Journey to the top of the world
Goa - Delhi.... the journey begins in the plains
Destination Pooh...
Spiti.... journey through ‘The middle land’
Road to Chandratal
Chandratal to Sarchu... a picturesque drive through Lahaul
Sarchu to Nimmu.... via Tso Kar
Having
done our fair share of road trips as a family, we are now intrigued by the
possibility of doing a ‘Rally’ as a group. After much planning and preparation
the itinerary is finalised and the nitty gritties sorted out. We are going to
be a group of 17 in 3 Scorpios and one Bolero starting from Goa and going all
the way to Leh via the Spiti Valley. Of this, 12 will start from Goa with 3
joining in Delhi and 2 in Chandigarh. The second team would take over in Leh
and drive back via Kargil, Srinagar, Amritsar and Delhi to Goa. Apart from this
being an adventure trip, we are also going out with an AIDS awareness message.
10
Jul 2014. The earth seems enveloped in a grey blanket of fog at 0530 hrs as we
set out and this follows us all the way through to Amboli where the clouds
almost kiss the road and the valleys play hide ‘n seek with the awestruck
traveller. Waterfalls small and big, entice the passersby to tarry a while and
take in the splendours of the monsoon in the Western Ghats. We bow to these
temptations and take the much awaited breakfast break satiating more than just
the appetite for food!
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| Valley at Amboli obscured by clouds |
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| A tunnel on the Mumbai Pune Expressway |
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| Mumbai Pune Expressway |
The
rest of the journey till Mumbai is just another highway with nothing to
recommend it but a means to an end.
After the mandatory getting-lost-and-going-round-in-circles-before-finding-the-destination
that we seem to do in most new cities, we reach our destination after 2 solid
hours of wandering the drowning streets of Ghatkopar in a downpour worthy of
.... Mumbai! The thing to note is that
more time was spent in negotiating the traffic (read: stuck in traffic) than
driving! We finally reach and after a round of socialising with some local
friends, we retire.
11
Jul 2014. Another 0530 hrs start ensures that we exit Mumbai without a sweat.
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| Exiting Mumbai |
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| Badoda Highway |
The
Ahmedabad highway is a dream.... the only fly in the ointment is the enormous
truck traffic making driving on it akin to a formula 1 experience! The
incessant and torrential rains don’t help either! After Vapi, the showers
recede and a little bit later, disappear altogether. Lunch at Badoda after
which we decide to heed some advice from frequent commuters on this route to
Udaipur and take the inner route to Udaipur via Modasa bypassing Ahmedabad.
For
this we exit the highway at Nadiad and take the state highway. Within 10 kms of
the turnoff we have our first breakdown of the trip. Mahindra has sponsored the
vehicles for this rally and promised us technical support through this tour. We
call for help and are pleasantly surprised to have the recovery vehicle come by
in an hour. The service personnel check out the problem and decide that the
vehicle needs to go to Anand (back about 40 kms) since it is a larger service
centre. Decision is taken to leave the sick vehicle with 3 members and the
others to shuffle and move ahead to the designated halt at Udaipur.
We
pass a small village fair and then a small pond a few hundred metres ahead has
good bird life which we gleefully document....
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| A small village Mela |
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| Cattle Egrets in breeding plumage |
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| Pheasant tailed Jacana |
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| Pond Heron |
Meanwhile,
a lot of time has been wasted and it is almost dark. Udaipur seems very far off... we finally make
it by 2345 hrs. In hindsight, the progress on the national highway may have
been faster given that we drove after dark! A very long tiring day indeed!
It is said that a thing of beauty is a joy
forever. How true this is is brought out by the fact that in spite of the
exhausting journey of the day, we still find the time (and energy) to marvel at
the magnificent sight of the famed Pichola lake which is spread out below our
Guest rooms. The reflections of the lights from the palaces in and around the
lake make for a magical setting quite like sparkling jewels beckoning from
afar! The picture says it all!
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| Reflections |
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| Good night ... zzzz |
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| Lake Pichola Udaipur |
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| View from our room.... |
12
Jul 2014. We leave Udaipur at a more leisurely hour of 0700 hrs. A long drive
without incident sees us at the outskirts of Jaipur at about 1330 hrs. Taking a
detour to a goat farm on the other side of Jaipur sets us back by 2 whole
hours!
The farm is owned and run by the father of one of the team members. A
gastronomically satisfying break later, we are on our way to Delhi. The
nightmare begins.... the miserable road conditions and the extremely unruly
traffic crawling agonisingly forward is distressing! The quantum of traffic is
adding to the woes. Coming from a relatively calm place like Goa where sanity
prevails no matter the provocation this feels like alien country. I almost feel
timid in comparison to the fellow drivers!
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| Goat farm |
Checking
into our hotel about 2300 hrs it takes us a while to freshen up, have dinner
and then hit the sack. Thankfully, it is a late start tomorrow.
The
entire journey from Goa till Delhi has been just driving, driving and then some
more driving. The rains have kept us company till Vapi or thereabouts. After
that it has been pretty much dry. In fact, Udaipur was just comfortable in the
morning but the day has been very hot and it is scorching in Delhi!
The
vehicle left behind has been repaired (a choked fuel filter and lines which
needed replacement) and the team has brought it till Jaipur today. They will
catch up with us tomorrow morning. There is a sense of quiet excitement in the
team since the real rally starts tomorrow. This road trip can only loosely be
called a rally since there are 4 vehicles participating and going as a team
though without any competition. We hit the hills tomorrow. We are on the
threshold of the most exciting part of the trip. The journey to the top of the
world!
The
journey continues....
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