Orchha - The Hidden Capital of Bundelkhand

Life is full of small ironies. We saw our first camels of the Rajasthan road trip of 2011 in Jharkhand. The first peacock crossed our path just outside Benares in a moderately urbanised area.  Of course at first I thought it was a hen. But that’s another story. And the first "Rajasthani" fort we experienced during this trip was actually in Madhya Pradesh!!! Welcome to Orchha. The earstwhile hidden capital of Bundelkhand.

Orchha Palace at Night. Handheld

When I booked the River Retreat of MP Tourism from their Calcutta office, the booking clerk got quite worried to know that I shall be driving to Orchha from Allahabad. He even pulled out a map to show me exactly how far it would be from Kanpur and explained passionately how tired we would be after the drive. What he didn’t know was I would complicate matters further by starting from Benares (we couldn’t reach Allahabad on day one due to bad jams in Calcutta and Panagarh that ate into crucial daylight driving time) at 9 am.

So we were more than tired when we reached Jhansi on that Monday, 3^rd October 2011. But once in Orchha, about 20 km from Jhansi, all our tiredness disappeared. Orchha is a serene little place by the swift flowing Betwa. There is no town or village in Orchha. Just a few tourist curio shops (selling Rajasthani handicraft), temples, chhatris and palaces.

The swift flowing Betwa at Orchha is ideal for river rafting

The resort that we were booked in looks very nice. But at Rs 2300 per night I thought it was grossly over priced. Mampu was very happy to see the swimming pool right in front of our tent. In fact she wanted to go swimming right then and there and was very disappointed to know that she would have to wait till tomorrow.

Mampu at the over-priced River Retreat

By the time we reached our hotel it had got dark. I got out to see the riverside chhatris quite early in the morning next day and what did I see? About 30/40 long billed vultures nesting on the chhatris !!! Of course I couldn’t identify the species right away but I could understand these were not ordinary birds. Rushed back to the resort. Brought my camera, tripod etc and clicked away these critically endangered birds which probably number a few hundred.

Critically endangered Long-billed Vulture at a riverside Chhatri

The riverside is dotted with such cenotaphs or Chhatris, as they call them

Later I realised that the area around the chhatris near Betwa was quite bird rich. Among others I found a lovely Indian Robin, a Spotted Owlet, a Brahminy Starling, a Long-tailed Shrike, several Brown Rock Chats and the beautiful Indian Roller. Many of these birds were either first for me or I had never photographed before.

The Brahminy Starling

Brown Rock Chat

Indian Robin

Indian Roller

Spotted Owlet

With the morning photography session done and breakfast completed, we set out to explore the monuments of Orchha. First we went to the temple in front of the main palace. I think it's the Laxmi Narayan temple. The view of the Orchha palace from the temple is very nice.

View of the Orchha Palace from the Laxmi Narayan Temple

View of the Orchha Palace from the road