Lakhaniya Dari Waterfall

Tucked into a wooded ravine of the Vindhya Range near the small town of Ahraura, Lakhaniya Dari Waterfall is the wild counterpoint to Varanasi's temple-lined ghats.

• Lying about 50 kilometres south of the holy city in Latifpur village of Mirzapur district, the falls plunge some 150 metres down a sheer rock face into a series of dark, deep pools carved by centuries of erosion.
• Framed by dense jungle, weather-smoothed boulders and the rust-red cliffs of the Kaimur plateau, it is a place travellers reach for the quiet: the roar of water, the smell of wet sal leaves, and long stretches of trail where you may not pass another soul.
• To arrive at the main cascade you leave your vehicle at the roadside and trek 1.5 to 3 kilometres over rock shelves, forest paths and shallow streams, a walk of roughly an hour and a half each way.
• The valley is far older than the pilgrim city that anchors this region.
• The overhanging rock shelters here shelter prehistoric paintings known locally as 'Kohbar', ochre-and-earth figures thought to be around 4,000 years old, in which palanquins, horses and hunting scenes record the daily life of the people who once sheltered under these ledges.
• That layering of raw nature and deep human memory gives Lakhaniya Dari a significance beyond its scenery, and it is increasingly promoted by Uttar Pradesh Tourism as an offbeat day trip from Varanasi and Vindhyachal.
• The falls are seasonal and at their most spectacular during and just after the monsoon, roughly July through October, when the channel runs at full strength; in the dry pre-summer months the flow thins to a trickle.
• This is emphatically a group outing and a daytime one.
• The pools are deceptively deep with hidden rocks and strong undertows, drownings do occur most years, and there are no lifeguards, railings or reliable mobile signal, so entering the water is strongly discouraged and children must be kept well back from the edges.
• For vegetarian travellers the practical note is simple: pack your own food and water before you leave the city, because there are no restaurants at the falls and only the most basic roadside tea-and-snack stalls in Ahraura.
• Happily, provisioning is effortless in Varanasi, one of India's most thoroughly satvik pure-vegetarian food cities, where landmark eat-outs like Kashi Chat Bhandar, Keshari and Madhur Milan turn out chaat, kachori-sabzi and sweets with no meat, egg or alcohol anywhere in sight.
• Carry vegetarian sandwiches, fruit, roasted namkeen and plenty of drinking water, plus a rubbish bag to carry every wrapper back out, since the valley has no waste collection and its beauty depends on visitors leaving no trace.