Kanyakumari - Kashmir - Round trip - Day 27 - Varanasi - Ranchi

Day 27 - Varanasi - Ranchi (stay in Ranchi)

Kilometers covered - 445 KMs

Walking - 5000+ steps

A Gangasnan in Varanasi is a must :) We had chai and went to Hanuman ghat for taking a holy dip. After reaching the hotel, we booked a tuk-tuk to visit Varanasi temples.

The tuk-tuk dropped us near the Sankracharya Chowk and the driver asked us to call back after the darshan. 

We reached Kasi Vishwanath Jyotirling temple premises by 7 AM, enquired with the security and he guided us to the front side of the temple to get darshan tickets. We bought the tickets and darshan was over within 15 minutes. 




We then visited Annapoorani & Vishalakshi temples and Manikarnika Ghat. 

The tuk-tuk then took us to Kala Bhairav temple, being Tuesday there was huge crowd - believe it was also Rath Yatra starting day. We took 1.5 hours to get the darshan - literally we felt like a sugarcane getting inside the squeezer :) Almost another sweat snan - gulped couple of water bottles but that was not enough. I 

We stopped near a breakfast cart to have idli, butter dosa and a piece of fried idli. I ordered one thinking that it was a vada - lolz

Then the ride was to Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple. The temple was established by famous Hindu preacher and poet saint Sri Goswami Tulsidas in the early 16th century and is situated on the banks of the Assi river. The idol is decked with a pleasant marigold flower garland, has the unique distinction of  facing his Lord, Rama, whom he worshipped with steadfast and selfless devotion. It is believed that Tulsidas is believed to have written most of the verses of Ramacharitramanas in this temple.








Tulsi Manas Mandir has great historical and cultural importance in Hinduism since the ancient Hindu epic Ramcharitmanas was originally written at this place by Hindu poet-saint, reformer and philosopher Goswami Tulsidas in the 16th century. Ramayan was originally written in Sanskrit language by Sanskrit poet Valmiki between 500 and 100 BC. In the 16th century, Goswami Tulsidas wrote the Ramayan in Awadhi dialect of Hindi language and the Awadhi version was called Ramcharitmanas (meaning Lake of the deeds of Rama. The temple was constructed in 1964 using white marble and landscaping all around the temple. Verses and scenes (pictorials) from Ramcharitmanas are engraved on the marble walls all over the temple.



Durga Mandir was constructed in 18th century by Bengali Maharani- Rani Bhabani of Natore. The temple is dedicated to the Goddess Durga. Next to the temple, is a kund (pond) which was earlier connected to the river Ganges.


We went back to the hotel after visiting local temples. Our family friends had come to Varanasi and called us for a quick meet. We visited them and talked a lot about our expedition experience. We checked out by noon and proceeded to Ranchi - 3 CNG fillings enroute - Krishna Automobiles, Varanasi, M/S Prakash Fuel Centre, Manjurahi, UP and Universal Fuels, Hazaribagh, Jharkand (all IOCL outlets)

Between Manjurahi and Ranchi, we got stuck in heavy rain & sandstorm. The roads were patially good with many diversions coz of NH road work. A medium sized tree got uprooted by strong wind and fell upon a truck coming in the opposite direction. The truck's windsheild broke and the entire front part got damaged severely. This happened 50 meters ahead of us - we slowed down, drove over the fallen tree branches and halted for a minute. We were totally speechless, thankfully the lorry driver was unhurt. 


It was raining and drizzling throughout and we managed to reach Hotel Lakefront, Ranchi by 7.45 PM. Ordered fried rice and panner for dinner. 

Three things that we did consistently during the expedition on a daily basis. 

1. Identification of CNG pumps after every refill (exclusively Indian Oil) - thanks to Nawagati App

2. Talk to them in advance regrding availability and taking pictures with them

3. Booking of lodges (2-3 hours before arriving the final destination of the day)

It looked cumbersome initially, we got used to it after 3-4 days :)

Luv,

Krishna & Mahadevan

insta - viswanatkr01

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