A Trip To Daringbadi

[rahul4640]

Gentlemen and friends,
I have several times heard of a place called Daringbadi. I had come to know that it was a small hill station, located in Kandhamal district (of Orissa). I also knew that there was only one option of staying there, namely the Deers Eco Resort. Talked over telephone to Mr. Swain, who was the owner there. He assured me that rooms were indeed available on my required dates.

My daughter had also just completed her ICSE (Class/Standard-X) examination. Her school was closed. This time my wife could not object to my proposal for a short trip to Orissa. But there was a problem. My wife and daughter was not much willing to sit in the car for 15-16 hours in a car at a stretch, yet that was approximately the time taken to reach Daringbadi (from my house in Calcutta).
So I decided that I shall spend one day (and that night) at Rambha or Barkul (both located on Chilka Lake). I also even thought of staying at Gopalpur-on-sea. But as a devotee of Lord Jagannath, I also thought of visiting Puri. Hence Gopalpur was left out of plan.

Started from my home in North Calcutta at about eleven at the evening. Planned to have our dinner at a roadside eatery named “Azad Hind Dhaba” located at Uluberia, only some 30 KMs away from my home. But very dense and slow truck traffic made progress very slow. Could complete our dinner at only around quarter past one in the morning. This is a picture of my car taken at that time. Also filled up the car from the attached BP COCO pump.

The road which I took was obviously the road which leads to Bhuwaneswar from Calcutta. Anyone who has driven on this road lately should know very well that the condition of the road is very bad between Kharagpur and Baleswar. Previously it used to be a very smooth divided four lane highway with excellent road surface. But now almost for the entire stretch between Kharagpore and Balasore, any one of either side is closed to the traffic for maintenance. Large speed breakers, uneven roads (specially over the culverts), frequent diversions, etc, made driving tiresome.

Although I was badly needing a cup of tea at this stretch, could not locate a suitable tea stall at night and did not stop anywhere until the lights of the day came out. Stopped at this place near this unknown temple for tea, when it was not at all dark anymore.

Though from my earlier experiences in this road (NH-5), traffic is usually dense between Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, the road had very little traffic so early in the morning. Reached Bhubaneswar by nine in the morning and had our breakfast there.

Traffic thins out after Bhubaneswar. Beautiful roads with great scenic beauties. Your car will soon move over to excess of 100 KMPH, without you becoming much aware of it. The board for Barkul Panthanivas (run by OTDC) is well visible from the highway but I crossed it and did not bother to turn back.



Reached the Panthanivas at Rambha by eleven O’clock. A fairly large AC room with a large balcony costed me Rs 1400/- (plus tax). This is the balcony, ideal to seat after the sun has set and the temperature has dropped.





Some more pictures of the hotel. I stayed at this hotel for the night, before proceeding to Daringbadi on the next day.



And the view of the Chilka lake.

Thanks for reading. I shall post the remaining portion of my trip report soon. Please feel free to add comments or query.
Regards,
Rahul,
North Calcutta.

 

[priyadarshi06]

Nice one to read.
The name of the unknown temple is Maa Tarini Temple,very famous in the area

 

[anshuman8]

Rahulda, Very nice thread. How did you drive all night ? I do not like night driving myself.

Hope you have followed this thread -
http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...-meet-4th-may-2014-a-7.html?highlight=kolkata

Please join us in the meet.

 

[rahul4640]

Friends,
The next day left the OTDC Panthanivas (hotel) at Rambha by eight in the morning. Could even start earlier but waited for the free and complimentary breakfast. Tanked up petrol from a small petrol bunk on the highway. I was initially suspicious about the quality of fuel they sold, though have to admit that the quality was later found good.
This is exactly the space where I left Calcutta-Madras Road (NH-5) and took the road for Daringbadi. This place is called Nirmaljhara. I have to admit that roads are indeed good in Orissa. Even the village roads and the state highways are no exception. But there is the menace of innumerable speed breakers, which I shall mention later.


This picture is taken from the opposite direction, looking back at the direction of the NH-5 and showing my wife and daughter. No idea why that highway is described as NH-16.


Good roads, with minimal traffic. The road goes through two small towns, named Asika (famous for a big sugar factory) and Surada.






