Pench National Park: An impeccable place to walk down the memory lanes of our childhood days from the famous story ‘The Jungle Book’. Pench National Park is located in the districts of Seoni and Chhindwara, in the heart of India, Madhya Pradesh. Named after the pristine River Pence which flows through the park, Pench National Park is one of the most popular wildlife reserves in India. Sprawling over a massive area of 758 sq km, Pench National Park has a rich wildlife which proffers visitors an opportunity to indulge into one of the finest wildlife experiences in India.
In 2019 February, me and my husband were searching for weekend gateways from Hyderabad. We did not want a common beach holiday. And finally we decided on Pench to be our destination. We also wanted to cover few more places on the way to Pench like the Dhuandhar Waterfalls and Marble Rocks of the River Narmada. We usually prefer flights over trains to go to the places because of our time constraints but without spending too much on the flight tickets though. And to my surprise I found out that Jabalpur is the nearest airport to Dhuandhar Falls with a distance of only 33kms which can be covered in an hour. The flight tickets cost us around INR 3000/- per person. I Googled up car agencies in Jabalpur and called up nearly 10 agencies after reading the reviews. I finally booked a cab, after a lot of price negotiations.
I have written down in details about the way we planned our journey to Pench from Hyderabad.
We had an early morning flight to Jabalpur. We reached Jabalpur around 7am in the morning. It was a 2 hours flight from Hyderabad. After arriving we had to wait for some time for our cab to arrive.
Cab Details: I have booked a cab which took us to our Pench Resort from the Jabalpur Airport covering a distance of around 210kms. The cab agency also included the Jabalpur city tour for us within the same price. They provided us the Innova car. There were neither any restrictions on the kilometers or the travel time. So all of those we got for INR 5k.
The Jabalpur Airport is very small and has absolutely no food options. You must carry some dry food for breakfast if you are traveling by an early morning flight.
We started our journey and it was indeed a beautiful one from the airport to the city center. After reaching the city center we took a break for tea and breakfast in a local shop. Our cab driver drove us through the city roads to visit the Balancing Rock. It is really a wonderful creation of the nature. On the way he told us so much about the history of the city and also showed us many local places. He was really a great guide. After we saw the Balancing Rock we went straight to the Dhuandhar Falls.
We reached Dhuandhar Falls around 9:30 am. From the car parking we had to walk down the alleys to reach the waterfalls. The falls was such an amazing one. It was huge and magnificent. It is situated on the Narmada river. The Narmada River, making its way through the world-famous Marble Rocks, narrows down and then plunges into this Dhuandhar Waterfalls.
Cable Car Service at Dhuandhar Waterfalls: We can access the Dhuandhar Waterfalls from the east bank as well as from the west bank of Narmada River. To see the other side of Dhuandhar Waterfalls we have to take the Cable Car Service or Rope-way facility available at Bhedaghat. The rope-way is available at the entrance gate of Bhedaghat. The rope-way facility starts from the eastern bank of Narmada River, crosses the river and then drops at the west bank of the River. The rope-way at Dhuandhar Waterfalls charges INR 95/- per person for one complete trip. From 1:30 P.M to 2:00 P.M it's not available as the staff goes for lunch. We did not opt for the the rope-way as we had some time constraints.
After spending some quality time there we went to the Marble Rocks. It just took us 15 mins to reach there by our cab. The Marble Rocks is an area along the Narmada river, creating a beautiful gorge of about 8 km in length. Row boats are available for a guided tour in the Narmada River along the marble rocks. There are 2 options to book the row boats. 1. Sharing 2. Whole boat. Total 6 people can take the ride at once. In that case the per person charge is INR 150. We booked a whole boat as we did not want to go on sharing with other people. We bargained the price to INR 700/-. The ride was pretty awesome and it was remarkably calm and quiet. The cool breeze of the Narmada River made us feel enchanting. It was a 45mins ride. The boat timings are from 9am to 5pm in winters and 9am to 6pm in summers.
