In November 2021, my mom and I went on a roadtrip from Delhi to MP.
In Part 1, we drove from Delhi – Gwalior – Jhansi – Orchha – Bhedaghat. Read about that journey here.
This is Part 2 of our journey.
Contents
Stay in Bhedaghat
Bhedaghat is a small town near Jabalpur set on the banks of Narmada river. What makes it an absolutely picturesque site are the adjoining high marble rocks and the ferocious Dhuadhar falls.
A very popular shooting location for Indian cinema too. Some of the movies shot here are
- The Asoka: The song ‘Raat ka nasha abhi’
- Mohenjodaro
- Jis des mein Ganga behti hai
- Bobby (climax scene)
- Mahabharat (Star plus) opening scene where Shantanu meets Satyawati
Accommodation
For accommodation, we had shortlisted 2 options: MPT, Bhedaghat which is the MP tourism property and Vrindavan Gopala resort which was in New Bhedaghat (on the other side of river Narmada – about 40 minutes by road from Bhedaghat town).
We finally zeroed in on Vrindavan Gopala resort as it seemed to have an amazing view of the Dhuadhar falls.
The drive to this resort though was quite long. Since it was on the other side of the Narmada river, we had to drive almost 40 mins extra to reach here. However, the resort was worth it.
We were quite exhausted by the time we reached this place and quite frankly were also a little frustrated with the extra 40 mins of drive. However, the view of the falls and marble rocks from this resort made it all seem worth it.
The rooms were really spacious and felt like luxury – ours even had a bath tub! And it costed us only about 3000 INR/night.
It was so good that we wanted to extend our trip by a day. Unfortunately, there was a wedding planned at the resort for the next day and we were unable to extend our stay.
With respect to sightseeing, one day in Bhedaghat is actually enough. The reason we wanted to extend the trip was to relax and just laze around by the river.
Things to do
- Dhuadhar falls: These falls can actually be viewed from Vrindavan resort itself, but the actual viewing deck is on the other side of the river. That is where you can feel the mist too.
- Cable car: Something I wasn’t expecting here at all. There is actually a cable car that takes you from Bhedaghat to new bhedaghat. The rope point is a short 2 minute walk from Vrindavan resort.
- Laze around in Narmada river: Since this town is situated at the banks of Narmada river, the river is very accessible from nearly anywhere in this town.
- Boat ride to see the marble rocks: The boating point is about 1 km away from Dhuandhar falls.
Our Stay
Given our time constraint, we made a rough plan to laze around in the river that evening, have an early dinner and an early night (since we had woken up at 4AM on that day).
The plan for the next day was to start early – take the cable car to the other side – get a closer view of the Dhuadhar falls – go for the boat ride to see the marble rocks – take the cable car back to our resort and then drive towards Bhopal which was our next destination. We were hoping to leave for Bhopal around noon.
A short 2 minute walk from the resort got us to the Narmada river front which was mostly quite shallow with pockets of gushing water. It felt like Beas minus the cold water! It was perfect to laze around in.
Perfect temperature – Perfect depth – Perfect clean water.
As per plan, we had an early dinner and got into bed at 7PM. I started researching on the route for the next day and within minutes was fast asleep.
Early to bed – early to rise.
We woke up early, just along with the sun. Had an early delicious breakfast at the resort (Poha, parathas and chai), packed our bags and loaded them in our car and reached the ropeway at around 9:00 AM only to realise that the ropeway opened at 10:30 AM.
Having already packed our bags, we killed time by walking around the river. At Dhuadhar falls (on the other side of the river from us), there was a song shooting taking place of some South Indian movie. That kept us entertained!
As soon as the ropeway opened, we were the first ones to board. The ride was economically priced at 95 INR for a two-way ticket and took about 2-3 minutes. The cable car goes gives a nice bird’s eye view of the falls.
The ride was smooth and quite picturesque.
Since we were already running late, we decided to go for the boating first and then view the Dhuadhar falls.
We decided to walk till the boating point as it was only 1 km. A 30 minute group ride here is priced at 100 Rs per head (about 15-20 people). There was also a private boat option (800 Rs), but
since we were only 2 people, we chose the group option.
The boats here are oar boats and on full moon nights, you can also boat at night. The boat ride was a decent experience with the guide giving us some trivia about bollywood shootings and some interesting stories about how some of the rocks got their shapes.
The stories were entertaining and to me it seemed like that was the only purpose of those stories!
Am not complaining though.
My mom’s feedback on the boat ride experience was quite unique though:
“It was good – seemed like the gondola ride in Venice. Only much cheaper and MUCH cleaner water with no foul smell!”
