This is Part 2 of the four-part series covering my Bangalore to Delhi cycling tour. In this part, I cover the Nagpur to Khajuraho stretch.
Check out Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4.
Day 15 - 09-Feb-2023 - Nagpur to Sakoli
After the three day break, I started early around 5:40 am. The route was mostly flat and I covered the 110 Km at a quick pace to reach Sakoli around 2:00 pm. I stayed at hotel Stay Inn. It is priced reasonably for a small but functional and clean room, and the staff was very helpful. It has an attached restaurant which served good food.
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| Sunrise - 06:55 am |
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| Kanhan River |
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| Just saw one small mustard field in Maharashtra |
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| Saw more people cycling here |
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Nice to see kids cycling to school
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| Wainganga River |
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| Wainganga River |
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| Forest department |
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| A quaint shop serving flavored milk, lassi, and more |
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| Hotel Manager |
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| Hotel Stay Inn, Sakoli |
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| Small but clean and comfortable room |
Day 16 - 10-Feb-2023 - Sakoli to Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh
Another short day of riding but had to go through stretches of road construction and few small climbs. Crossed over from Maharashtra to Chhattisgarh today. As I entered Rajnandgaon, I met an Indian Railways employee and he treated me to coconut water. Stayed in a Oyo Rooms hotel within the city. There was a field hockey team staying in the hotel and they were having their fun till late at night so was a bit difficult to sleep.
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| Sunrise 06:52 am |
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| Road construction |
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| Road construction |
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| River on the Maharashtra - Chhattisgarh border |
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| Chhipa River |
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| Hotel Royal in Rajnandgaon |
Day 17 - 11-Feb-2023 - Rajnandgaon to Simga
Today, I touched the easternmost part of my tour on the outskirts of Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur and turned north from there towards Simga. Earlier in the day I passed through Bhilai, a city with one of the first steel plants in India. On the back roads of Bhilai, while stopping to see if I was on the right track, I forgot that I was cleated and had a fall - fortunately only small scratches on the leg and no damage to the bike. It was very nice passing through the residential areas of Bhilai (called sectors) as the roads were flat and had good tree cover on both sides.
In Raipur, I met my fellow riders from the Aug-2022 Leh trip. It felt good to be in the company of friends for some time. While waiting for them in a mostly-Sikh residential area, spoke to two elderly locals who enquired about my tour and offered a place to sit and something to eat and drink.
On reaching Simga, I found that it only has a small rundown place to stay - Bhatia Lodge. Didn't have a choice so took the place but used my sleeping bag on the bed with questionable cleanliness.
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| Shivnath River on the outskirts of Durg |
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| Sunrise @ 06:47 am |
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| Bhilai Steel Plant area |
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| Meeting friends from my YHAI Leh trip in Aug-2022 |
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| Interesting sight - Railway engine shell transported on a truck |
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| Chhattisgarh had a lot of small lakes like this |
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| Staff at Jio BP petrol bunk got me free lassi & buttermilk |
Day 18 - 12-Feb-2023 - Simga to Ratanpur
Left early from Simga as I wanted to get out of the hotel ASAP. Faced hot sun and headwinds in the afternoon and reached Ratanpur by 2:00 pm. After reaching Ratanpur, had to do go through some small lanes to find a good place to stay. Finally, reached Athithi Nivas managed by Devkumar Thawait. He has remodeled his ancestral house to serve as a guest house for piligrims visiting the Mahamaya Devi temple. After freshening up visited the temple and later had a home cooked meal at the guest house.
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| Shivnath river between Nandghat and Akoli (crossed same river yesterday too) |
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| Shivnath River |
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| Sunrise @ 06:44 am |
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| Lush green fields |
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| Chandkhuri Rest House (could have been a good place to stay yesterday, however, 32 Km from Simga) |
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| Children making wire mesh fence (before school work) |
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| Completed wire mesh fence rolls |
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| Maniyari River (A tributary of Shivnath river) |
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| Maniyari River |
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| Chhattisgarh High Court, Bilaspur |
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| Nehru Chowk, Bilaspur |
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| Mahamaya Devi Temple, Ratanpur |
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| Water tank next to Mahamaya Devi temple, Ratanpur |
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| Athithi Nivas (Guest House) at Ratanpur |
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| My hosts at Athithi Nivas |
Day 19 - 13-Feb-2023 - Ratanpur to Amarkantak
Good day of riding with around 25 Km of uphill climbing from around 320 metres to 1040 metres. The rest of the ride was rolling hills. A truck driver driving a truck carrying raw bananas from Bhusawal to somewhere in Madhya Pradesh stopped his truck and enquired about my tour. He insisted that I take some of the bananas. The bananas didn't ripen in two days so left them with the hotel manager in Amarkantak. Met Chhatisgarh forest officials in the forest. It was good riding through the tree lined roads in the forests. The sun did not affect much but there was still some headwind.
