Poor Man’s Grand Canyon

We woke up the next morning at the sheer depression of the sight of rain still pouring very heavily. The hotel garden now resemblances a miniature lake and the sky seem swollen with dark anger, as if it is on a vengeance call against us. I lolled back to the bed. My wife tried to console me saying that a full day rest at the hotel room is for us surely a rarest way of spending a day in our life. I returned back a wry smile to her.

 

After about an hour, we finally re-charged our spirit after a multiple round of inanimate discussion with Bhaiya and a fifteen minute pep talk by Didi. We decided to damn the rain and planned to visit Raneh Falls first, which we thought might be a good adventure in the rain. Then we will move to the temples hoping by that time rain to stop.

The photograph is illusory. The depth of the gorge is not less than 200 ft

Raneh Falls is about 20 kms from our hotel and is on the edge of the Rewa Plateau, which lies to the southeast of the Bundelkhand Upland. And boy, what a sight it is! It has a lovely rock formation and is said to be 5 km long and about 200 ft deep gorge. An exquisite waterfall formed by river Ken running over one of the oldest rocks on earth, the Vindhya basalt with a multicolored crystalline granite canyon in varying shades of pink, red and gray. The gray and pink basalt rock provides a wondrous landscaping to the gushing monsoon waters. Although the flow of the Ken River has been tamed by the Gangau Dam, the fall is still impressive, as a reminder of how mighty the Ken once was. The imposing waterfalls are set in the backdrop of lusting greenery of pristine forests make this place an ideal for nature lovers. The beauty and nature merged here to give the visitors a feast of eyes. There are also a number of seasonal waterfalls in the nearby wooded area making it a perfect scenic spot.

The mighty Ken

Mist from the falls

The striking contrast shade of black and red rock formation

A small part of the landscape

After spending an unsuspecting two hours at the spot we awoke to the conscious and realized to our amazement that rain has stopped completely. We gathered ourselves at the car to proceed to the place for which we traveled all the way in this trip, the Khajuraho Temples.