Travelogue: Delhi - Kotdwara - Lansdowne - Mussooriee - Delhi (6 Days 1000+ Kms)

[shailinder]

Dear All,

I know I am late by more than a month to write this travelogue since my recent visit to Lansdowne and Mussooriee. But still I believe it is better late than never (from sign boards all across the hills).

I am not as beautiful writer of travelogues as our mate Toughguy or others are, but still I will try to make it as interesting a possible. You may also refer to previous discussions on it at http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...ations-near-delhi-8th-11th-jun-tentative.html

It was my first journey on hills as a driver and that too with my family (2 kids). I would like to thank many people to give excellent advice on driving on hills and they were:

350Z, Toughguy, TsiVipul.

Ok now back on track…..

On 8th Jun’12 – Around 7:00am

As we planned, we started off early in the morning around 7am (with kids it is really difficult to start around 5 or 6 am). People will kids would better understand it.

As we were heading straight to attend a marriage in the family at Kotdwara. I took old straight road via Ghaziabad-Meerut (bypass)-Bijnor-Nazimabad-Kotdwara route. Before Meerut my cell stopped working and without Google maps, I had to wait and ask numerous times to seek directions details. As we all might have experienced. People were eager to support. So with lot of question-answer and cross questioning, we embarked Meerut – Bijnor road via Mirapur etc.

After a small break at one of the dhabha (Brunch) near Mirapur we crossed a Ganga Baraaj and paid Rs. 5/- towards toll tax (however, to me it was completely illegal to look at it.) I do not remember that I had got a receipt for that or not.

By 11am we reached Bijnor but there was a big jam at Bijnor bus stand and we got struck there for 1.5 hours. We crossed Bijnor around 12:30pm and reached Nazimabad around 1:30pm and children started feeling hungry again. So, had to wait at a very small tea stall between Nazimabad and Kotdwara near Jaffara we had bread omelet (4 eggs and full bread) and 2 cup of teas and total expense was around Rs. 50 and quality was great. We started from Jaffara tea stall around 3pm and reached our home around 4pm.

So, a total journey of 5-6 hours (max) got completed in 8 hours but there were reason to it.

More to come...

Kids enjoying during the journey as always

My car resting after a long drive

Empty roads

Traffice jam near Meerut

Google gave away around Meerut

 

[shailinder]

Re: Travelogue : Delhi-Kotdwara-Lansdowne-Mussooriee-Delhi (6 days 1000+Kms)

On 9th Jun’12 – Around 9am

My brother gave an idea to visit Lansdowne and come back by evening (it is roughly 45kms from my native place). Idea was a welcomed by most of us as it was planned earlier to visit and stay at Lansdowne but due to unavailability of hotels I had to shift my plan to Mussooriee. Well we started by 11am and drive to Lansdowne was awesome. Narrow but good roads, let us reach there in an hour’s time and we straight away heads to have some pait-pooja (lunch).

After a lavish lunch, we went to Bhulla Lake. It was man-made lake and has some arrangements for boating and few ducks are also there to keep kids interested in the area. We sat there for some 20-30 mins and started moving towards tip n top enroute we visited old Church. It was awesome feeling seeing such an old building in good shape. At tip n top there was nothing visible due to cloud covering entire Himalayan range and we came back empty handed.

After some more sit seeing we started our journey back to Kotdwara around 5 pm via Gumkhal. Weather at / around Gumkhal was even better than Lansdowne. We took some photographs and returned to Kotdwara by 6pm.

Note:- I thought that my brother would let me drive on hills to have some firsthand experience but he did not offer and I did not ask. Sshhh !

On 10th Jun’12 – Around 8am

We started our journey to Mussooriee from Kotdwara and promised everyone to come again during winters to visit other places. Route was again planned via Kotdwara-Nazimabad bypass to Haridwar-D’Dun-Mussooriee.

Entire journey was excellent till we reach Haridwar and from there BIG jam started. We reached Haridwar around 10am but could not cross it up till 11pm. More surprises were there for us. On this route there are two narrow railway underpasses are there and there we encountered bigger jams than Haridwar. We managed clear both the jams and could reach D’Dun by 4pm.

Before embarking hilly road, we waited for some last snacks for Maggie. For three plats he charged Rs. 90/- expensive but nice.

Around 5:30pm we started off to Mussooriee. I switched off music to remain focused and boy o boy what a journey it was. Full of bands, curves, trucks n buses and car walas from Delhi/NCR running down (opposite direction) as if they are driving on Buddha circuit and confident there would not be any one coming from front. One buggar (Indica cabby), was over taking on a curve (100% blind spot) and came in front of me almost yelling “Mujhe Bachoo” . I had to break hard and he somehow managed to maneuver his cab on right track others we were about to experience a BIG BANG.

Anyway, just 15-20mins on hills and such an experience was good enough to shatter anybody’s confidence. But I did not have any choice nor was I really ready to explore any but to continue our journey.
After this incident, entire journey till we reach Delhi was full of fun and excitement. (Touchwood)

Finally, at 6:15pm we reached our destination “Karma Villas, Mussooriee”. It was a beautiful property and good view of D’Dun during night.
After day long journey, we had good dinner and retire at our room.

More to come...

Kids playing at the hotel in the evening

 

[shailinder]

Re: Travelogue : Delhi-Kotdwara-Lansdowne-Mussooriee-Delhi (6 days 1000+Kms)

On 11th Jun’12 – Around 9am

After finishing breakfast, we thought of visiting Dhanualti as suggested by many here at TAI and locals. Route to Dhanualti was via narrow but less crowded road. Driving on hills is far easy than driving out here I guess. Provided you stay focused, drive in your lane and control speed limits.
We reached Dhanualti by 11am and thought of visiting the two parks there but at that time a new plan came in my mind and gave it a try.

