Unplanned Long Drive to Chandipur

Had a wonderful long drive experience on Saturday morning from Kolkata my home to Balasore. Excellent road, fantastic weather and unplanned long weekend. After 285Km drive from City center II via Jassore road -> Belghoria expressway -> Nivedita Setu -> NH6 -> Kolaghata -> Kharagpur -> NH60 -> Jaleswar -> Balasore we ended up at Chandipur. Complete 4 channel excellent road , and on top of that NH60 made of cement. Jut wow !

There are hardly 6-7 hotels in Chandipur and all were completely booked up mostly by Bengalis for the long weekend. Coming on a weekend to place like Chandipur without booking can surely give you a tough challenge. Luckily we got a double room in a hotel which is just getting decorated. Hotel Shila. Best place to stay in Chandipur is surely OTDC Panthanivas. If not at least – Hotel Subham.

The best feature of Chandipur sea is surely the low tide phase. The coast land is so flat that once water level goes down – water moves back kilometers. You can walk inside the sea for about 4-5 KMs. It’s fantastic. To enjoy this unique behavior you need to stay at least 24 hours there.

Chandipur is famous for DRDO Interim Test Range. DRDO tests all kind of missile from Chandipur. Latest test news I knew is Prithvi on March 2011. ITR facility is completely out of tourist reach, you can only see vehicles coming and going from the highly secure main gate of ITR. Or with your high zoom camera lens you can max check out their sea side buildings. If you have reference in Defense department can make temporary pass for a day visit to ITR.

After 2 nights stay in Chandipur we started our return journey on Monday morning. Before hitting the road back to Kolkata we thought to give a visit to the hill area of Balasore. The nearest place – Nilgiri. It’s the entry point for Kuldiha forest. A perfect landscape. 32 KM from Balasore the Nilgiri hill is really beautiful. Drove our car on hilly roads and clicked many stunning photographs. Panchalingeswar is a famous place for pilgrims. It’s on a top of a hill. Our car went to the maximum limit possible and then by foot to the top. If you want you can even stay there on the way to the hill in OTDC Pathanivas. A good place to enjoy cool life for 2-3 days.

Around 10 we started our journey back to Kolkata. With the great road condition we were at Kharagpur around 12. After a gala lunch at Share e Punjab of Kolaghata we ended our unplanned three days 650 KM journey at my home by afternoon.