‘Nature Camp Chhotkei’ situated near the banks of the Mahanadi river within the Satkosia Tiger Reserve . 18th Nov. 2013.

The next leg of our trip : heading to the ‘Nature Camp Chhotkei’ situated near the banks of the Mahanadi river within the Satkosia Tiger Reserve. 18^th Nov. 2013.  

If you sought the assistance of Google maps or Aunty ( my trusty MapMyIndia GPS ) to go from Puri to Chhotkei within the Satkosia Tiger Reserve, you would be advised to take a left turn at Pipli and then proceed in a more or less NW direction to approach Chhotkei from the SE direction and saving a good 36km of the alternate route which involved going N from Puri, passing Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack before turning towards the West to head towards Chhotkei from the NE direction. The extract from google maps shows the suggested route in blue, and the alternative ( longer ) route in grey.

Google Map of the Route from Puri to Chhotkei

 In the hope of avoiding traffic heading towards the capital city of Odisha ( Orissa in days gone by ) and one of the bigger cities of the state, I chose the former route expecting to see more countryside and avoid traffic. I succeeded in both these aims, though the road could only be described as Terrible. In all my driving experience, only the road ( a loose term to describe the red mud path strewn with deep craters )  towards Siliguri that we were to encounter on our next leg of the journey was worse than this one. Still worse, the ‘road’ got kept deteriorating as we went along getting progressively “worser” by the minute. Fortunately, our Scorpio was equal to the task, and other than proceeding at a little-better-than-walking pace, we were doing fine and getting more excited as the route got wilder and more adventurous. At one point I saw this tribal boatman in his boat on the Mahanadi river, and had to stop to take pictures at full 250 mm zoom ( the maximum I had at that time ).

Taken at full 250 mm zoom. 

Taken at full 250 mm zoom. 

But after a few hours I began to wonder if I had done something wrong and finally ( after stopping once to crosscheck the MapMyIndia route with GoogleMaps on my laptop, I finally listened to my wife and called the lady who did the reservation for us. In the 20 odd days since we had sent a DD by registered post to the Forest department in Angul to confirm our booking at Chhotkei, I had completely forgotten the instructions that we were supposed to go to Angul and pick up a permit before heading to the tiger sanctuary. After speaking to her and checking my google map again I realised that we were (1) About 100 km away from Angul ( 2 ) That the appropriately named river Mahanadi was between where we were and Angul with no sign of a bridge across it

The river Mahanadi

and (3) that I had only about 3 hours until 5 pm when the Forestry office closed for the weekend to get there and collect the pass.

Adversity, it is said brings out the best in you, and I must say that Aunty ( my GPS ) and the Scorpio responded manfully to the challenge ! Aunty found a route with a bridge over the river, and the Scorpio made short work of covering the distance. So much so that we had time to stop for a cup of Tea at Angul before going to collect our pass at least 45 mins. before the deadline.

The road from Angul to Chhotkei was surprisingly good, and we covered the 55 km in just about an hour, reaching our destination after the sun set, but well before dinner time.

 As I took the precaution of taking a picture of the route at the forestry office, this time there were no hiccups along the way. 

Puri-Konark-Bhubaneshwar

There was only a little over a 100 km on towards Puri and the route takes you close to Bhubaneshwar before turning towards the coast and driving towards Pipli and on towards Puri. The trip should have been uneventful, but unfortunately, Aunty ( the affectionate name I use for my female voiced GPS ) decided to take a short cut and ended up directing us down a road that got narrower and narrower as it got more and more crowded. Eventually, we had to concede defeat and with a couple of helpful locals clearing the people out of the way, we reversed back a short distance and then took another road which took us on to Pipli. Reaching our hotel at Puri was again a bit of an adventure. The hotel is at the end of the beach

This picture was actually taken on our way out of Puri

and one drives down the beach road and then turns at a right angle where the beach is curved to reach the hotel. Unfortunately for us, there was still a lot of sand that the cyclone had blown onto the beach road, and while I was not worried with my 4 wheel drive, just 300 mts from the hotel we came to a tempo that had broken down right in the middle of what was left of the road, and with steep sand dune like mounds on either side we did not attempt to navigate around it. Instead, we drove back a bit and after a few false attempts finally reached the resort from the other side.

