Bastar - Part 6 - Cave Explorations

As mentioned in my earlier blog, after the adventurous hike we were in dire need of a good sound sleep. Hence, we thought of waking up little late today but village roasters alerted us with their wake up alarm and repeated this like snooze effect until we all woke up😊. 

We were served hot poha for breakfast. Poha was yummy with peanuts fried to perfection😋. 



Post breakfast, Shakeel sir told us that we would be doing cave explorations first and then visit local "Haat" market 

Kanger Valley National park has some of the best exceptional caves and today we were about to visit “Kailash Cave” and “Mahadev Cave”



Kailash Cave

Kailash cave is believed to be the oldest cave in this area. This cave has the earliest limestone formations which are very attractive. These limestone structures are truly breathtaking and few of them turn into a shape like Shivlinga.  Stalactites and stalagmites within the cave give it a replica of Kailash. These dripstone structures are also worshiped by locals. Shakeel sir told us that during Mahashivaratri there will be huge crowd here. 

At the base camp, you will see steep steps taking you to the cave entrance. This place is still untouched and unexplored by many people. Hence the premises are very well maintained and clean. 

Total steps to the cave entrance are around 500. Once you reach the entrance, you need to take your torch now. 













We went further below and sat down for meditation. It was very calm here. 



After relaxing here for around 15 minutes, we then started to move back. 


We came out, hopped onto our vehicles, and proceeded to our next destination – Mahadev caves. 

Mahadev cave

We drove for around 15 minutes and reached the spot from where we had to walk till the cave entrance. 







These caves also had similar formations of what we saw in Kailash caves but getting into these caves and coming out required lot of effort and our body flexibility was big time tested here. Its pitch dark inside and there are no defined steps like what we have in Kailash cave. We could hear bats flying above our heads. So please don’t visit this without a guide since there are no directions or landmarks to this place. 




In this place, we had to literally move in Squatting position

But it was worth to get this picture

By the time we came out of this cave, it was lunch time. 

We reached homestay and had delicious lunch which was prepared for us since our preferences were asked previous night for lunch 😊. Today the menu was different – Egg potato curry, Bitter gourd fried with peanuts, Rice, Dal (Lentil’s curry) and Papad. Needless to say, the food was too yummy😋. 



Post lunch we relaxed a bit and set off to explore the Nangur Haat market. I will be covering the experiences of our stroll into the local market , cock fight and visit to artisan's place in my next blog. 


Bastar - Part 1 - Arrival at Raipur and Half day Sight Seeing

Bastar - Part 2 - Exploring Jabarra : The Tribal Village of Natural Healers

Bastar - Part 3 - Drive to Tatamari View Point

Bastar - Part 4 - Bell Metal Handicrafts of Kondagaon

Bastar - Part 5 - Official Introduction to Baster Vibes

Bastar - Part 7 - Stroll through the Colorful Traditional Tribal Haat Market

Bastar - Part 8 - Teerathgarh Falls 

Bastar - Part 9 - Mendri Ghumar : Valley of Fog

Bastar - Part 10 - Chitrakoot Falls : Niagara of India

Comments

  1. Unknown16 January 2022 at 12:02

    Beautiful pictures and blog is expressively live as always 👌👌

    ReplyDelete

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