Bird’s eye view
Today is our second day of hillybilly living, and we came down from Mahendragiri hill (5000 ft), drove across a plateau, visited waterfalls and temples on the way, and climbed up to Daringbadi (3000 ft). For comparison, Gangotri is at 10,000 ft, therefore Daringbadi is no honcho.
It was a travel of just 200 km, but, as I mentioned earlier, I suffer from the wandering eye, and we underwent time dilation to the extent of 7 hours, arriving around 2.30 pm, just in time for lunch.
The roads were a mixture, frankly, and the village roads in Orissa are not as well-maintained as village roads in, say, Tamil Nadu or south Karnataka.
Let’s take a look on the ground.
Leaving Mahendragiri (7.30 am)
It felt like a sin to leave this beautiful property so early in the day, that too before we had the free breakfast. However, our accommodation in Daringbadi also was ‘all meals’, which meant we could not miss lunch there, could we? So we put the brekker here on the chopping block.
However, the silver lining (or, in this case, orange lining) was a splendid sunrise witnessed from our verandah. There was a slight haze, otherwise it would have been a hyper realistic painting by Pallavi Gangwal.
The downward spiral - I mean hairpins- were as exciting as ever. We could see village people walking up the mountain, in many cases full family in tow, to pay their obeisance to Shiva. We were told that on Shivratri, the mountaintop is chock a block with cars and people.
(from the net)
Mankadadian waterfall (9.30 am)
Yesterday, I was trying to work out what points of interest we could cover while driving to Daringbadi, and one Jhirjhire waterfall had attracted my attention. However, nearing the place, it seemed that locals were not aware of that hydro-phenomenon, but offered us an alternative, the Mankadadian waterfall, and sent us bouncing on some back roads for 10 kms.
But the journey was definitely worth it, being a tall waterfall pouring into a green pool. Access to the pool was limited, as was our time, so Panna could not wet her feet this time around.
However, there was a pre-wedding shoot going on at this place, where nature was at its purest, and their peals of laughter caused birds to rise up in the air, startled by the vagaries of human courtship.
Incidentally, the district of Ganjam and Gajapati that we were travelling in at the moment, sport many waterfalls. A casual search of Google maps had showed up at least ten. However, many of them need a bit of walking, if not trekking, but some of these have been made accessible by car, if you can grit you teeth and be a little cruel on the suspension. The Punch took it on the chin, the good sport that it is.
Being 9.30 am already, and not having found a suitable breakfast joint on the way, we dug out our rations. Bananas, cheese and peanuts stepped up to the sacrificial alter, fodder to our primordial hunger, and we were soon bouncing away back to the highway, and on to our next stop.
Jiranga Buddhist Monastery (10.45 am)
Located in Chandragiri of Gajapati district, this monastery is the biggest in Eastern India, inaugurated by the Dalai Lama in 2010. Apart from the temple, which is a religious as well as an educational centre, there is a large colony of Tibetan refugees here, those who left Tibet with the Dalai Lama in 1959 (and their descendants). We found it pretty impressive, being one of the six places identified by the Dalai Lama for setting up monasteries in India.
Khasada waterfall (11.00 am)
Truth be told, we were already running late. Daringbadi was a clear three hour run from here, and unless I approached the speed of light, there was no way to shrink the distance. With the speed limits prevalent in Orissa, this was a duck that was dead in the water (if I might mix my metaphors a bit). Yet, when we left Jiranga, and saw a signboard that said “Khasada waterfall 4 km”, my arms just automatically spun right, and off we went jouncing along the backroads again.
This was no tall waterfall, but short and wide, something that Kohler would immediately include in their ads. In fact, before I could say Jack Robinson, there was Panna wading into the water, sunglasses and all, blissfully standing beneath the deluge, notwithstanding the prospect of a three hour journey in wet clothes! She said later, this flow was just about okay for a bath; the post-monsoon torrent here would have been too much. I took her word for it, because by now she was becoming an expert with waterfalls. One must be careful with her around Niagara, especially if there are barrels around.
Reaching Daringbadi (2.30 pm)
Now, free from touristy distractions, I put one heavy foot on the gas and kept it there. However, I will share one painful truth, a driver's curse as it were. It is easy to lose 5 mins on a casual stop (like filling petrol ot having a cup of tea), but it is almost impossible to make it up, especially on hilly terrain.
We took off from Khasada, showing an ETA of 2.31 pm, and that is what it still showed when we skidded into the main gate of the Daringbari Nature Camp, also an OFDC venture.
Daringbadi is touted to be the ‘Kashmir of Orissa’, which, to my mind, is a bit of hyperbole. The roads leading up to it are beautiful no doubt, with saal and eucalyptus trees lining the roads, but the pine forests of the higher mountains are obviously missing. However, saal leaves fluttering in orange bunches on the road and the oily smell of eucalyptus hanging in the air, is a very serene outlook. We had, as usual, chosen a road less travelled and had been blessed with seeing nature playing absentmindedly with her own toys, unaware of us tiptoeing past.
On the other hand, we passed through a small town where a new Hanuman mandir had been inaugurated, and the populace were dancing in the street, totally blocking traffic, smearing colours on each other and bursting crackers. All very boisterous and good natured of course (they put green abir on our foreheads), but humans play with different toys than nature, right?
We had our lunch before checking in. Like Mahendragiri, food was excellent (read 'no chillies'), and non-veg options were not looked down upon (like at Mahendragiri). Our cottage was quite nice and spacious, and we settled down to a bit of rest.
We might explore the town a bit in the evening, or we might not, seeing that we were already in a pretty nice place, with strong Wi-Fi.
Tomorrow, we travel to Satkosia, beside the Mahanadi river.
Photo credits: Panna Rashmi Ray
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