Madai – a safari in the Satpuras

A junior recommends this charming treasure near Pachmarhi, the only hillstation of MP and we are glad to have gone there during our biking expedition. It is that away-from-the-crowd the-road-less-taken type tourist spot. The name is Madai (pics here on Fotki), a resthouse run by the MP forest department in the Satpura tiger reserve. We book our rooms at the Bison lodge in Pachmarhi (bookings have to be done here or at Hoshangabad). We take a diversion on the Pachmarhi-Hoshangabad highway to reach the other side of the Madai resthouse. A boat crosses the Tawa dam reservoir, taking us to the simple rooms there.

Deer welcome us at the resthouse and playfully stroll along us. Just one more foreigner stays in another room and goes on a tiger count with the big officer during the night. How we would have loved to go on a night ride in the park! (Un)luckily, Airtel and Reliance signals are plenty here unlike Pachmarhi and so we are able to speak to our lady love. But it would have been ideal to have had them in this romantic idyll. Post a few experiments, the moon is caught in its natural beauty like this.There are few words to describe the joy of sitting near a bonfire surrounded by deer with moonlight soothing us. There is no electricity in the resthouse, which adds to the charm. Having hot food in such a blissful setting is again incredible. The night passes peacefully, though we occasionally hear sounds from the wild. After all, the tigers and the bears are not far.

The day starts early just like any national park and we are off on a jeep safari at 7am. We spot loads of deer (black buck and sambhar) and some wild boar too. We only see some pugmarks of a leopard. We come to a green meadow where we are delighted to watch our national birds running away. Some bison are also happy to pose for our trigger-happy friend. As we come to the end of our trip, we decide to go on an elephant ride. This is my second such thing in a month’s time, the first having been in Panna during the Khajuraho trip. But my friend has a natural instinct to take pictures and he comes with one (with the shadows) I like most. Soon after this, we hit the road for Indore, having had one of the most unique experiences ever of a lifetime. We will be glad to go back more often!

School is over :)

Today is my last day at Bschool and as most of you know, I’ll be in Bangalore in a couple of months. I have travelled quite a lot over the last two years, especially the last 6 months both in and out of India. Apart from that, it has been intentionally light learning. I am just hoping to have a nice time in my next stage of life! 🙂

PS: I must thank Shruthi for her mention on Blogbharti and Mridula for the duplicate mention (removed now).

PPS: Please expect less regular posts for some time.