Nainital and Beyond in My Polo: May 2012

[ToughGuy]

Trip Stats
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Trip start date: 19th May’2012

Trip End Date: 21st May’2012

Mode of transport: My Polo diesel

Travelers: Me and my wife

Total distance covered: 784KM

Route taken: Delhi - Ghaziabad - Hapur - Garh Mukteshwar- Moradabad - Tanda - Bazpur - Kaladhungi – Nainital- Bhowali

Our Local guide: Mr. Manik we hired him through our hotel but later on found that he friend of our friend small world, he knows the Kumaon so well i recommend him for all your future Kumaon visits.

Places covered: Mall road Nainital, Naini lake, Ghorakhal tea garden, Lord Golu temple, Peter Smetacek - Butterfly Research Centre, Naukuchia tal, Bhimtal, Sattal, local village and valley of fruits near Ramgarh.

Our Hotel: Rewa Retreat, Bhowali located 12KM away from Nanital

Delhi-Nainital route planning was discussed in this thread before this trip click here

With the onset of summer, Himalayan run started growing on me already for months are passed since my last visit to mountains. Wish life is full of journeys to Himalaya range at least many others like me will surely wait till this dream comes true.

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[shailinder]

Re: Nainital and beyond in my Polo: May’2012

Good going Toughguy.

Keep rolling...Or is it over soo soon !

 

[ToughGuy]

Re: Nainital and beyond in my Polo: May’2012

Good going Toughguy.

Keep rolling...Or is it over soo soon !

Thanks Shailinder, forgot the memory card at home till now compiling the log will start posting pics by evening.

Keep tab on this thread buddy

 

[shailinder]

Re: Nainital and beyond in my Polo: May’2012

Ha ha ha I always have a tab on your posts my friend. Dont worry we are also not in a hurry take your time.

All the best.

 

[ToughGuy]

Day-1 (19-05-2012)

We managed to start early (read 5:15AM) from Dwarka, Delhi as usual roads were mostly empty in no time reached first toll plaza on Hapur bypass.

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crossed Garhmukteshwar bridge which also was in bad state and some construction work was going on along the bridge, rolled down the windows to check the outside temperature and felt the rising mercury.

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Our first stop was at Gajraula Bikanervala had sandwich and tea over there, nicely located large property with clean loo after 30-40 minutes break we started our journey again

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Road condition in UP was also quite good compared to what i actually read on forums, only thing is that people and animals are always ready to jump in front so driving sedately.

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As we reached this toll plaza of Mordabad bypass maintained by NHAI all hell broke, our plan to reach Nainital goes haywire, there is long queue of vehicles running in kms waiting patiently to cross this toll plaza,

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somehow managed to cross this in half n hour time but only to find this long queue of trucks, i entered in wrong lane like many other vehicles to gauge the situation but only to find out that this is 2-3 hours long jam same is also confirmed by truck and bus drivers waiting in traffic.

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Plan B in action: Time to implement the alternate route i reversed my Polo in wrong lane and somehow managed to rescue myself from this mess. Like us many other also reversed there car :)

 

[diehardi20]

Good one Tough Guy !

Luckily my wifey is Kumauni so no trouble wid chit chatting wid people . :-)

Nice one !!!!

 

[ToughGuy]

Day1 contd...

After we reversed and crossed the toll plaza i checked my location in google map with the help of my iphone and decided to enter Moradabad via slip road, my alternate plan was Kashipur-Bazpur-Kaladhungi i selected this route due to information of broken bridge at Tanda, but as i reached near Tanda turn i stopped to inquire about the condition of broken bridge but was told that route is fine and our vehicle can easily cross that bridge.

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After crossing the above turn and driving for few kms i couldn't believed my stars so inquired again about the condition of broken bridge from a Delhi registered Innova taxi driver coming from opposite side and that guy reassured me that route is fine so finally i am convinced and set to go again.

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Road condition till Tanda is awesome with newly laid road, i am doing good speeds but was careful about the bikers driving in all directions.

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but as i entered Tanda world around us changed dramatically, road condition worsen this continued for few km

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On our return journey we found a board in front of this bridge with notice that only light vehicles are allowed as this bridge is weak. This bridge in question is located between Bazpur and Tanda, and this is just after few kms from Bazpur if you are coming from Nainital.

