Location :
Popularly known as “Kashmir of Odisha”, Darigbadi is situated at an altitude of 3000 ft in Kandhamal District of Udisha. Why is it compared to Kashmir? Localites claim that about 500 years ago this hilltop used to receive snowfall. Whether it was a truth or a grave vine, it did not affect us or will affect anyone from enjoying the beauty of nature out in this place. The hill station is also gifted with natural bounties such as pine jungles, Coffee gardens and beautiful valleys. This place is just 200 km away from Phulbani and 40 kms away from Balliguda.

Daringbadi being the ultimate destination, the team’s plan was to cover maximum parts and terrains of Odisha.

About Odisha in a glimpse :
It is surrounded by the states of West Bengal to the north-east, Jharkhand to the north, Chhattisgarh to the west and north-west, and Andhra Pradesh to the south and south-east. Odisha has 485 kilometres (301 mi) of coastline along the Bay of Bengalon its east, from Balasore to Ganjam .

The ancient kingdom of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in 261 BCE resulting in the Kalinga War, coincides with the borders of modern-day Odisha. [11] The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April 1936, as a province in British India, and consisted predominantly of Oriya-speaking regions. [11] April 1 is celebrated as Odisha Day.[12] The region is also known as Utkala and is mentioned in India’s national anthem, “Jana Gana Mana“.[13] Cuttack was made the capital of the region by Anantavarman Chodaganga in c. 1135, [14] after which the city was used as the capital by many rulers, through the British era, until 1848, when Bhubaneswar replaced it as the capital.

The state is full of temples which is popular all around the country and hence known as TEMPLE STATE as well. But this time our team has decided to unfold the unknown areas of Odisha which is full of natural beauties such as Falls, Rivers, Hills, Sea, Lakes etc. Hence the team planned the route from Kolkata -> Keonjhar -> Angul -> Daringbadi -> Paradeep -> Chandipur -> Back to Kolkata. And we also touched the Lake of Chilka on the way from Daringbadi to Paradeep. Oh, by the way I am Subhadip and I will take you through our 7 days tour of November trip to Daringbari.

About the Team :
The team is very small in nature with efficient Avijit in the lead, me (Subhadip) in the middle and and Sourav at the tail.

Day : 1 :
We started at 5:30 am in the morning from my flat at Garia. it was still dark outside.That day our plan was to cover a distance of around 460 KM from Garia, Kolkata to keonjhar via Bhadrak. So we filled our tanks to the minimum to reach to balasore which is the border district of West Bengal and Odisha. The reason being petrol at Bengal is ₹69 per litre whereas in Odisha it is ₹60 per litre. So we opted for the economic option.

Once the tanks filled up, our engines started to roar. We left Kolkata through 2nd Hooghly bridge and reached NH6. We continued our journey through NH 6 and it is a breeze to ride on that road as the road is wide and smooth. We switched ourselves into power cruising mode. Thanks to NHAI(national highway authority of India) for such a beautiful roads, we rode through Kolaghat till

Kharagpur on the NH6 (approx 140km). And then we bid goodbye to NH6 and got into AH45 till Bhadrak. We maintained a speed of 80 to 90 kmph on our speedo (though the displayed speed is more than the actual speed of the vehicle) as we planned to reach our destination well before the sunset. But considering the road condition, it was again a breeze to ride at such high speeds and other vehicles were also passing at a high speeds on the butter smooth road. Hence we could keep the momentum to reach our destination within time.

It was our first group tour from our club RWMC (In my case, it is my first bike tour ever and hopefully not the last one), but the group showed a great bonding amongst each other throughout the tour. Be it at extremely bad roads or heavenly roads like the NH6, the team members were always there to ride alongside at every situation.

We left NH6 and took AH45/NH60 at around 8 am in the morning. We had our breakfast at around 8:25 AM at Debaloke A1 dhaba, which is just 15 mnts after our start on AH45/NH60, the food quality was too good. Adding to that the weather was just perfect on that chilly morning. We enjoyed the hot puri sabji and aloo ka paratha to its every bit. We were so delighted that we planned to stop here again for lunch or snacks break on the way back to Kolkata. We took some snaps and after a halt of around 30 mnts we started again through AH45 at 9 o’clock. And this time we planned to continue the run till Bhadrak. But we had to refuel our machines when we reached Balasore. And we were happy that the petrol price was just ₹60.18 per litre.

