So friends here is a short story of our Kinnaur trip, this Deewali.
Hmm..even trukies are happy to take you there
Who; Me, My wife, Zeal (7+ yr old daughter), Vanity (the car)
when ; from 25th oct. through 2nd nov.
Before the trip report I sincerely thanks Kumar sir (H V Kumar). A thanks to Setu, YS for tips, Hitanshu and Amit for hearty invitations. And of course Mr. Atal bihari Vajpayee (for GQ, which is a dream for drivers of this country)
I’m not a good photographer nor a good story writer, so please pardon me for whatever MASALA MIX I’m going to write here. And there is no point to tell anything about beauty of Himalayas to all you explorers.
Original plan was to do this trip in `Aveo’ (we call Affinity) , but at last moment decided to take our new small car `Spark’ (Vanity). Homework for Routes and other technical care were done in detail. No advanced booking done for any accommodation. Packed so many varieties of home made dry food (a week long preparation – like all other trips, but this time quantity was more), dry fruits, chocolates, medicines, a separate bag for my daughter’s activity stuff – like coloring boxes, sketches, games, ….and what not. Since there is relatively less space in the car but we have no long list of other stuff, so everything and everybody fitted well in car.
Day: -6 : Car got injured, My wife hit the car with building’s pillar.(hence she was ruled out as co-driver)
Day: -1 : I got deep cut on right hand ring finger.(thank god no stitches.)
Day; 0 : I slept for only one and half hour.
And the journey starts against all (those) odds…..
Day-1 VADODARA-SONEPAT (1077 KM) ; 2.30 am – 10.30 pm
Plan was to start at early in morning ( at 2.30 am), so we can reach possible nearest place to Delhi ( either Behroar or Gurgaon). Everybody took their respective seat at 2.25 am. Started the journey, and against my expectation, no body was in mood to sleep. Eventless journey. Waah…the roads, and Even truckies were so disciplined !!! Reached Udaipur at 7.30 pm. A short break to take a yawn. Followed by Udaipur bypass and than the NH-76, Reached Chittor at 9.30 am.
NH-76 in morning
Crossed chittorgarh with local traffic, rail, bad patches of road, filled the tank and reached outskirt at 10.05. (by pass is still not ready) Now the NH-79, to Kishangadh through Nasirabad. An excellent road.
NH-79
Reached NH-8 at 1.10 pm ( total km.) A break/rest near small road side lake for few minutes, noticed heavy traffic on six lanes, but no problem as you can overtake from any side(against rules but no other option - you just maintain your pace – anyhow!!!!). Reached Jaipur at 2.30, took bypass and than a big jam due to accident. Time for tea, rest and than entered in city through small street, took many small roads and than parallel to bypass up to few kilometers, and than again on bypass, wasted many minutes. Again heavy traffic on nh-8. It was boring to cross Manoharpura, Shahpura, but reached Behroar at 6.0 pm. This was the first target for the day, and we decided to go further at least to Gurgaon. Reached Manesar at 7.40 pm. Called YS to know the traffic status on IRR / Dhaula kua, and again planned to cross Delhi the same time. Lots of traffic at Manesar and than Gurgaon toll, reduced our progress, than flying up to Dhaulakuan. Took IRR, met heavy traffic at Naraina ( Flyover construction.) Plan was to take left turn at Pritampura flyover, to avoid Azadpur, but a mistake and take left turn li’l bit earlier, immediately realized the mistake but the target was ORR, so didn’t returned. Reached ORR, and got heavy traffic again, somehow managed to reach NH-1 at 10 pm, and than for Sonepat. Reached Rai (Ethnic India Resort) at 10.30 pm.
Checked in, took meal and slept well. The resort is OK for night halt but not much impressive, and can be avoided for any other place. Not recommended.
So total 1077 kms – my longest drive in a day, in approx 20 hrs. time, and speed was moderate (no greater than 95 kph).…..No lunch today, instead many small breakfasts, lots of water and ORS. But there was some temporary symptoms of highway hypnosis (?) to my wife!
DAY-2 SONEPAT-KUFRI ( 336 KM) 9.0 am – 6.0 pm
All, except me, little bit tired, so started late at 9.0 am. Crossed Panipat, Karnal, and Ambala at 12.0 noon, good roads, till Zirakpur ( a new flyover here), got traffic at Panchkulha-Pinjaur than Kalka and crossed Parwanu at 2.30 pm. Started to climb, landscape was changing as is the height of roads. A short break for lunch at Giani’s Dhaba, which was very crowded at that time. Reached Shimla at 5.15 pm.
on way to shimla
again...
