Dakshin Mahayatra

There are always two emotions associated with the last leg on a month-long road trip. One is of relief and elation, with a familiar bed to roll onto at the end of the day. The other is a feeling of "Oh ho, over, is it?". We pushed off at 7.15 am from a cloudy Keonjhar, at 19 degC. Our car had been washed by a hotel staff, and was purring happily along. But NH43 upto WB border at Behregora - boy of boy! Simply horrible! Panna had started the morning with a backache which steadily got worse. I tried driving slowly. I tried dribbling. I tried cursing under my breath. Nothing worked. Reminded me of Alfred Noys's famous poem The Highwayman : "The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas." (Only 'tossed' is relevant here; the rest doesn't match - whatever). After Beheregora, where WB started, the tarmac had a continuous smooth finish. We were blessed with very pleasant weather for the dr...

I would have loved to have said "The day dawned bright and clear", but it didn't. Though not raining, the sky was like grey slate and the lake in front of our Bison Block in Debrigarh Nature Camp was still heaving with one-foot swells.  We gave up on our hopes of seeing a sunrise. The morning would probably be a staid departure after breakfast. I was laying out my clothes and Panna was at the fag-end of her bath, when our door went "knock, knock". Boat ride at Debrigarh (8.00 am) "Saab, boat ride? Leaving in 5 minutes". It was our buggy driver who had arrived to shuttle us to the dock, and - tension of tensions - four ladies were already sitting inside! Panna got ready in record time, including eyeliner and lipstick, and we jumped onto the running board, hair flying (or would have, if I had not been wearing a skull-cap). The Hirakud dam has a huge reservoir, 734 sq km of it! One can hardly see the other side. Mahanadi flowing in...