After the boating, we walked back towards Dhuandhar falls. The path from ropeway point till the falls (~200m) is a narrow path lined with numerous marble shops.
The falls were quite impressive – definitely amongst the best that I have come across in India. and got a bit wet in the dhuan (mist). Supposedly, you can get completely soaked here during the monsoons when the water level in Narmada is very high.
My mom believed this was India’s version of ‘Niagara falls’.
So in Bhedaghat, mom had a very economical Venice as well as Niagara experience!
At around 2:30PM, we took the ropeway back to our hotel and after a quick change of clothes, we prepared ourselves for the next part of our roadtrip.
Route planning for the Return Journey to Delhi
We had about 3 nights to drive back to Delhi. My only conditions were to see at least one new city and preferably take a different route to drive back.
The routes we considered were:
- Via Khajuraho
- Via Bhopal and Sanchi
- Via Bandhavgarh
- Via Panchmarhi and Hanuwantiya
- Via Kanha Tiger reserve
We finally zeroed in on Bhopal as we were not too keen on adding too many kilometers to our return journey and did not want more than 6 hours of drive on any day.
Bhedaghat to Bhopal
The delayed start for Bhedaghat sightseeing due to the ropeway timing cascaded in delaying the next part of our journey towards Bhopal.
We left at 3 PM and wanted to drive till sunset (about 3-4 hours).
There were 2 route options:
Via NH45
This was the fastest route (about 6.5 hours). The only issue with this route was that we could not find any city en route where we could halt for the night.
Via NH46
This route was slightly longer (6.5 hours) but the good part here was that Sagar seemed like a decent city for a night stop and we also identified a few possible hotels.
The issue with this route was that till Sagar, it was the same road that we took while coming to Bhedaghat.
The Drive
We finally chose NH45 and decided to stop at any highway hotel at sunset.
The highway was amazing. Seemed like a newly constructed/renovated 4-6 lane highway. It almost seemed like an expressway.
About 2 hours into the drive, our worst fears came true. Ok, not really worst – but close.
We were unable to find any remotely decent hotel for an overnight halt. We considered taking a diversion and entering a city – but we could not find any big town within a decent diversion range. Narsinghpur seemed like the only ‘big’ city but one that we had not heard of. Driving till there was no guarantee of a decent hotel.
Also, weak internet made it difficult for us to research for alternatives.
Meanwhile, we were cruising along the highway at a good 100 kmph since the road condition was really good.
Not having any alternatives – amazing road condition (with dividers) – amazing time per km; all these factors led us to take the decision of driving till Bhopal.
By taking that decision, I broke my own Women Safety tip rule: Always arrive before sunset.
In about 3 hours, our amazing road experience abruptly came to an end (along with day light). This was around Narsinghpur where most stretches seemed to be under construction with multiple diversions. For most of the part, the one-way road had been converted to a two-way road.
It had started becoming dark by then and it was also difficult to notice these diversions. The only saving grace was the fact that the traffic was less which later became quite a hindrance because it was difficult to predict these diversions which were coming up at a frequency of about every 2 km. And yes, there were no street lights too.
Since I did not know this route, we actually stopped on the side and waited for a car to cross us.
I did what I used to do under heavy fog situations. Follow the headlight of the car ahead.
This was definitely one of the riskiest drives I have ever done.
Pitch dark. No idea of the road. Lonely highway.
Thinking of the numerous possibilities of what could have gone wrong still gives me the shivers.
Since we were now on a tight schedule, we decided to not take any stops. Between extremely patchy internet, we managed to book a decent hotel in Bhopal – ‘Grand Ashirwad Beacon’ at about 2000 INR/night.
The booking gave my mom a brief sense of relief.
It was short lived though as soon after, we came across ghats with a lot of blind turns. Pitch dark with only my car’s headlights – not knowing the steepness of the ghats – not able to see the turns in advance – all this made it a very difficult and scary driving condition. For most stretch of our journey, we were the only ones on the road.
Not recommended at all. From our point of view, it was like choosing between the devil and the deep sea. We either stay in an isolated hotel (more like a lodge) on that lonely highway or we take a risk and drive till we reached a safe city (read Bhopal). We chose the latter as our safety was in our hands in that case.
The stressful stretch lasted for about 3 hours (seemed like 10 to us!). We finally reached Bhopal at 21:30 and checked into our hotel.
The only good part of the journey I guess was that none of the toll booths were operational as the highway was still under construction.
Continued in Part 3: Bhopal – Sanchi – Shivpuri – Delhi