September/October 2021 -- The Trip with purpose

I wrote about my father's passing away in a blog post in my other blog. He passed away of COVID-19 during peak of pandemic in April -2021.  Because of the peak of pandemic, he was cremated with COVID protocol on the next day after his death and we decided to hold off to other rituals for a later date and time where it might become safer for people to travel.

September 2021 during pitru paksha, we decided it was the right time to continue and complete the first set of rituals related to his passing away. After his cremation, we had kept his last remains in our garden and asthi visarjan was the first step to kick start the set of rituals that were to follow. 

Here is the travelog of the road trip that we undertook to bid final farewell to my father.

1. Day 01 -- 17 September 2021, Bengaluru to Hyderabad
2. Day 02 -- 18 September 2021, Hyderabad to Bhopal
3. Day 03 -- 19 September 2021, Rest day at Bhopal
4. Day 04 -- 20 September 2021, Official Work at Bhopal
5. Day 05 -- 21 September 2021, Lots of bureaucratic work at Bhopal
6. Day 06 -- 22 September 2021, More bureaucratic work at Bhopal
7. Day 07 -- 23 September 2021, Asthi Visarjan at Prayagraj
8. Day 08 -- 24 September 2021, Asthi Visarjan and Back
9. Day 09 -- 25 September 2021, In search of North Indian Rivers, Bhopal to Noida
10. Day 10 -- 26 September 2021, Towards Haridwar and Rishikesh
11. Day 11 -- 27 September 2021, Noida to Gwalior
12. Day 12 -- 28-September 2021, Gwalior to Orccha
13. Day 13 -- 29 September 2021, Orccha to Ujjain
14. Day 14 -- 30 September 2021, Ujjain to Omkareswar and Back
15. Day 15 -- 01-October-2021, Ujjain to Bhopal
16. Day 16 -- 02-October-2021, Dashmi Rituals
17. Day 17 -- 03-October-2021
18. Day 18 -- 04-October-2021, Terahvi Rituals
19. Day 19 -- 05-October-2021
20. Day 20 -- 06-October-2021, Bhopal to Bhedaghat
21. Day 21 -- 07-October-2021, Bhedaghat to Amarkantak
22. Day 22 -- 08-October-2021, Amarkantak to Nagpur
23. Day 23 -- 09-October-2021, Nagpur to Bengaluru

This completes the total trip. The total Toll paid was Rs. 7778. Total amount towards fuel was more than Rs. 80,000/-.

Day 23 -- 09-October-2021, Nagpur to Bengaluru

09-October-2021

This was the absolute last leg of our trip. Here is the details of our return trip.

We reached our home in Bengaluru around 2 AM. 

Day 22 -- 08-October-2021, Amarkantak to Nagpur

08-October-2021

Again we were following the college timelines, so I had time to walk around in the morning and see the places. As I mentioned in previous blog, we stayed at MP Tourism Holiday Homes. So here is a tour of the property if you wish to stay there.

After breakfast we decided to walk around the town. The first place to visit was the Narmada Kund. Here is a short video from Narmada Kund.

After spending some time in Narmada Kund, I decided to visit Kalchuri Temples which are just across the road from the Narmada Kund.

Then we just walked across the banks of the river for some time and then it was time to continue our return journey. The plan for the day was to reach Nagpur. We left checked out from the hotel and left for Nagpur.

Here is our journey.

Finally we arrived at our hotel in Nagpur. We stayed at Le Meridien in Nagpur. We find this place to be most convenient to stay. 

Day 21 -- 07-October-2021, Bhedaghat to Amarkantak

07-October-2021

Last night we arrived late in Bhedaghat and checked into MP Tourism Marble Rock Motel. Here is my review of the place.

The morning time was busy with college so I decided to trek around Bhedaghat. The MP Tourism Motel has good trails around it where one can go for a trek. Here is a video of one of my treks around the motel.

1:00 PM The online classes were over, so it was time to checkout and leave Bhedaghat. We had to reach Amarkantak by the end of the day.

3:30 PM We stopped at Ghughwa Fossil National Park primarily for a bio break. The park also seemed closed.

5:00 PM We stopped at a MP Tourism Motel at a placed called Jogi Tikariya for a cup of tea.