I suggested my wife to visit Tehri dam, which was some 70-80kms from Dhanualti and she gave her consent and without any delay we continued our journey to Tehri Dam. Again roads were narrow but empty or I would say sedate drive made our day. By 2:30pm we reached Tehri Dam. Man it was huge I mean really HUGE. Water from this end till the next end, it was like a sea made in hills. We spent good time there for an hour and started our journey back. Kids were really thrilled to see such a dam and so are we.

By 5pm, we were back at Dhanualti and as promised to kids, we got down and spent some time on the play area cum garden at Dhanualti.

By 6pm, we started our return journey to Mussooriee and reached around 7:30pm.

It was full of fun and excitement and everyone loved the drive.

As usual, we had good dinner and retire for the next day.

On 12th Jun’12 – Around 8am

After finishing the breakfast, we started our journey to Kempty fall. It was nice but crowded road and roads on some stretches were broken. But a bigger surprise was waiting at Kempty falls. Oh God, it was crowded like anything. I really mean it guys. People were pouring from everywhere and at the fall. People were literally dying to get inside the water no matter who is standing where. Men were busy arranging clothes on hire and women were making faces as if someone has entered in their private pool.

It was hilarious from any and every angle.

We waited for some 30 mins there before our level or tolerance gave way and started our long journey back to main road. Both sides of the road were covered with people selling something or the other at higher rates and people were buying as if it was free. Sshh !

After our return to the top or on main road we thought of visiting company garden. It was a nice place and more than anything kids really enjoyed it on rides and boats. We spent some 2-3 hours there and return to hotel by 5:30pm.

At hotel, kids were busy playing in the play room and we were just enjoying stay’s last night at the hotel. After dinner at 9pm we retire for the day.

More to come...

 

[shailinder]

Re: Travelogue : Delhi-Kotdwara-Lansdowne-Mussooriee-Delhi (6 days 1000+Kms)

On 13th Jun’12 – Around 9am

We woke up at 9am and finished everything including breakfast and payment settlements by 10:30am and started our journey back to Delhi at 11am.

This time it was we took direct route from Mussooriee-D’Dun-Roorkie-Meerut (bypass)-Ghaziabad-Delhi. But lost our road around Roorkie, wherein, Google map ditched me and took us on a different road. We continued on wrong road for20-25 Kms then I realized that we will reach Ambala if we continue on this road. I took a U turn and asked few people and they suggested route which was completely on a BAD road but my Estilo responded to it quite nicely and we crossed, I do not know how many craters and naalas to get merged to main D’Dun-Delhi road. But this misleading route was full of fun as we were going through some farms and empty stretches without even a single cycle wala.

We stopped for some snacks around 4pm after crossing Meerut and started off around 5pm and reached our place by 8pm.

So after reaching home we realized that we left our lights and fans running for no one (for 6 days flat). Shhh!

-----------------------End of Log------------------------------

Thanks for reading it. I have so many photographs and in the process of finding good to be uploaded. Would upload more during coming weekends.

Thanks

 

[Marun]

Re: Travelogue : Delhi-Kotdwara-Lansdowne-Mussooriee-Delhi (6 days 1000+Kms)

Really enjoyed reading this travelogue mate. You said Maps ditched you. Does that mean no signal or wrong indication? What's the mileage you got?

 

[shailinder]

Re: Travelogue : Delhi-Kotdwara-Lansdowne-Mussooriee-Delhi (6 days 1000+Kms)

Really enjoyed reading this travelogue mate. You said Maps ditched you. Does that mean no signal or wrong indication? What's the mileage you got?

Thanks Marun. It was a case of wrong directions by google maps. I have never experienced such a bad response from google maps before. I travelled in Chennai, Mumbai and other places and it was bang on target but this time I don't know what happened. Millage I got around 16 including hilly area millage. Which is good by estilo's standards I guess.

 

[rekharam]

Thanks for sharing this travelogue with us, sir. You have two cute kids. Can you post more pictures of sites if you have. As I'm from south India, I love to visit places mentioned by you.

Thanks again for sharing your travel experience, sir.

 

[Chandranath]

I too have the Estilo, the latest model, probably one upgrade more than the one when you bought.

Loved to see it taking on the Gahrwal Himamlayas. Please post some more pictures.

What was the issue with Google maps?

 

[shailinder]

Thanks for sharing this travelogue with us, sir. You have two cute kids. Can you post more pictures of sites if you have. As I'm from south India, I love to visit places mentioned by you.

Thanks again for sharing your travel experience, sir.

Thanks for appriciating it sir. I will surely upload more pictures on coming Saturday / Sunday.

I too have the Estilo, the latest model, probably one upgrade more than the one when you bought.

Loved to see it taking on the Gahrwal Himamlayas. Please post some more pictures.

What was the issue with Google maps?

Great to note that you also own an Estilo. There was not anything wrong in particular with Google maps. It was just that it showed wrong directions. I was suppose to board a different road but instead Google took me on a completely different track.

I was also amazed to see that my car was pulling (4.5 yrs old /70+k run) nicely. Even though it was full of stuffs like bags, trolly and AC was also on. Still not a slightest hitch in pulling

 

[shailinder]

Few more pictures from the trip. I hope you will like it..

Old Church from Lansdowne..



My daughter dancing at Tip n Top, Lansdowne



I spotted it, while coming from Tip n Top



From a garden near Army canteen.



My daughter playing in the company garden



Kids playing at the company garden



Church roof, all wooden. Lansdowne

 

[ToughGuy]

My sincere apologies for being so late on this thread, i am away from town.

Shailinder congratulation for your successful trip, i am sure you and family had a gala time over this trip, fantastic write up and lovely pics i would definitely love to see more pics from your side especially of Tehri region.