We passed balasore and reached Bhadrak at around 1 o’clock. No complaints about the road again, even the bikes were happily cruising ahead. But we had to leave AH45 there at Bhadrak and we took the pocket root which directs us directly to Keonjhar. So with the help of some local truck drivers we confirmed the entry point from where we need to take the root to keonjhar(SH53). It was only 1 pm so we planned to break for lunch after a little ahead at the place called Anandapur. Riding that road was a mixed feeling. The road SH53 was good at some places and broken most of the places (because it is on a construction mode, and the road has two lanes, one is functional and the other is getting constructed and hopefully by 1 year the road will be fully operational and will be having a better road to ride on by then) and the places the road is good it is filled with bumps everywhere. After Anandapur, the SH53 splits into 3 sections and every route goes to Keonjhar ultimately. We opted to stay on the SH53 main road. But it was time to fill up our biological fuel tanks and we first stopped at a sweet shop. We ate sweets at the shop called Calcutta Sweets. Though the shop owner is not from Kolkata and neither the sweets were as tasty as the likes of the sweets from Kolkata, we managed to get the delight out of the name of the shop. And then we rode for 3 km more and stopped aside a hotel (hotel gunjan) and had our lunch. It was around 2:50 pm we ordered our lunch, veg thaali and paneer butter masala and shahee paneer. The food was very tasty, but we did not expect we had to pay so much for our luscious tongues. So we paid the bills quickly and left for our quest once again. The root was not in its best condition as some road construction work was going on, but it was OK for us as we were well ahead of our scheduled time. So we broke for some photo shoot of the natural beauty

of Odisha in the midway. This route was mostly covered with woods and rural part of the state and we kept on being delighted by the scenic beauties on our way. It was 4:30 pm, we took the last stop before reaching keonjhar. The Sun was going down and in the deeming light, the surrounding was so majestic that I felt like riding on thisroad in this situation forever. But alas, the road ended as we reached Keonjhar. Everyone was very tired. We booked a double room at Hotel India and parked our mean machines at the hotel’s parking spot. (Just to say a few things about the hotel, it has a shaded parking lot which was very helpful for us to keep our bikes away from the open sky under the hotel’s own shaded parking space. We booked a non AC double bedroom at Rs 650 plus Rs 150 extra for an extra person. The room was very cozy with the facility of hot water in the bathroom which was helpful in this winter season. The hotel has its own restaurant and they served food in the room as well.)

After freshen up, me and Sourav came out of the room to explore the city a little bit. Keonjhar or now named as Kendujhar is the northern district of Odisha,surrounded by land. The city is bisected by NH215(the route through which we enteredinto Keonjhar) in exactly 2 natural parts. One side is mainly the plane land beside Anandapur and the other side is the hill areas comprised of some of the highest mountains of Odisha such as Gandhamardan , Machakandana , Gonasika , Thakurani . The river Baitarani also originates from the Gonasika hills and gives birth to some waterfalls such as Badaghagra, San ghagra etc.

Returning from the half an hour tour of the city we jumped into the blankets after completing the dinner. And then I could not recollect a thing happened in the room till the next morning.

Day : 2 :
Day 2 was the sight seeing of Keonjhar and reaching to angul as we wanted to move forward towards daringbari. The places to be visited at Keonjhar was badaghagra waterfalls, sanghagra waterfalls and khanda dhara waterfalls.

I was the first to come out of sleep and quickly rapping things up to start early for the day. We got ready quickly and checked out from the hotel. When we were tying our bags onto our bikes, Sourav discovered that his engine oil is leaking and soon became the first priority of the team to mend it.

