A Perfect Weekend :: Mandarmani

Mandarmani is one of those very few places where you can marvel the beauty of nature in solitude or in the company of your loved ones. The hard sand makes it a paradise for riders, you would love riding along the Bay of Bengal. With jelly fish, sea turtles and a plentitude of red crabs you gets the feeling of being in the lap of Mother Nature.



Although Digha and adjoining places where also included in the weekend itinerary, they have already been covered extensively in previous trip logs. Unlike other trips this had been planned quite some time in advance. And this ride was solely intended for some laid back riding.

The Men and the Machines:
Indranil - Bajaj Pulsar 200 DTSi
Sandeep - Bajaj Pulsar 220 DTSFi
Nirmalya - Hyosung Comet GT250

Day 1 - Kolkata to Digha
After spending quite some time planning the trip it was finally time for executing the plan. It all began with changing the engine oil of Maulik Da's bike and mine. Then we waited, waited and waited for Nir Da to show up. As usual Mr. F(Nir Da) finally showed up and upon his arrival he declared that the reason for delay was a heavy lunch!

The ride started at 1600Hours. As usual our first pit stop was Azad Hind Dhaba for evening snack before riding out. After a sumptuous snack we continued from Azad Hind Dhaba towards Kolaghat. I thought the stones lying on the roads had begun to recognize us and we breezed our way for the zillionth time to Kolaghat.From Kolaghat we took a left turn towards Nandakumar. We were back on this road after 7 months. Last time when we went over this road it was in a pitiable. But this time we found the tar to be better. But there was something more challenging awaiting us in the Kolaghat - Nandakumar section ‘The unmarked diversions.’ These death traps often lead to some sites of uncompleted constructions, where there are lots of iron rods waiting to pierce someone who made a mistake. The glare of the headlights of oncoming vehicles was making it even more difficult to stop falling into one such trap.

Near Escape: As we were cruising through at a comfortable speed of 70-80kmph. Two dudes with some grudge (I am completely unaware of the reason though) decided to race with us on there Hero Honda Splendor. Initially they did not bother us but soon enough they started tailgating us at high speeds with the gaps between being too close to be comfortable. Soon another diversion approached and we slowed down. These dudes decided to overtake us but they didnt bother to look up for the road ahead before overtaking. A truck was coming from opposite side and suddenly there was a loud ‘screeeeeeeech’ and some how these guys had managed to avoid the truck and had miraculously escaped the jaws of death. But it was something that shook us.

We decided to stop for sometime and allow these guys to be winners of this need for speed contest.

Soon afterwards we reached Nandakumar. We took a right turn towards Digha. We managed to save a few kilometer by bypassing kanthi(Contai). Finally we reached Digha after two and a half hours of riding from Uluberia. At Digha we opted to Stay at Digha Tourist lodge. We took a room for 3 at INR 550 and had a simple but appetizing dinner there. After the dinner we walked along the Old Digha Beach.

Distances :
Kolkata (Vidyasagar setu )- Nandakumar - 91km
Kolkata - Chaulkhola - 153km
Kolkata - Digha - 175Km

Day Two - Digha - Chandaneshwar - Udaipur Beach (Orissa) - Mandarmani – Kolkata
Our day started lazily at 0830 hours. On realizing the number of places we had to visit we hurriedly had our breakfast and were ready to roll once again. We quickly decided on our first destination of the day - Shiva Temple at Chandaneshwar. Only 4Kms from Digha is the Bengal Orissa Border and the road to Shiva Temple is under construction. It is a treacherous stones and gravel road. As we reached the Shiva temple, Maulik Da and Nir Da went inside to offer there prayers to "Lord Shiva" and myself being an atheist stood posted near the bike and protect them from onlookers.

Next on the itinerary was Udaipur Beach (Orissa). Another 4km ride took us to a fishing village and a desolated beach. But the beauty of the beach was mesmerizing especially during low tides.
Due to heavy tourist influx in the Digha beach, people are nowadays looking to spend a quieter time in the Udaipur beach, replete with thick green casurina woods and golden sand. There is a small fishermen habitation on the beach here as well. Sunset from the Udaipur beach looks beautiful.
After a quick peek at the beach’s beauty we started for Mandarmani.

The crazy Wheels: We returned to Digha and headed towards Chaulkhola on our way to Mandarmani. As we were headed towards chaulkhola we found the crazy Kolkata- Digha Bus and Cab traffic zooming at insane speeds. They were very reluctant to leave space for Bikes. Many times we were forced to get off the road.

From Chaulkhola the road to Mandarmani is bumpy and broken, with stones and gravel everywhere. No wonder such a beautiful place still has scant visitors. But the bumpy ride led us straight to paradise. Pristine and untouched 17kms of hard beach completely desolate of tourists and touts! With many resorts nearby, this place is surely a winner amongst all the places we have visited so far. Due to hardness of the beach one can enjoy riding and driving on the beach. After spending 4 hours at Mandarmani we it was time for us to leave the place. With no intentions of leaving the place we finally began our journey back home. In the hangover of the beauty of the place we rode back to Kolkata. It was the perfect weekend we had planned!

Distances:
Digha - Chandaneshwar Shiva Temple - 13kms
Digha - Udaipur Beach - 8kms
Digha - Mandarmani - 30kms
Chaulkhola – Mandarmani - 13kms
Kolkata (Vidya Sagar Setu Toll Booth) - Mandarmani 171kms

Note:
SBI and UTI ATMs can be found in Digha.
Petrol pumps are few in number but spacing between the petrol pump is good enough to drive/ride without having to worry about.
Kolaghat to Nandakumar is around 30kms but the road has 8~9 Diversions totally unmarked. And often these diversions lead to dead ends.SH4 (Nandakumar - Digha Highway) is a two lane road and is full of traffic (buses, cars, sumo etc) and infamous for rash driving.
Travelers in search for solitude should go to Mandarmani/ Sankarpur/ Udaipur beach. We found both old Digha and new Digha Beaches over crowded. But one needs to be cautious while driving to these places.