Toranmal – the hidden hillstation

The third in the series This is what you do if you have one class each day just ahead of a hectic week. Toranmal (our pics here) had been in my mind ever since my neighbour told me about their trip last year. The famed Google does not give you much info for a “Indore to Toranmal” search. Every site assumes Toranmal is meant for people from Maharashtra. I am left with the Badwani (MP) and the Nandurbar (Maharashtra) district maps to make a best guess of the route. This would be my first cab trip here. We talk to a few cab operators here none of which were sure about the route. Finally we fix one operator to pick the 8 of us on campus at 4am on a Sunday. Two possible obstacles – 1. a World Cup semi 2. Saturday party fever. I choose to skip both whereas the rest choose to postpone their sleep to the time when we travel on the Qualis. We had asked the cabwallah to send us a driver who is well-versed with the route.

Alarmed at 3.30, I have a quick bath and am ready by 4am. The red-themed party is still going on in the wee hours of the morning. Our cab is there by 4.20 am and we are off by 4.30. What punctuality! The driver did not know the route. Our best instincts at map reading had told us that our next stop had to be Badwani – the last district in MP. We thought of finding our way from there. We sped on NH3 past the Ghat sections after Mhow. We cross the Narmada at Khalghat. It has been a journey of leg pulling and great fun. One of my friends points to us the portion of the river which parts to form a map of India though I could not see it much. Soon after, we part off the NH to take the SH to the district HQ Badwani. The SHs are sometimes much better than the NHs, at least in MP. We reach Badwani at 7.30am, happy to cover a distance of 150km in 3 hours. Time to have the aloo parathas packed from our night canteen.

We get the shock of the day. The friendly folks there tell us we had come to the wrong place. There is no motorable road to Toranmal. We could walk to Toranmal for a distance of 20km. Khetia is the town to go and we would have another 150km to go through not so good roads. We retrace our route and go to Khetia (10am) – the last point in MP, going an extra distance of 50km. Soon after we cross the borders and we are in Shiv Sena territory. Further ahead on the Khetia to Shahada road, we see a road to the right and a signboard saying 40km to Toranmal. We are greatly relieved. On the sides of the road, we see banana fields and other crops. About 10km down, we hit the Shahada to Toranmal SH2. Kabu wonders if we have enough petrol in the Qualis. This brings fresh bouts of laughter in the cab. The last 25km stretch is entirely Ghat section including the picteresque ‘Saat Paira’ or the seven bends of the road. We are enthralled during the climb. The sight of mist-filled mountains allures our senses. Mid-way we see a stunning View Point.

We go further ahead, see the Kala Pani board not the waterfall and the Saat Paira board too. We make haste, having lost time in going around. The beautiful Yashwant Lake comes in our view very soon. Somehow, this place reminds me a lot of Munnar. Toranmal is much more unspoilt than Munnar. On the way we also see the temples of the place and the Lotus Pond. Local kids try to sell us lotus buds. Our next stop is the Sita Khai which has scenic valleys and cliffs. The strong guys have a go hearing their echoes here. We see a stream and gather around it. We find our way to the decent Toranmal restaurant at one edge of the lake. We order our food. We had two guys who can speak Marathi and they converse at ease. As our food gets ready, we go to the highest View Point Khadki Point. This point has panoramic views of the valley and the board lists the Narmada among other places that can be seen from there. The donkey snap comes out well. The tribal huts look like cute match-boxes from up above.

We proceed to the restaurant and have our food. It is time to go boating at the lake. The only boats they have are pedal ones and our legs get some hard work. We get tired very soon and do not use our one-hour quota. We had a target to start our return trip by 3.30pm. But this excessive pedal exercise advances our plans and we return by 2.45pm. On the way back, we stop at the Machindra Nath cave pathway. Learning that we have to walk about 1.5km to reach the cave, we turn back. As is often the case, our return journey is quick. We reach Sendhwa on NH3 which has an ICICI Bank branch (yippee). From there, Indore is about 150km away. The return trip takes just about 5.45 hours as against the 7 hours we spent on travel in the morning.

Info:
Toranmal is about 260km from Indore. From Sendhwa on NH3 (Bombay side) [150km], proceed to Khetia [60km] and Toranmal is about 50km away. Like every hill station, it has an ubiquitous lake (boating too), seasonal waterfalls, a cave, innumerable view points and delightful walking meadows. It remains hidden from the public view partly because it is so far from civilisation and there are other popular spots like Mahabaleshwar, Lonavala, … There is no mobile network here yet. There are few hotels and fewer people. We regretted making such a short trip. Ideally we should spend at least a whole day walking around. The Maharashtra tourism website identifies it as a trekkers’ paradise. The weather, they say, is pleasant all year round though I feel the monsoons are the perfect times to adore the place. In short, a real getaway