Orissa gaman

Birds eye  view  Technically speaking, we are now on the return journey. In fact, Daringbadi was the 5th of the 9 nights outside.That also covered two of the terrains (sea, mountain) out of four. Satkosia (river) and Simlipal (forest) would be other two. Today, we travelled 260 kms, which took 7 hours including an hour for various breaks. Not a long stretch, but we were cutting across from south to north, with Gmaps going for the shortest route, which was mostly through villages and localities, not so much the pristine NHs. Consequently, by the time we were close to lunchtime, my temper was no longer temperate.  We had a cool morning, but on the road, the mercury climbed to the thirties.  Let’s see how the day went.  Leaving Satkosia (9.30 am)  It rained in the night. Not the gentle pitter patter of Amjad Ali Khan tuning his tabla, but the thunderous drumming at the end of his classical recital. We woke up at the din and lay slightly...

Bird’s eye view  Another day, another 200 km. We covered this in 5 hours today, notwithstanding half an hour spent in various halts.  We did not have any touristy places to cover during the travel, but that does not mean it was without excitement.  Roads were uniformly good, except for a 5 km stretch that was exceptionally bad. The NHs were excellent, a pleasure to drive on, with or without music. Even the SH was very good. Weather was definitely warmer, giving us a precursor of what we to expect on the banks of the mighty Mahanadi. Let’s break it down.  Leaving Daringbadi (9.00 am)  We left Daringbadi quietly, without fuss, after having partaken of their standard breakfast of puri-bhaji and poha. However, I think that the cook had overslept, because the poha was definitely undercooked. Anyway, a full tummy is a full tummy. Usne to 'puri' koshish ki.  Nor had we been deprived of the early morning sunrise, as the energy-supplier rose...

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 w...