Early ( the sun rises really early on the east coast ) the next morning (17/11/2013 ) we woke up and went to the beach to watch the sun rise. Took my camera along, but decided to ‘manage’ without my specs. It was really beautiful, and there were a lot of small fishing boats setting out as we watched. Leaving without my glasses proved to be a costly mistake, as it was only much later that I realised that I had forgotten to replace the data card in the camera after looking at the pictures of Chilka lake the previous night. So I have only one picture of the sea at Puri, and that too was taken from the car on our way out of Puri 2 days later.

After a good breakfast we headed out to Konark to see the Sun temple which was built in the 13^th century.

The data card was now back in place, and the lesson I learned at the Puri beach has led to me connecting the camera to the laptop with a cable, rather than taking out the data card, so hopefully I won’t make the same mistake again. The road to Konark was quite picturesque and there were some nice scenic spots along the way.

The road from Puri to Konark

Along the road from Puri to Konark

It was quite hot in Konark, and there were a lot of tourists as well as we had reached Puri/Konark at the full moon when there is always a crowd especially at the Jaganath temple.

The temple was designed to look like a chariot pulled by horses. 

The british sailors called them the white pagoda and black pagoda respectively, as the domes could be seen from far out at sea

One of the wheels 

and We carried our umbrella from the car, and used it to protect us from the sun,

Elaborate setting of the Kanika restaurant

but it was still very hot and we were quite happy to get back into the car and head to Bhubaneswar to have lunch.

Sculpture outside Mayflower hotel in Bhubaneshwar

We chose 2 Oriya thalis ( one fish and one chicken ) and as you can see; they were very satisfying to say the least.

Lunch

Next we drove to the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves which were nearby

Carving on the wall of a cave in Khandagiri

Sun sets over Udayagiri

Khandagiri caves

Khandagiro

before heading back towards Puri.

This time, while passing Pipli we stopped to pick up some mementoes of our trip, and the old owner of the shop proudly showed me the certificate he had received from the govt.

  He also allowed me to take a few pictures of the kind of work that they do.As mentioned in passing earlier, it was a full moon that night and so naturally took a picture from the car of the moon as it was rising.

Next morning we checked out of the hotel and I took this picture from my cell phone of cyclone damage just outside the hotel gate.

We then went to see the Jagannath temple from outside before heading on to the next leg of our holiday.

Jagannath temple Puri

There were huge crowds at the temple

The road outside the temple

and we took some spectacular pictures

from the so-called “library” in a dilapidated building opposite the temple.

The library capitalises on the rule that prevents non-hindus from entering the temple, and one wishes that it was kept a bit better. We had to make a “donation” towards the upkeep of the library and firmly resisted all attempts to go up from the Re. 50/- donation we decided on after seeing the condition of the library.

Then we set off on the next leg of our trip : heading to the ‘Nature Camp Chhotkei’ situated near the banks of the Mahanadi river within the Satkosia Tiger Reserve.   

Stop at Chilka Lake on the way to Puri. ( Stage 2 of 7 State driving trip )

The next leg of our trip was from Vishakhapatnam to Puri, a distance of slightly less than 500 km on the east coast road. On the way, we were planning to stop at the Chilka lake. While planning our stops I had checked with an Oriya friend if I should plan an overnight stop at the lake, but he said it was not necessary, and besides the only place to stay nearby was the govt. guesthouse which he was not sure about.

As it was only 345 km to Chilka lake we decided to have breakfast at the hotel and headed out by 8 am. The city of Vizag seems to have grown along the highway, and so for about an hour we had a lot of office traffic to contend with. But once beyond that, the road was superb and we made good time. On the way we passed Gopalpur-on-sea which had recently borne the brunt of a cyclone. As we passed by we noticed that for about 2kms along the highway many of the trees had been flattened by the storm.

