Road #2 Delhi – Lansdowne – Delhi

Basic Info:

Number Of Travellers: 3

Transport: One Honda ivtech

Place: District Pauri Gharwal, Uttrakhand, India

Total Distance Covered: 560 km

Date: 18th Sept 2015  to  20th Sept 2015

Total No Of Days: 3

Prelude:

I started planning for this trip when one day i was navigating through google maps, and i saw this small cantonment town named Lansdowne, tucked away in the Himalayan mountains of Pauri Gharwal district, in the Indian state of Uttrakhand. I started reading about it, i saw a lot of beautiful pictures of this place on the internet, and right then i decided to travel to Lansdowne in a few days.
Initially, i had decided to ride to this place on my Royal Enfield classic 350, but when i told my parents about it, while talking to them i realized that it had been so long since i had gone out with them. I was going to places with my friends or on my own at times, but not at all with my parents. So, i finally decided to drive to Lansdowne with my parents, rather than riding there on my Enfield.

Lansdowne is a very small town, there are not many options where one can stay, but there are a few hotels near the center of the town,there are also a number of huts maintained by the GMVN(Gharwhal Mandal Vikas Nigam) at a place called "Tip-n-Top", a few km from the center of Lansdowne. The cost of one hut, per night, ranges from Rs2200 to Rs 6000.
A few options were available to us, but we decided to stay at the amazing Gharwal Rifles mess. My father had asked one of his former fellow officer and good friend, who was a former Gharwal Rifles officer in the IA(Indian Army), to book a room in the officer's mess inLansdowne. The booking was done two days in advance from the day ofdeparture.

Day 1 (18th Sept 2015, Time: 5:30 am)

We left our place at around 6:30 am, crossing through sarai kale khan road in Delhi, i took a turn towards the Ghaziabad bypass road and eventually arrived at national highway-58 towards Merrut. Till Muradnagar, there is some traffic, but after crossing it there is the normal highway traffic. I was able to maintain a speed of around 80-90km/hr. After bypassing Merrut, we reached a small town of Khatauli, where we took a 30 mins break. From Khatauli, we left the Muzaffarnagar road and headed for Bijnor, Najibababad and Kothdwar route. This highway is also known as Pauri highway. From Kotdwar, the mountainous road starts all the way till Lansdowne. The total distance from Kothdwar to Lansdowne is about 50 km. After crossing Kothdwar, comes a bridge over the mighty Ganges river, and there is a small Shiva temple named sidhbali near a well maintained ghat, which one can also visit.
After going on for a few km, something terrible happened, and as a result i learnt a lot about mountain driving, the hard way. A truck was coming in the opposite direction, the road was narrow and only one of us could have passed through. I stopped my car on the left and allowed the truck to pass first, but as the truck approached, i somehow misjudged the space on my left and as a result the front left wheel went into a small ditch. One of the back wheels of the car lifted up and hence i was not able to reverse and pull the car out of the ditch. I was in a soup! While we were deciding how to get the car back on the road, a local guy travelling in his car saw us, he stopped and offered to help. So, here is what we did, we took two big stones and placed them just behind the front wheel. Some more people came in and with the strength of their arms they were able to put weight on the back side of the car so that the back wheel gets back on the road. I took the wheel, put the car in reverse gear, and with a little bit of accelerator, we all were able to get the car back on the road. It was a good team work, and before going we thanked each and every one of the local guys who had helped us. This incident also shows the optimistic and helpful nature of the people of Gharwal.

