Orissa gaman

Bird’s eye view  This is the part, the last leg, that I never want to write. The journey is winding down, and the last day usually has no particular drama. In fact, today was quieter than most.  Because of the break at Lodhasuli, today’s journey was only 160 km long, that we did in 4 hours.  Let’s wrap up the last day, shall we? Leaving Lodhasuli (9.00 am)  Nonetheless, we did wake up at a beautiful place, in the middle of a saal forest, with a distinct chill in the air. We even discovered that our room had a small balcony where we could sit and have tea, ruminating on the last few days. The expanse of tree trunks before us, rising from a bed of dead leaves, seemingly had no end. The NH49 was just 5 minutes away, but effectively shielded by the forest, with only faint noises of traffic reaching us. After donning our day clothes, we went for a walk in the forest, accompanied by a few puppies, who raised a great din in the dry crack...

Bird’s eye view  A quick travel upto Lodhasuli today, with nothing much to write about, or so we thought. Lodhasuli was to be a simple break point on the way home. Travel distance was short, around 180 km, although we knew that the first 40 kms in the forest would be slow. We finally spent 6.5 hrs on the road. Travel was a mixture of the slow trundle (forest), the hanging around (riverside), panic (getting lost), bouncing around (road repairs), and a wow ending.  But let’s not let the cat out of the bag yet.  Leaving Baheripani in Simlipal (9.30 am)  Since our expected run was around 4 hours and there was no point in reaching Lodhasuli before lunch, we had a late wake up (7.00 am in spite of our honest efforts at sleeping in). We lazed around the sit-out drinking tea and chatting with the caretaker. I was quite intrigued by their lack of connectivity and asked him what happens in case of medical needs? What I meant was, what do they do if a...

Birds Eye view  Today we travelled 105 kms in 6 hrs, but for once, that would not be a fair measure of speed. Although there was not much time spent on sightseeing before we hit Simlipal, our travel after the initial two hours of NH49 gave way to 20 kmph driving speed inside the reserve forest, which itself was for two hours more, including the time needed for issuing a vehicle permit. So all in all, the Punch displayed a mixed persona between a hare and a tortoise.  Weather was absolutely clear, if not slightly warm, and jackets remained packed till the evening.  Let’s a look at the day in more detail. Leaving Keonjhar (7.30 am)  As a town, Keonjhar is nothing to sneer at, with a pop of 1.8 million. Being a mining area, truck movements are pretty prolific, as we had seen yesterday itself.  We were in two minds about our travel strategy, both revolving around breakfast and allowed hours of entry into Simlipal. Initially we were under the ...