Mathaburu Dolo Trip

01 - 04 Dec 2020, Purulia , WB, IN

Dolo - where D stands for Dual - since it was technically not a solo trip, though I went to Matha with Mojid. Good old Mojid. So packed the Thar and started off from home at around 7:45 AM. It ultimately became a "dolo" trip since neither Raju, not Anirban nor Manaswi ended up coming. So, it was just the two of us on a long long drive, incidentally to the same place again. In January of 2020, had brought the Thar along on a long drive for the Ajodhya Hill trip - a after a long hiatus where I used to take the Thar regularly on our Gurgaon Alwar drives.

The roads seemed to be reasonably empty. While I was tempted to drive via Lodhashuli-Jhargram-Jhilimili to Ajodhya, for once, I chose to follow Google Maps and continued down the old NH6 up to Baharaghora and then turned right towards Jamshedpur. The roads are just phenomenal. The last time I was on the Bharaghora-Kharagpur stretch, it was in 2012, I think. The road was in a terrible state. Now it is a 6 lane highway, and in terrific condition, which invited you to drive at speeds upwards or 120kmph. Just kept zipping through and through.

About 80km ahead of Jamshedpur, Google Maps advised me to take a right turn, which I dutifully took. I was expecting broken village rods. Instead, the village too was fantastic too, all the way up to the Bengal border. It appears that the Jharkhand government has done a spectacular job. This road, all the way to Bundwan, cuts across lovely forested valleys and low hills. Its a treat for tired eyes. At the Bengal-Jharkhand border, stopped at a forested place and had a sumptuous lunch. We were carrying our own food, and it was awesome to sit in the midst of nature, listen to the sounds of the forests and have a hearty meal.

The last leg of the 7 hour journey started after lunch. Tanked up just ahead of Bundwan. Fuel was just below half. Reached Matha at around 3:30 PM. Between Bundwan and Balarampur there were hundreds of cattle being driven somewhere. So got held up. Also got stuck at the Balarampur Level crossing, due to a goods train movement.

The beat officer and the range officer at Matha seemed very insipid. Since I had a reservation, they were forced to give me the room - that kind of attitude was displayed. Coming to that in a minute.

Firstly, the place is really really lovely. Last Jan, on the way back from Ajodhya Hills, had seen this place and had decided to come back here. The rest house was not available online. But the tree house was. And it is really nice from a scenic point of view. Inside a campus full of segun (teak), mango and jamun trees (each of which is curiously named after some Bengali celebrity or the other - not sure whose idea it was, but it felt juvenile). Its a standalone structure with (now) 2 rooms (though the WBDC site says its got only 1 room). Tree House - is a misnomer - its basically a house on stilts, which the stilts designed like tress trunks. Another item that seemed juvenile to me. Actually, there are plenty of resorts around, which have genuine tree houses - essentially rooms or tents on machans.

Now for the behaviour of the FD staff. Since I am a son of an IFS officer and having accessed these places all my life, I know the facilities and the standards of cleanliness that are required to be maintained in a Forest Department run unit.

1. Facilities - The booking that you do online, entitles you to the ROOM ONLY. And when I say ONLY, I mean you get NOTHING else. No food - I am Ok with that. But what is surprising is that there is no arrangement for food either. The staff or the caretaker will not cook for you. Instead they will direct you to a villager across the road, who for a fee, will prepare your meals. This should be clearly stated in the reservation site of WBSFDA.

2. This is no provision for the driver to stay. So if you are in a hired vehicle, and have a driver along, the FD expects you to make alternate arrangements - sleep in the vehicle, or share your room. Their blank response was that there are no facilities for drivers in Forest Rest Houses - which is a blatant lie. I had to call in a few people to make arrangements for Mojid to stay on campus.

3. CLEANLINESS - in one word - TERRIBLE. The room was not ready. The caretaker, Dharma Bharat, started cleaning the place AFTER I landed up. There was no sign of sanitization - unlike what WBFDC had done at Murti. Thankfully, I was carrying a surfeit of sanitization spray bottles, which I used liberally through the room. The bathroom was not clean and there were stains on the floor.

Nevertheless, managed to get the placed cleaned yo and settle in. Once settled in, it made for a good 3 night stay. The first night unfortunately, my leg started hurting, and has to drive down to Baghmundi, some 10 km away to see if I could buy an electric kettle and a hot water bag, so that I could apply hot water fermentation to my leg. We had opened the soft top - so it was a fantastic ride on a cold winter evening, in an open top jeep through wilderness. Got the kettle, thankfully (and it turned out to be a boon in subsequent trip to Mukutmanipur - but more on that in a different post), but now HWB. Used the kettle to boil water and used a table wipe to give the fermentation to the affected area.

