Today we were going to Debrigarh. Never heard of the place? Geographically, it is close to Hirakud Dam, which is again close to Sambalpur, a town in Orissa on the Mumbai-Kolkata highway. But our interest was not just in its lat and long. Debrigarh has a Wildlife Sanctuary, and that has accommodations inside, called D Nature Park (by D I meant Debrigarh, the abbreviation saved some space, I hope).
Being about 250 km from Bhawanipatna, we left at 7.15 am and hoped to reach D by lunchtime. All the meals were included in the tariff, because they felt that guests would not like to travel 10 km to a restaurant, even if a Michelin Star, and Swiggy might charge too much hazard pay. Therefore, we could not miss the free lunch.
Our travel today was mostly on NHs -NH26 and NH53, which was a relief after yesterday's off-roading. GPS still played the hanky by yanking me through a plurality of rurality in the last 50 kms. Since we were approaching the sanctuary from the south, and not the east, ie not from the more popular Sambalpur side, we were awarded the more scenic but less tarmacked route. It had been cloudy throughout, and as we hit the off-roads, it started drizzling . The village roads soon became a red gooey mess. The Punch stoically waded through, till the last approach along the Hirakud reservoir brought us back to civilisation.
We did have a couple of small stops on the way.
Breakfast at Saintala (9.00 am)
When we leave early, breakfast, that all-important omen of how the day will unfold, is usually from a roadside stall selling idlis and dosas. It's not that we chose Saintala today; rather, it chose us. This was the first active foodstall that we could find. Lovely vadas with standard idlis.
Sailashree Palace at Balangir (10.00 am)
Balangir is a decent-sized town on the way (same pop as Puri), which was further vindicated by them sporting a full-fledged palace. King Rajendra Narayan Singh, a 'king of the district', which probably meant local overlord, built this palace. The gate was half open, so we parked our car outside and walked inside. The structure was still solid and pretty impressive, but signs of neglect were evident. The gardens were overgrown. The doors were boarded up. Very likely that none of the royal lineage lived here now, although the servant quarters at the back seemed to have been used as party offices of the Patnaik clan. The palace might do pretty well as a heritage hotel, I thought. Who knows - it might be on the verge of being sold.
Debrigarh Nature Camp (1.30 pm)
Reaching the wildlife sanctuary was an expedition, as mentioned earlier, what with the drizzles and the stepmotherly treatment our GPS was dishing out to us. We were worried about the drizzle. Luckily, we had booked no safaris, but still, the animals that we hoped would wander around our huts - snorting, scuffing the ground, or snarling as the case may be - might decide to snuggle under the covers and roast marshmallows instead.
We made our entries at the sanctuary gate and drove for 5 km inside the jungle to reach our nature camp. The sanctuary reportedly has tigers, sloth bear, leopards, chitals, gaurs, sambars, spotted deer, chowsinghas, bisons, neelgais, hyenas... and now a couple of Rays.
As usual, the drive in the wet forest was a lovely experience - so many new smells and sounds, some happy, some sinister. The camp had cottages and a block of rooms called the "Bison Block", named on the same principles of Buffalo Bill, I suppose, viz. the animal in question would be found around the Block/Bill in large numbers. While wart hogs and deer were wandering aplenty, the bison is still biding his time.
The cyclone that was wreaking havoc in Chennai has spun off a bunch of bad weather here, putting paid to the free boat ride on the huge reservoir, as well as the spectacular sunset that was usually complementary. The weather was quite chilly, 18 degC with appropriate wind chill factor. The tea, pakoras and jhaal muri at the eating area were very apt for the weather. We met a group of super-seventy travellers who were enjoying to the brim, notwithstanding aches and pains. "Build memories babba", said a smiling lady. "They are the only things that remain".
Sitting on the cane chairs on the verandah, we listened to the rustles in the darkness. They don't use floodlights here. I was told that initially there were only four cottages here. Visitors were sort of escorted into them and told not to go out alone, since the place had no protective fences and the animals were free to roam all around. THAT would have been some experience!
We walked down later for dinner, with some added protective clothing.
Tomorrow we leave for Keonjhar. Expectiing rainy weather tomorrow, since Yellow Alert has been declared here. But we are carrying our usual hazmat suits, and the weather cannot rain on our parade.
Photo credits: Panna Rashmi Ray