In-order to share the experience of mother nature, with no traffic, pollution, and scurrying of public where rules are decided by nature and animals The Travel & Food Blog- TNF will travel and explore the Jungle’s of India.
Do you know ??
There are a total of 514 wild life sanctuaries in India which also includes 103 National Park.
To begin with I have started my journey from my Residing town Raipur- the capital of Chhatisgarh (Rice Bowl of India). Though Chhatisgarh is the least popular state for the travellers but trust me this state can give you lot many things to explore, its wild life or nature will never fail to surprise you.
#Wild Life Sanctuary Trip 1:
BARNAWAPARA NATIONAL PARK & MUBA JUNGLE RESORT
Traffic lights & honks, High Rise Building & Public chaos of the city , suddenly you get into a place where you will find lights but of Glow Worms, not honks but sweet chirps , High Rise not buildings but trees and above all peace of mind.
Trust me if Rudyard Kipling would have been alive and visited this place he would had written his story ” The Jungle Book” again.
TNF-pedia – About the place:
Barnawapara, is small yet most famous wild life sanctuaries of Chhatisgarh, it covers an area of 245 sq km and falls in the back side of River Mahanadi in the Mahasamund district of the Chhatisgarh. It was named after the twin forest villages Bar and Nawapara. The Sanctuary was been declared in 1976 under Wild Life Protection Act.
The Sanctuary has a good number of floral species like Teak, Bamboo, Sal, Lendia, Amla, Haldu, Palash, Salai, Bija, Khair and other old trees and plants.
Among Fauna It is famous for Sloth Bear’s and Leopards, but you can also find Elephants, Spotted Deer, Sambar, Wild Dog, little mouse deer, barking deer, jungle cat, porcupine. Over 150 species of birds, squirrel, rattle tailed dongo, snakes add’s to the diversity of the jungle.
When to Go??
November to June, summers are the best season to spot the animals as forest are dry and with less ground cover but it will be really hot in the summers.
The Sanctuary remains close in monsoon(July-October)
Travel & Food Blog- TNF will recommend you to visit any time between November to March as you could see and experience a good sight of both Flora & Fauna
How to Reach the Sanctuary??
The Sanctuary is located in Mahasamund district around 127 km from the state capital Raipur,
Raipur being state capital is well connected by Roads, Rails and Airways. Various airlines listed below provided services to Raipur.
Also you can use Make my Trip fr your Travel Bookings:
One can easily hire a taxi/cab or you can drive your own car
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- Turn onto – NH 53 in Raipur for around 65 km r to reach Patewa road
- Then turn left to Sirpur Road(another historical place of Chhatisgarh), for around 40 km.
- Turn Right towards Sirpur and move ahead to 9 km to reach to the jungle.
Travel & Food – TNF Story
It was almost a week of loaded work and day to day activities, weekend called for a travel, fun, food and peace. So as of my plan I decided to Start My #Trip-1 Wild life Sanctuaries ” Barnawapara”
I started around 5 P.M , I drove my Maruti Suzuki Swift Car. It was a bright sunny day, usually the climate is very hot in Raipur. I was in quest of a cool pleasant climate. The moment I turned left to Sirpur Road, I found the change, the high rise building was replaced to green trees across both side of the roads.
As it is said ” Once Journey is also a destination”- I Enjoyed my journey- yes off course I was accompanied with my travel buddies which made it more enjoyable.
It took around 2 hours to us to reach our destination Barnawapara where we booked our resort for the stay.
Muba’s Machan:
It is chain of forest resort located in the middle of Barnawapara Jungle. It is a nice property to stay, has 10 charming tree houses and 2 mud houses with huge open and covered space for various activities.
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| Muba’s Machan Tree House |
The rooms are made with wood with a large spacious room, having large bunker type bed with attached Western type Toilet, Each room has separate sitting space outside where you can sit in silence and enjoy the dense forest view.
At Muba:
After check in to rooms and making our-self comfortable , I decided to sit in my space in silence.
The Evening soon turned dark and it was time to glow for the glow worms. There was no tik-tock sound of clock, and I was immersed in the silence of nature until I was been called by Machan member for bonfire /camp-fire which was been arranged at the open activity space.
Time always pass good with good friends and a bonfire. We bought our guitar and keyboard’s so we jammed and had some good moments before our food.
The Food:
The resort has common space for having food where the buffet is arranged for the guest, however the kitchen has the ala-carte menu. The breakfast timing are from morning 8 to 9, lunch is served at 12 noon and dinner from 9 – 11 P.M
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| FOOD ROOM |
I chose the veg food which was been cooked with local fresh farm vegetables and grams. The buffet included:
- Split Black Gram/ Kali Dal: The Gram/Dal was very simple . It had a very good flavour of Garlic. It was very simple but yes taste was good.
- Cauliflower with potatoes: I managed to speak to the chef who told the dish has been cooked with farm fresh vegetable. The spices was again very low but the tomatoes added nice flavours to the dish
- Rice: It was been fried with cumin seeds, green chillies and little edible oil.
- Chapatis , Pickles and Green Salad
It was simple and healthy dinner, overall I loved the food
Experiencing the National Park:
We woke up around 5:30 in the morning, we took open Gypsy which was arranged by Resort. The morning safari timing are 6:45 to 11:00 A.M in the winter and 6 to 10:30 A.M in the summers whereas evening par time are 14:30 to 17:30 and 15:00 to 18:30 in winter’s and summer’s respectively.
The Forest is very dense one wrong step and you get lost so it is recommended to accompany a guide.
We took a guide from the entry zone paying them the guide charges, who took us to core area’s.
He guided about the rich floral species of the jungle. he also guided to watering holes where there are maximum chances to sight the animals. We were not as lucky to sight a leopard as it is November and the area was covered with dense forest but we could manage to sight Sambar, Wild Dogs, Peacock, Wild Buffalo’s Deer and some beautiful migratory birds
Other nearby spots/attraction:
After Safari and having our breakfast at resort we visited The Mahanadi River where we spent some time in the river bank. It was a cool and pleasant so I spend some time watching the flow of water and the birds.
Trust me I can spent hours sitting alone watching and listening the music of flow of water.
After the a good time at the bank I went back to the resort for my lunch which was again simple and tasty.
Post lunch and power nap of around a hour I started my journey back to my station Raipur
It was all about my #trip-1 to Barnawapara Wild life Sanctuary
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