The Fort is almost ruined, but the area has huge potential

First of all, to let all of you know, my wife is now doing better after couple of doses of antibiotics and painkillers. It's really important to not panic and we are keeping her isolated and watching her. Hopefully, she would get out of the body ache in a day or two. Doctors say, it could be some viral throat infection, as her oxygen level is stable.

Continuing from my last post, a nice vegan lunch was on the menu when we arrived at my friend's place. After taking rest for a hour, we decided to visit the Heritage Monuments of Saranda Gada and plan for the evening party. It was not far, so we arrived there in about half an hour and I was amazed at the scenic serenity surrounding the place.

The Forte ( known as Gada in our language) is almost ruined, but good that, the government has now revived it with a nice park along with some bamboo cottages that provides stay at the hill top. Here are some of the remains of the forte - a Kaudi (କଉଡ଼ି) well or a treasure house - if you remember , as explained in one of my earlier post, Kaudi , the white colored shining shell, was once used as currency (Shell money) until 1805. There is no mention of how deep this well is, but it definitely would have been underground, so that it would go unnoticed. After all, who wants to show all the wealth.

Here is the Ammunition house - the place where the weapons / ammo was being stored. The house is still in tact even being more than five centuries for sure.

And then there is a BHAI BOHU WELL - a well that is filled with water. Some says, this was also used as a treasure house - but the name signifies something else. In our culture, the wife of a younger brother should never show her face to the elder brother. For example, my wife should never see my brother face to face and not show her face any time - in old days, women used to wear sarees - the face should always be covered with the saree and she can only speak behind the saree on her face. So for this reason, this separate well ( BHAI BOHU means wife of brother) must have been meant for the brother's wife to take bathe.

Based on what I heard from my friend, this place was being ruled by a King who was a notorious dacoit and all the nearby kings were afraid of him. He had a metal door fixed in the entry point - the sound of that door was audible in a 20 km range, when it was being moved. So all the kings would only sleep after this guy slept 😀 - I was wondering, what that door would have been made up with. Had it been preserved, it would be a architectural marvel. The government has done a good job of maintaining the place by making sure, the park is good enough to spend some good time.

However the best part of this place is the amazing view from this watch tower. This being the hill top, it has very wide coverage of the entire area. The perfect blue sky one one side along with the clouds hanging on the other side makes the view spectacular.

This place has definitely a lot of potential for tourism. I heard a renowned brand has been given lease at the far end to develop a water park, hotel and leisure center. They already have very good name and have facilities at two other place in my state - so may be in next five years, this place would be a tourist hotspot.

If you do not know, then Ansupa lake is the largest fresh water lake in Odisha, covering an area of approximately 141-hectare. The significance of the name Ansupa is that, it is part (ansa) of river Mahanadi. Some years back, it was providing livelihood to many people by fishing, the fish from this place being superb in taste. Even migratory birds were coming here. Unfortunately, the lake was ruined by weeds over the period of time - lack of administrative vision I would say. Recently, the government has again started beautifying the place to attract tourists, after some severe agitation from local people. They have constructed a beautiful park with boating facilities as well. Here is the view of the park from the watch tower.

A spectacular view, isn't it ? Coming back, we saw the bamboo cottages, that is offered for a stay. They have been shut down since last two years because of Covid - but in good conditions. A perfect place to enjoy the nature from the hilltop.

The dinner that night, was a memorable one, with fresh fish from the river, mutton, chicken, prawn. For the first time I tasted the fresh fish from this place and liked it so much that, I did not eat anything else - only couple of kgs of fresh fish and some fruits. And by the time, we had the third bottle of Black label finishing, I realized, why Johny said to walk only...

I will keep the Ansupa lake park for my next post, to be continued....

Edit - Google review at https://goo.gl/maps/enFEC7fs7as4ivPYA

Edit - Pinned on https://pinmapple.com/ - [//]:# (!pinmapple 20.452901 lat 85.596010 long Saranda Gada on the banks of Ansupa lake d3scr)