Words: Shivam Dharve
The Honda Drive to Discover is always a bit more special than the usual drive events. The participants get to drive at a leisurely pace, and unlike other such events comprising point to point drives, this one allows the drivers to get lost along the way, and in the process ‘discover’ their adventurous self. With the advent of the year 2017, we were absolutely delighted when the seventh edition of Honda Drive to Dsicover beckoned us, for this was a very exciting route comprising some of the best wildlife sanctuaries in the mid-Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
The Route
As the drive was to discover the wild life, the route was chalked out to start from Nagpur and covering National parks such as Pench, Kanha, Badhavgarh, Panna along the way and culminating in the historic temples of Khajuraho, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. As they say, it’s not the destination, it’s about the journey – and we were to ‘discover’ why the adage holds true as we made progress.
The Cars
Honda had brought the top of the line variants from its entire range of cars, including the CR-V, Accord Hybrid, Jazz, City, Brio and BR-V. The participant drivers were to shuffle cars along the way so that everyone could get a chance to get a taste of the delectable spread of rides Honda had organized for everyone. I really looked forward to the experience.
Day 1 : Flag off – Nagpur – Pench National Park
The drive began with the flag off from Nagpur. Let the show begin, I said to myself, as I put myself behind the wheel of the Honda Jazz i-VTEC. The location was set up on the GPS to Pench national Park. We were to enter through Turia Gate which was about 105 km from the starting point in Nagpur. In no time we were cruising at 100-120 km/h on the national highway and distance remaining was dropping at an alarming pace. In all honesty, I didn’t like it, as I wanted to journey to last longer, and at pace, it wouldn’t have lasted for more than an hour and a half.
As a relief, we took a couple of breaks mid-way for drinks and refreshments, but that didn’t help much either. However, the ugly face of the Indian roads reared up pretty soon as we approached the Madhya Pradesh state border. We did slow down somewhat, but not by much, thanks to the silky ride quality of the Jazz. After negotiating the rough roads for some distance, we reached our destination for the first day of the drive – Pench National Park.
After having a small Nap at our hotel we assembled in the afternoon for Pench Jungle safari. Luckily, all of us were able to spot the C21 tigress within a few minutes of drive in to the national park. Interestingly, it didn’t end just there for us.
We spotted a whole bunch of wild animals as we drove deeper into the jungles, including nilgai, jackal, spotted deer and various birds such as woodpecker, Indian roller, munia with most of them in cleat sight and posing for the lend. Day one was great success and everyone had a smile plastered across his face thanks to the generous sightings.
Day 2 : Pench – Bandhavgarh via Kanha national Park
After clocking a mere 100 km on our cars on day 1, the second day was a long drive, and comprised about 500km of being behind the wheel. Starting our drive on the second day, I had the Honda BR-V i-DTEC with me. I looked forward to spending a day with the torquey yet linear turbo diesel engine.
Riding a wave of torque, we overtook traffic without having to bother about gearshifts, and had a flying start to the day. The route mostly had state highways on map. We chose spots such as a riverside, over bridge and fields etc to take pictures en route. During the drive, we also had a 1 hr halt near Mandla for our lunch and started driving towards Bandhavgarh thereafter.
Post lunch, after Mandla the dynamics of the road changes, and from the straight roads, we transitioned on to an inviting ghat section. I made the most of the punchy diesel engine sitting under the bonnet and decided to extract its full potential.
The torque is available at ridiculously low levels on that 1.5 litre i-DTEC unit, and it makes a mockery of steep inclines and overtakes with the driver hardly ever needing to downshift. Just a dab on the right pedal, part-throttling the machine gets the job done. The temperature had started to drop off was nudging 8 degrees on the outside. We put the air-conditioner to the task of warming the cabin, and it obliged instantly.
Day 3 : Bandhavgarh–Khajuraho via Panna national park
A chilling temperature of 3 degrees welcomed us as we grudgingly moved out of our beds for an early morning 5am safari in Bandhavgarh.
We lined up at the gates of Bandhavgarh national park in search of more of wilderness and wildlife. Sadly we were not lucky enough to spot the tiger at this national park. Maybe it was too chilly for the regal beast of prey to bother itself to coming out for a bunch of onlookers!
After returning from the safari I was behind the wheel of the Jazz once again, this time the diesel powered version. We started our journey towards Khajuraho which was about 240 km from our current destination. The highway was mostly switching from single lane to double lane and was confusing at some times, with truckers coming on the wrong side of the road without a worry in the world. We drove cautiously to reach our destination by late evening – Khajuraho.
Day 4 – Khajuraho
After an exhilarating drive through a bunch of national parks, and experiencing nature in some of its most untouched forms, we reached Khajuraho – the world famous tourism spot and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Located in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh the Khajuraho temples are famous for their architecture that reeks of nagara-style and the erotic sculptures carved on every wall and pillar. Most of the Khajuraho temples were built between 950 and 1050 by the Chandela dynasty and represented Hinduism and Jainism. These temples were counted to be 85 in number by 12th century AD, spread over 20 square kilometers.
Unfortunately, only 20 of these temples have been able to endure the brutal impact of time, and are now spread over a much smaller area of 6 square kilometers.
We spent a couple of hours visiting various temples and observing and soaking in the intricate architecture, the pristine surroundings and the erotic sculptures. The libertarian and expressive past of the Hindu religion comes to the fore, which has somehow been contorted into an oppressive and narrow minded mindset owing to the constant invasions from outsiders and finally by a well-plotted destruction of our identity by the British. While I marveled at the beauty of those edifices, I also wondered where we would we have been as a country, if only we stood together as one nation and fended off the outside influences as a singular unit.
Summing it up
Discovered!! Yes, as the drive said, during the Drive to Discover, we had many things discovered, explored, experienced and imbibed on this journey. The entire drive event was immaculately organized and we couldn’t thank Honda enough for having provided us this amazing opportunity to travel through some of the most amazing wildlife parks in the country.
The entire drive spanned approximately 900 km covering rural countryside, remote locations of Madhya Pradesh, national parks and a whole variety of terrain. The highlight of the experience was sighting the C21 tigress and many other colorful species of wild animals and birds. The drive could have been even more blissful if the condition of the roads in the state was better. Thanks to the solid engineering and ride quality of the cars we drove, all the adversities were taken into stride without any discomfort.
If you are planning the itinerary we followed, I have a few suggestions – avoid night drives in MP as the roads are just horrible to drive in the night with the truckers just coming on to your face. As for the Safaris, if you are looking for convenience, try going for afternoon or evening slots as morning safaris could be chilling for some.
Thanks once again to Honda for providing us this fantastic opportunity. This trip will be remembered for a long time to come.
Here is an image gallery from the drive
