Our trip with pictures:
https://www.gaiagps.com/public/yKcYQR7LhjnDlmRQyquilzYy
We drove from the hotel to the Maharani Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Fort. As we were walking towards the fort. Ajay Patel, a local tour guide, asked us if we want d a tour guide. It was Approximately two hour tour. He took us to the main entrance and we started. He told us Five names of Maheshwar – Maheshwar, Maheshmati, Mahishasurmardini, Manunagari, Mallahar Nagari. We saw Devi Ahilyabai’s Palaki. Which is used even today to take her photograph to Shiva temple for Darshan every Monday. We saw the entrance to her bedroom chamber from where she did Narmada darshan every morning. She ruled for 28 years after her husband was killed in a battle when he was hit by a cannon ball. During her rule she renovated 29 temples across the country. We saw the temples with in the fort and her personal prayer room where prayers are performed even today. Daily Volunteers make 11,000 clay Lingams do Pooja and release them into Narmada Maiya. This was a tradition started by Eevi Ahilyabai for the good of general public. At that time they used to make 100,000 Clay Lingams. We went down to the Ghaat again and the view was beautiful in the morning Sun. Tour finished with us coming to Saree emporium where famous Maheshwari Sarees and other materials are sold. We passed on the shopping and got to the front of the fort and saw Laboo’z Cafe. It was about 10:00 am and we were all feeling hungry. We went in and sat under a tree. Ordered food. The guide had told us that part of the fort has been converted to a hotel where rooms go for Rs. 18K – 20K per night. At this cafe the rooms were much less. It’s good to know for next time. Booking can be done online. We had our brunch. I found my Sandwich. They actually had the bread. Food was good. We finished and drove out of town. Once we were on our Parikrama path we got down and started to walk. We reached Mandleshwar around 2:30 pm. We were offered Tea under a large tree by the side of the road. As we were
Drinking Tea one gentleman came up to us and gave each of Rs. 11.00 and touched our feet. This was about fifth time we got the dakshina but first for Bharathi. She had tears in her eyes. My brother Avinash was born in this town. My father was high school Physics teacher in the boy’s high school for couple of years in 1962-63. We tried finding the hospital and learned that it was demolished more than 30 years ago. When we asked about the boy’s high school one gentleman who serves Parikramavasis got on his motorcycle and guided us to the school. According to him school had not changed for a very long time. We got a complete tour of the school. We walked through some classrooms where the class was still in session. The acting Principal offered us Tea in his office. The school is on the River bank. The buildings were old but the gardens looked beautiful. We took our leave and continued our walk. Around 4:00 pm we got into the car and drove to Barwaha. We looked for an ashram so Bharathi could have a true experience of the Parikrama but did not find anything that would work. Couple of the one we saw the bathrooms were unusable. We reached Barwaha around 5:30 pm and found Hotel Motherland. We shared a room with Bharathi. She was a good sport. No complaints. We had dinner and went to bed. Today we walked 13.1 kms.