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yes complete stretch from Tanda to Bazpur is not bad, its 60-40 majority of roads are laid recently and are in good condition but still if one is in hurry and don't want to test his/her skills should stick to Rampur-Haldwani route, wish that jam thing ends soon

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I must admit that Kaladhungi route is very scenic, i enjoyed the beautiful roads very much. As i entered Uttarakhand road condition changed dramatically and becomes perfect.

But yes road condition after Bazpur was also excellent :)

 

[ToughGuy]

Good one Tough Guy !

Luckily my wifey is Kumauni so no trouble wid chit chatting wid people . :-)

Nice one !!!!

Thanks buddy, you are very lucky i am sure you visits these places more often.

 

[suvo]

keep it going ToughGuy, very nice reading. Also let us know how did the Polo performed in the various riding conditions.

 

[ToughGuy]

keep it going ToughGuy, very nice reading. Also let us know how did the Polo performed in the various riding conditions.

Thanks suvo, Polo performed extremely well i took her to off beat tough roads and unusual places, 3pot engine is myth she is a diesel rocket and true driver's car.

Keep checking this thread for updates.

 

[shailinder]

Good going toughguy.. keep it up and bring the entire story in one go.

Thanks

 

[ToughGuy]

Day-1 contd

After Kaladhungi i missed a left turn for Nainital and kept going straight for 12-13 kms towards Haldwani, soon realized my mistake and returned back to the right track.

After that turn from Kaladhungi hills started and we enjoyed that to fullest but only issue was heat which become unbearable during mid noon even in hills :(

Now it's time for our first photo break, after couple of pics we started again as usual roads were awesome, for few kms some construction work (i think UG cable laying work) was going along the road, after that everything was fine.

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There is ample parking inside the hotel though not very large but enough to accommodate visitors car :)

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Time for Maggi break, found this deserted hotel with loo facility before 25-30 km from Nainital, he served us awesome vegetable Maggi after having one plate each we ordered for two more plates, complete nirvana.

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after 40-50 minutes break we started again towards Nainital, noticed ample greenery in Kumaon compare to Garhwal which got bare mountains.

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Soon we entered mall road and paid 50 bucks as entrance, beware they wanna charge you 100bucks instead of 50, but luckily i was aware that before 3PM mall road entrance fee for cars is 50bucks :) saved 50bucks on both to and fro trip

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As we entered mall road saw this beautiful Nanital lake or Nani lake along the mall road, view was breathtaking, lake was very clean, being weekend mall road was filled with tourists.

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We decided to check in our hotel first which was located in Bhowali, another 12-13km drive we are in Bhowali as usual road was in excellent condition

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[ToughGuy]

This is the first view of our hotel Rewa retreat, we booked online via Make my trip after reading fantastic reviews on trip advisor and found that this hotel is really a gem, though surroundings are not so beautiful but once we enters inside the premises of this hotel we found different world altogether

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Rooms are quite large with all facilities, i requested hotel helpdesk to arrange a guide for us for tomorrow's local site seeing, he quoted 600 bucks for same, i found that reasonable and confirmed.

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There is ample parking space inside the hotel compound, though not very large but enough for visitors.

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[ToughGuy]

Good going toughguy.. keep it up and bring the entire story in one go.

Thanks

Thanks shailinder, i wish writing log becomes easy waiting for your turn

So place is decided?

 

[ToughGuy]

Day-1 contd

We reached our hotel between 1-2PM, after taking rest for few hours we headed straight to mall road, Nainital paid 100bucks for entrance fees, the parking near ground was full we were directed towards upper Mallital and managed to park our car 500-600M away from this parking.

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Through this Tibet market we reached Nani lake for boat riding, they were charging 160bucks for full ride and 110bucks for half ride, maximum four persons can sit in a boat at a time. There were two types of boats one self driven paddle boat one with boater.

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Due to weekend rush there was complete chaos over here, place was full of activities with numerous tourists.

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View from boat was breathtaking, experience was memorable for us, sunset view and pleasant weather made our day

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We boated for 30-40 minutes, and liked all around view from middle of lake which was maintained quite well by local authorities.

Sorry for quality of above pics which was taken from my mobile i forgot my camera in car parking :)