So we had to cover lots of ground on that day but first it was urgent to repair Sourav’s bike which was leaking engine oil. We came out of the hotel and it was very early in the morning ticking 7:30 am on the clock. Out on the highway, most of the garages were closed. Somehow we found a trucking garage which was partly open. So we ran into the garage and the mechanic was just awake. We asked him for solution (ohh, by the way the problem was with the Mobil chamber. It has a cap which is bolted with the main engine by 3 long but thin screws. Out of that three one was missing. And while riding when the bike jerks, mobil used to leak from that hole. We intended to lodge an FIR of that missing screw, but on request of the local people we barred from that.). He immediately came out with a couple of screws of different width and length. But none of them fitted the bike. Again he goes inside and kept on his searching and after a while he comes out with a long bolt, tries to fit it in. After trying for a while he declares “thread kete gecche” (means the thread inside the engine body is rubbed off and hence unable to hold the screw). Without any solution we decide that we will go to the TVS service center which opens at around 9 am. So we carry on our ride towards Badaghagra waterfalls. 5 km from the city and then a left turn on a small road. This road directly goes till the birth place of baitarani river. the place is full of scenic beauty. The river flows towards the highway and the first pit stop is the Badaghagra waterfalls. It used to flow in such a high intensity that later on a dam has been built to control the flow. Its a 200 ft high falls and also a turbine has been set there to generate electricity though at a small capacity. We visited the quarter below and met Mr Radha Madhob Soren, the turbine station in charge. He speaks very good Bengali as well.

After that, team moved towards San ghagra waterfalls which is on the way back to Keonjhar city. Govt has refurbished the place and made a park out of it. Its a nice place to be at and though the waterfalls is not so high, they have presented the place in such a way it will feel and look nice. From the waterfalls the river flows through the hills and its a nice view from the park. Govt has put some entry fee of Rs 15 each but its worth viewing the place. The only negative side is that the people come and litter here and there ruining and polluting the place, but as Rolling Wheels member we were conscious we littered all the chips packet and bottles in the litter bin kept outside the park.

The time we left Sanghagra falls, it was already 10 AM. So we came back to Keonjhar city TVS service center as we needed to mend Sourav’s Darling. When team reached the service center, it was open. But on approaching them about the problem they said, on Monday all the service center s are closed. Some bike delivery came that’s why they had to open the shop. So we got lucky that day. Since the inner thread was damaged, they could only hammer a bolt inside. Avijit also called our club engineer Mr Hafiz who also came up with the same solution( by taking a bolt and hammering the lose end so that it spreads on its width a little bit only and then tighten it inside the whole as a temporary solution)

Now we turned back towards Angul. We took a snacks break there. But Avijit told us not to wait there for long and to have the snacks a little ahead. The reason is still a mystery which is not yet revealed. So we left that village and moved a little ahead and halted near a river bank. The weather was so soothing that it wasn’t feeling like 1 PM on the clock. And it was only 170 km left till Angul, a step forward towards daringbari. While we were having our snacks, a gentle wind came and threw my helmet out of the bike’s seat. It fell down to the road and the glass got scratched. It was not a problem when I am riding in daylight but at night, the lights coming from the cars coming from the other side is quite distracting. Anyways we completed our snack break and continue our journey towards Angul again. From Suakati, we took NH6 and it directs us till Pallahara. But in a short while Avijit said that we will break for lunch as it is almost 2 o’clock on the watch. So we got into a dhaba on NH6. After completion of lunch Avijit declares that he will be taking a power nap, minimum for 30 mints. There wasn’t anyone else to have lunch at that time and no khatia was there either. So Avijit jumps onto a table at the corner place and starts snoring. The owner was also very reluctant about this thing happening. So I too got hold of a chair and loosened up a bit to get some quick nap and so did Sourav. After taking the nap, we started our ride again towards Angul. It was around 3:30 pm on the clock so we moved faster. But soon it was a hill road though one of the longest ghats in our whole journey. I was feeling kind of riding on the hills of Darjeeling. The road was wide enough to pass two trucks alongside. And too many trucks were passing by. Our team reached Pallahara at around 4 pm. We took some tea and left NH6 aside. We took NH200 from there. It was getting dark by that time and Avijit who was leading our team declares that he is facing difficulties with his bike’s light as it was not too strong in that pitch dark road to see the things at a distance. We then changed our positions by taking Sourav and his darling in front and Avijit at the tail. soon we crossed the river brahmani and the dam and reached towards the Angul city. Before reaching there about 15 km back the road was shadowed by dust and we could hardly see anything. It was like a dusty mist all around the road.

We reached Angul at 7 pm and we called the day off by checking into hotel Durga, Angul.

