The penultimate day of our road trip and we had made a list of places close to Gopalpur that might be of interest. The choice for the morning was a drive out to Maa Taratarini Temple situated 30 kms from Gopalpur atop a hill beside the Rushikulya River. So we headed out and after driving for what seemed to be a while longer than we thought, as it was not really a highway but a narrow road through village after village, we came to a t-point with a large gate on the right. All the way we kept guessing which hill this temple would be on top of as we kept passing one hill after another. Anyway this was the way to the temple and we took it. Just short of the hill, there was a beautiful location to shoot the fabulous colours of the trees as they covered the hill side. From a near yellow tint to a dark green as one kept going up higher. Anyway my shot taken, we proceeded to ascend the hill to reach the summit where the temple was perched. At the base we first came upon a rope-way that one could use to go up and then the entrance of the 1000 steps that one could use to reach the doorstep of the temple. We opted for neither and went up on the steep road in our car.
The drive up was marvelous as one kept seeing the meandering river below and once we were up there, the temple wasn’t impressive at all, but it did have quite a religious following considering the number of people who were up there offering prayers. The temple itself seemed to be under construction and the huge population of monkeys was quite fascinating. Free food, I guess!
The temple visited there was nothing more to do but head back to Gopalpur, and that too at a leisurely speed. We had time on our hands and nothing to do really. On the way we stopped to see a potter at work making little ‘diyas’. Thereafter I came up with my theory of the speed breakers. There were countless speed breakers on this road and the only way to identify them was whenever I noticed white sand on the road, it meant there was a speed breaker there. I was telling my wife about my theory of how I believed that a little sand probably fell off the trucks as they went over the bumps and sure enough, in a short while we were right behind one such sand carrying truck as it went over a bump and as the back wheel came off the bump a little sand got dusted off just on the breaker which proved my theory right there.
So once we were back in Gopalpur, we settled for lunch on the beach. We decided to try out the mixed fried rice and chilli chicken. Well it was quite interesting to taste the unique preparation. If you think this is Chinese, it isn’t. They seem to use this red masala in any and everything. Anyway it was yum. We just sat there the rest of the afternoon and then took a leisurely stroll on the beach watching the fishing boats come in one after another as the evening approached. Finally there were no more boats out at sea except the 11 we had counted earlier that were moored a little way out.
In the evening, we indulged in some pakoras and beguni while we finished a little bit of the Smirnoff I had left in the back; all this on the beach as the day before. In fact we sat till later and only got back to the hotel past 10 pm. We then went about our business of packing and getting ready for the day ahead. Our long drive back to Kolkata, with two sight-seeing stops at Bhubaneshwar.
The drive up was marvelous as one kept seeing the meandering river below and once we were up there, the temple wasn’t impressive at all, but it did have quite a religious following considering the number of people who were up there offering prayers. The temple itself seemed to be under construction and the huge population of monkeys was quite fascinating. Free food, I guess!
The temple visited there was nothing more to do but head back to Gopalpur, and that too at a leisurely speed. We had time on our hands and nothing to do really. On the way we stopped to see a potter at work making little ‘diyas’. Thereafter I came up with my theory of the speed breakers. There were countless speed breakers on this road and the only way to identify them was whenever I noticed white sand on the road, it meant there was a speed breaker there. I was telling my wife about my theory of how I believed that a little sand probably fell off the trucks as they went over the bumps and sure enough, in a short while we were right behind one such sand carrying truck as it went over a bump and as the back wheel came off the bump a little sand got dusted off just on the breaker which proved my theory right there.
So once we were back in Gopalpur, we settled for lunch on the beach. We decided to try out the mixed fried rice and chilli chicken. Well it was quite interesting to taste the unique preparation. If you think this is Chinese, it isn’t. They seem to use this red masala in any and everything. Anyway it was yum. We just sat there the rest of the afternoon and then took a leisurely stroll on the beach watching the fishing boats come in one after another as the evening approached. Finally there were no more boats out at sea except the 11 we had counted earlier that were moored a little way out.
In the evening, we indulged in some pakoras and beguni while we finished a little bit of the Smirnoff I had left in the back; all this on the beach as the day before. In fact we sat till later and only got back to the hotel past 10 pm. We then went about our business of packing and getting ready for the day ahead. Our long drive back to Kolkata, with two sight-seeing stops at Bhubaneshwar.
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