We reached Balasore by Dhauli at 9.30 a.m. and headed straight to Panchlingeshwar which is about 26 km from Balasore. The weather was scorching but that didn’t prevent us from hiking the hill which has a flight of stairs of about 311 steps. On reaching the top, we waited in a long queue to offer puja. As the name suggests, the Shiva temple has five shiv lingas submerged in a small pool and it was quite a test of your physical flexibility to reach out and touch them. Pujas offered, darshan done, we descended to where our car was waiting and it was a relief to get inside the airconditioned car.
A one and half hours drive brought us to our guesthouse at Chandipur where we were put up for the next couple of days. We checked in and after freshening up and a quick lunch had a nice afternoon siesta. In the evening, we went out for a stroll on the beach. It was low tide and the sea had receded by about 5 kms, a speciality of this particular beach. One gets to see and touch the water only during high tide.
The next day after having a sumptuous breakfast and packing some dry lunch for us to carry, we hit the road for Devkund. Devkund falls under the Simlipal Forest Reserve and is apprx 86 kms from Chandipur. The driver deposited us at the trail entrance and the first thing that greeted us was lush green foliage, sound of crickets and streams. Despite the heat it was enough to lift out spirits for the trek that lay ahead. We started our walk through the forest, drinking in the beauty, clicking photos and posing to be clicked.
After about 2 kms walk, we reached Devkund which is a waterfall amidst the forest. We could see a temple on top of the waterfall and decided to visit it too. We enquired to the other tourists as to how far it is and got various versions. So we decided to explore on our own. It was a climb of 400 stairs through the forest with trees canopying above you, providing shade and coolness. We reached the temple only to find more beauty awaiting us. The source of the Devkund waterfall, which we saw below is another small waterfall that forms a lake above. It was very tempting for a plunge but since there was no place to change into dry clothes, we let ourselves capture the beauty in our cameras. After spending some more time in the tranquility of the forest, it was time to climb down. We retraced our steps and came back to our car. After all those physical exercise, we were pretty famished so we had our lunch in the car.
Speaking of food, actually we were perpetually hungry. We actually gorged on all the food the guesthouse had to offer. Be it chicken and onion pakodas as evening snacks or yummy sea food during lunch or dinner, we managed to compensate all our sweating by eating like people out of famine.
The last day was spent taking dips in the sea. It was the day we were supposed to catch the train back home so sea bathing was a short affair. The three days went by quickly and as the saying goes … “All good things come to an end” and so did this trip. We had the most amazing time, thanks to the arrangements made by my army friend.
