Pachmahri – The queen of satpura

My friends Sumeet, satish, Pradeep & I had planned a tour to Madhya Pradesh , Pachmari was one of our destination. We started from Jabalpur…

The story- We left our at Jabalpur  at 3:45 am to discover unavailability of auto-rickshaw, surrendered to the only option and walked all the way to the railway station. Bought tickets for Piperiya and boarded in general compartment of the train. The train reached pipariya at 7:10 am and, at first glance, we found a decent  railway station. Unlike, our imagination of a small halt station.

Pipariya is the nearest Rail-head to Pachmarhi, some 54 kms away. Came out of the station and found very limited transport options available for Pachmarhi, thanks to some local body elections taking place in the area. so, after some rounds of search and negotiation we were on our way to pachmarhi in an Indica ( charge Rs.250 for four of us)

The plane area passed in no time and soon we were passing through the Satpura Tiger reserve providing nice views, and views got even better as we approached the hills. We reached Pachmarhi hill station within an hour.

Pachmarhi- Nestled among Satpura ranges, is the famous hill station of Madhya Pradesh. It is primarily famous for its water falls viz bee fall, duchess fall

Silver fall to name a few. Other attractions include cave shelters, temples and some nice view points. There are many staying options available here. However, there’s a need of a proper setup to provide information to the tourists about the spots and their accessibility, as the tourist spots are scattered and one need guide and permits to see some of the places. 

Left for sight seeing in the vehicle provided by our hotel, which turned out to be a big mistake, as the driver was taking us to less interesting places , including not a single waterfall , as he had other planes and would cover the waterfalls next day making us bound to book the vehicle again the next day. Hence, spoiling our plan in this process, as we had planned to see water falls on first day and would be exploring other places on our own the next day.

Apsara Vihar:

The water falls continuously upon a small kund creates a magic. Apsara vihar is a bathing pool

Handi Khoh:

It is 300 feet deep ravine in V-shape created by two gigantic hills. It is said that the British officer Handi has committed suicide by Jumping into the ravine

Reachgarh:

Due to the type of construction it gives an appearance of an open amphitheater. Enquired about possibility of seeing waterfalls on our own , from local people, in the evening, but nobody looked convinced with the idea and asked us to book a vehicle instead ,as one need permits and falls can’t be explored on foot in a single day since they are scattered. With no other option left, went to the main square and booked a vehicle for next day’s sight seeing. Day-2 exploring Pachmarhi The day was quite eventful and satisfying, we explored a lot on foot, hiked through the woods, and visited the waterfalls.                                               Pandav caves                                            On the way to silver -fall                                            The silver -fall First destination of the day was pandava caves, then we went to see apsara vihar and silver falls . It was a pleasing trek to the falls,  while finding way to silver falls, we lost our way and strayed in jungle for sometime before coming back to the right path .                                            The bee fall   Came back to our hotel by 5 pm but the day wasn’t over for us yet, checked out of the hotel and went to the main square to find some conveyance to pipariya , we had to catch our train for Jhansi from pipariya at 8:15 pm. But, the Local body elections again made sure unavailability of any transport to Pipariya. The only option available was a bus which was scheduled to leave for Pipariya at 6:30 and we were doubtful of the bus to reach pipariya in time and adding to that the railways inquiry no 139 wasn’t connecting hence status of train was not known either. The whole situation increased our heart beat and we were very sure by now, that we are going to miss our train. But again, Indian railways  turned pacifier , as I called back home asking my brother to confirm the status of our train which he confirmed to be late by 7 hours. Somewhat relaxed, we boarded the bus which left Pachmarhi by 6: 45 pm and reached Pipariya  surprisingly by 7:50 pm. Rushed to the station to get conformation that the train indeed is late by 8 hours,  took our dinner and started thinking what to do next. Finally, booked retiring room at the station and went to our bed. The whole trip of Pachmarhi was filled with adventure , beauty and fun.....