Second part of the blog -
Day Three : We made our way out and headed back to our resort. After a quick round of morning tea, we bathed, packed and got ready to checkout. We had a sumptuous breakfast of puri with aloo sabji and loaded our luggage into the car. By 10:15 AM we were on our way to Betla a drive of 94 kms. We had to first retrace our way through the ghat section (see photo)
heading downhill before hitting flat plains and then taking a left at Chatakpur to continue on our journey through Betla. The drive towards Rud was largely on flat land with some undulations with the Netarhat range of hills running to our left. The drive with the Garu range appearing in front to the North gave us goosebumps as images from the iconic film ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ flashed before our eyes. I was extremely excited about finding this remote forest rest house nest at the intersection of two rivers on our exploration today. Stopping for a tea break and to stretch our legs as the last 40 kilometres of the drive was through dense forests. We crossed the North Koel River near Garu (see photos) and our maps showed us about 32 kms to Betla from where we would head to Kechki. We stopped at one bend in the road to listen to jungle sounds and click some photos (see photo).
A word of caution after crossing the river most of the terrain runs jungles of the Palamau Tiger Reserve and should be crossed during daylight hours. We came across a water crossing at Haratu where the road is almost at the level of the jungle stream, this allows elephants to cross through. We observed there were no culverts in this section of the road wherever it crossed a jungle stream. (see photo)
As we were visiting in winter this was not an issue, but it must be risky to traverse this road during the monsoon where water is likely to overflow on to the road. The road winded through dense jungle and we kept a look out for elephants as there were signboards indicating elephant zones. After an uneventful drive we finally reached the outskirts of Betla town and crossed the gates of the Betla National Park where we were supposed to stay that night. After crossing Betla, our excitement grew many fold as we were now just 8.5 kms from the Kechki Forest Rest House, the very bungalow where Satyajit Ray had shot his iconic film ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ which translates to Days and Nights in the Forest. After Betla the road was mainly through flat open country, till we reached a forested stretch again. A little later we came to a point where the road forks into two roads, the right one leading to the Auranga bridge across the river and the left one called Kechki Sangam Road leading to the famed forest rest house. The metalled road came to an end, and we suddenly saw a bungalow on our right (see photo) while the road continued on the left leading to a bridge
across the Koel River. Time changes everything, and it was evident that the forest rest house had been renovated with structural changes as well as a boundary wall surrounding it. With our car parked outside we stepped in observing the garage beside the bungalow and the famed well which has now sadly been sealed, who can forget the iconic scenes of Rabi Ghosh (Sekhar) and Soumitra (Asim) bathing at this very spot. Moving towards the rest house bungalow we noticed multiple changes including the balconies covered by grill, in the film they were open. In the film, from the steps in front of the balcony one had a panoramic view of the meeting point of the two rivers Koel from the left and Auranga from the right. Sadly, there is a boundary wall now that covers this view, and one has to walk to the boundary wall to see the confluence of the two rivers and sand bank. Walking inside the bungalow we found the rooms and rare photographs of the shooting of the film adorning one of walls as one enters the building from the left (see photos). After clicking some videos and photos for memory we stepped out again and took a cemented path down to the riverbank. There was a Jharkhand Tourism Board sign ‘Kechki Sangam’ where the rivers meet. Sadly, this is a picnic spot and while there were no picnics in progress the place was littered with rubbish at places. I took photos of the sandbank and rivers flowing through their confluence. There are now bridges on both the Auranga river on the right and the Koel River to the left of the bungalow. My mental model suggested that the place where the famous ‘Memory Game’ was shot would be to the left of the bungalow. Tracing my steps to this spot I observed that the tree cover was much lighter now. It made me reflect on how poor we are at preserving our heritage and natural places.
It was now past 3 PM in the afternoon and in the excitement of capturing these moments for posterity we had forgotten about lunch. So, we ordered lunch at a small restaurant and decided we would head to Palamau Fort immediately after lunch. Finishing lunch by 4 PM, we drove back to Betla and then took the road for the Palamau Fort about 12 kms away. It was now already past 5 PM so we rushed inside to see the fort complex now sadly in ruins. Palamau Fort was built in the 17th century and comprises of an old fort and new fort. The fort is near the bank of Auranga river and is surrounded by jungles of the Palamau Tiger Reserve. We explored an abandoned well now covered by branches of nearby trees. There was also an underground passageway which we could not explore as it was already approaching dusk. Even, the approach road from Betla cuts across sections of jungle. Fort was rather impressive though sadly in ruin (see photos). We climbed to the upper story of
the fort and clicked photos. With the sun setting below the western horizon, we headed back to our vehicle. It was completely dark by the time we reached the gates of Betla National Park. Our accommodation was on a tree house just beside the boundary of the park. Settling into our room, we ordered some evening tea and snacks. We sat in the veranda in darkness observing the grassland in front of us where we could make out the pale green eyes of the deer grazing outside. It had been an extremely eventful action-packed day. We order dinner, though the room service was not great, but the chicken was good! Settling in for an early night, next morning we clicked some photos of the tree houses (they were actually built on elevated platforms, not really on trees). Next morning after
(images of Betla National Park from balcony of Tree house as well as images of Tree house) breakfast we checked out of Betla with the plan to head back to Ranchi by evening. As we had some time on our hands, we decided to visit the Indo Asahi Glass Factory in Bhadani Nagar near Patratu. Anindya had fond memories of visiting this place as a child, so we decided to give it a try. We left around 11 AM and it was almost a 5-hour drive to Bhadani Nagar. Enroute, we stopped for tea near Sasang. Finally, near Chandwa, the road bifurcated and we took the route that travels via Patratu Valley, a scenic drive across the hairpin bends. We stopped at Patratu Dam to click photos and then continued towards Bhadani Nagar. It was a bit confusing once we were nearby, as the factory has shut down over time. We had to ask locals to get the correct entry into the colony surrounding the factory. Anindya was emotional as he came here multiple time during summer breaks to visit his maternal uncle who was employed here at the glass factory. We clicked photos and videos, though the place was sadly in ruins. With the advent of dusk, we headed back to Ranchi to our hotel Treebo Winsome Resort in about 90 minutes. As it was the last night of our road trip, we headed to the hotel bar on the rooftop next to the pool and enjoyed a couple of drinks, which was followed by dinner. Reminiscing our journey through the last couple of days was a very enjoyable experience. The following morning, we had breakfast at the café and then checked out of the hotel around 10:30 AM. We started out on our drive back to Kolkata which included a lunch stop at a picturesque roadside dhaba, Rang Rasiya near Jamshedpur. We made a few more pitstops for tea and finally reached Kolkata around 8 PM. The exploration for hidden gems continues.
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