The Angul District is surrounded by Cuttack & Dhenkanal on the east, Sambalpur & Deogarh on the west, Sundargarh & Keonjhar on the north and Phulbani on the south. Covering an area of 6232 sq.km,

Day : 3 :
Next day we had to reach Doringbari which was around 260 km from hotel Durga, Angul where we were staying. The road to daringbari was through forests and hills mostly and due to which team didn’t want to ride through them at night or at least after sunset. Considering the sunset timing at that time which was quite early within 4:45 pm we scheduled an early start from our hotel at around 6 pm in the morning. We left the hotel and again our machines started to roar through the roads of Odisha. The roads were an absolute pleasure to ride if one can consider the bumps. The first light of the rising sun was coming out through the hills and it was an amazing view at the horizon. we poured more fuel into the bike tank and geared up once again to run through the heart throbbing picture perfect greeneries and butter smooth roads. We reached Redhakhol at around 8:30 am, had our breakfast there at a roadside shop. Every fod was tasted and nothing was left untouched by the team. With full tank and full stomach the team was ready to eat miles after miles without any stop. So munching miles began once again. Soon we crossed Mahanadi river and quickly Budh and then Puranakatak. And soon we reached phulbani forest and hills area. The forest was so dense and the road condition was . it was only 11 am and hence we broke for some memories to get captured. Phulbani is a hill town of Udisha surrounded by many natural bounties. And one of the biggest falls Putudi falls is just 15 kms away from this place where the road till the falls are yet to be constructed and best reached through feet only.
 

We took a tea break at phulbani and again started our journey towards daringbari. It was ticking 11:45 am on the clock and we were at ease on our schedule. It was hardly 100 km away from our destination and we didn’t want to miss the enjoyment while riding on these hilly roads through the wods. so we restricted our speedos within 40 – 50 kmph. We reached daringbari by 13:45 PM at daringbari deers eco home.

There is no network available for Vodafone users at Daringbari. The only connectivity was through Avijit’s airtel mobile which was not a smartphone. so we sent the status of our journey that we have reached daringbari to our family and friends from the only alive Avijit’s phone.

The people at the resort made us some lunch though it was not informed by us to them. so we freshen up ourselves, had our lunch, took some rest and then went out to visit the local scenarios and spots. We visited DEERS eco park and the coffee plantation garden in the afternoon. It was mildly chilly out there. And in the evening we did not have any mood to leave the coffee plantation garden as spending time in that garden was very relaxing. But as the darkness came gradually we had to head back to our resort.

Once we reached our resort we grabbed three chairs and started our adda under the open sky with hot tea in hand. On demand the waiter also provided some muri and pakora and we were very delighted. We met Mr Anil Swain, the owner of the resort and he guided us with the maps how to visit places next day. Mr Anil Swain, the hotel owner is a very wise and helpful person. He helped us with each and every information and things to be required during our next day sight seeing. He also helped us with the route maps and directions of one or two places which can be visited on our 4th days sightseeing. Then having our dinner we rushed to our bed and very soon the nasal sound competition began.

Day : 4 :

Good morning to the day 4. I got up first and thankfully it was still dark outside. The weather was not too cold but it was chilly outside on that dawn of November. It was hardly 5:30 am on the clock.

The plan for the day was to cover the surrounding locations of Daringbadi. From Daringbadi to Taptapani through the hill road and through Adava and Mohana, then from Taptapani to Chandragiri Jirang Monestry and the way of returning back through Darbhangi Dam(or Harbhangi Dam) and Sonepur and few other places.

So, having our baths and morning tea we set out for our quest of the day. This route was basically not from google map and simple drawing on a white paper with a rough estimate of distances and possible checkpoints. We started at around 6:30 am. The wind was blowing heavily and the fog was directly hitting the helmet glass . I kept my helmet lid open as it was getting hazy very often. After the forest roads soon we got the hill roads and oh yes the hairpin bends again. The road condition was not so good on today’s tour except the stretch from Chandragiri to Mohana and a few other places in between. There was hardly any person or vehicles on the road when we started our tour in that morning. This day though we had to travel hardly 260km but the number of places to visit was high, hence we had to plan the time accordingly. We reached Adava at around 8:30 am. Had our breakfast there where we met 2 people from Bengal who were selling baby chickens there on a cycle.

