Early light at Wadali Talao finds the water flat and still, and the loudest sound is a bird skimming across it. Amravati spreads low over the black-soil cotton plains of Vidarbha, so the sky takes up most of the view. In the old center, morning prayers at Ambadevi Temple start well before the traffic does.
Beyond the city, the road north climbs into the Satpura hills, to the coffee gardens of Chikhaldara and the teak forests of Melghat Tiger Reserve. Summers are long and very hot, monsoon rains turn the fields green, and winters stay mild and dry. A Local Friend takes you to the lakeside bench they love most and tells you the story behind it.
