The drive from Hoshangabad to Jabalpur took us halfway across Madhya Pradesh. We expected the drive to be a leisurely one with only around 300km to be covered. With a pretty heavy breakfast we left the hotel at 9 a.m. The Toyota Yaris was rather dirty and it was time for our ride to get a wash and it did so a few kilometers out of Hoshangabad. The roads continued to be narrow and overtaking proved to be an arduous task. A little while later we realised how such roads can be dangerous. A trailer carrying tractors hit the side of a bus right in front of us. A few people inside the bus were injured and we tried to help as much as we could by trying to divert traffic from the area. Thankfully the injuries were fairly minor. Another half an hour later a car just ran off the road. After witnessing those two accidents, we decided to slow down further and drive at a measured pace.
The ongoing Navratri celebrations in much of central India ensured that most towns were choc a bloc with traffic and people. All those combined slowed down our progress further. The Toyota Yaris shined through all the traffic and all the bad roads. The steering weighed up beautifully as speeds increased but was light enough to manoeuvre through traffic. The drive took longer than anticipated and we arrived in Jabalpur, one of the bigger cities on our route, a little before sunset. We trekked up a hill to see Madan Mahal, a 11th century fort that is in ruins now. The Fort is built into huge rocks. After an hour spent trekking up and down the hill it was time to call it a day. Tomorrow will be the last day of driving to our destination, Amarkantak.
Here are our blogs for day one and day two:
https://evoindia.com/toyota-river-drive-narmada-day-two-blog/
https://evoindia.com/toyota-yaris-river-drive/