Pachmari is a small and charming hill-station located in a valley of Satpura ranges in the central state of India, Madhya Pradesh. It is also known from the name of "Queen of Satpuda". Our journey to this place started from Bedaghat, a small but exquisite and another must-see tourist spot in Madhya Pradesh renowned for its picturesque marble rocks standing either side of river Narmada.
There is no direct conveyance from Bedaghat to Pachmari. The only reasonable way is to reach Jabalpur station first, the main transit point located at some 18 KM from Bedaghat, and then travel a 3 hrs. (around 200 Kms.) train journey to Pipariya. Pipariya is the main stoppage point for almost all the conveyance from Bhopal to Pachmari. One can get shared jeeps and interstate buses plying between Bhopal and Pachmari from here. Shared jeep costs 40 bucks per person whereas state owned public transport buses charge 15 bucks per passenger. Its worth mentioning that apart from these two sources there is no other way to reach Pachmari from Pipariya.
It was Saturday and the only train to Pipariya in morning was Pawan Express at 0930 hours. We had a quick breakfast of samosas and tea in a small shop at Bedaghat. We had like 40 minutes to catch the train with the only available conveyance at that moment i.e. public tempos. It was impossible to reach the station on time if tempo driver, like usual, would halt and take passengers from in-between. So we haggled with him and hired the full tempo for 110 bucks which otherwise costs 15 bucks per person.
Despite the 35 minutes continuous drive we couldn't make to reach the Jabalpur station on time. The train was scheduled to depart at 0930 hours whereas we reached around 0935 hours. There was a short queue at the ticket counter. We were in hurry so I stood in the queue and my colleague went to inquire about the train. Fortunately train was late by an hour and a half due to some unknown reasons. This gave us a huge relaxation and we breathed a sigh of relief. We had enough time and we utilized it with our brunch and newspaper in railway refreshment room. Despite the re-scheduled arrival time of 1120 hours the train actually arrived the station at around 1135 hours, some 15 minutes late. It waited there for some 10 minutes before re-commencing its onward journey.
The journey was appearing to be smooth when suddenly an unexpected incident occured blaring the horn of our woes. We were traveling on general ticket as it was a short journey and getting instantenous reservation was impossible. Despite the full occupancy we managed to steal two seats for us in sleeper class. It would have hardly spent an hour when TTE came. We were taken aback when he told us that we had a general ticket which didn't allow us to travel in sleeper class. We persuaded him that it was not a deliberate act but he didn't accept it and fined us 600 bucks. We had no other option but to pay. This filled the rest of our journey with slight dismay.
The train dropped us Pipariya at 0245 hours. The first thing we did there was to seek conveyance to Pachmari. Luckily an interstate bus was standing at the bus stop just outside the station. But when we reached there we saw that it was already occupied. On inquiring we came to know that the next bus was at 1530 hours. Weather was moderately hot and it was difficult waiting for next bus with heavy baggages. As a result we decided to try our next and only option, shared jeeps. There were plenty of them at the same spot. Some of them were partially occupied and waiting for few more passengers to depart. But whoever we asked he replied the same, "We are already booked." After many unsuccessful attempts we left the hope for jeep and decided to better wait for the next bus. In between we had enough time for lunch and we left for some restaurant in vicinity.
coming soon more ...
No comments:
Post a Comment