After Surada the road is not so good. There is no pothole as such, though the top surface of the road has been broken, giving my car continuous rattling jerks. And the foliage started to grow.








The roads improved just before Daringbadi, when we discovered that road improvement work on this road was going on.


After reaching the town of Daringbadi we felt a peculiar problem. We had three mobile phones in my car. Unfortunately all of them had Vodafone connections, which failed miserably. Elsewhere in all places where we had visited, the network was excellent, yet here we had now virtually no connection with anyone. I could not even ask the hotel for direction. Meanwhile, there was a barricade on that road, where our car was photographed and my driving license verified, before we were allowed to go.

I stopped twice at the town to ask for direction. Apparently this “Deers Eco Resort” expects all the guest to arrive either by taxis or by chartered cars, where the drivers are local and know this place well. There is not even a signboard on the road.

It was very hot outside and I expected a slightly colder daytime temperature there. The owner of this hotel is really a very honest and helpful person. The accommodation was basic. It did not have AC rooms but they had battery power back up, where the fans and lights could work. He even asked one of his employees to accompany us to different places around the town, as we knew nothing about the places of tourist attractions nearby. A view of the place. It had six rooms.


The view even from that hotel was excellent. You may enjoy the view even while sitting at the balcony.




In the afternoon we went outside to see the local places. There is a hill view point. Please see the view from there.


The lonely road to the coffee plantations. I was told that there were two coffee estates.


My wife was happy to pluck coffee seeds.


Termite mounds were very common in these areas. Some were even almost six feet tall. Please see two in various shapes.


All the local tribal girls we saw were very fond of tattoos. Please see one local girl with tattoos.

Few other photos.





I decided to to curtail my duration of stay there from two to one, as it was too hot there. Moreover, although we were provided with mosquito repellents, we had to keep the windows open for the warm weather, which did not deter the other larger insects from coming in. God alone knows how a frog could enter our bathroom at night and scare my daughter.
Thanks for reading.
Regards,
Rahul.

 

[srinivas_gs]

Thanks for letting know the new area to explore. Thanks for pictures which supplements the words.

 

[vikyjoshi]

very nicely written and lots of pics to top it all.

 

[WiCkEdMaNaV]

A very well written travelogue Rahul. It reminded me of our Daringbadi trip a year back, when while scouting out for places near Bhubaneswar we pounced upon the so called "Kashmir of Odisha"- Daringbadi and made up our minds to visit the places. It was hell of a trip we all enjoyed although it was nothing like the kashmir we thought of. It was really hot as u have mentioned. The roads I believe have now been built as back then it was late in the evening when 2 of our cars were racing each other down hill to get out of daringbadi as upon reaching there we realised it being a heavy naxal affected area (might be the reason for your vehicle being photographed).
Apart from the sunset view point, did you also visit the waterfall, a calm and relaxing place enroute the coffee plantations. That was the only place which provided us respite :)

 

[Chandranath]

Good place to discover Rahul..

Will hear from you on the spot when we meet next week.

Waiting to read your rest of the journey including Baba Jagannath's abode.

 

[priyadarshi06]

Really Nice thread and the photos describe the trip by themselves :)

 

[rahul4640]

2 of our cars were racing each other down hill to get out of daringbadi as upon reaching there we realised it being a heavy naxal affected area (might be the reason for your vehicle being photographed).

Possibly so. And may be it was the effect of the upcoming elections.

Apart from the sunset view point, did you also visit the waterfall, a calm and relaxing place enroute the coffee plantations. That was the only place which provided us respite :)

Sorry no. I had very limited time after reaching there almost at noon. It was so hot that we could not dare to start for local sightseeing before five in the afternoon. But I visited the coffee plantations.

 

[rahul4640]

Friends,
We decided that we should limit my stay at Daringbadi to only a day. So started for Puri early the next morning at around half past six O’clock. Had our breakfast from a roadside shop at Asika. Also filled up petrol from there. A view of the nice roads.




Reached NH-5 at about three hours (with half an hour break). I decided to take the shortest route to Puri, by taking the ferry at Chilka. I had taken the route from the opposite direction last year and wrote about it in this forum, please see it here. I was confident that I shall reach Puri by one O’ clock. I knew that once I reached the highway, only twenty KM or so away was a small village named Pallur.


