Kullu

June 16, 2011

In the morning we had a meeting of Team EXTREME to review and then decide the further journey plans. Considering the time, the road condition, accessibility given the poor weather conditions, early arrival of monsoons in this region, we decided to proceed to Manali via Dehradoon instead of following the slightly northern route, particular Puh to Keylong route. However, since I was not too clear about the exact & correct route we had to plan the journey from one point to the next.

We left Peepalkoti at 09:00 hrs with our first point as Rudraprayag via Karnaprayag, where we reached at 12:30 hrs. The entire road was through hilly terrain. Rudraprayag is the confluence of river Mandakani and Alakananda. At 14:00 hrs we reached Shrinagar, 16:00 hrs we crossed Devparayag and reached Hrishikesh at 18:00 hrs. We were now following the River Ganga, the banks of which were dotted with several camps offering river rafting. Raka showed us locations where he had conducted adventure camps which included activities like rock climbing and waterfall rappelling, white water rafting etc. It was very warm at Hrishikesh. The temperature that we recorded was 32 degrees Celsius.

We called Mr. Ramesh Rawat, our friend from our last trek to Dhumdharkandi. But he was in New Delhi so we could not meet him but spoke over the phone.

We reached Dehradoon at about 20:00 hrs and checked in at Hotel Siddharth. This is the capital of Uttarakhand and is well known for the IMA (Indian Military Academy), and Forest Research Institute Museum which was built between the years 1924 to 1929. The building of this Institute was designed by C. G. Blomfield and is larger than the Buckingham Palace.

I was not very hungry and hence just had some sandwiches.

From here on till we cross Manali it is largely going to be only covering distance.

Good night and see you here again tomorrow.

June 17, 2011

Hello!

We left Dehradoon after breakfast at 10:00 hrs and headed out for Kullu / Manali.

The route passed through Pontasaheb, Halbertpur, and reached Nahan at 12:00 noon. Throughout the road was fairly good and there was greenery all around us. From here we proceeded to Ambala via Kala Amb, Narayan Garh, Shahajaadpur and connected to the Delhi – Chandigarh highway. We had lunch at Ambala. The road from here was excellent six lane double carriage way. We were covering distance at a very rapid pace. Enroute we saw several institutes of higher education offering courses in Engineering, Medicine, Computer Software, Bio Technology etc. It seems education has become a big business here.

We entered Himachal Pradesh at about 18:00 hrs. The road from here was again a single carriage way passing through hilly region. We had tea at 19:00 hrs and reached Bilaspur at about 19:30 hrs

We reached Sundar Nagar at about 21:00 hrs, a place about 100 kms from Kullu. We decided to break journey here for the night and checked in at Hotel Polo Residency. The hotel is good.

We can say here that a journey between Dehradoon to Manali was something which we had not planned and this is the portion where we travelled in the planes instead of the sub Himalyan roads. This was essentially for considerations like the time factor, and the weather conditions. Rains seem to have already arrived in this region. We have observed that we are almost travelling with the rains!

Bye for now.

Cheers!

June 18, 2011

We reached Kullu at 13:00 hrs. The HPTDC hotel Sarvari was full. There is a big rush of tourists here. So, we travelled back a short distance to Bhuntar and checked into Hotel Sandhya Palace where we got one nice suite room which accommodated all the four of us. This room has two areas each having two beds and two bathrooms.

I went to the Tata Motors service station and got the car washed and checked. From here on there is no Tata Motors service station till Jammu!

Tomorrow Sachin will be joining the team and Raka will be going back to Mumbai from Manali. Raju was unwell and Phadke Ajoba is also looking tired. There was news that the Manali – Leh highway is closed on account of landslides resulting in huge traffic jam. The journey from Manali to Leh is going to be tough in all respects. I was told at the service station by a taxi driver who plies this route that we should begin our journey at 02:00 hrs in the morning so that we don’t get caught in traffic jam!

In the evening I got the news of sad demise of Rajeev’s father, Baba. I spoke to Rajeev. He has taken this very bravely.

Now off to bed.

Bye and see you here tomorrow!