A Trip To Uttarakhand in Dusky Brown Ertiga ZDI


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Dear friends

This is regarding our recent eight day trip to Uttatakhand from Noida in our diesel Ertiga ZDI dusky brown. We started our journey from Noida in the early morning at 05:00 am. The plan was that by the time traffic increases on the roads we would have crossed most of the busy areas. We started from Noida and when we reached NH 24 via noida extension area we were amazed to see lot of traffic on the road which only later we realized that 25 May being a full moon day people were going to Garhmukteswar for a dip in holy ganges. After bracing through traffic jams before Garh we crossed the ganga bridge and heaved a sigh of relief from traffic. We crossed Moradabad bypass by 9 am and halted for breakfast and tea at Apni Haveli hotel. It’s a nice and clean little hotel and serves good delicious food. We always halt here whenever we cross this place. It has jhulas for kid’s .From Moradabad we continued our journey to ramnagar which is about 85 kms away .We had booking in corbett resort Camp Riverwild at Mohaan. I enquired the route since I had read on the internet regarding bad roads enroute. Locals told me that the road via Thakurdwara is good so we continued on Moradabad -Thakurdwara road.

We reached Thakurdwara and the road till here was better than I had expected in fact it was a very nice surface. Thakurdwara to Kashipur road was good in patches but was acceptable. From Kashipur we went to Ramnagar. Camp Riverwild is about 22 kms from Ramnagar. We passed the famous Girjiya mata temple and reached Mohaan where Camp Riverwild is situated. Road to our resort was pathetic. In fact there was no road only tire marks were seen on the gravel. After right turn from the main road camp riverwild road passed through jhuggis and then through the river to reach the resort. Drive from the road to resort was an off road adventure. The resort Camp Riverwild was wonderfull.. We stayed for one night. Here. Next morning ie on 26 may we went for fishing with kids. I planned my further journey to Ranikhet. We searched google map which was showing a long route through kaladhungi-nainital but I could see a direct road to Ranilkhet via Bhatrojkhan and Tarikhet. I enquired regarding the route with the hotel employees and they told me that the road is good but has many curves and is narrow. I thought of takîing this route the logic was that even if I go very slowly I will reach earlier by this route. The route was quiet scenic but was difficult.. I was driving my diesel Ertiga. For the first time I felt the car is underpowered for this kind of terrain.. I was familiar with the turbo lag of the car and had made adjustments in my driving technique to overcome it. but all this went haywire on driving on this hill road.. Because of too many turns it was difficult t increase the rpm so that turbocharger activated. Most of the driving was in 1st and 2nd gears and rarely 3rd was used.

Anyway I kept my cool and stuck to safe driving in the hills i.e. drive slowly, keep left and give a horn before every turn. At various places the road was narrow and it was difficult to give way for opposite traffic especially mini buses plying on the route for local transport. We reached Bhatrojkhan. After we crossed Bhatrojkhan and before Tarikhet my Ertiga started showing problems. Its steering wheel was getting stiffer and it was getting difficult to turn round the corners. At slow speed we reached Tarikhet. I showed my car to a local mechanic he told me that the pipe might have come off. He looked inside the bonnet but couldn’t find anything. I called maruti service Vipul Motors Noida and they made me talk to technical person who was expert in EPS. He told me that that it is an electronic system and there’s no pipe and after asking a few questions regarding the onboard display told me that the car would have to be checked and that I should show it to maruti service. Vipul motors noida people were very helpful especially Mr Dhananjoy who in fact searched and informed me regarding mechanic at Ranikhet. After this break of about half an hour the steering had become normal I think it was something to do with heating of the car or some electronic fault due to continuous driving. By this time although the car had become absolutely normal but my driving confidence was hurt because of that unpredictable steering problem. I kept on driving slow at a speed of about 15-20 kmph. We reached our hotel West View at Ranikhet at 3 pm.

During most of the stretch our gps on google maps was showing position where there was no road so we did not rely on it.We checked in and were pleasantly surprised to see our room upgraded without any additional cost. the accommodation had separate TV room and kids loved it. I asked hotel reception regarding Latif Motors at Ranilkhet which Mr Dhananjoy at Vipul motors Noida had informed. I thought will show my car the next day but when talked to Latif motors he asked me to get my car on the same evening since next day Monday was market closed at Ranikhet. I got ready and planned to take the car. My wife and kids also wanted to come with me. Few taxi drivers discouraged me to get the car opened in Ranikhet and said that since the Ertiga is a new model mechanics here wont understand it and would be better if I get it checked on returning. I thought lets drive to Latif motors at Ranikhet market which was 4 kms away and let’s see if the steering trouble recurs. I drove to Ranikhet market but there wasn’t any problem in the car. My wife suggested that why don’t we visit some nearby place in the evening so I headed straight to the Ranikhet golf course about 10 kms away on the road to someshwar via Ghangarikhal. Golfcourse was very scenic with tall trees surrounding it. Kids played badminton which we were carrying in the car. Sunset was superb .Next day morning we visited Chaubatia garden which was about 3-4 kms from our hotel .On the way we visited the famous Jhuladevi temple which was has bells tied by devotees. We saw Chaubatia garden which has various varieties of fruit plants and trees. By the time we returned from Chaubatia it had started raining and the remaining evening we enjoyed at our hotel. next day we visited woolen factory at Army Cantt and purchased two shawls and also saw how these were made by widows of ex-serviceman. we started our journey from Ranilhet to kausani which is about 75 kms away.

