Blog # 19 : KIRIBURU-MOHANPUR-KEONJHAR Roadtrip, the Places less Travelled.

 KIRIBURU- MOHANPUR- KEONJHAR Roadtrip...The Places less Travelled....

'CHOTANAGPUR Plateau' is considered the 'Wonder Womb' of Mother India for the invaluable and bountiful treasures it stores underground. Above the surface, the abundance of streams and waterfalls, the densest of forests, the dome shaped hillocks and the simplest of tribes living richest of cultures also make it one of the most preferable places to visit. But for all these years owing to socio-political unrest many travel enthusiasts kept it on the backburner. The conflict has settled down a lot now and as if the pandemic of 2020 has opened the doors for tourism in this part of the country as more and more people into travelling are preferring their own bio-bubble instead of public transport like trains and flights.

Kiriburu- Meghataburu are twin census towns atop adjacent two hills bordering Odisha and Jharkhand. The dense forest of Saranda, known for its best quality 'Sal trees' covers the area. Enriched with under surface natural resources, mainly the iron-ore, several mining towns have developed post independence in this area. i.e. Kiriburu is one of them, not very far from more well known towns of Noamundi, Barbil etc. Not far from West Bengal also, we decided to go for a road trip to this place late in December 2020.

As we were late in planning the trip and also for the fact that the tourism just began to cripple back to normalcy post lock down, the search for an ideal stay was difficult. The best place to stay in Kiriburu is the SAIL( Steel Authority of India) Guest house 'Meghalaya'. But its impossible to book a room unless one having a relative working in SAIL. The other options are little and inaccessible. So our best bet was to stay in the town Barbil, 25 odd kms away. Finding the hotel there nonetheless was a task and somehow we managed to book 3 rooms in a not so bad Hotel 'Padma INN, Barbil'.

We rented an Ertiga and started out around 6.30 am on 25th December. Barbil was approx. 350 km from our hometown. After about 2 and half hours drive, before we reached Ghatsila we stopped at an abandoned Aerodrome of British era, just beside the NH at a place called Dhalbhumgarh. I forgot to mention that this time we have 3 little travel enthusiasts with us, Our Daughter Kiki, Saumya and Shrabani's daughter Olee and Paramita and Rana Da's 4 yrs old Raka. They were feeling hungry and we had to stop somewhere and what could be a better place than a deserted aerodrome amidst a forest. We also had our share of breakfast there.
After Ghatsila we left the NH and took left turn and crossed the Subarnarekha River over the Galudih barrage. The state highway in Jharkhand was in fantastic shape as expected. The route from here passed over Jadugora, Hata and took us to Chaibasa, the West Singhbhum district head quarter. From Chaibasa we took the route to Noamundi through Jagannathpur. As soon as we arrived  Noamundi the roads started to crumble down, loaded trucks lined up the roads and it was already half past 2 pm. We were very hungry and frantically googling a nearby stop over for lunch. Failing to find a decent one, finally we had our lunch inside the TATA's Noamundi Township. 

We reached Barbil around 5 pm. The cold evening was spent with hot tea and snacks. The next morning we would be visiting Kiriburu and exploring Saranda forest. Those who are going to visit these kind of places must be prepared to face lots of dust, haze and bad roads, sometimes no roads! Don't be surprised if you find yourself stranded in the middle of the road completely blinded by the dust. If you pull down your side windows then expect yourself to be stained with dusty-red shade.

The journey to Kiriburu was a decent uphill drive. The town is small but neatly laid down. It looked more like a garrison town where its inhabitants reside inside small buildings in colonies. There is nothing much to explore except for the Sunset view point in one of the corner of the town. After deciding to land there later at sunset we proceeded to explore the Saranda forest for the rest of the day.

Saranda forest is quite a dense forest, well known for its high quality SAL wood and also for providing safe heaven for a diverse flora and fauna. We were strictly instructed not to deviate our route from the State Highway into the Jungle. Once notorious for  Naxalite safe home, driving through the deepest part of jungle was precarious but exciting. Sightings of the scattered dwellings here and there kept us alive and running. The State Highway was in very good shape and we reached upto Monoharpur, the nearest census town in about 2 hours. As the sun descended far west we decided to return as to drive inside forest after dark would be a bad idea.

we somehow managed to return to sunset point in Kiriburu at the stroke of sunset but found the place to be super crowded. After taking few snapshots we came downhill to Barbil. Next day we were to explore Keonjhar.

Next day's plan did not go well. We were to visit sanaghagra, goumukha and other important places. Bad road conditions and frequent diversions due to ongoing roadworks prevented us from visiting most places. However we managed to reach 'Khandadhar fall' which is a must visit. We had to return via same roads, so without much thinking we called it a day. Much of Keonjhar remained unexplored. We pledge to visit it someday. Next morning at the stroke of sunrise we were on our way back to home. Leaving with some stunning sunrise view from Barbil.

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