Eager to explore new places, 29 riders from xBhp Bhubaneswar group, braved the wind and heavy rain to visit the lesser known tourist potential locations of Dhanobeni Temple and Giridibandha Waterfalls in nature’s own district of Keonjhar. The freedom ride was their way of celebrating India’s72nd Independence Day through bike ride. The group had riders from the age of 19-60 which included professionals, businessmen, students, housewives and doctors too. Riders from various cities like Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Choudwar and Bhadrak turned up for the freedom ride on 15th August morning for the 450km adventurous journey. Braving torrential rain, the members started from Jagatpur at 6 AM. With a brief halt at Chandikhol for breakfast, the team moved towards Dhanobeni Temple via Jajpur road, Duburi and Harichandanpur route. The ride was enjoyable with beautiful lush landscape on route to the location. Soon mobile and cameras were out capturing beauty of Odisha for memories.
The Dhanobeni temple, near Kundhei Chowk, is situated on top of a huge monolithic rock. Locally the temple is known as Dhaneswar Mahadev Temple, but since the hilltop is named Dhanobeni, the temple is also known as Dhanobeni temple. Its around 1759 feet above sea level and there are no steps to climb and its very steep to walk uphill. The view from the top is absolutely breathtaking. One can have a breathtaking view of the distant hills, farmland and villages from the top. If climbing up was tough the way down was even tougher, still the enthusiastic members readily conquered it.
After taking the customary group picture at the base of the hill, the bikers moved on towards Giridibandha Waterfalls, a lesser known waterfall via the village of Sirishpal. The last 5kms was on a offroad route of kuccha road, but the recent rains made the ride difficult. Soon, the team reached a dead end with no waterfall in sight, not even its faint sound and the lights fading. Google map was put to use and we found that the waterfall is still around 800mtrs further into the forest. We found a path leading towards the fall and trekked ahead. Soon we could hear the beautiful sound of water cascading down. The beautiful fall is divided into two parts the upper part has a few small step falls and pools and the lower part which drops 25 feet or more. It was full of water due to the recent rains. A few riders who are a bit inclined towards wildlife saw a Chameleon, Black winged kite, Yellow-footed Green Pigeon, Jungle Quail, Munias, Spotted Doves and Laughing Doves along with other common species.
Darkness was fast approaching as riders moved from the Giribandha falls towards NH 20 near the village of Sirishpal for the return journey. It was dark when he team reached Maa Tarini Temple at Ghatgaon. After having some refreshment, the riders moved towards Panikoili junction. The ride was slow and cautious as the road is being laid with quite a few diversions. It was 9 pm when the team reached Panikohili where few of the riders rode on towards their destination and the rest stayed back for dinner at a dhaba nearby. The riders met at Manguli Toll Plaza for the last time & parted away for their respective home destinations, covering a total of 445kms.
XBHP stands for Extra Braking Horse Power. Its a platform which brings all bike lovers under one platform to share their experiences about their bikes and road trips. XBhp’s motto is helping out each other during trips or with their bikes and forming lifelong friendship of likeminded people. xBhp Bhubaneswar is the Odisha chapter of xBhp which is located in New Delhi and one of the oldest bike group in Odisha.
The group promotes safe and disciplined riding to all the members who joins them. They usually explore unknown historical and places of natural beauty in Odisha, thereby promoting tourism. The names of the riders are Abhay Mehta, Abhijit Goswami, Animesh Nayak, Anupam Behera, Arindam Ghatak, , Ashesh Rathor, Bhaskar Jain, , Dhirendra Singh Rajpurohit, Dipanjoy Naskar, Jitendra Swain, Jyoti Prakash Behera, Dr Manna Rao, Manish Mehta, , Sajal Sheth, Sambit Kar, Samuel John, Satyajit Mohanta, Shashwat Singh, Siddhant Mishra, Soumyadip Ghosh, Sourav Guha Burman, Subhadeep Adak, Tapas Rana, Taranisen Pattnaik, Thomas Mathews and Virendra Mehta. The solo female rider was Arshia Musarrat while Bina Sheth and Manju Thomas were pillion riders.
Review given by fellow riders –
Manju Thomas : Had the most incredible ‘Independence Day’ trip exploring the incomprehensible beauty of Keonjhar district !
Shashwat Singh: XBhp Bhubaneswar- one of the finest clubs in Bhubaneswar. Very little show-off but high quality touring and guidance. Highly respectful to other clubs and riders. Very strict in membership norms and rules.
Arshia Mussarrat: Independence day ride with xBhp Bhubaneswar was an exhilarating escapade that enabled me to follow my passion with likeminded biking enthusiasts and explore many unheard remote areas of Odisha on a motorcycle ! A great balance of freedom, passion and adventure that wouldn’t have been possible without Xbhp Bhubaneswar team.
Dhirendra Singh Rajpurohit: Being an avid solo ride from Pune, riding with xBhp Bhubaneswar for the first time was something a unique experience. Entire group was so friendly as if I have been riding with them since years. Uniqueness of xBhp Bbsr is their route selection and way they manage the entire group with maturity. Riding with such mix of riders -young, professionals and with some old wines too 😉 was really exciting. Looking for more such rides with xBhp Bhubaneswar in coming days.
Bina Sheth: xBhp Bhubaneswar are true adventure bike riders exploring tough and unheard terrains of Odisha. All their rides are very well organized and they stay in good sync while riding abiding by norms and rule set. Safe group for female riders as well. I have always had an astounding and marvelous experience while exploring and riding with them.
Taranisen Pattnaik: This is my first ever ride with a professional bikers team. Although, I ride solo for my travel stories, this pillion ride was completely different one. I learned how to face nature & odds, learnt the importance of team work. I’m quite excited to have my own 200CC plus bike soon so that I can be on a regular ride with Xbhp Bhubaneswar.
Tapas Rana: I personally love to ride in rain, so I was very excited. I was amazed to see more people at the starting point, above my expectations! The senior riders guided us at every section of ride, I felt to be a part of family. Got to see cool places in remote areas, never knew they existed so close to our city. Few motorcycles, including mine needed some repair while riding, though I was feeling bad making them wait for me, but instead of hurrying, the members waited patiently. It was an astounding ride experience. In the end, felt like I know u guys since so many years.
Photos by XBhp Bhubaneswar