A ‘hill station’ is an Indian English word for mountain resort. Chikhaldara’ in English English means ‘muddy town’. Chikhaldara is a hill station in the Amravati district of Maharashtra, about four hours away from Nagpur. Chikhaldara is called ‘muddy town’ because it’s said that Bhim (one of the heroes in the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata) showered in one of these waterfalls after killing a demon, the demon’s blood was black and made the water look muddy. It’s also the only coffee growing district in Maharashtra, incidentally whilst in India I have had cups of coffee which taste like muddy water. We really needed a holiday, so off we went to see waterfalls and mountains. The drive up the mountain was spectacular, every so often you’d get a glimpse of huge waterfall bursting out of the mountain or see a small fresh water spring trickling onto the road. It’s was beautiful, the roads were new and smooth so the long drive to Chikhaldara was a nice start to a weekend away. Chikhaldara itself is not ‘foreigner friendly’, all the signposts are in Marathi and the ‘most luxurious’ accommodation featured a bucket instead of a shower and mouse faeces. Luckily, I have a Marathi husband and could cope with all the ‘luxury’, Chikhaldara [...]