By the time we finished the boat ride it was lunch time. I took lunch packed from home. So we had lunch in our cab itself while gazing the beauty of the scenery around us. We were finally on our way to Pench.
The road conditions were good apart from a small area where the construction of new roads were going on. Around 5pm we reached Pench. I have booked Tathastu Resort for our 2 days stay in Pench. It was a wonderful resort with luxurious facilities. I always had a desire to stay in a tree house when we go for a jungle safari. And we had the opportunity to stay in one, in our resort. Both the tree house and the facilities were marvelous.
Both of us were so happy when we saw our tree house. After taking rest for some time we went for a small evening walk inside our resort campus. The resort was full of greenery and also had an indoor temperature maintained swimming pool. It also had provision for sports like badminton, archery, dart throw, carrom, chess, table tennis, cricket, burma bridge and cycling. There were spa services as well. We had early dinner and came back to our room as the temperature was getting very chilly outside. The next morning we had the jungle safari scheduled.
We woke up very early in the morning and got ready for our Jungle Safari. We have booked our Safari through the Khursapar gate which is 10kms from our resort. So we started from our resort around 5am. The morning safari timing is 6:30 am to 11am. I have booked the Safari from our resort a month before. You can book the Safari from the Madhya Pradesh tourism site too. Here is the website: https://forest.mponline.gov.in/eBrochure/eBrochureDetails.aspx?parkid=4
For Safari booking, 2 options are there: Full Vehicle and Single Seat. A safari can accommodate 6 people in total apart from the driver and the guide. So if you want to share the Safari with other people go for single seat booking otherwise you can book the whole vehicle. We booked the whole vehicle. The cost of the safari was INR 5775/-
Another icing on the cake is, if a safari is booked from the resort where you are staying, then the safari will give you a pick up from the resort itself. Otherwise you need to reach the particular gate for which you have made the reservation for. The safari will be assigned to you from the gate entrance.
Forest Gates: Usually the reserve forests have minimum 4 to 5 gates through which the gypsies enter. All the gypsies are not allowed to enter through one gate. In this way the vehicles will be scattered and also cause less vibration on the ground which disturbs the animals in the forest. Another important information regarding forest gate is, entry through some gates are extremely lucky for spotting the big cat, though the sighting from the gates changes from time to time. Its better to contact the resort for a recommendation before booking the safari gate.
As complimentary breakfast was included in our room package, the resort made sure to pack our breakfast and keep it in the gypsy before we left. We reached the Khursapar gate around 5:30am.
Our wait was ultimately over and exactly at 6:30 am the safari started. The forest was beautiful, but had a temperature which was chilling cold. The cold wind was very harsh. It was extremely cold during park rounds so carry adequate woolen clothing during the winters and mostly for the early morning safaris. We were given a breakfast break around 9am. The breakfast spread on the Gypsy bonnet was an outstanding experience. The Safaris are allowed to stop only at a single point where a small shop for breakfast and washrooms are available. Other than that it is strictly prohibited for the safaris to stop any where else.
Inside the forest we saw birds of different species, monkeys, deers, wild bores, beer, and of course the mighty tiger. Mobile camera is not a good option in jungle safaris. Usually the animals and birds will be far away from us and to capture them in pictures though, we need a high zoom camera. I have taken the pictures with our Sony DSC-HX400V which is having 50X zoom.
The forest was mystical and spooky. We had a wonderful time in the safari. Our guide was very friendly. Usually binoculars will not be provided by the guides. But our guide had it. We needed it to see the animals and birds properly. It is good if you can carry a pair of binoculars. Our safari ended at 11 am and we were dropped off at the resort.
In the evening we indulged ourselves into different kind of activities available at the resort which I have already mentioned before.
The next day we checked out of the resort after lunch and took a cab to the Nagpur airport. The road to the airport is fantastic. We reached the airport within 2 hours. We took our flight to Hyderabad and returned home.