Day 1:
India, with its vast expanse and enchanting beauty is a
travel paradise for enthusiastic and
adventure loving travellers. Certainly
no place in this world can be a better platform than India to understand and
experience the diversity in its fullest. Journeying along the arterial
connections of the country, the highways can nourish the travel squadron with
the wholesome experience of imbibing the sanctity and virtues of this oldest
civilisation.
We packed bags, impromptu and set on a road trip most
inadvertently with a vague idea of exploring the hinterlands of North India.
During the long weekend, equipped with a GPS, out of sheer love of exploring
the land we revere, without prior bookings or reservations for accommodation,
we flagged off our journey from Delhi. It might sound crazy, but the real
thrill of the journey lies in its obscurity. Delhi is ideally located to travel
to different tourist destinations in the northern part of the country. Stocking
fruit juices and fresh fruits, we hit the Delhi-Ghaziabad road. We intended to visit
enchanting hilly terrain of a cantonment and remote hill station, Lansdowne in
Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand. Located at an altitude of 1700 metres
from sea level it now houses the command office of the Garhwal Rifles. It is
242 km from Delhi and serves as a good weekend destination.
We had a faint idea of the road route, so simply followed the
route shown by GPS. It being Independence Day, we waited for the restrictions
on the movement of vehicles across Delhi borders to be completely lifted and
started by 1pm. Even though it was a holiday, roads were quite active and it
took 40 min to cross Ghaziabad. As we manoeuvred through a narrow stretch of
road to avoid the traffic of the city, we were awe stuck by the colossal real
estate activity. Small makeshift tents have shot up on either side of road,
actively promoting their business ventures. Several thousands of apartments are
in making and the scale of constructions is humongous.
On the outskirts of Ghaziabad, we hopped onto a two lane road
that ran through Muradnagar, Modinagar, Mohiuddinpur, Khazmabad to exit to the
NH-119, Delhi-Meerut road. NH-119 is also a two lane road and it meanders
through the Meerut city which is bustling with activity. Loudspeakers on the
high way playing the patriotic songs were keeping the fervour of the
Independence Day alive on the roads. We took a left turn at the roundabout
after the Begum Pul in the Meerut city, to enter the Mavana-Khatauli Road.
Mavana road goes through the cantonment and farm houses. It is an excellent
road and a rare treat for Indian four wheel drivers who regularly struggle
through the pot holes of city roads. As road is devoid of heavy traffic, we
were hitting 80-100kmph speed. As we moved further on the road through Rajpur
and Balarpur, the vast stretches of green fields with Sugarcane and Rice
completely mesmerised us. Along the highway, dense vegetation in certain
patches had partially shut out the sunlight. For a while we felt like
travelling through thickly spread out forests as certain patches had huge trees
whose branches intertwined with those on the other side of road.
Meerut City
The beauty and the delight of travelling through this part of
the country side is indescribable. Further well maintained roads enhanced
comfort and joy to our exhilarating journey. Halfway through our journey at
about 125 km, after Mirapur, we took a right turn to enter Bijnore-Nazibabad
road. Just on to the left side of the turning, we took a brief halt at Monty
Millions restaurant, a decent place with neat rest rooms, another rare
privilege in India. After quick snacking, we resumed our journey, the green
fields continued to allure us all the way. Along the way, we drove over the Choudary
Charan Singh Ganga Barrage where gushing waters of River Ganga in its full
force was a visual delight. We took a silent bow at the mother Ganges, whose
waters are feeding millions of Indians and continued our journey towards
Najibabad.
Mavana-Khatauli Road
Choudary Charan Singh Ganga Barrage
This monsoon season Delhi was parched, as we had scanty
rainfall, so the rainfall en route Kiratpur to Nijababad was refreshing. The
cool breeze and the lush green fields offered us much needed relaxation from
overcrowded and polluted climates of the urban setup. Towards Najibabad, roads
bore the brunt of lashing rains and meandering through the meteor sized craters
near the railway crossing was a gruelling task. The roads within the town of
Najibabad were in big mess due to massive constructions and continuous rainfall.
As we moving closer to Kotdwar, the gateway to Lansdowne and 32 Km away,
weather has become extremely pleasant and the view of the hills was awesome. We
briefly halted on a bridge constructed over a narrow water channel, to have an
all-encompassing view of the place.
As we entered Kotdwar, 210 km from Delhi we were cautioned by
a policeman to quickly look for a place for night stay since the road to
Lansdowne was closed due to a landslide. To review the veracity of the
information, we moved ahead but it was a prudent caution. Our hearts sank when
we learnt that road was really shutdown for regular general traffic. Then we
frantically made attempts to search for accommodation in that modest town. It
was 6pm, encouraged by the growing demand of the hapless tourists all the
hotels have already doubled their room rents. Though we were ready to shell out
extra money nearly every possible place was occupied. As we stood in the market
place, a noble soul offered a generous advice. He suggested that we drive to
Haridwar the nearest place where we can be assured of an accommodation and
opined that incessant rains will play havoc in clearing road to Lansdowne. We
profusely thanked him for his timely advice. Since the prospect of clearing the
landslide the next day seemed to be a rare possibility we relinquished the
decision of searching for accommodation in Kotdwar and decided to drive to our
new destination, Haridwar 54km away.
As we decided to drive
to Haridwar various thoughts began to hem our brains- a feeling of excitement
at the prospect of visiting one of the sacred places of Hindu pilgrimage
and little despondent as our desire to
explore Lansdowne had fizzled out. We
also had apprehensions about driving at night through a less frequented path.
But the spirit of adventure and thrill overpowered all these emotions.
We soon began driving in South east direction towards
Najibabad for 8 km and then took a right turn to enter a less frequented and a
deserted road running parallel to the a river stream. It was the shortest route
to Haridwar suggested by locals. It was 7pm and slowly night began to step in
engulfing as a thick dark blanket. There were no street lights and most of the
locals were heading back to their houses as it became dark. With no trace of
moon in cloudy skies the journey entered into a phase of real adventure. The
narrow road with huge bushes and imposing trees on either side created the
feeling of travelling through a dense forest. In fact, we later discovered that
the road was passing through the Pathari Forest Range. We had brief tense
moments on this road as some parts of the road were badly damaged and rain
water filled the potholes making the path more dangerous under the dark cloudy
night skies. We travelled for nearly 40 km on this road and hit NH-74 that took
us to our destination. As we neared Haridwar, highway was heavily guarded and
enormously crowded with vehicles. So we had to slog through the crawling
traffic to reach the parking lot of Haridwar. All outside vehicles are denied
entry into the sacred town and are allotted designated safe parking on the
outskirts. We picked up our luggage, hired a rickshaw and proceeded towards the
Ganga Ghat or Hari Ki Pauri and began frantically searching for accommodation
on the Ganga Ghat. Perhaps we were too naive in underestimating the
tourist flow to the temple town during the extended weekend and had to mete huge
disappointment. But that didn’t waiver our spirit as we succeeded in finding a
decent accommodation at Hotel Manasasarovar in the market area, nearer to the
Mansa Devi temple. Finally we refreshed in the room and hunted for a place to
have dinner in the market around 10pm. We managed to find a simple food outlet
serving decent food.
Photography: Ramaharitha & TLS Bhaskar
@ Copyrights reserved.
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