I learnt that driving in the mountains has to be much more disciplined than driving in the plains. There are a few things i would like to share with the readers regarding some basic rules of driving in the mountains, for a safe journey, these basic rules must be kept in mind.
Firstly, if the road is narrow, then the vehicle that is ascending has a right of way. So, the vehicle that is coming from the top should give way to the ascending vehicle. This is because, the tyres of the ascending vehicle have a risk of skidding, losing control, and sliding downwards while breaking and then accelerating.
Secondly, if you are going slower than the vehicle(s) coming behind you, then it is your duty to give it way and let it overtake you.
Thirdly, one of the most important rule to follow is that the gear in which you go up should be the same gear in which you should come down. Fourthly, never ever change your gear to neutral. The car/bike is in much more control if its in gear, you will have much more control over your vehicle.
All these rules are courtesy my father, he has extensive experience driving in some of the most dangerous mountainous roads in Sikkim and also in Kashmir.
The road going to Lansdowne is a narrow two lane road, and at certain turns there is not enough space for two vehicles to pass simultaneously, so the vehicle going down, generally, stops at one of the, purposely built, wider turn at every few km, and it makes way for the other vehicle to pass. After passing through some awesome twists and turns, we finally reached the town of Lansdowne, at an altitude of 5,600 feet.

After reaching the place, we directly went to the mess of the Gharwal rifles, and to my amazement, the guest bungalow was over one century old. It was built in the early 1900s by a British Indian army officer, named Lt.Col Robert Montgomery. The bungalow had a total of four huge rooms, each converted into a guest room, our’s was the Roberts’s#4 room. In fact, the entire bungalow was named after the officer.
When i came out of my car, the first thing that i felt was the sweet fresh air! The air was so smooth and sweet, i could feel the oxygen reaching the inner most parts of my lungs. As i walked the short distance towards the bungalow from the car parking, on my left i could see the beautiful, lower Himalayan range of the Pauri Gharwal, it was a beautiful first sight from Lansdowne. I walked further and reached the huge entry gate of the bungalow, i noticed a small board on the left side, which had a few lines written about the bungalow and its original owner.
The story goes like this, after Lt.Col Robert had built the bungalow, he decided to put some stairs and raise another floor over the ground floor, but that night when he had decided the plan, a group of angles came in his dream and they told him not to built another floor as it would become an obstruction to their path to the holy Kedarnath shrine in the upper reaches of the Himalayas. Ignoring what the angles told Robert, he decided to go ahead with the construction of the floor. Robert did complete the construction, but just after a few days, legend has it, that he went completely blind, and died. The first floor that he had built still stands. The bungalow, was built with huge stone walls, which can still be seen, the interior has wooden flooring and a huge ceiling height. The stairs were also completely wooden. Entering the bungalow, i went back 100 years, such was the beauty of Robert’s place.

Robert's Bungalow from the outside — Robert’s Bungalow from the outside

Robert's bungalow from the inside — Robert’s bungalow from the inside

I sat outside, with a cup of tea in my hand, i could not think about anything else but the mesmerizing beauty of Himalayan mountains.

There is something truly mystic about these mountains, they bring in a lot of peace within you. No wonder, many Indian sages and saints travel to these mountains for dhyan(meditation) and gyan(spiritual knowledge). After resting for a few hours, we went to a place called Tip-n-Top, which was another 5 km ahead of Lansdowne and at a height of more than 300 feet above Lansdowne. This place has got some good independent huts to stay in. There are a lot of view points here, you can go to any one to them and have a look at the breath taking scenery. After tip-n-top, we went to the local market, which barely had a few shops surrounding a circular junction. There is nothing much in the market, the entire place is just huge cantonment area of the IA’s Gharwal rifles, it is also a huge recruiting and training center for the men of the Gharwal.

Just after sunset, we were back to the mess, after having some snacks and a bit of walking outside, it was time for dinner. The dinning area was a 5 min walk from the place where we were staying. The army mess served a typical fauji food, not too lavish, not too ordinary, it was just perfect, i mean everything was just perfect, just like everything else in the IA. After having dinner, i went outside for a long walk, i must have walked for about one hour in the amazing weather of Lansdowne. After finishing my walk, i went back and off i was to sleep. Tomorrow, we had decided to go to a 3000 year old Shiva temple named Tarakeshwar.