Somewhere near barog
Target for the day was Narkanda but found very bad roads, and than paucity of daylight. Took Shimla bypass (against setu’s advise) to avoid traffic but extreme bad roads, somehow reached Sanjauli, very slow and than again more bad and narrow roads up to Kufri, reached there at around 6.0 and decided to abort further journey for the day. Found the snow shelter hotel on main road, immediately checked in. Everything was alright till afternoon, but the last two hours changed everything by now. The road I was expecting to be good was in mess, asked locals about further road condition and got discouraging reply. So decide to take rest for a next day here only, and some re-planning. Called Kumar sir, he congratulated for finishing most of the distance and encouraged for further driving in car only, but still…Driver was ready, passengers were not ready.
DAY-3 KUFRI-NALDERA-SHIMLA
So we decided to take rest for the day (i.e from driving) and take a look at Shimla eh al. We asked hotel owner, he arranged for horses and taxi. We started with high observation points of Kufri, than Naldera.
Good morning kufri
Himalayan ranges from kufri
again...
Zeal of zeal...
The himalayas...
Took lunch at Dhalli and evening in Shimla, with some shopping at crowded mall road.
at Naldera...
Golf course naldera
Short walk at naldera
Temple at shimla
Shimla
Shimla again..
Bhanware ne khilaya ful..
Advanced study centre at shimla.
And that’s the end of day. Now what next ? A big question. First we planned to reach at least Narkanda / Hatu peak and decide what should be next, but than the other option came; park the car here only, take a cab and explore Kinnaur. Felt more convenient to all, as I was enjoying driving but rest two were also keeping eyes on road (more than me! ) with ooh and ouch at every curve and every close encounter with other vehicle, instead of enjoying surrounding. Parked the car at safe place, the hotel owner Devender singh ji is a nice fallow, and took responsibility to take care of parked car. But we enjoyed the stay at Kufri, and of course I recommend the hotel snow shelter.
DAY-4 KUFRI-SANGLA
Started at 8.50 am from kufri. Our Driver Ajay Varma (from small hamlet near kufri)- a nice person and is good driver. Initially the road ( up to Narkanda) was in very bad shape, so we were happy for our decision to not bring car here. But than there are really nice and smooth roads, even the Wangtu-Karchham belt was not that much bad, and I missed my car at every kilometer of road. Albeit, there were many scattered bad patches through out.
One more good morning at kufri
First view of sutluj
Sutlej from kingal
So i missed my car...
road near rampur
Very close to sutlej
Stream on road
Cleared from recent land slide
Waiting for food.
Sutlej...very near
Beautiful NH-22
Erosion of road
That famous temple at sangla road, but baba was not there this time.....
Sutlej was along us now from Kingal, few pics breaks, and the weather was good; sunny and dry. Passed not so attractive towns of Rampur, Jhakhri and Jeori, halt for lunch after Jhakhri at green valley restaurant – nice food and a nice location to have anything. Reached Sangla at around 4.45 pm. The plan was to go Chitkul, but temperature was reducing fast and was not sure about accommodation at Chitkul. Planned for night halt. Decide to take a look at Prakash GH and there camp site ; igloo riverside camp. Both places were fine, and clean, first we thought for night at tents but again it was very cold so we decide to sleep at GH room. The owner was so kind to give us permission to enjoy both places. So we took opportunity to enjoy at camp garden.
Apple trees at sangla
Sangla...
at sangla..
Sky at sangla in evening
Western peaks of The kinner kailash
Changing shades...
Last rays of day at peaks of kinner kailash.
After checking in, we immediately started to explore village. Few women returning from marriage ceremony, couple farmers were coming back to home, children were shouting `happy deewali’, we started to talk to all them. And than one old gentleman came to us, who was watching all this from distance. Asked about whereabouts and then he introduced himself as MR. OMPRAKASH ASWAN’ (owner of Prakash GH). After some chitchat about weather and other thing, he offered to take us at one of his farm. We happily accepted his invitation and here is his story..
Mr. Omprakash Aswan – a farmer, a hotelier, a retired veterinary pharmacist, active in horticulture, animal husbandry, father of six kids, pioneer of growing European vegetables in India………list is long. He took us to the nearest farm –spread in 7800 sq. meters area. First he showed us apple trees at different ages, and explained varieties of apples at his farms…Golden, royal, red delicious and golden delicious.
Apples on tree
Apples in rooms
Good night kinner kailash.
He described and showed the entire cycle of apple – from seeds to packing, and permitted us to pluck and taste apples from tree itself. Oh these apples have some special sweetness(not because they were free). By the time it was very dark so he promised to take us for another tour in morning. He revealed other story of growing European vegetables also. It was very delightful session when he talked about their society, people and kinnauri customs in late evening. He discussed their daily activities during winter months, and other uses of apples during these months. Interesting. At night we offered sweets and invitation to fire crackers by hotel staff. Enjoyed very much this deewali evening.
Omprakashji.. showing Asparagus
Varieties of Apples
Contd.....