Adava is a small suburban town and the nearest rail station is berhampur. After breakfast we started our journey towards Taptapani again. And the same route is headed towards Berhampur. As I said earlier also the road construction work was going on in there, we hardly got them in good condition. After almost 30 km of bumpy ride we reached Taptapani.

Taptapani is basically a religious place having myths about hotspring coming from the inside. The name “Taptapani” also suggests that. “Tapta” means hot and “pani” means water. The hot water from the natural spring of Taptapani are attributed with medicinal properties and can be bathed in at the pond created next to the hot spring.The hot spring is situated at the eastern slope of the eastern ghat at a crest of the hill with in the lush green forest having wide range of flora and fauna.

When we reached there we found out there was some festival going on and due to which lots of people or I can say tourists came in on that occasion. We enriched ourselves with the culture enjoyed a couple of activities like a small act by little children, the Puja and all. Then moving from that location we started our journey towards Chandragiri’s jirrang monestry.

It was around 30 km away from Taptapani, the small village is surrounded by hills. We reached jirang monestry at around 11:30 am. There is a temple outside which is partly built and construction work was going on. It felt like we were in some village in Tibet, not in Orissa. And then we walked into the monestry which was surrounded by approximately 15 to 20 houses which was all occupied by Tibetans. None of us could guess that in such a small place a monestry of that size can actually exist. They say that it is the 2nd largest Buddhist monastery in whole Asia and oh yes it is quite big in size. Generally the place is quiet and calm. But as the day was a holiday due to Gurunanak’s birthday there was quite a lot of visitors and tourists on that day in the monestry. Taking tickets from the counter we got into the monestry and it has a large temple just ahead and hostels/residential on both the sides. In the temple there is a big Gautam budh idol almost 10 ft high. After taking some snaps we moved out of the monastery at around 12:15 pm. Next destination was Darbhangi dam(or Harbhangi Dam) through mohana and adava on the way back to daringbari.

The stretch from Chandragiri to Mohana was one of the nicest and smoothest roads we got on our entire journey. After flying on that road for 19 km we reached Mohana and soon we reached Adava. It was approximately 20 km from Adava to Darbhangi dam(or Harbhangi Dam). The dam is spread over 40 km of area and touched 4 districts. Hills are all around this dam and there is also a small irrigation department bungalow situated there by the switch gate which is also available for booking by tourists for stay. We checked with the local guard for the process of booking the bungalow which is from the 2 no office(irrigation dept) situated at Adava. And the bungalow can only be booked by physically visiting that particular office. We took a snacks break there. It was 1:30 pm. After darbhangi we started again towards daringbari. Still it was almost 60 km ride till daringbari and we had two more places to visit. The very next stop was Dasingbari waterfalls though it was almost 40 km from darbhangi dam(or Harbhangi Dam).

The mighty road was always testing our skills of riding and capability of our bikes. But the bikes kept us surprising all over the ride. We reached Dasingbari waterfalls and we could not find anybody except us in that place. We were so tired that we were in the dilemma to go to the bottom of the falls by going down through the steep stairs or not. While the thought was waiving in our head, two people came on a bike and got down through the stairs. I managed to gather all my strength and went down through the stairs while Avijit and Sourav chose to stay up with the bikes. I went all the way down at the bottom of the falls. It’s a nice place, the falls is hardly 150 ft high but the nature is supported by big big trees all around it. After the waterfalls it was our last spot for the day which is Sonepur.