It felt good to reach Amarkantak and I was looking forward to my rest day. Stopped at the first hotel I found and checked in as it felt like a good place with clean room and lots of open space.
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| Lake at dawn |
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| Sunrise at 06:48 am |
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| Truck driver and helper who offered me bananas |
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| Beautiful tree lined roads |
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| Several small streams like this |
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| Chhattisgarh forest officials a little before Keonchi |
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| Saw many small calfs such as these |
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| Still climbing |
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| Almost there... |
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| Hotel Prince Palace at Amarkantak |
Day 20 - 14-Apr-2023 - Rest day at Amarkantak
Spent the morning washing the clothes, getting some office work done, and cleaning/oiling the bike. In the afternoon visited Amarkantak temples.
Day 21 - 15-Feb-2023 - Amarkantak to Shahdol
Great day meeting people. The ride was still hard as not on the highway, even though around 20 Km of the ride was downhill.
- Met a farmer who showed me spoilt tractor parts and how they are repairing the tractor. He offered breakfast and chai but I could not accept as I was running late.
- Met traffic police person Vivekanand Tiwari in Shahdol, who is a YouTuber who talks mostly about traffic safety. He made a video about my travel and published it. It appears that this video went viral, and later on the tour, I would meet people who had seen the video and recognized me. This happened in Jhansi, Gwalior, Agra, Noida, Delhi, and several of my online contacts across the country reached out to me saying they had seen the video. See the video below & direct link.
- The Zion hotel manager, Yuvraj Singh, is a Physical Education masters student and he took me to meet the Head of the Physical Education Department at his university. Addressed the students and spoke about my travel. Few of them rode my bike to get a feel for it.
- Later in the evening, spoke to a journalist at Patrika.com about my travel, and this got published.
Day 22 - 16-Feb-2023 - Shahdol to Katni
Long day with bad roads in stretches during the first half. Had a good conversation at lunch with the shop owner and a policeman - it appears that everyone wants things without working, and people want get-rich-quick schemes. Heard similar sentiments from a few more people on this tour. Also met a person who runs an Ashram around 25 Km before Katni. He offered food and stay, but I could not accept as I had to reach Katni to keep up with the schedule. Throughout the day saw trains transporting coal.
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Hotel Surya @ Katni
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Day 23 - 17-Feb-2023 - Katni to Amanganj
A very good day of riding. Met some interesting people. Satish Saxena at morning Dhabha who shared very good knowledge of the local area and general thoughts about how things are going on in the world. Met two teachers near Pawai Waterfall. One of them is teaching electrical to 9-10 standard kids. Vocational training was introduced in MP schools in 2016. Saw vultures in a large group and they were feasting on a dead cow - I had never seen vultures up close, and it was amazing to see how big they are. Unfortunately, I did not get their close-up pictures.
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| Sunrise @ 07:01 am |
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| Early morning colors |
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| School teachers at Pawai Waterfall |
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| Pawai Waterfall (Also called Silver Moon Falls) |
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| Vultures |
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| Another school teacher from the same school |
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| Google Maps show no river at this location, but I think it is the Patne River |
Amazing show by the birds
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| Budding YouTubers |
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| Hotel Ram Inn, Amanganj |
Day 24 - 18-Feb-2023 - Amanganj to Khajuraho
Another good day of riding, with a few downhill ghats, less headwinds, and riding mostly through Panna National Forest buffer zone. Met couple of young men who have been stock trading for 3 years and seem to be doing in a scientific manner. Met a young man who was traveling through the country without money. Reached Khajuraho around 01:30 pm and checked into Farman's Airbnb home. My brother and parents who had started from Bangalore by car on 11-Feb-2023, arrived a short while later. In the evening we visited the temple and since it was Maha Shivratri, it was a festive atmosphere.
Day 25 - Rest day at Khajuraho
Spent the morning cleaning up and oiling the bike and my mother helped wash my clothes. My rear dynamo light was not working for a few days and with my brother's help we found that the wire was cut at the point where it attached to the light. I could not figure this out earlier as the cut part was within the insulation sheath. Did a temporary wiring to see if the light worked and it did. Took to an electrician and he said he could just solder it. As he turned on the soldering iron, the power went off and he did the same temporary wiring as we had done and just put an insulation tape on top of it. It sustained all the way to Delhi.
Later we visited the historical temples and did some shopping at Shramdaan - great clothes at very reasonable prices. Shramdaan employs farmers and even prisoners to make their artifacts. For the farmers, it is an additional source of income during the dry months. Each individual clothing item had a tag with the name of the artisan.
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| With parents - leaving Khajuraho on the next day (Mon, 20-Feb-2023) |
1 comment:
Hi Shashi,
I have really enjoyed reading your blog and watching the videos. As I am not familiar with the place names I followed your route on Goggle maps. Great adventure with interesting people on route. Looking forward to our Himalayan adventure starting 30th July
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