The food was cooked by the villager (Jogobondhu) and his wife - it was just terrific. Before that, Jogaa's brother Monshanto made lovely mixed veg pakodas, which in that cold winter night went really well with endless cups of hot strong red label Assam tea. Though I had good Darjeeling with me, it was better to have the sadak chaap chai sitting under a small dim bulb, watching the occasional two wheeler, bus or cab go by.

Jogaa served the dinner in the tree house dining area, which is essentially a covered verandah. Simple meal of chicken curry and fresh made roti with onion and chillies. It was a charming dinner in the middle of nature, accompanies by the sound of crickets and the occasional hooting of night owls. Since my leg was hurting, took a pain killer, and went off to bed after dinner.

02 Dec 2020 - Matha - Woke up early and went for a short walk. Head learnt the night before from Jogaa that there is a peak called Mathaburu, where there is a trekking trail from the FRH. The Mathaburu peak apparently houses a old Kali temple, where puja is held once a year and people from the villages trek up to the temple for the puja. Had a great breakfast of paratha and sabzi. Made my own Darjeeling tea in the morning. Went to Bangmundi with Jogaa. Bought fresh mutton and fresh local fish and returned to Matha and gave instructions to Jogaa for the meal for the day. Then Mojid and I went for our trek.

Honestly, it was a tough one. When we started off from the FRH, there was a staircase, which the villagers have built. But a 100 ft. up, the staircase disappeared, and it was a forest trail, though fairly well defined. However, really really steep, through dense brush jungle. After about 90 min, managed to climb up to a rock face, but there was still no sign of the temple. When we reached the rock face. We were both very tired. So sat there for what seemed an eternity and spent a lot of time taking pictures. It was a nice and lovely place and we could see the other - and higher - Kukuburu peak from there. And behind the Kukuburu peak you could see in the distance the larger hills of Ajodhya. Basically the ridge of Mathaburu juts out form the plains in a NE to SW orientation. Balarampur is to the East of Matha, and Baghmundi is on the west. There is a saddle in the middle, from where you can either go up to Mathaburu if you go left (climbing up from the FRH) or up to Kukuburu if you go to your right. There are some improvised road signs on the forest floor indicating the direction of Mathaburu and Kukuburu.

While resting and taking in the views of the surroundings, got one picture, that probably defined me during the sabbatical that I was in, when I was doing this trip. Hiking boots, trekking stick, cameras. This is exactly why I took my sabbatical after 26 years of corporate life.

After spending about 45 minutes there, climbed back down. Did not realise that day that we had missed the Mathaburu temple by barely 50 meters (which we realised the next day). Came down, and did a detour via another road and returned to the FRH. This detour has a number of private resorts, all of which were quite decent. So next time I am here (which I know I will), will avoid the FRH and stay in one of these resorts.

After a wonderful cold water, on our return to the FRH, had a fantastic lunch made from fresh local vegetables and the local fish that we had bought in the morning. Relaxed in the afternoon. I realised that the steps to the tree house has a landing, where if you place a chair, you get the soft winter sun on you through the better part of the day afternoon. That makes it nice and pleasant - neither cold nor hot. Spent the whole afternoon reading and snoozing.

Went o Balarampur in the evening. Picked up a HWB and replenished our stock of sal leaf plates - since we were using these plates on top of the steel ones that Jogaa was giving us. Also, picked up water and cash (we needed to pay Jogaa).

On the way to Balarampur, got to see a gorgeous sunset. Stopped the car by the roadside and clicked a few shots. Did not have the DSLR with me - so had to be content with mobile shots.

Once again, stopped at Monshanto an Jogaa's shack and had evening snacks of sadak chhap chai and mixed veg pakodas - both piping hot. Sat around the tree house, contemplating about nothing in particular and life, universe, everything in general, and sipping endless cups of Darjeeling tea, waiting for dinner to arrive. Once again, did not experiment with dinner - it was kept simple - roti and chicken curry with simple salad of onions and chillies.

With my leg in a much better condition, after dinner, went out for a walk in the forest. It was a moonlit night. The weather was perfect, and the experience was just fantastic. The day went by exactly as I had planned it to. No stress, no worries, no rush - good walks, treks,, views, food and company (of Mojid).

PS: One for item about the Forest Department Tree House. The department actually expects that:

1. You will have all your meals outside OR

2. You are ok with have food in the utensils provided by the villager.

They DO NOT supply even the basic crockery. Even glasses and cups can be obtained, only at the largesse of the caretaker, who will provide it on request (and a surreptitious greasing of the palms). You will get the cups without the plates. In these Corona times, if you are queasy, please carry your own plates, utensils and crockery. FD wants to be in hospitality, will take your money, but will not give you anything in return, by way of services.

03 Dec 2020 - Another perfectly paced and chilled out day. Today's breakfast was luchi and aloo torkari. Started a different trek today (or so we thought). While our target remained the same, we wanted to climb up the West face of the hill (the previous day we had climbed up the East face). The Forest Guard at Matha - Aswani Oraon - had given us general directions. Accordingly, we walked down the forest path from Matha to Sankupi. There is a lovely dam there - dry now mostly - which seems to hold water during the rains. Important infrastructure in a dry land like Purulia.