Sonepur is a village situated at the bottom of the hills and basically a valley area. It was around 4:15 pm then when we reached Sonepur. The way down from the hill was full of hill descend hair pin bends and roads full with small stones lying everywhere over it. And this was the worst road we got in our entire tour. We were riding very cautiously. Suddenly I heard our signature horn behind me and I couldn’t see Sourav behind me as he was doing the tail in our riding formation. So I stopped my bike instantly and went back leaving my bike there and saw Sourav lying on the ground with his darling on himself. I helped him to get up and soon Avijit talso came back on his bike. It was just a few scratches on the ride and rider, but nothing serious. So with more caution we proceed downwards to the valley and it was amazing to ride through the village. We visited the Shiv mandir near to the village. They say that if we wish to do something good and pray for that to the God with sacred heart then we will succeed in our destiny for sure. The valley is covered with crops and majority of the villagers are having cattle. It’s a poor village and did not have electricity. All the houses are made of mud. But they were very friendly in nature. None of them are as educated to understand even Hindi language but they tried to understand whatever we were trying to convey and helped us with proper directions to find out the Mandir. So spending for half an hour we moved again towards our hotel again at Daringbari which was still 20 km away from that place almost. It was 4:30 pm then and almost dark. We were at no hurry as it was hardly an hour’s journey left till our hotel so we enjoyed the setting sun while travelling through the woods and hills. We reach our hotel at around 6 o’clock in the evening. When we reached the hotel we met with some other tourists from Bengal as well and when they got to know that we were travelling all the way on our motorcycle, they got quite a bit astonished. But this is who we are and prefer most of all as our touring companion. So after freshen up we spent the rest of the evening at the lawn with a couple of cups of tea and chatting with each other. We went to bed early as the next day we had to cover a big distance all the way till Paradeep. So we bid goodbye to the wonderful day and started our nasal sound competition again.

Day : 5 :

Again a foggy good morning at Daringbari deers eco home on the day 5 of our RW November trip to Daringbari. This day we were to travel till Paradeep. The route was through Sorada, Asika, Chilka, Bhubaneswar and then till Paradeep. As every morning I got up first dragging Sourav and Avijit from their deep sleep. The hotel people helped us with a bucket full of hot water as it was the only hotel in our trip which did not have geyser in the bathroom but they never gave us a chance to complain regarding their hospitality. We were also served with tea after we got ready. It was 6:30 am. We left the hotel and set out for Paradeep.

Road till Sorada was mostly through woods and hills. Though the road was not at its best condition but we had been able to get most of the enjoyment out of the road riding through the hill descend hairpin bends. We reached Sorada at around 9:15 am where we had our breakfast. At Odisha, food habit is like Bengal. The main difference is upma wada which is one of the top selling food item over there. After a halt of 30 mins we started again towards Asika which is around 40 km away from Sorada. It took almost 1 hour to reach till Asika. And then from Asika we started again towards Bhubaneswar. According to our plan our target time to reach Bhubaneswar was by 3 pm and then just 90 km till Paradeep. From Asika, we took the route through khalikat and then took NH5. Where we took NH5, it was the coast area of Chilka and just 20 km away the place called Balugaon is one point where one can actually feel the air of Chilka. We spent some time at the coast of Chilka. Cherishing that mesmerizing view we again got back on our route towards Bhubaneshwar. It was almost 100 km away till Bhubaneshwar and we thought to cover the distance till Bhubaneshwar without any further break. So with max speed we kept on munching miles on NH5. We reached Bhubaneshwar (capital of Odisha) at around 3:00 pm and somehow we managed to outrun the city traffic, thanks to the flyover through the city taking travelers in and out of the city. We stopped there for our lunch at the hotel. It was a restless journey all day long and everyone was feeling a bit tired. We ordered heavy lunch with 5 plates of hundi kadai mutton and countless numbers of butter nun. We took a halt of almost 1 and a half hours there. Once we got a bit relaxed we started again our journey towards Paradeep. We filled up our fuel tanks till neck.

It was Kartik Puja going on in the city and at every corner we found puja going on. This puja is called Kartik Purnima. We could hardly recognize the idol as the pet of Lord Kartik in the idol was a horse and surprisingly the pet of the Ashur was a dragon. At every crossing we found some procession going on of that idol which was lord Kartik. So on NH5, from the chouki we turned right towards the Paradeep expressway. This 90 km stretch of road was fully made of slabs and it was great to ride on that road as it was smooth and at the same time traction was great. It was getting dark and we had to slow down as no street lights were there on the expressway. So we had to depend on our headlight alone and as Avijit was leading we slowed down a bit more as the dual headlamps of his Fazer were generating very poor light. Again we had to call for our lighthouse effect directly from the eden gardens (Sourav’s Darling proved it’s power on every night rides we had in our tour with it’s auxiliary lights). We reached Paradeep at around 7 pm and directly went to Panthanivas as that was the first option came into our mind. And luckily we got a room too. So we stationed ourselves in Panthanivas and after getting ourselves cleaned up we went out to have a look of the city. It was almost 9 pm at night, and most of the roads were empty but we could visit a few places like the stadium, Municipality office, Port trust office, Port club and lots of govt quarters. And there was a fair going on in the city and at 10 o’clock even it was full with people from various places. We rode back to our hotel, completed our dinner and went to sleep… a deep sleep was waiting after the long ride through different kind of terrains on that whole day. Good night everyone.

