, there is option for food as well. Then headed towards the railway station road for having dinner. there, I met some childhood friends who were also tourist, they informed me that due to heavy rainfall in the region, road for omkareshwar is cut. I verified it with locals and in the news. It turned out to be true. so we dropped our plan to visit Omkareshwar, and rescheduled our plan to return to jabalpur next day via Kubereshwar dhaam.

18-03-2023 Monday
Next morning, we checked out the hotel at 8:11AM and headed towards the Nana Kheda Bus stand (ujjain) for having delicious Poha with tea. We didnt visited the new corridor area, left it for the next visit. Our today's destination was set for back to Jabalpur.

We left Ujjain at 8:40am and after 134km/ 2hrour of drive, our next stoppage was at petrol pump for refueling near kubereshwar dham.

After that, we entered Kubereshwar dham, there is a parking beside the boundary wall of the complex at the far end (please note , not at the starting), I would advice to park the vehicle there for two reason 1) closest parking to the entry gate 2) next to parking there is way for collecting Rudraksha. we were again fortunate enough to get our rudraksha in the first visit itself. Infact after parking our vehicle, we unknowingly entered that line, and it was bit surprising for us. Construction work is still going on inside the temple complex. we stayed there for 2hrs and after having khichari prasad, left the kubereshwar dham at 12:37pm.

Onwards , return journey was same. Beautiful scenic NH45. There are forest full of Tropical deciduous Teak wood.

We reached jabalpur at 8:12pm and checked in into hotel roal orbit. We had to travel 12km/30min for having dinner at The indian coffee house, Tilhari, Jabalpur.

Fortuner with the mighty Gloster.

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19-03-2023 Tuesday

Next morning was Ganesh Chaturthi, checked out the hotel at 8:34AM and after taking blessing of lord Ganesha, we headed straightaway towards the destination Raipur via NH30.

Our todays destination was set for the Home.

Few more pics of the Hotel Royal Orbit.

As mentioned earlier, this route is full of forest, there are stall beside highway for Roasted Corn (Bhutta) and cucumber (Kheera). This is a must try as these are local grown stuffs by the nearby villagers. Taste was unique.

For the first time, AdBlue refill alert was popped. I noticed, the Adblue range was decreacing correctly as much km vehicle was travelling. (Earlier there was complaint that adblue range decreases quickly in Fortuner with 100km for every 10km travelling). Although, I had the one 5L cane of AdBlue with me, I decide to refill it at the home.

At one place route was divereted due to debris fall on highway. Restoration work was going on.

We reached the MP-Chhattisgarh Border at 12:11pm.This section of road passes through lush green forest of the buffer zone of Kanha Tiger reserve. There is also a route from Bicchiya for reaching Sarhi resorts of Kanha. There was a routine checkup of the vehicle at the border check post on both the sides. There was a news in recent time that huge cash was recovered from one Toyota Fortuner which was travelling from Haryana to Odisha. But, we had full baggage of cloths only.

We reached Chilphi and had our lunch at same Hotel Natraj. Food is Good here.

Sudden plan was made to detour through Bhoramdev wildlife sanctury route. There is single lane 18km road via heavy dense forest for Bhoramdev. This road starts near Banjari mata mandir , just next to “Ghat starts “ signboard on NH30. This route is also visible on Google map. Road crosses through thick lush green forest and complete silence. There is also a watchtower where you can enjoy the mesmrising sight.
Few pics from the Bhoramdev temple built in 11th century by Naga vamsi king. Due to this temple having heavy erotic sculptures, it is aptly called "Khajuraho of chhattisgarh".

After speding hour at Bhoramdev, we left for the home and reached at 6:30pm. After the trip , Fortuner Clocked 8876km in 6months. Journey in the vehicle was comfortable. We weren't feeling tired at any point of time in the entire journey.
AdBlue refilled at home.

Trip summary

Total distance covered = 1652km
Total fuel (approx.) = 130L
Mileage (approx.) = 12.2Km/L
Road Condition
Raipur to Chilphi NH30 Excellent 5/5
Chilphi Ghati to Jabalpur NH30 Poor 2/5
Jabalpur to Obdullaganj (Bhopal) NH45 Good 4/5
Bhopal to Dewas NH86 Average 3/5
Dewas to Ujjain SH18 Excellent 5/5

Thaks for reading this quickly finalised trip and will meet in my another travelogue.

[Sameer016]

Originally Posted by winterfell

Thaks for reading this quickly finalised trip and will meet in my another travelogue.

Great travelogue. Last week we went to Jabalpur from Durg and was shocked to see the condition of the roads in MP. TMT bars are fully exposed and can shred your tyres in no time. It makes me appreciate the roads in Chhattisgarh. Hotel looks nice, will try next time.