This is a brief report of a trip made more than twenty months ago to our favorite state of Himachal Pradesh, to a place where time stands still. Thought I’d share it with this forum of enlightened travelers….
It was during the Holi weekend in March 2007 that we drove up to the sleepy climes of Kasauli with inputs from a few of my acquaintances on Team BHP including our forum members Tanveer & Saazid (Khaadu) who saved me quite a few kilometers & a whole lot of time by giving me his inputs on the route that I should take from Gurgaon to Azadpur Subzi Mandi - lol! It all started off with a discussion on the route to take to avoid all that crazy construction work enroute to Zirakpur & culminated in a healthy debate which really didn’t come to any conclusions.
It was the first long distance trip that we made in our Safari 4x4 (also referred to as The Beast) which was, at that point, all of four & a half months old. Well, we set off on a Saturday morning (3rd March) at
7.43 am from Phase V, DLF, via Dhaula Kuan, Punjabi Bagh etc – it was a breeze at that hour & we reached the Azadpur-GT Road crossing in about 40 minutes or so. We averaged 50 kmph for the first hour & then let the beast rip for the next hour in which we crossed the Delhi-Haryana border, then Sonepat & finally zipped through Panipat before the chaos started (in those days the flyover work was in progress). We averaged 73 kmph in the second hour & then pushed on to make the first pee-and-leg stretching-halt at the Karnal Dhaba at 10.13 am (164.9 kms from the house).
We re-started at 10.26 am & proceeded to cross Kurukshetra/Pipli, Ambala Cantt & covered 80 kmph in the next hour before passing through Rajpura & taking the right turn that would take us to Zirakpur. I must thank Tanveer for coaxing me to go through Rajpura - although there was a lot of discussion about how much extra I would be traveling by doing this, in hindsight & actual measurement, it was not much & it did save us a hell of a lot of time. And I had good fun ripping the Safari on some real good stretches of tarmac. We arrived at Zirakpur crossing (holy mess that it was too!) at around 12.05 pm, then the Panchkula turnoff a little later at 12.19 & then finally Panchkula itself at 12.31 pm. Obviously, average speeds had come down drastically near & after Zirakpur, so we made 62 kms in that hour post Rajpura.
Progress in the next one hour was, as expected, very slow, we averaged 37 kmph passing through Pinjore, Kalka & Parwanoo town. Thereafter, we reached the Dharampur turnoff (from the NH) at 1.37 pm, passed by the famous Lawrence School, Sanawar & then passed gleefully through some slushy red mud before reaching Kasauli town (1,951 meters above sea level) at 2 pm & then
Hotel Ros Common at
2.08 pm, with
360.9 on the odometer. We covered this distance in
6 hours & 25 minutes, including a 13 minute halt at Karnal – not bad for a behemoth of its proportions. And it really showed its true class on the highway in “cruise” mode – totally planted & completely unflappable. I’d kept it between 120 & 140 on all the empty stretches that we passed through & overtaking was also a breeze because vehicles made way when they saw the behemoth’s lights flashing in their mirrors. As mentioned, it was my first long drive in the Safari & it was quite a revelation as I felt no fatigue whatsoever. Driving comfort was real good & as for the passengers – they were all praises. Particularly the kids, who were ecstatic about the comfort & SPACE of the middle row, nay make that the Sofa!
Approaching Kasauli....
There was one really steep bit from Kasauli town coming up to Ros Common where I remembered a piece of advice from a Safari veteran – “Remember, in the Safari, when you have the steering under full lock and release the clutch, the power steering robs a fair amount(upto 20% in some car's)of power, hence your clutch get's burdened”. I felt it at that point - you have to take the left fork to go towards the Hotel & it’s a very steep incline. I’d forgotten that I had a 3 ton beast with me & followed my usual practice of stopping to ask the way & then holding the clutch just at the point of release to prevent a rollback (handbrake too but it was a really steep incline). Now, I had to take a sharp left turn & go up so obviously the beast protested with a thud, clang and stalled immediately when I let go the clutch in full left lock! Then I remembered the golden words, let it roll back to even land, revved the engine, full left, let go clutch & full throttle up the incline. But, my earlier stunt must have put some stress on the clutch because we got a strong burning smell on our last half a kilometer to the Hotel. Lol, I was thinking, I’ve burnt it out, now what!?
