From Sagar to Gwalior via Chanderi - 13th day of our 14 days long trip through east coast of India || Noida to Rameshwaram
The 13th day of our 14-day-long roadtrip from Noida to Rameshwaram and back via Eastern Ghats was a bad road day, but there were some amazing stops that managed to cheer us up enroute. From Sagar there are two historical sites that can be managed on the way to Chanderi - Eran and Khimalsa. However as per Google, when we measured the distance vs the ETA, it appeared that the roads might be bad, so we decided to head straight to Chanderi. On the hindsight, this appears to be a really wise decision. We seemed to have avoided losing a lot of time to bad roads. However the challenges were far from over.
The point where Google said that the local road would merge into the highway was closed and the road was under construction. Luckily a pan masala and chai shop was open there even in those wee hours and the man pointed us to a "road" through the village that would take us to the highway. In the dark, this road appeared really scary. It was a muddy street that at times appeared to end in a dead end but as we drove toward it we found a small cut next to some house so we had to navigate our car through it. It was a miracle how we managed to do that. Then we reached a plain area from where there did not seem to be a way out. In the distance however, we could see some trucks parked and some men were moving around with torches in their hands.
I walked up to them and asked for directions. They pointed us toward a small tricky-looking track that was headed towards a bushy area. It did not look promising but we were out of options, so we drove toward that area and a path suddenly appeared. Remember it was still dark! And this is where the off-roading got serious. There was an uneven climb with lose soil and our MG Hector barely managed to pull through it. Two trucks were headed our way and they patiently parked their vehicles at a distance while we maneuvered our car through this stretch.
Throughout this trip we have had really good luck in terms of the people we met. They helped when we asked for help, they gave us space when we needed it, and they just let us be when we did things we had never done before.
Anyway, finally we merged into the highway and our next stop would be Chanderi. On the way we came across a temporary bridge across our old friend Betwa River. It was a beautiful sight. Then we headed off to the Chanderi fort. The roads throughout were really good.
All the monuments at Chanderi - Chanderi Fort, Khooni Darwaza, Kati Pahari, Koshak Mahal, Badal Mahal, Jama Masjid etc - were really well-maintained and overall the town had a great vibe. We also checked out some Chanderi Silk Sarees. After this amazing stop, we headed on to Gwalior and discovered that the town, especially around the fort was really noisy. It was full of honking traffic and because of some road closures we got really late for the fort. We reached at 4:30PM whereas the fort closes at 5:30 PM. We explored the Mansingh Palace and the Fort at lightning speed and clicked some good photographs for memories.
After this we headed down to find a hotel. The room here was nice but the parking was a tricky underground one. So much so that it impacted my sleep that night. I kept on strategizing how to drive our car out of it. The curves were sharp and the incline steep.
%20to%20see%20the%20Danish%20fort%20in%20Tamilnadu%20state%20of%20India-3.jpg "Do you know about the 'Danish' Fort in India which is located at a beautiful location round the coast of Bay of Bengal?")
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