Deomali: A Road trip to Odisha’s roof top
Some rudimentary photography, limited driving holidays, and the elementary form of writing that I indulge in are habits that have been acquired over years while travelling to the few places that I have been too infrequently. When I first looked through the view finder of a still camera, I only realized the ease with which you can obliterate space - coercively or not.
However, once you bottle the frame, what creates the situation, does not always appear in the frame. The slowly seeping wind is missing; that weak, distant cloud melting in the horizon is missing and so is the green of the trees or the sinking road that penetrates deep into the forest but appears flat and shallow in the viewfinder. Nature and its interpretation through technology is difficult to combine and thereby portray. More so, since photography is an art and rendering of the camera a manmade process which a mix of immiscible. Hence, difficult to confine it within rules. What is correct and what isn't? Or what should be done and what shouldn't be? Should the green trees be painted yellow? Or the blue sky inverted into black? Or barely visible white clouds turned into swimming arrows? Does the photographer need to believe in the high priest or be on his own? To you all, I leave that question open.
So, in the falling evening light..with a view of recurring ridgelines from the top of Deomali, I wondered if the blue hills with mist sprays at the edges would really appear in the camera…
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The finalized itinerary resembled something like this:
· 31-Dec-21: Leave around midday from Calcutta. Stay overnight at Bhubaneswar.
· 01-Jan-22: Bhubaneswar to Chandoori Sai Guest House, Kakiriguma Village, Koraput
· 02-Jan-22: Stay at Chandoori. Visit Deomali.
· 03-Jan-22: Travel to Satkosia – Satkosia Hill View resort
· 04-Jan-22: Stay at Satkosia/Boat rides etc.
· 05-Jan-22: Return to Calcutta.
31-Dec-21: Calcutta to Bhubaneswar
An early start from the city always freshens me up. But that was not to be this time around. But since the city was in the grip of the wintry chill, the mild sunrays made the 1200 HRS start resembling a 0900 HRS one. The sight of Vidyasagar Setu and Kona Expressway are moments that convey the feeling that we are leaving the city (yet again!). So, without any breaks, we cruised along the NH 16 and on towards NH 60. A few days before our trip, BHPian neversaygbye had travelled along the same route to Vizag and from him we got to know that there were numerous diversions after Jaleswar which slows down traffic. We had booked the Presidency Hotel at Bhubaneswar for the night – and being right on the highway, it helped us in a quick entry/exit from the city – which we reached around 2030 HRS.
The first day, was not only about ‘transit’ but also about getting ‘habituated’ to travel on the highways after quite a while. After an in-room dinner and a phone conversation with gmhossain, we called it a night.
01-Jan-22: Bhubaneswar to Chandoori Sai Guest House, Kakiriguma Village, Koraput
We hadn’t trodden beyond Bhubaneswar on the NH-16 and the new year, brought with it a journey along a new road and a new destination. Off course, NH-16 is famously documented in any Calcutta – Vizag travel blog and there was no surprise element there. The morning sky around 0700 looked quite gloomy and the overcast sky (possibly fog) continued to hang on till 1000 HRS. We crossed Chilka, Gopalpur and then entered Berhampur town and finally started cruising on NH-326 – two lane, though it is, the road surface is a perfect piece of tarmac - and this is the road that I will now attempt to describe.
Hillocks and sometimes gigantic rocks jutted around here and there, dry cultivation fields, ponds, wildflowers – typical sceneries that we see around rural India. But it didn’t pull the heartstrings that often compels us to stop and imbibe the scenery.
As we were to discover later, the ghats start somewhere beyond Taptapani and they continue till Koraput and the ghats bring along with them beauty. Dark clouds had gathered in the sky, some of them crashing across the hills of Taptapani. The entire road was devoid of traffic: some stray tourist vehicles, but mostly locals on their motorbikes, a couple of buses and a few minivans. And then we came across sunflower fields in bloom. Stretches of arrow straight roads were interspersed with ghat sections. This was tribal heartland and as we went deeper the frequency of ghat roads increased.
It is to be noted that the NH-326 lacks eateries: some small shops selling tea, sweets and packaged fruit cakes – but that was all. With hunger pangs growing, we stopped at the first decent outlet for lunch. Surprisingly the place was packed with locals and hot food was served fast and its taste reminded us that we were cruising close to the Odisha-Andhra border.
Apart from the food, the other thing that was hot was the weather. The car, in the almost 30 mins in the sun was baked hot. Its difficult to think what summers would be in these places. When we were 50 kms away from Kakiriguma village we entered a mountain sanctuary that reminded me of Chilpi Ghati of Madhya Pradesh. Steep climbs followed by downhills descents continued till the end of our journey.
The sun at 4 PM, had become mild. Long shadows extended everywhere, children were playing cricket in the scanty plain lands, heavy duty trucks were seen sauntering along steep descents and with our destination being a short 5 kms away we stopped for a cup of tea at a road side shack. It made me realize that being welcomed for a cup of tea with such love is something that only our country can gift you.
And we rolled into Chandoori Sai Guest house at 1630 HRS, with the sun casting its orange glow, we felt that we entered a different world. Momentarily the sights and sounds of the outside world seemed to have been shut out. A much needed hot shower and coffee later, as we strolled through the soft grass, imbibing the beauty of the place…we sat on the balcony and watched the stars rise in the sky…and along with the night, came an unprecedented chill..Dinner was vegetarian – freshly baked pizzas, steamed beans in garlic and apple pie. In a remote tribal village, located on a 3000 ft valley floor, that feeling was priceless!
