Chitrakoot & Kalinjar Fort Trip.

[suyash_tripathi]

Being an avid traveler i have always loved and longed for Ladakh, Spiti, Bhutan, Nepal, Kashmir, Himachal, Uttrakhand, Sikkim, Rajashthan & Goa trips. Last year, in October i went out for a Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan and biking in Pai. This time in 2020 also, i had many plans to be traveling someplace somewhere which obviously was put on a brutal hold. Ever since the Lockdown period started due to Corona Virus, life took a complete halt. All the plans of professional and personal life felt like they have been poisoned to die a slow and untimely death. Gradually, Lockdown was lifted and places started to open (most famous being opening to Rohtang (Atal) Tunnel). I did read many travelogues and saw numerous videos and post in Facebook and Whatsapp. With the Indian Summer reaching its peak around May-June and with me literally not doing anything the whole day, I too was very tempted and desperate to venture out somewhere. A lot of plans were made but anyhow got cancelled as Interstate travel was banned by many States and the daily changing Interstate Quarantine rules made it even more confusing and difficult. As I come from the heartland of India, i.e Madhya Pradesh, i am lucky to have so many beautiful and amazing places around me. So initially in June, during monsoon period when all the Tiger Reserves closed, I got a chance to visit to Pench as one of my friend had some work in his Resort there. More on Pench and other forest stories later. This log is about Chitrakoot and Kalinger Fort. So, we started on 25th December from Jabalpur towards Chitrakoot and took Jabalpur-Katni-Maihar-Satna-Chitrakoot route, which took us around 5 hours. Roads from Jabalpur to Maihar is all excellent 4 lane, thereafter 2 lane State Highways but overall in good condition.

Chitrakoot in hindu mythology is believed to be the place where Lord Ram along with Sita and Laxman had spend 11 years in exile out of total 14 years.

I had done some prior research of the area before going and just before reaching Chitrakoot from Satna side, there is a T-junction from where left side road take you to Gupt Godavari. Gupt Godavari are natural rock formation. The name is derived from the tiny stream of water flowing inside the caves, whose source remains unfathomable. First cave is dry and about 40 m long second has knee depth water and about 70m long, one gets a very natural and serene feeling inside the caves.

Gupt Godavari Caves

Gupt Godavari Caves

Gupt Godavari Caves

Gupt Godavari Caves

Gupt Godavari Caves

 

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Gupt Godavari Caves

Gupt Godavari Caves

Gupt Godavari Caves

Gupt Godavari Caves

Gupt Godavari Caves

 

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A word of advice for everyone visiting Chitrakoot, please do not wear shoes as everyplace that you will visit, you will have to remove your shoes and for visiting Gupt Godavari caves wear half pants/shorts as you have to wade into knee deep waters.

Coming back to the trip; After visiting Gupt Godavari Caves, we headed towards Sati Anusuiya Temple, which is located on the banks of quaint and serene Mandakini River. Sati Anusuiya Temple is basically an Ashram of Swami Paramhans Maharaj. Natural beauty of this place is beyond comparison, just ignore some plastic bags. River water is crystal clear and you can clearly see the fishes underneath, whole place feels like a big natural Aquarium. Just beware of monkey here or I should say, just beware of monkeys anywhere you go in Chitrakoot. I was so afraid of them that I did not took out my DSLR Camera and lenses as I noticed few of them snatching bags from hands of tourists.

Sati Anusuiya Temple

Sati Anusuiya Temple

Sati Anusuiya Temple

Sati Anusuiya Temple

 

[suyash_tripathi]

As Camera/Photography was not allowed inside the temple, so I could not click any pictures inside. After coming out of temple, it was time for sunset and had started getting dark so now we decided to hunt down a good decent hotel for us. I generally prefer MPT Hotel/Resorts wherever available as they are undoubtedly one of the best because of their location and simple home like food and the fact that I manage to get some discount is icing on the cake. MPT has two hotels in Chitrakoot, one near Bus Stand, Hotel Mandakini and another MPT Tourist Bunglow right next to the famous Ramghat. Little did I had expected this place to be so much crowded but being extended weekend and Christmas/New Year holiday period, every good hotel was packed. Another good hotel in Chitrakoot is The River Front Resort, which is on a higher side of budget. Anyways, we did managed to get a Standard Deluxe room in MPT Tourist Bunglow for the night. We checked into your room and after a brief cleaning up, we headed towards Ramghat to attend the Evening Aarti, which is a delightful treat to watch and hearing those loud enchantments certainly was very relaxing for my eyes, ears, heart and soul.

Ramghat

Ramghat

Ramghat

Ramghat

Ramghat

 

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Aarti at Ramghat

Aarti at Ramghat

Aarti at Ramghat

Aarti at Ramghat

Ramghat

Video of Aarti at Ramghat

After attending the Aarti we roamed around there in the ghat which is full of temples and temples everywhere and the most famous being “Matsya Gajendranath” Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. Apart from Temples, a ride in the fully decorated boat is also worthwhile here. Thereafter we headed back to our hotel had our dinner and called it a day. To be continued...

 

[suyash_tripathi]

Day-2
26-12-2020

This day the first thing we had plan to do was “Kamadgiri Parikrama” (circumambulation path). “Kamadgiri’ means the mountain which fulfills all the wishes and desires. The place is believed to have been the abode of Lord Ram, Sita and Laxman during their exile. This pilgrimage path is about 5 Km long around the hill and took us around 1.5 hours. Bharat Milap Temple is mid way where it is believed that Bharat persuaded Lord Ram to return back to Ayodhya. There is also footprints present of Lord Ram & Bharat. After completing the Kamadgiri Parikrama we headed to Hanuman Dhara, a temple situated in the hills dedicated to Lord Hanuman were water from the rocks fall on the idol and on top of the hill is Sita Rasoi. Hanuman Dhara now offers Cable Car ride which was inaugurated just a day before we went. Lucky us, yes we did take a ride in the Cable Car.

View from the top of the hill overlooking whole of Chitrakoot

Cable Car

Cable Car

View from Spatik Shila

Off roading towards Rasoi

From here we went to Spatik Shila, Janki Kund, Bharat Koop and our whole day was well spend. Come back to the Hotel room dead tired, had our dinner and dozed off. Next day plan was….yes, you guessed it right…Kalinjar Fort, the mighty Kalinjar Fort. You can read more about it here Kalinjar Fort

 

[suyash_tripathi]

Day-3
27-12-2020

This day we woke up leisurely, had our bath, had heavy breakfast and checked out of the Hotel and bid farewell to Chitrakoot to drove towards Kalinjar. In the last two days, while I was in Chitrakoot, I had asked numerous persons about the route and road conditions to Kalinjar and the majority of people had recommended Chitrakoot-Atarra-Naseni-Kalinjar route. The distance was about 80 kms which took us around 2 hours and the road condition was good. We had started at 11 and we reached around 1 PM at the Kalinjar Fort. I was fascinated by this place for two reasons, first one that the mighty Sher Shah Suri had died here and secondly that Neelkanth Temple is situated here. This place is in control of and managed by Archaeological Survey of India and the tickets can be booked online too. This place truly deserves a place in World Heritage Sites, in my humble opinion.

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Neelkanth Mahadev at Kalinjar Fort

Neelkanth Mahadev at Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

 

[suyash_tripathi]

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

 

[suyash_tripathi]

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Inside Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

Kalinjar Fort

We spend nearly half a day here and around evening started our drive back. This time we took Kalinjar-Nagod-Uchechra-Maihar-Katni-Jabalpur route to get back to home, Relaxed, Rejuvenated and with another travel plan in my mind …till then….

Thanks for reading.