Cybernet: Sat 17:40

Saturday, 08 January, 2011 17:40

Currently in Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh, IN

Yesterday I rolled down the road to be a good citizen and pick up the Park Entry Pass (R200) required to visit some of the attractions. Of course, the LP was reported as being several years out of date and that a guide was now compulsory (R315) for entry to the park. At least you get the guide all day (or the half day in my case) and I wasn't stung for taking a vehicle into the park.

We headed up towards the Duchess Falls where, on alighting, I was told there was a 3-4km up and down hike. Oh, thinks I, perhaps I shouldn't be wearing a t-shirt, shirt, thermal layer and heavy bike jacket. Never mind, we trooped off into the dense forest down the rather well worn trail.

I spotted a pug mark but it looked rather small and I suggested a leopard. No, no, a tiger. It seems full grown regular tigers are nothing like as big as full grown Royal Bengal tigers. This was maybe a quarter of the area of the one at Kaziranga. It turns out there are quite a few pug marks in the sandy parts of the tracks although they are mostly panther (leopard) marks which are roughtly a quarter the size again. That still leaves them maybe ten times the size of a housecat so you still wouldn't want a paw in the mush.

He took me along some paths that he claimed no tourist (Indian or foreign) ever went on though I was left with the impression that there were quite a lot of rangers heading along these paths. We did have to jump around some fencing designed to give the impression you shouldn't be going this way so perhaps there was an element of truth.

We eventually reached the top of the steps to the falls. 800m down, he announced. What? I reckon there might have been 800 steps giving something like a 300-400m descent to a rather subdued waterfall. You could climb over parts which weren't currently covered with water with lots of those circuler depressions caused by the water swirling rocks about whose name I forget. It would be considerably more impressive in the rainy season though I suspect they close the path as it's too dangerous to descend.

A rather sweaty and slow ascent. There were some guide types loitering about at the head of the steps and I tried to ask how you could get here without a guide in the first place but my willingness to rephrase the question waivered quite quickly. I would never have gotten a satisfactory answer.

Back up the road to the Bee Falls a rather more popular affair where they did actually write park entry pass details down and over some small falls and down to a much more impressive affair including some daring gents who stripped down and clambered under the falls. Very bold (and cold).

We then went off to another no-tourist place (round another fence) where several valleys meet. It looked a great spot for climbers.

For dinner I wandered up the road to a recommended place to find it heaving. The peculiarity of this place being a reverse-zoo: you dine inside caging with the monkeys rattling about on the outside. A boat load (roughly three coach loads) of pharmacy students on a trip out from Nagpur were tucking into the buffet and as they wandered out I became something of an zoo-curiosity.

As I headed back I noticed that the Army people who'd dug a 2cm trench across the road for a black cable (coax/fibre?) during the day had filled it with handy dirt which I thought would simply create a huge cross-road pothole and then noticed that they already had half-a-dozen cables stretching over the road immediately above. Why did they dig this trench?

Today I got up for a late breakfast (when the sun had warmed the room enough to get up) to be informed by the crowd that I had a rear puncture. I immediately went for breakfast. Suitably fed I went to assess the damage: a small nail. First puncture in 65,000km. Well done, Pachmarhi, you should be proud. Those who could speak English nodded appreciatively.

Rather than me waste my time I whipped the wheel off and lugged it 200yds up the road to a man who did the necessary with something approaching proper tools for R50 in about the same amount of time as it would have taken me to get the first expletive out.

Exhausted by my efforts I've since been snoozing and then wandered about town. There's not a lot other than a curious number of shanty sections. The (dug up) football pitch not in use as a market today but had a couple of dozen boys going through cadet force marching, press-ups etc.. The Army might well be a good get-out clause.