Orchha

Another week was coming to its end like usual, and it had been 8 long months that I was stuck at home since the lockdown. No traveling no fun just home, No parties, but the threat was real. There was no vaccine for COVID yet. Out of boredom, I was scrolling through my phone and a photo of the sunset got my attention.

It was from Orchha, an ancient Indian town in central India which is mainly known for its mighty forts, ancient temples and is surrounded by a forest and Betwa river. I am not very fond of old monuments and temples but the forest and the river were something I was longing for. 

I called up my friends and asked them to find a way to travel this weekend. Thanks to the recent lockdown, all my friends were ready to go out this weekend, thus the plan was made. We hired a caravan from Indore (keeping in mind the flexibility and safety it provides during travel) and began our journey at around 8 PM on Friday.

Orchha is approximately 500 km from Indore so it was obvious that we’ll reach there by the morning. We hopped in the caravan, took a few pictures (as it was so adorable), chatted a bit and it was 10 PM already. Thanks to the caravan all 6 of us wasted no time in making our bed and went on to sleep. We woke up in the morning in the middle of the forest by the river and I couldn’t have imagined it better. 

We made our breakfast in the van and then spent some time near the river relaxing while having breakfast. After getting some fresh air and stuffing our bellies we followed a trail in the forest. It was great to follow a wild trail surrounded by trees after so long, but we rushed back to the caravan because my friend Pragati had to use the washroom, that’s when I realized that renting a My Rolling Home caravan was a great idea not just because of the COVID situation but because of the flexibility it gave us while traveling. It was almost noon and all of us were starving, but the food was not an issue as we were rolling with a home. We took out the ‘heat and eat’ food that we bought with us. It was ready within minutes (literally in like 10 minutes), and with this, my old belief of ‘cooking is a long and tedious task’ was almost broken. 

After lunch, we took some rest in the caravan till the sun calmed down. We then moved towards the city of Orchha to admire the ancient architecture of the beautiful old city. We covered it all on foot so we were tired. We saw a nice-looking cafe and paused there for a while. After having some snacks we went on to get some groceries because my friends were a little bit excited about the barbeque we were going to have tonight (Yeah, the Rolling home has a portable barbeque grill in it). 

We headed back to our camping place and fired up the grill along with the bonfire for the night. As the night passed we adjusted the smart lights in the caravan according to our mood while being careful about the lights being not too bright to attract the insects. We had our dinner and spent our night in the caravan. It was our last night of this trip and we were glad that it was under a thousand stars. 

The next morning we woke up around 9, had the morning tea, and set out on the road by 11 AM. We took a lunch stop and a couple of loo stops on our way back to Indore. We reached Indore by 9 in the night.

Orchha is a good place for travelers especially in winter, but I think without the freedom My Rolling Homes gave me to choose my place to spend the night without compromising the necessities like food, a washroom, or a properly insulated bed.