Luckily, like all else, the behemoth took this in its stride, just parked it at the Hotel for a while & let the afternoon breeze do its bit in terms of getting rid of the stink! So there we were, at the Hotel, it was a really nice property of HPTDC and we had taken the Deluxe Double Bedroom at the back which had a wonderful view across the hills along with a separate small sitting area as well as a changing room & a spacious bathroom. I had been told earlier about how nice the place was & I could see for myself. Ros Common is a colonial bungalow with a lot of old world charm & some spectacular views across the valley.
So, a quick wash to refresh ourselves, a nice warm lunch & we were ready to explore the lawns & the road adjoining the Hotel. Oh, the grille & headlamps of the Safari were coated with a layer of dead bugs that it had lapped up on the way so I took a wet cloth & cleaned them out. Did I mention the water was so cold even at that hour, my hands froze!
Then off we went for a walk to the town, picked up some munchies & a LARGE bottle of Coke, saw a thermometer that indicated the temperature to be 9 degrees C (at around 4.30 in the afternoon lol) & went back to the Hotel.
As mentioned in the HPTDC brochure, Kasauli is a sleepy town where you feel like you are caught in a time warp in the 19th century. Life carries on in an unhurried place & you can take long walks for as far as your eyes can see. Once the sun went down, we could see the lights of Simla twinkling far away across the hills from our room. Kids had the TV on, we went through the couple of newspapers we had carried from Delhi & read them from cover to cover. After that, a bit of Team BHP browsing on the Blackberry & we were set for the most important part of the evening (for me at least) – the Bacardi & Coke bottles were opened, the chicken pakoras were ordered & what else could one ask for – nirvana
!
So after a few rounds of liquid nourishment, we decided to walk across to the Dining room for dinner. BIG MISTAKE
!!!! It was bloody freezing outside!
But we made it nonetheless, caps & all – the dining room was nice & warm of course with the heaters going so, a hearty meal, a quick jog through the ice-cold pathways outside & then back to our room for the night. Heaters on but then we discovered that the skylight didn’t close all the way down so we made sure we were adequately covered in a pile of blankets that were available!
The next day (4th March) was Holi so we decided to spend a relaxed day at the Hotel, stayed put & didn’t venture anywhere because I didn’t want to get into any confrontations on the way about water balloons, color etc. I had been told that the locals do not indulge in any form of misbehavior but it was the non-locals that I was more concerned about.
The Hotel saw quite a few large family groups landing up for lunch but each group stuck to their tables & didn’t hassle anyone else. In the evening, we took another walk towards the town
& then walked up towards what they called sunrise point or something. It was a long & steep climb & none of us were really inclined to walk another 3-4 kms so we came back midway after soaking in the nice smells of the forest so to speak & decided to do it the next time around. And we’d do it in the car, not walking. Lol. Returned to the Hotel & saw some nice views from the room
The rest of the evening passed off similarly to the previous one what with Pakoras, Bacardi & Coke anaesthetizing the effects of the almost sub-zero conditions outside! And then, that wonderful &
bone chilling walk to the Dining Room.......a tasty & enjoyable hot dinner & then straight to bed.
Ahhhh, the little perks of life - holidays up in the hills of Himachal
.
! We used to do trips a lot more frequently till last year. Now that we have the vehicle of our dreams as far as going off the beaten path is concerned, our schedules & circumstances do not permit us to do it! Anyway, as they say, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way” & “while there’s life there’s hope” so I’m not giving up just yet. We’ll probably be making a quick trip to Narkhanda during the Republic day weekend in Jan next year – hopefully, we’ll get to see some snow.