There are two ways of going to kausani from Ranikhet one is via Ghangarikhal and Someshwar and the other route is via Gagas, Bagwalipokhar and Binta. Both the routes merge before kausani at Someshwar. Locals told us that the Bagwali pokhar route is better although it has about 10 kms of road under construction remaining route is good. Road was as told under construction till Gagas from Ranikhet. It had sharp stones where the road was being laid down. after crossing this 10 km stretch i got down my car and checked all four wheels for any damages. luckily there was none. after we crossed Binta we felt as as if we have returned to the plains with surrounding mountains. road till Kausani was very scenic. Trees had booming purple flowers and we felt like we are in a different world. We reached kausani and checked in our hotel kausani best inn. We had just a small glimpse of snow capped mountains in the afternoon. Hotel guys told us that because of clouds one won’t be able to see full view and that the view is better in the morning . I got up in the morning at 5 oclock but there was cloud cover and mountains were not visible I thought I have unnecessarily disturbed my sleep but then I saw the beautiful sunrise which I captured with my camera. It was really beautiful. Next day we checked out from Kausani to Bhimtal via kainchi dham. road was very nice and wide all through the way and I could drive my Diesel Ertiga at 50-60 kmph and at this rpm theres nothing stopping the ertiga and it moves like a breeze .

We reached Bhowali in about 4 hrs. Bhowali is famous for fruits. As soon as we crossed Bhowali and started moving towards Bhimtal there was a loud thud on the roof of my Ertiga as if some stone has fallen on the roof. It was raining and the sound from roof started more frequently. It was a hailstorm and they were hitting on the roof of the car and windshield. They were so large I thought they might break the windshield. therewas no safe place to stop so i continued driving and we reached our hotel Lakeinn at Bhimtal. the way to the hotel was nothing less than a nightmare. It was steep narrow with kutcha muddy road and water from uphill was flowing towards our car. Finally we reached our hotel. Kids enjoyed playing with halestones . Hotel Lakeinn had a good view of Bhimtal lake. Hospitality of the hotel was below our expectations. They were doing ao much cost cutting in everything that it started frustrating us. No soap shampoo in bathrooms, in map plan they gave parathas and curd in breakfast and daal roti for dinner. I wondered if I had paid so much amount for this. On top of all this they wanted to charge 2% extra for credit card. The hotel lakeinn was the worst experience of our trip. We visited Bhimtal and did boating and visited aquarium situated in the middle of the lake. Next day morning we went to Naukuchiatal which is about 15 kms from Bhimtal. Naukuchiatal is a beautiful lake with natural beauty all around.

After boating at Naukuchiatal we planned to visit Sattal lake. I saw google maps for way to Sattal lake and decided to go towards Haldwani and turn right on the way for Sattal. On the way my wife told me that the gps is showing our position way beyond and in fact there was no right turn road to Sattal. i was almost halfway down to Haldwani from Bhimtal. I made a u-turn and we decided to go to Nainital instead. On the way to Nainital and before Bhowali we saw Country Inn Bhimtal resort. We thought of enquiring regarding availability for one night on 31 may since we were quite frustrated with Lakeinn Bhimtal and did not want to end our trip on a bad note. We enquired at the reception and they said they will charge 50% of 2N3D package. We agreed and made the booking for next day. Kids had some jhula time at the resort and then we proceeded to Nainital.

We reached Nainital at about 3 pm . It was cloudy. Kids had some fun time at jhulas at the base of way to ropeway. There were hailstorm again it became very cold and we returned back to Bhimtal Lake Inn. On the next day morning we checked out from Bhimtal lake inn hotel and checked in at Country Inn Bhimtal . Did some swimming with kids at the indoor swimming pool. We went for nature walk at the resort . Country inn has many fruit and flower plants. Food at the resort was delicious. In the evening we played tambola organized by country inn . Next day morning we started our return journey to Noida. I asked about the best route to Moradabad and people told me all the roads to Moradabad are in bad condition so I decided to go via the route Bhimtal-Haldwani-Rudrapur-Bilaspur-Rampur-Moradabad-Delhi. Road between Rudrapur to Rampur around Bilaspur was in pathetic condition full of potholes although patch repairing was underway. After Rampur the road was nice. We reached Noida by 6 pm. It was overall a memorable and joyous journey in our diesel Ertiga which I had taken out for the first time on long route.

started our journey in the early morning from Noida

2013-05-25-2084.jpg

Thanks
Prem
 
Thread Starter #3
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Trip photos from noida to ranikhet via bhatrojkhan
 

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Thread Starter #4
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More photographs of the trip
 

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Thread Starter #5
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Continued.....
Some more photos of the trip
 

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Thread Starter #7
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Joined
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Beautiful pictures prem2535 [clap]. How was the weather there? How about the accommodation facilities and tariff?
 
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Prem,

Excellent Pics & Write-up man[clap]

I like all the pics especially those apple trees[:)]

waiting for more pics.
Yes AppU - Apple trees are really tempting. I could't locate one when I went to Himachal, told it's off season. Is the Munnar trip on?
 
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Yes, Ram sir.

Munnar trip is confirmed.

Will leave to Munnar on Thursday early morning from Vellore [;)]
Good !! Enjoy !!! Have a great and safe journey. Try out Hotel Dhanyasree, its decent budget hotel with good parking. Twice I stayed there.
 
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Good !! Enjoy !!! Have a great and safe journey. Try out Hotel Dhanyasree, its decent budget hotel with good parking. Twice I stayed there.

Just collected the list of Hotels address & Phone number from Google.

Sure Ram sir, will check it out Dhanyasree first :)
 
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Prem,

Excellent Pics & Write-up man[clap]

I like all the pics especially those apple trees[:)]

waiting for more pics.
Thanks for the compliments . actually there is only one apple tree in the pics . others are cherry,plum , peach and mango trees.
I am attaching some closeup pics
 

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