We knew that the hill was on our left was Kukuburu, and that on the right was Mathaburu. All we needed was the right path up. Asked woodcutter for further directions. he showed us a vague trail up which seemed to go up to what seemed to be a saddle between the two Burus, and told us to take a right after we reached the top of the saddle. Though when he bade goodbye, he expressed doubt that we will be able to find our way up on our own, though he declined to act as our guide despite the offer of a guide fee.

So there we were, on our own, trying to find our way up the hill, the best we could. The trail today was faint, and not as well defined as the one that we had experienced the day before. Since our objective was to keep pushing going right, we took every single possible trail, however faint it was, which took us up and right. The going was tough and through thorn bush, which ended up tearing our t shirts and would have scratched us were it not for the trekking sticks that we were both carrying and the hats/caps our heads.

Finally after a couple of wrong turns, we finally made it to the Mathaburu peak. It was actually worth it. There was an old temple, a bayan tree and a well on the top of the hill. It was spooky, but the views were fantastic. The temple is a small single floor building with 3 rooms - 2 abandoned and one in the center, which has an old idol in the middle. The banyan tree looks haunted, and the well seems to be one where a few murders have definitely been committed and the souls of the departed have surely climbed up to the banyan tree and the petnis and shakchunnis and brohmadotyis probably have permanent residence there. Nevertheless, it was daytime, and since we had no intention of testing the ghost theory out that night, we spent some time taking in the sights. Even found a chameleon, which gracefully posed for a few photographs. While at the top we found a berry tree (topa kul) - plucked a few fresh berries and ate them then and there. After the hard trek up, the berries tasted awesome, though mostly they were sour. They would ripen until a couple of moths more in early February.

On the way down, took the path towards Matha FRH, instead of towards Sankupi. We had just crossed the line of trees surrounding the temple, and we realised that we were at the exact same spot - the same rock face where we had chilled out yesterday. That same welcoming stone platform was ahead of us. Since lunch was till 90 min away, we stopped there once again and took a quick nap in the soft winter mid-morning sun. Now that we were on a path that we had trekked yestedray, it took us varely 40 min to reach the FRH. Had a good shower followed an awesome lunch. The mutton was on menu today, and a full belly of deliciously cooked mutton curry made for a fantastic afternoon snooze, out on the staircase landing.

In the evening, before it got dark, we went to the local Duarshini haat (barely 5km away from Matha FRH), and bought super fresh vegetables at dirt cheap rates. Baingans (eggplant), muli (radish), palang shaak (spinach), cauliflower, potatoes, - we had to but a new grocery bag to put all that we bought - all for probably less than ₹500. After the haat, went for a short drive to Sankupi and returned to the FRH for a straight third evening of chai and pakodas. Late in the evening, I heard sound of local music blaring from somewhere close. So took the flashlight and followed the sound and reached the local village. The village Chhau group (a local dance form special to Purulia) were practicing. While they were not in costume, and were wearing normal clothes, their graceful and aggressive dance moves was mesmerizing to watch. Spent a good bit of one hour in that cold watching them dance before returning to the FRH for a good dinner.

The trip was not yet over though. After dinner, Mojid and I went for a trek in the forest yet again. This time it was inside the forest. While this is an elephant jungle, we heard that the last sighting of the elephants was a about 3 days ago and the elephants had moved off towards the Jharkhand jungles, we took the risk of doing a night walk through the forest. It was worth every minute of it.

Returned back to the FRH and packed up for a 9 AM departure the next day, after breakfast. We had already paid off Jogaa - his total bill for cooking 7 meals for us (where we provided the mutton and fish for two meals) was about ₹650. His daughter Tumpa, who studies in Class 7, did the math - and she seemed to be a very bright kid, with good grasp over numbers, Bengali and English. Appreciated that fact that Jogaa and his wife was taking pains to get their daughter educated despite there obvious poverty. They have even managed to get her connectivity, through which she attends classes remotely. Have seen Mojid and his wife do the same for their daughter Parveen. That's the future.

04 Dec 2020 - Uneventful return trip. At the Bengal - Jharkhand border stopped by at Dooarshini Prakriti Bhraman Kendra (curiously, this place is also called Dooarshini). WBFDC is has created a resort there - where we can plan a short trip in the days to come. Stopped by at Balibhasha for lunch. Another stop at Decathlon in Howrah (which I believe they have shut down now) and picked up another picnic table, which actually came in very handy for the Mukutmanipur Trip. Reached home at SLC at around 5:30 pm. Showered and had dinner before finally heading home to UPL at around 8:30. It was the end of a very very memorable trip. One for the lifetimes.

Enjoy the trip video here: