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Sunday, June 07, 2009

Road Trip to Ranchi: Day 3

It was time to head back on the road out of this mad city where every biker thinks he’s “Dhoni” and I as usual left my packing for the morning. Fortunately we got up in time and were out of Ranchi by 9am after a pit stop for petrol and air for the tyres. It’s imperative that one should have a full tank and the tyres properly inflated.

We had wanted to visit at least one of the much talked about water falls and the only one that seemed feasible was Dasham Falls which was about 10kms off the highway. So after about an hour of driving, we came to the right turn off towards Dasham Falls. This was a narrow road into rustic Jharkhand and reminded me a lot of the last stretch of road to Mandarmani. Fortunately the road signs on this winding road through rustic villages and hills were fabulous. It was pure bliss driving through complete wilderness. Even the few settlements we passed were archaic with no sign of modern civilisation having intruded on their way of life.

We finally came upon a clearing in the forest with a small building and parked the car there and then walked towards the Balcony which was visible. And as we came to the edge we saw the rock face of the waterfall before us with a plunge pool way below. As we looked all around, we noticed a stairway leading down to the falls and made our way to the stream below. The next half hour or so we spent there was just too good, soaking our feet in the stream and lapping up the beautiful surroundings. I was tempted to go and take a dip in the water too, but remembered the long drive ahead of us, refrained and only stuck to the feet and clicking pictures of the waterfall.

After that we decided to head back to our journey to Kolkata. I have to thank my luck as I managed to catch these two Chameleons fighting on the way back from Dahsham Falls in Jharkhand in the middle of a hilly road. I was captivated by them for a couple of minutes as they engaged in what seemed to be a territorial fight and managed to capture some of these pictures with my Canon Powershot A530. I wish I had a better camera and could have managed to keep a distance and see it going on and on. I moved with 5-6 feet of them and finally they got aware of my presence and ran off into the jungle. I chased but they finally split and took off into the undergrowth. Hope you like the pictures. Not that the creatures are a likeable lot, but I had the luck of witnessing this in the wild.

Soon after we took a wrong turn and headed further into the hills and wilderness and only when we came upon this long bridge across this river and started driving up a steep road that I realised we had gone off track. So we backtracked and finally came back to the t-point where we had made the wrong turn and got back to the highway. From there on it was quite an uneventful drive back. My wife went trigger happy, being totally fascinated by the palm trees and white puffy clouds in the sky and clicking away just short of Ghatshila. We stopped at a dhaba at Ghatshila for lunch and then carried on towards Kolkata.

After Ghatshila we got held up on a hilly stretch where the train tracks run through the valley right alongside the road. While we got held up in the traffic jam, which surprisingly was quite odd, I saw a long goods train pass bye. It’s always fun to witness stuff like this while you’re on a road trip; the country side, the trains, the people, the change in the vegetation, et al. Anyway it had been a while and so I got off and decided to go investigate the cause of the hold-up. So a short walk down the road lined with vehicles brought me upon the cause. A dumper truck had gone over the side of the hill and the crane that had been commissioned to pull it up was tilting precariously on one set of its back wheels, thus blocking the highway. A lone policeman was trying very hard to control the growing tension being caused by the now irritated highway users. He finally gave in and threw his hands up in the air and as requested by the people let them pass under the crane. I ran back to my car which was about 6-7 vehicles away from the scene. I got in and started towards the crane as the traffic from our side was being allowed through. Well only the small vehicles could pass under and as I came upon the scene, I stopped waited till the car in front had gone through, prayed and then stepped on the accelerator and drove through. It was a death defying move, but I guess sometimes you got to do what you got to do. We cleared the waiting to happen disaster and never looked back.

Thereafter, breezed through Jamshedpur and soon were negotiating those dreadful roads with gigantic potholes at the Jharkhand Border. I forgot to mention that as soon as you enter Jharkhand, the roads deteriorate considerably for several kilometres. Potholes that can swallow entire cars plague this stretch. Once we got past this stretch, it was not long before we hit Kharagpur and back to the old familiar 6 lane highway all the way back to Kolkata.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Rohit Da the photos r great, Santiniketan is my mother's birth place & my Favorite Outing place too .But I think you missed out some must watch locations like 'Mullk Village' it is 3 kms away from santiniketan & also 'Rajbandah' there is a small dam. Whatever I think you enjoyed the outing very much.It reminds me my college days when I travelled to Baranashi by a boat with some of my friends.

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