Day : 6 :

6th day of our stay at Panthanivas hotel, Paradeep was merely slower than the other days of our tour. The morning was lazy as we got up at around 7 o’clock in the morning. Most of the places or visiting spots in Paradeep comes to life after 9 am in the morning. Morning breakfast was served in the dining hall and we dived onto it without any delay. But still it was only 8 am on the clock. So we went to the beach right in front of our hotel on bikes to test our bikes’ sea legs. The beach was unlike the one at Digha or Mandarmani as it is filled with dry sands. Tyres were getting stuck and spinning heavily on the sand as it was not able to get any traction out there. So we had to literally drag our bikes out of the sand. This exercise solved two purposes, one was our morning workouts and secondly some time got passed instead sitting idle at hotel waiting for the marine aquarium and harbour ports to get open. We went to gohirmotha beach but couldn’t see any olive ridley turtles. We reached the mela ground which was hardly 100 metres away from our hotel. We kept our bikes at the mela ground and went to the beach on foot. Many a fishermen were fishing near the beach with their giant sized fishing nets. By this time the port ride got open.

So from the fair ground, we went back to gate no 4 of the port. The rule is no outsiders can go inside the port. Army outpost is situated at the gate. Only authorized persons are allowed inside. But there is a bus tour inside the port for visitors from 8:30 am to 10:30 am and one need to get a ticket from the counter outside the gate for the ride. So we parked our bikes outside and got 3 tickets and board on the bus. The bus goes for a round trip inside by the coal storage and the ports where big ships are stationed for loading or unloading. It was a completely different experience for me as I had never been to these kind of places before. But couldn’t click any photo as usage of camera or mobile is strictly prohibited there. So with all the memories in our heart we got out of the port. It was already 9:30 am. And then we visited the marina aquarium which was just 100 meter away from our stay at Panthanivas, Paradeep. The place opens at 9:00 am. This is again a place where one needs to buy tickets and gets to see the aquarium. It’s a small aquarium but still we got to see so many kinds of fishes for the first time. Then we went to the light house. It opens at 10 o’clock. Everyone was so reluctant to get to the top after watching the height that we just took some snaps from the outside. And with that we completed our sightseeing at Paradeep. It’s a nice place. We started our ride towards Chandipur then. But on the way decided to visit Panchligeshwar before that which is a few km prior to Chandipur. So we got back to our business (riding on the NH) of munching miles.

From AH45 it is 18 km away at the bottom of hills. It was a long way uphill which we had to climb by walking through some steep stairs. Avijit surrendered at the very first and again it is me the chosen representative asked to climb till the top. I managed to convince Sourav to climb along with me with his broken leg. Its nice and challenging at the same time as its written on the stairs how many stairs one has climbed. And we climbed 250 stairs till the top. It was an achievement for Sourav obviously to climb that high on his own broken legs. A thin water flow is coming down through the rocks and under the water there were 5 rocks which implied the God Shiva. We had to climb at the cliff and reach through the water towards that whole where the rocks are situated. Sourav didn’t go inside the temple premises as he had to remove his shoes outside. It was only me who went inside and tried to reach the place but couldn’t as if had to reach further I would have been all wet. So I had to quit at last. We returned back to the parking place where we parked our bikes. And next stop was Chandipur. It was hardly 30 km away from the AH45 where this subroute was meeting AH. We moved a little forward and saw Hotel Gajanana. It was pretty late for lunch. So we halted there for our evening tiffin as it was already 4:30 pm on the clock. We had roti, mixed veg and a chicken item. The food was delicious. Now with our stomachs full we headed towards Chandipur. It was already dark and again we were in the mode of night riding. We reached Chandipur Panthanivas at around 6 pm. We did not even think of any other hotel as Panthanivas was the best option available. We checked in the best room available, sea facing AC luxury deluxe room with complementary breakfast. Somehow I was not getting network in my phone to call to my home (I want to mention one important thing that Avijit was the person responsible to remind me of calling to my home which I used to forget very often and I want to thank him for doing the job very well). The receptionist mentioned that the DRDO Chandipur (whose office is just a few lanes away from our stay) had done some missile testing on that day and they jammed all the signals for a time period which is a very usual thing out there. But we couldn’t verify whether this was truth or just some publicity. But soon I found my mobile’s network up.