The Chilka lake is just a few kms off the highway, so it was a good decision to stop for a short visit while driving along the way. Unfortunately, there is no signage of any sort at the small bridge where one has to get off the highway onto the service road, and take a turn under the highway to head towards the lake; and so we went past the turn a couple of times before we figured it out. Just off the highway, on the road leading to the lake is a superb dhabha. You cant miss it, because there are a lot of vehicles parked all around it. Being foodies, we decided it was wise to stop for lunch before we went boating. Had a superb local meal of fish and rice, and then went to the Lake. Here we were told that the boat ride to the mouth of the sea ( to see dolphins ) could only be done in the morning as it was a 4 hr. trip and so the best we could do was a 2 hr. trip. These trips are done in relatively small looking boats with a powerful ( or at least a very loud ) outboard motor.

Our boatman and boat on Chilka lake.

The lake is huge and its size takes you by surprise. Once you have travelled into the lake for sometime you cant see the land around you and the water is fairly choppy which is why the boats need the loud outboard motors. All the boats have long bamboo poles attached to the rudder and not the small handles one is used to seeing.

There is also a strong breeze which makes the entire experience quite pleasant. There were a few common birds like cormorants, egrets and herons, and also some others that I could not recogise.

The boatman said that if one had time for the longer ride to the mouth of the sea, one could see more birds; and so my advice to anyone considering a visit would be to do a booking at the government guesthouse so that you can go out at dawn to see the dolphins and see some migratory birds as well.  The lake itself is immense and the second largest lagoon in the world. All of 1100 sq.km and spread over 3 districts of Orissa. In peak migratory season as many as 160 species of birds travel from the Caspian Sea, Aral Sea and other remote parts of Russia, Kirghiz steppes of Mongolia, and of course from Ladakh and the Himalayas to come here making it the largest wintering ground for migratory birds on the Indian sub-continent.

Coming back to the dolphins, the Irrawaddy dolphin found here is similar to the beluga in appearance, though most closely related to the killer whale. So going on the long 4 hr boat ride seems to be a must do if you really want to get the best of Chilka lake. I would suggest gambling with the govt. guest house because of its proximity. Though we did not see the insides of the rooms, the outside were clean and painted, and the restaurant where we had tea was OK (though largely deserted). The other alternative is stay at Puri and drive to Chilka early in the morning, but unless you set out well before sun rise ( its really early on the east coast ) it would not be possible to set out on one of the first boats unless you stay at Chilka.

Line up of boats at the pier. Waiting for next morning. 

We finished our boat ride, and as we came back to the shore, I noticed the little cloth and the rope in the front of the boat and decided to take this picture.

Also took some pictures of the late afternoon sun casting its light along the shore.

Once back on ground we stopped at this artisan and got him to make a key chain for Aashna,

and then set out for Puri after having our tea at the government guest house.

There was only a little over a 100 km on towards Puri and the route takes you close to Bhubaneshwar before turning towards the coast and driving towards Pipli and on towards Puri.

The trip should have been uneventful, but unfortunately, Aunty ( the affectionate name I use for my female voiced GPS ) decided to take a short cut and ended up directing us down a road that got narrower and narrower as it got more and more crowded. Eventually, we had to concede defeat and with a couple of helpful locals clearing the people out of the way, we reversed back a short distance and then took another road which took us on to Pipli. Reaching our hotel at Puri was again a bit of an adventure. The hotel is at the end of the beach and one drives down the beach road and then turns at a right angle where the beach is curved to reach the hotel. Unfortunately for us, there was still a lot of sand that the cyclone had blown onto the beach road, and while I was not worried with my 4 wheel drive, just 300 mts from the hotel we came to a tempo that had broken down right in the middle of what was left of the road, and with steep sand dune like mounds on either side we did not attempt to navigate around it. Instead, we drove back a bit and after a few false attempts finally reached the resort from the other side. Even the back of the resort had a fair amount of sand collected on the road, and I am attaching a picture I took the next morning at the gate of the property, showing damage to the vegetation by the recent cyclone.

The next couple of days we spent at Puri, Konark, and Bhubaneshwar before we headed towards the Nature Camp , Chhotkei situated within the Satkosia Tiger Reserve in central Odissa on the next leg of our trip.