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 and out through its 64 sluice gates pales in comparison. We stood shivering on the rubberised floating dock (which is a new set-up nowadays, and pretty nifty), watching the launches bob up and down like Sumo wrestlers doing sit-ups. How do we board the damn thing? It was like trying to drink from an oscillating tea cup. Finally, seven of us somehow got into one launch, skipping like lambs, put on our life jackets, and the skipper (meaning the cap'n, not a lamb) headed out for a 20-min spin.
The lake felt like a sea, friends, with the wind and the waves. Siberian cranes and cormorants were doing their thing, however. We hugged the coast on the other side, hoping that the Indian Gaur might come down for a drink and then stay on for a tap-dance on the bar, but no such luck. There was an island in the middle the lake named Bat Island (because bats infest the island, I kid you not), which we warily circled, not batting an eyelid. 20 minutes passed in a blink, however, and we were back on firm land, after another game of hopscotch while disembarking.
We directly went to the "Fooding Hall", as their signboard said, and caught the breakfast as it landed from the oven. Aah!
Hirakud Dam (10.00 am)
We left Debrigarh Nature Camp around 9.30 am. The 5 km drive out of the camp presented us with a few more deer and foxes. We saw some safari jeeps returning, no joy in the faces of the visitors, and we feared the worst - they had not met a tiger, which they had been sanguine about.
Right out of the Park, the road started riding on the Hirakud dyke (friends, please don't start googling again!). Hirakud has the world's longest earthen dam (or dyke), 25 kms in length. A small portion of that houses the 64 sluices that are used to control Mahanadi's flow, and the rest simply holds the huge reservoir in place. Very impressive setup. What with the grey water and the grey sky, and hills fading from green to grey, the scene looked like one from Lord of the Rings, with Saruman about to start hurling invectives at the heavens.
We crossed the dyke and landed slap bang in the middle of Sunday picnickers, bus-loads and school-loads of them. Just for the sake of seeing the sluices, we drove up to a viewpoint, then reset out GPS for Keonjhar.
Lunch at Baitarani (2.30 pm)
I COULD say that since we had a heavy breakfast, we delayed our lunch to 2.30 pm. But the fact was, we were hunnnngreee. The NH53 and NH49 that we were travelling by today, though excellent in terms of engineering, were slightly wanting in providing adequate nourishment for the weary traveller. It was a fact that we encountered far far more goods vehicles compared to passenger vehicles, but is that a valid ground to restrict food outlets to dhabas with a charpoy and three chairs, with a waiting circle of hungry foot-tapping truckers? By 1.30, we had started looking, by 2.00 we were anxiously scouring, by 2.30 we were dejectedly descending from the Kanjipani ghats, which is a superb road by the way, both for the driver (winding, dual carriage) as well as the passenger (beautiful scenery). 'Ghama Dhaba' hove into view at the foothills, a couple of cars standing outside giving it a stamp of approval. We happily dived in, were honoured with a separate cabin, had a mutton thali (Panna) and a fish thali (I), firmly resisting the pushy hospitality of an old Oriya waiter, who was severely disappointed by our small appetites.
Bara Ghagara waterfall at Keonjhar (3.30 pm)
This was a waterfall just before our destination, viz Keonjhar town, and so, virtually unmissable. We had visited its sister Sana Ghagara on a previous visit, and today, we ticked off the box.
Accessibility to the waterfall was very easy. Once we had pushed apart the Sunday crowd far enough to click the requisite selfies, we were done. Or were we? People said, there's a dam on top dammit. Go and see. So we climbed a whole lot of stairs to reach the rim of the reservoir, and clicked the requisite selfies. This reservoir itself is named - you got it - Bada Ghagara.
Keonjhar is famous for pickles of various types, sold loose in the stalls, by weight. Panna tasted and bought mango-papad pickle, elephant-apple pickle, and date pickle (see sample pic of date pickle). Hope they don't leak in the car, else it'll be a nice pickle.
Hotel India at Keonjhar (4.30 pm)
Keonjhar (officially called Kendujhar) is a small town along NH49, which goes to Kolkata. We had booked into a grand-sounding joint, 'Hotel India', who had a very reasonable tariff, and a parking space, so what more could mahayatris on their last night out want? Except that Panna wanted mutton biriyani and I egg biriyani, both of which arrived pronto, garnished with a leeetle rice.
Tomorrow, we check out early, as it is a 350 km drive to Kolkata. Home sweet home, here we come...
Photo credits: Panna Rashmi Ray
