Kiriburu Meghtaburu, two sister towns at the border of Jharkhand and Orissa. I don’t remember when and where I first heard this name but whenever I heard, I thought of going there. Something poetic has about these names. So on 6th July I decided to go there after class on my bike.
I got Sourav as my partner in crime. We two started at around 1pm from our hostel. It was raining from yesterday so we were a bit concerned about the weather but it stopped before our journey. Our hostel was at the edge of Jamshedpur town. So within a few minutes we were out of town.
We were heading towards Tirin. Wide smooth road, small hills at the horizon were welcoming us. There is something about hills that gives me energy everytime I see them. We were excited because we didn’t know anything about the place. It would be a long ride of almost 160 km so I was anxious to reach there as early possible.
We were progressing smoothly. After Tirin we took the road towards Chaibasa. And before Chaibasa we stopped for tea. All the local bakery made biscuits were hefty in size, they were tasty too. I was surprised to see people talking in bengali there. A cup of tea and a few biscuits later we started our journey again.
As we reached Kharkai river, a huge black cloud was seen at the horizon and it was a tempting photo opportunity. So we stopped on the bridge itself and took some photograph. Little we know what was coming next. Just after starting from there we had a feeling that the road was leading us towards the same rain and it was true. In no time a heavy downpour started. Even after having full rain gear, we had to stop and find a shelter.
After the rain stopped we started again in half drenched conditions. We didn’t enter Chaibasa, took the bypass and just after passing Chaibasa took a diversion from main road towards Jagannathpur. This road was a biker’s paradise. Smooth black winding road passing through fields, hills, jungles, villages with very little traffic. What more we can ask! We enjoyed every bit of this road and finally reached Jagannathpur. As this road didn’t pass through any big locality, there was no teashop. So we were thirsty for tea. We had a tea break here then took the highway to Noamundi.
We didn’t stop at Noamundi and continued towards Kiriburu. Then at Bara jamda we were disgusted. After riding on such long beautiful road , this locality was a sore in the sight. Thick layer of mud was covering the road with potholes everywhere. The mud was red because of iron ore, some places it was black in color by coal dust. We stopped at a teashop. I was surprised again to find a bengali here also. He was from Nadia district. We casually enquired about hotels in the hill top. He mentioned about a hotel called Akash hotel. Then we started the final leg of the journey.
Bad road continued for 5-10 kilometres from there. After that road became good again but was painted red by iron ore. We found a Satsang Ashram at the foothill of Kiriburu hill. It could be an option for travellers searching for place to stay. It was almost evening. We were hurrying to reach Kiriburu. After few kilometres a dense forest started after a forest check post. It was so beautiful we couldn’t help stopping there. After few photos we were steadily gaining elevation. And the curvy roads, dense forest, wet smell from forest floor all created a magical environment. Sun had set, darkness was gaining its hold fast. Then around midway dense fog filled the area.
It was not fog, it was actually cloud which we had seen from foothill adorning the hilltop. Micro size water droplets were giving us a sense of wetting but nothing was visible. We were super excited by this. Riding inside the cloud seemed like a dream world. But as we were climbing, the fog became more dense. At this moment the situation became worrisome. We couldn’t see anything beyond only 5-10 feet distance. In the bike’s headlight it seemed like a thick white wall. We continued in this way very slowly but steadily. One relief was that there were small posts with light reflecting bands on the road border which were guiding us about the turns and everything. Riding in this manner we almost reached the hilltop, then I thought if a elephant blocked our road at that time we wouldn’t be able to see that until we came into its reach. That would be the end of our journey.
Finally we reached Kiriburu. We entered a teashop and warmed up a bit by having tea. After enquiring about places to stay we found no option other than SAIL guest houses. As it was almost raining, we couldn’t use our phones for navigation. The town’s streetlight could not penetrate much in this dense fog. So it was almost dark. We started searching for the guest house by asking local people. All the roads looked same. After roaming in the dark for sometime we found one guesthouse.
Clearly it was vacant but the caretaker told us otherwise. He advised us to go to the other guest house. We reached that guest house too with great difficulty in that fog and rain but we were turned down again. Then we thought of searching for the Akash Hotel that we heard about while having tea. And only after asking a few people we found it.
As we entered there, we saw that it was a small restaurant with a converted kitchen as a room for guests. It had three beds one of which was already occupied. But we were so much relieved by seeing a bed to rest for the night. We didn’t think twice before confirming. We changed dress had a few aluparatha and rested for the night.
In the morning the weather didn’t change. It was the same drizzle with fog. We waited until 8 am but as the weather didn’t show any sign of changing we decided to start. After guzzling a cup of coffee we were on the road again. A local person guided us upto the exit of the town. Then we were on our own. As we were descending fog started to lighten up. We were enjoying the surrounding which we missed while climbing.
We found a watch tower. As we went near it, there were numerous alcohol bottles thrown everywhere and the area was covered with broken glass. We felt sorry for being the same species which destroys such beautiful place in this manner. Anyway as we climbed the top of the watch tower suddenly all the cloud cleared and we could see the distant hills and everything as if someone was waiting for us to lift the curtain. Then we started to descend again.
In the jungle we found a beautiful tree called Ghost tree, it had beautiful markings on its tree trunk. At Bara Jamda we sipped tea at the same tea shop. We were riding leisurely as we had all day to reach hostel. We were returning in the same path as previous day. We stopped at Jagannathpur again to eat something.
After that while riding we found a small rock formation of marbel rock. It looked beautiful and we stopped there to check that out. Then a huge herd of cow came to drink water and we had to leave. The rest of the way was more or less uneventful. Just before reaching Jamshedpur we washed our bike and then reached hostel.
WARNING: do not depend on my post to plan your trip to Kiriburu. It will be a disaster if you are not a bachelor with a bike like us. Go though this link to plan your family vacation.
Tge place looks really beautiful through your lens.
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