7:30 PM We arrived in Amarkantak and checked in at MP Tourism Holiday Homes.

Day 20 -- 06-October-2021, Bhopal to Bhedaghat

 06-October-2021

Finally we had bid our departed father adieu. All rituals complete, we had to start our return journey. A small thing still needed to be taken care off. My dad's one of the last wish was to visit Amarkantak. So I decided to return to Bengaluru via Amarkantak.

12:00 PM We could leave Bhopal due to online classes only by noon. We decided that we will not be able to reach Amarkantak in time, so we decided to make a night halt at Jabalpur. We did not want to go into the town so we decided to stop in MP tourism motel in Bhedaghat.

3:00 PM We stopped in Sagar at a family friends house for Lunch

10:00 PM We reached our hotel in Bhedaghat.

Day 15 -- 01-October-2021, Ujjain to Bhopal

 01-October-2021

11:05 AM Left Ujjain for Bhopal

2:09 PM Stopped at Sol Retreat for a cup of tea.

4:10 PM Arrived in Bhopal

Day 14 -- 30 September 2021, Ujjain to Omkareswar and Back

 30-September-2021

10:30 AM Left Ujjain towards Omkareshwar

11:00 AM Arrived in Indore

1:45 PM Arrived in Omkareswar

2:15 PM Stopped at Narmada River

2:25 PM Stopped in Hotel Gopal Midway for Lunch

4:00 PM Stopped in Balraj Retreat for refuel and beverage

6:00 PM Found near Shipra river

6:15 PM Arrived back in Ujjain.

Day 13 -- 29 September 2021, Orccha to Ujjain

 29-September-2021

Today again the college was ongoing till 12:30 PM so we were just visit local places till the time classes were on and then leave.

Please watch the video below for my review of the hotel

Please watch the video below for the walk around the Betwa river and visit to Centotaphs.

Please watch the video below for night visit to Chaturbhuj Temple

Please watch the video below for our trip to day visit to Chaturbhuj temple.

12:40 PM We checked out and left the hotel. My father in one of the wishes had left some money for a Gaushala near Orccha. So we decided to visit that place and make that donation.

Finally we left Orccha towards Ujjain

4:30 PM Stopped at K Square Highway Treat near Guna

6:30 PM Stopped at Hotel Yuvraj heavens for tea near Biaora

9:30 PM Arrived in Ujjain

Day 12 -- 28-September 2021, Gwalior to Orccha

 28-September-2021

Today the classes were till 11:20 AM. So we checked out of hotel and left towards Orccha around that time.

11:20 AM We left towards Orccha. This was going to be a short drive.

1:20 PM We arrived in MP Tourism Hotel Sheesh Mahal which is a heritage property.

5:30 PM We went walking around in Orccha. Went to the banks of Betwa River. Went to Cenotaphs.

There was a specific reason to visit Orccha. Last time I met my dad when he was alive, we wanted to visit Orccha. He always worked in Madhya Pradesh but never got to visit Orccha. I had promised him that I will take him to Orccha next time I came to meet him. Unfortunately that were to never happen. So this was my way of attempting to make his wish fulfilled.

We also visited Chaturbhuj temple which was closed for the day.

6:30 PM We came back to the hotel and retired for the night.

Day 11 -- 27 September 2021, Noida to Gwalior

 27-September-2021

As I have mentioned in one of the earlier blogs, colleges are ongoing. Even though we wanted to leave early, the classes were there till 5:30pm so we left after the classes go over.

6:00 PM Left Noida

7:50 PM Stopped on the food court on Yamuna Expressway

11:30 PM Arrived in Taj Usha Kiran Palace in Gwalior

Day 10 -- 26 September 2021, Towards Haridwar and Rishikesh

 26-September-2021

09:40 AM Left Noida towards Haridwar and Rishikesh

11:28 AM Stopped at the Starbucks for a cup of coffee

1:10 PM Being Pitru Paksha, Haridwar was very crowded. In anycase I was looking for the river. I could a place where I could reach Ganga River.

Continued towards Rishikesh. Rishikesh was also very crowded. It was impossible to even cross the town. I crossed the town and drove towards Badri Nath.

2:20 PM Stopped at Neelkanth Bridge which is 10 kilometres beyond Rishikesh on the road to Badrinath.

