03 Days Excursion to Chikhaldhara - A Beautiful Hill Station - DAY 02

Day 2 - Jalgaon - Yawal - Burhanpur - Semadoh - Chikhaldara - Paratwada

Ajanta caves were nearby, so why don't we go and pay a revisit. But it will consume at least half day. So better move ahead and explore some new places as decided. But I had missed to visit the Ajanta view point last time, so I went back to check out the view point..15-20 kms back and I was there at the view point, Gate was still closed as it was just 07 am. I sneaked in by climbing the gates. View point was okaish 






Corn field outside the View Point gates


Sat for a while and started for Jalgaon. Road condition was pretty good, didn't took much time to cover those 40-50 Kms. Tanked up in Jalgaon and inquired for Yawal Wildlife Santury,everybody was clueless about it. So I decided to reach Yawal and then inquire about the wildlife sanctury.Pretty soon I made it to Yawal.I started inquiring, but the response was the same.

So left with no other option I headed towards Burhanpur. Road was quite good and I was easily doing 70-80.Suddenly road disappeared and what I see ahead of me is numerous potholes and few road patches scattered inside them. I wondered whether I am lost, but pretty soon I saw a sign board "Welcome To Madhya Pradesh" and sigh of relief "Yes !!..I am going on the correct route" "P .

Tapti River


While I reached Burhanpur,I spotted some broken boundary walls of Fort. I asked few peoples if this place has got any fort which can be visited. Few peoples told me about the Shahi Mahal which is located at the banks of Tapti river.

Shahi Mahal - Well, very few walls, some exquisite carving and remains were there. But the sight of the Tapti river running just next to it was mesmerizing.









I have to agree I am very affectionate about historic places, I can't miss any of it, except the part where you have to climb many stairs and walk for few miles..then I have to leave it alone 





The road was not coming easy on me, it was bad very bad..and when I left Burhanpur some peoples misguided me about the route and I picked up the Khandwa route. I covered some 20kms when I realized that I am going wrong :P.Came back to Burhanpur and located the correct route which is via Sirpur,dhertalai and Dharni.

Meanwhile I got updates from the group that they have left Pune and taking the Paithan route to reach Jalna.I immediately stopped to call them and tell that, Paithan - Jalna route is in super bad condition. But the only contact number I had was not reachable, so I left them on their luck and moved ahead.
While travelling in MP I crossed some very busy villages, towns and markets (bang on the road).







After some good 70-80 Kms, my pain ended. We were back in Maharashtra and roads changed drastically :P .Quite soon I entered Melghat Tiger Reserve and view around me just got better and better.






I reached Semadoh at around 04:30 and chikhaldhara was another 25 kms from there. I had plenty of time in my hand, and there wasn't any update from the group. While I was climbing the ghat section I took few videos as well to kill some time.




So there I was at Chikhaldhara at 06 PM,now only thing which was remaining was the arrival of the group. Meanwhile I inquired about the hotel rates and the prices were quite high as expected..Minimum 2500 for a single room. Gulp !!.I had only 200 rs in my pocket and I was waiting for my saviors as there weren't any ATM's there. I waited..waited and waited...02 hours passed and no update from anyone,25-30 attempts of calling and no response.

I had no other option,i left for Paratwada which was 33 kms from Chikhaldhara in search of ATM,food and accommodation. I reached Paratwada at around 09 Pm,dropped SMS to the fellow group about my whereabouts and slept.

Cheers
Biru