We were very tired and jumped onto the bed without any delay. We even ordered the dinner in our room. I fell into sleep before the dinner arrived. They woke me up when the dinner came. I could hold myself up for just a couple of minutes to complete my dinner and soon got back to my dream again. And next morning none of us could remember who actually paid for the dinner last night.

Day : 17 :

Good morning to the last day of our November Daringbari trip at Chandipur Panthanivas hotel or rather I should say a lazy gud morning. Even then I was the first one to get up at 6:30 am in the morning. I went to the beach just in front of our hotel expecting the colossal sound of water at the beach getting slammed on the rocks of the beach. But to my surprise the beach was completely dry and up to a long distance there was no sign of water and it seemed that it is a dry sea but the wet sand made me feel that recently there was water. To clear the confusion I asked one of the local villagers who was on a hurry to go on an important work to do in the morning. Not getting any proper reply I understood my mistake and asked some other people who was not on a hurry, he said that this beach is one of its kind in India where the water goes into the sea upto 788 km away at the time of reverse tide and comes back within half an hour. So one who does not know the fact get into big trouble if he thinks that there is no water and goes deep into the sea through the dry beach and suddenly find himself in deep water in between. So I moved alongside the beach towards the mohana where the buribalam river meets the sea. One local informed me it is just 2/3 km away from our hotel if I go through the beach. He also informed me that he is also going towards it as he is into some fishing business. I walked through the beach and saw the junction where buribalam river meets bay of Bengal. I returned to our hotel at around 7:30 am. By that time Sourav and Avijit woke up. They got ready and went for the morning breakfast and I also got myself ready for check out. After breakfast we checked out from the hotel and went to the beach to spend some time. We were wearing our club jerseys on that last day of our ride. Suddenly a person approached us asking that whether we are from the same Rolling Wheels Motorcycle Club that does different kind adventure bike touring all over India… He said that his wife is the editor in the newspaper “ei somay” and she saw the club name at the back of our jerseys and remembered different articles published about our club in her newspaper. She also told us how she came to know about all these as she specifically looks after this section of the paper. And we felt proud of being a member of this club that has created recognition for itself through the passing years by its enthusiastic team members who set benchmarks in motorcycle tours.

Then again a curious gentleman asked us where are we heading and are we riding all the way on bikes. This person is the in charge of NHAI development projects for that area and in on an inspection project that day. He told us about different riding rules on the highway when riding on two wheels and asked us if we can spread the awareness into all the people we are attached with about the riding rules on NHAI and how accidents can be prevented on NHAI.

After that we set off for Kolkata. But before that we visited the fish market at Chandipur where all fishing boats get unloaded. It is such a huge market. We left Chandipur at around 10:30 am. Destination was Kolkata. We took AH45 and by 12 o’clock we reached near the Odisha-bengal border. As per our previous plan we stopped at A1 dhaba near kharagpur for our lunch break. We had some mouthful of lunch and slept for some time on the khatias kept just outside of the dhaba. At 2 pm we started again on ah45 and then nh6. Next stop was kolaghat sher e punjab at 3:30 pm. We had our tea break there and got mesmerized with the evening tea there. Without wasting much time we again start towards our last leg of riding on that tour from Kolkaghat till Kolkata. As instructed by our club’s senior members we slowed down to 50 KMPH on the way back towards home though we did not want to end our tour on that day. But we had to end our tour this time so that we can go to some other tour to some other places some other time. We reach my home at around 6 pm in the evening.

The annual cultural programme was taking place in front of our complex at Garia and the front door was blocked by stage and chairs. Somehow the local dada s helped us getting the bikes parked into the garage where my family was also waiting for us as we informed them about our arrival time when we reached near Garia. And with this we end our RW November trip to Daringbari on 28th November 2015.

Thanks to Rolling Wheels and all the members once again for arranging, managing and helping us every way for this memorable and delightful tour to Daringbari.