Reached the Pallur junction in less than 15 minutes. A enhanced view of the signboard for you, where I took the left turn.


A close up view of the place. The NH-5 is visible at right.


This is exactly after taking the turn. I had no idea that this day will be extremly thrilling and memorable for me. Only if I knew that the ferry service was closed. A new addition to this road was the presence of innumerable speed breakers. Last year there was possibly none at all.


A view of the roads. Hardly a soul anywhere.








Just some ten KMs before I reached the ferry ghat I reached a T-junction. Unable to identify the correct road, I stopped. Two young fellows were coming towards us in a bike, whom I asked to seek direction. They were first to tell me that vessels were no more available.

I was dumb. I had no idea that vessel services could be closed. My wige and daughter were also unhappy, because I have not gathered enough information about the unavailability of the ferry services. Taking the alternate route then meant that I had to again get back to the highway, necessitating at least another five hour drive. I did not know what to do. I continued on my way, with very little hope. Soon I reached the jetty, which was deserted. There was only a couple of auto rickshaws standing there. There was a handful of people sitting below a large tree, obviously waiting for small mechanised boats. There was also one shop selling pan (betel) and cigarettes.

As it was very hot outside, I had the AC in the car running.With my wife and daughter sitting in the car, I did not smoke for sometime, so decided to come out of the car and light up a cigarette before I could return. The pan shop was very close, so I asked him in Hindi why the ferry service was closed. I found out that the person only knew Oriya, which I did not understand. But he told me something which immediately arose my curiosity. He said the word “boat” with hands stretched. It meant that he meant big boats. I nodded in reply.
Soon two young men came and looked at my car. Both of them were boatman and understood Hindi well. They told me that they will take our boat to the opposite side at Satpada for seven hundred and fifty rupees. Possibly out of frustration I agreed, so did my wife.

The boat was brought near my car.


When I lifted my car on the boat, it was found that only the wheels could be accommodated on it. Please remember that my Tata Indigo car is almost a ten year old one, having a longer body and a more powerful engine that the present generation Indigo-CS models. Both ends were protruding outside of the boat. The boatman fellows tied all the wheels with rope. I switched the engine off, put the car in gear and engaged the handbrake.




Here we go to cross the lake.


I gathered attention of many people when I reached Satpada. And I could safely unload my car from the boat.








This is just in front of the OTDC panthanivas (hotel) in Satpada. Let me tell all of you that though Puri is only 48 KMs away from here, there are at least 250 speed breakers in this road (in a modest calculation of at least 5 per KM). So it took me almost one and half hour to reach Puri.


I could get a decent room in a hotel in Puri for Rs 1400/- only. The room was fairly large, had AC and was well furnished. As I have visited Puri many times in past, I did not come out of the hotel any more at all that day.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to put any comment or ask any question.
Regards,
Rahul

 

[Chandranath]

Rahul, Crossing the lake in that country boat was pretty adventorous.

Questions -
1) Why was the main ferry closed?
2) How long did it take to cross in the boat?
3) Do these boats carry cars like the way you did, or was it a one of case with you.

 

[rahul4640]

1) Why was the main ferry closed?

No idea. But I found out that it was closed since last one month.

2) How long did it take to cross in the boat?

Not much time, slightly over half an hour, I guess.

3) Do these boats carry cars like the way you did, or was it a one of case with you.

The boatman said that he had crossed the lake with another vehicle the previous week, so I guess that the frequencies of cars crossing by such small country boats are not much. They usually transport motorbikes, over a dozen at a time. But I guess your Xylo will be too long for such a boat. BTW, have you ever seen cars crossing our nearby Ganga river by such small country boats near Ambika Kalna?

 

[AR Ram]

Rahulji

That was a fantastic travelogue and beautiful pictures as well.

The ferry looks very scary. A daring attempt!!!

 

[KALINGA]

Excellent travelogue Rahul Da,

That temple (Where you stopped for tea break) is Maa Tarini Goddess temple after balasore before soro..Bhadrak.

That temple is a replica of Kendujhar Ghata Gaon Tarini Temple.

Glad to know that the road condition has much improved now.