02-Jan-22: To Deomali
A 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep and we woke up next morning fresh and relaxed just like how a holiday should be.
A cup of steaming coffee later, I think its now time to say how we discovered this place is another story.
A few years back, while I was going through a thread on bcmtouring, I came across Deomali, Orissa’s highest peak, motorable for most of the way. The ‘highest altitude’ was an ‘extreme’ to capture tourists but what struck me more was the breath taking landscape, the tribal villages, the solitude. Those pictures stayed in the mind for a long time.
By the end of December 2021, with nothing really decided, the pictures came back. The next, I remembered was searching for a place to stay – something that wasn’t barebones – and good for the family. Googling maps we came across this place “Chandoori Sai”. Initially we were skeptical if this place existed in TripAdvisor, I nevertheless went ahead and searched. And lo, what we found was a 5 star rated property by more than a hundred travellers.
The story goes that an Australian, Leon Mahoney, used to frequent India for business. And it required him to travel along India’s roads for long. And then, while cruising along the rural roads of Vizag, found this place, which he felt was ‘his home’ and never returned to Australia. He took the tribals along, and built a guest house, its architecture is totally in sync with the tribal ethos. Word of mouth and some excellent reviews in foreign journals made it popular..
The dew, on which we walked in the morning, vanished as the sun rays beamed on the courtyard. Breakfast was homemade bread, peanut butter, coffee omelettes and poached eggs. We packed our lunch for the day and drove up to Deomali, which took us 1.5 hrs. The road that moves up and down, cuts through valleys, meadows, cultivation.. there are a few steep switchbacks, till the shoulder. But after that the mountain has mellowed down into a plain land, which has been cut by the metalled road. The view -is one to be appreciated. The road, doesn’t go to the peak. For that you need to trek. Overlooking the valley, we had a small picnic with the packed lunch and some freshly brewed tea..
However, the litter on Deomali top, is indeed worrying. Plastics, bottles, picnic plates – I don’t know if we will be able to preserve the sanctity of the place.
We reached our guesthouse just as darkness fell For dinner, we had roasted chicken, caramel custard and roasted potatoes – simple flavours that will stay along for a long time. I spent quite a while shooting star trails and then called it a night.
03-Jan-22: Chandoori Sai Guest House, Koraput to Satkosia
Two days at Chandoori is definitely not sufficient to soak in the place. You need at least three. The day, you reach in the evening, the second may be go for ‘sightseeing’ and on the third explore the local village and the tribal markets or just spend an idle afternoon sitting on the long verandas. Leon told us that the best time to visit is the monsoon - may be we can give it a shot sometime in the future..
We commenced our journey around 9 in the morning, a journey of almost 400 kms. We retraced quite some distance along the NH-326 and then we turned off to a Major District Road – where the surface wasn’t good for 30 kms …this stretch was hilly with hardly anyone in sight. It connected us to a State Highway, and then on it was an uneventful drive. We had an excellent lunch at a hotel in Surada – dominated by Bengali tourists, who were on their way to Daringbadi.
We had booked the Satkosia Hill View Resort for our stay at Satkosia, since the Govt properties were not available. We reached the resort at 7 in the evening. After exchanging pleasantries with the owner, we were shown our room.
The initial vibe of the resort made us remember our stay (a few years back) at Chamong Chaibari resort which was preceded by a stay at Sinclairs Kalimpong. Right when we entered Chamong Chaibari – may be it was the foggy air or the cold reception of the manager shocked us momentarily and that feeling lingers with us even today. And here we had the same feeling. That ‘specialness’ of Chandoori Sai, the cool and relaxed vibe of it had disappeared to be replaced by the so run of the mill experience. It wasn’t any bad or negative, but just it felt so dull for us. And the food - evening snacks are restricted to Pakodas or Dinner is Egg/Fish/Chicken thalis –enforced that feeling even more.
04-Jan-22: Around Satkosia
The activities at Satkosia are the boat rides along the river gorge. But it was only after our breakfast that we came to know that boat rides were out of bounds due to crocodile census from 1st Jan to 7th Jan .This news certainly hit us hard. The hotel owner did suggest us to visit a few dams in the vicinity – but that wasn’t the purpose of our visit..and hence utterly disappointing.
So, in the afternoon, we went to a spot in the shade of the trees and cooked up lunch.
05-Jan-22: Return to Calcutta
We commenced around 0800 HRS in the morning from Satkosia. Didn’t have a proper breakfast stop – except for some tea. There are certain narrow and poor stretches in the outskirts of Cuttack but that’s only a blip on the entire distance. Back on NH-16, we continued our home run – punctuated by a ‘Chenna Pora’ stop.
We were back in the city by 7 in the evening and packed Biryani from Zeeshan. Reached home around 8. Around 8, Saikat called me up asking, if we were home and I told him, we have just reached. And then he presented me some ‘jhola gur’ that he had bought from his ‘native’ place. The gur was excellent and its sweetness rounded off our journey.
The pristine feelings of Chandoori Sai, we carried along for a number of days after our trip ended – my son, especially wants to go there soon and I believe a monsoonal visit remains due!