After spending around an hour, I left the place for Noida.

6:15 PM Refuelled the car at a Reliance Petrol Station

10:00 PM Arrived back at home in Noida.

Day 09 -- 25 September 2021, In search of North Indian Rivers, Bhopal to Noida

25-September-2021

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I had decided to take some pieces of my dad's remains to all other rivers that my dad liked to visit during his life. This leg of journey was towards that. The day's stop was Noida.

7:20 AM We left Bhopal towards Noida

10:50 AM We stopped at K Square Highway Treat just around Guna

1:40 PM We stopped at Uday Ka Dhaba near Gwalior for our Lunch

6:00 PM Entered Yamuna Expressway

6:20 PM Stopped at the Food Court on YEW

9:00 PM Arrived in Noida.

Day 8 -- 24 September 2021, Asthi Visarjan and Back

 24-September-2021

We got up early and went to the Ghat for asthi visarjan. It took couple of hours for us to do that. Then we came back to hotel and got ready for our drive back.

We had started from Allahabad without breakfast and we thought we will have breakfast in Chitrakoot.

My dad had left some money to be donated to जगद्गुरु रामभद्राचार्य दिव्यांग विश्वविद्यालय चित्रकूट उत्तर प्रदेश।  So we straight away drove to the place. When we reached there, all the officials were in a meeting. So we decided to have our breakfast in the university canteen. After our breakfast, we met the officials and gave our donation that was left by my dad to them.

We left the university at 11:25 AM. We kind of did not find any place to have our lunch. We drove towards Sagar. We found a Dhaba to have some snacks and tea.

After crossing Sagar, we arrived in Bhopal at 10:10 PM.

Day 7 -- 23 September 2021, Asthi Visarjan at Prayagraj

The first thing that we needed to do was to do asthi visarjan. We had kept the remains in our garden, it was time to take them out and take these to Prayagraj. That's what our dad wanted and our family has been doing it for years.

I also decided to take few pieces of the remains and taken them to different rivers across the country that my dad liked and submerge them there. This kind of decided the plan of this complete trip.

We started from Bhopal at around 7AM and were on our way towards Sagar enroute to  Prayagraj or Allahabad.

8:45 AM We stopped at a road side dhaba to have some tea.

9:20 AM Crossed Sagar town towards Damoh.

11:44 AM Crossed Damoh town.

2:10 PM Stopped at MP Tourism Midway Treat just after Katni town.

7:00 PM Arrived at our hotel in Allahabad. We had booked Hotel Polomax near Allahabad Railway station

9:00 PM We walked around the hotel and went to Mahatma Gandhi Road and had our Lunch at Aaoji Haryana Da Dhaba.

10:30 PM Arrived back in the hotel and retired for the day.

Day 2 -- 18 September 2021, Hyderabad to Bhopal

 18-September-2021

Even though we had decided to leave early, by the time we got ready it was already 9:30am. We left our hotel at 9:30am.

We got on to Nehru ORR and drove towards Nagpur road.

10:00 AM Stopped for fueling at Reliance petrol station just after Hyderabad. 

With completely topped up, we drove straight to Le Meridien Nagpur for our Lunch.

4:30 PM Arrived at Le Meridien Nagpur for our late Lunch.

We got out of Nagpur town, on to road towards Betul. Stopped just before Betul for Dinner.

8:25 PM Stopped at Village Vatika Restaurant near Danora village for our dinner.

As we crossed Betul and crossed Itarsi, we found many diversions and lots of cattle on the highway. Lost lots of time in that. 

1:30 AM Arrived at our home on Bhopal.

Day 1 -- 17 September 2021, Bengaluru to Hyderabad

 17-September-2021

This was a college day, with online classes going on, we could only start in afternoon. So we decided to drive up to Hyderabad and spend the night there.

12:30 PM We started from home. on outer ring road straight past Bengaluru airport towards Hyderabad.

4:30 PM We crossed past Anantpur and stopped at Cafe Coffee Day just after the toll.

9:15 PM We arrived in Hyderabad at our Hotel Oakwood Residences Kapil in Gachibowli.

We had dinner and retired for the day. Next day, we had planned on leaving just after breakfast.