 |
Delhi – Jaisalmer Road Review |
It was a long drive and we were dreading that it would get very grumpy in the end. Like my other road reviews, where more moments were spent (on the review) trying to understand the in-between places and peculiarities, here I am spending few more pennies to build the story for it was as many as 782 KMs and that too in a single day. I have never done that long a trip. As a rule, we never drive in night so it has to end by evening or a little late evening, if it stretches in the night then we are just fooling ourselves. The good part was that none of my co-passengers have clocked those many miles as well so with four adults and two kids, I knew what I was getting into. The saner part of mine kept hunting for a good hotel in Bikaner but I never did. Somehow I was thinking that we would make it time. Our avg in previous trips has been close to 50 KM an hour since a 6 odd hour drive has at least one break so even if you are doing good it takes you 6 odd hours to finish a 300 KM thing. For 800 odd, it would be 16 hours and with every extra hour the average should rather go down then going up. We have not seen the last 500 Km of the road and have been only till Mandawa couple of times so even though we had some idea of what we were getting into, we simply were oblivious to what lay ahead. Someone said, Ignorance is bliss and then someone said that serendipity is the way to go so we went.
Delhi – Jaisalmer Road can be divided into following sections.
1. Delhi – Loharu (different routes to do this depending on where you live in Delhi/NCR) – 160-170 KM
2. Loharu – Fatehpur (100 KM)
3. Fatehpur – Bikaner (170 KM)
4. Bikaner – Jaisalmer (328 KM)
To keep the fun, I would tell you driving time later in the review.
1. Delhi – Loharu
From Delhi, you can choose to either go via Rohtak Road or take the more standard NH8. The one through Rohtak Road is a little shorter, 20 to 30 KMs depending upon your place of stay. NH8 is more higway-ish and standard. The road via Rohtak Road is a little off-beat. Road quality is same/similar. If you are staying in North/West/Central Delhi then choose the Rohtak Road, if you stay closer to South border or Gurgaon then take the NH8 route.
For South bound, get on to NH8 (the famous Delhi-Jaipur road), go on till Rewari Cut. Go right at the fork, towards Rewari. From Rewari, you can go towards Mahedragarh and then ask for Loharu (shorter route, recommended) or you can take the published route which is via Narnaul.
For North bound, take Rohtak Road. Go till Bahaudur Garh, take a left, go till Jhajjar, then Charkhi Dadri and finally Loharu.
There is nothing great to write home about for both of these options. These are fairly standard road-driving experience with fields accompanying you most of time, you cross tiny hamlets, moderate kasbas and you keep going. Whole of this is in Haryana so road quality is good, and you are mostly in semi-urban areas.
Driving Time -2.5/3 Hours
2. Loharu – Fatehpur
As you get on to Loharu, you get a Tolled road so road quality suddently goes up, the landscape changes from sub-urban to country and it starts to get interesting. Take Loharu – Chirawa – Jhunjhunu – Mandawa – Fatehpur route. This whole region is called ‘Shekhawai’ region and it attracts quite a large of international tourists. Famous for wall drawings, motifs, colors and Haweli, the old grandeur and majesty of rulers can’t be missed. While you drive through Mandawa and Fatehpur, go a little slow to see those Hawelis. The vibrant colors and paintings are hard to ignore. There are some great reviews of this region on ghumakkar so search and enjoy.
Driving Time – 1.5 Hours / 2 Hours
3. Fatehpur – Bikaner
So far we have been on a mix of semi-urban to urban to rural roads, now you truly get on to a marvelous piece of tar where you can let loose. Its one staright road where you dont have to think much and keep driving. Fabulous road to drive by. Try to push more gas to up your average. As you drive on this road, you would start to get a feel of dry Rajasthan, the one which is vast with little habitation. There is no toll and not many towns on the way. After navigating through numerous small towns, now you dont need to worry about next small town, as there aren’t many.
Driving Time – 2.5 / 3 hours
4. Bikaner – Jaisalmer
Bliss. I have not driven too much but still done a fair bit of it and this stretch was something which was totally new to me. Like most of it, you dont need to do every thing in the world and while some of us are great at the art of extrapolation, I would still bet my bread for anyone who hasn’t been there to really explain the stretch. Its simply mind boggling. You need to do this to understand it. Since you have read this much, it would be unfair for me to just wind this without explaining to best of my abilities.
As you get out of Bikaner, you find yourself on a long and straight (sometime straight for 25 Kms with no tilt or swerve) road which seem to be cutting the vast expanse of desert. There is no dust so you can see as much as your eyes can take it. So try to imagine, you are behind the wheel, looking at this straight glowing road, on your left is unending streak of land and the right seems to be mirror image. There are patches of small bushes amid yellow sand and thats about it. Since there is nothing which is blocking your view like trees, hills etc, you find yourself in a real large pool of light (anti heavy) light (anti dark). Its like being a small bug on a large yellow bed spread. And this goes on and on and on. Only two kinds of people visit Jaisalmer, tourists and Army. So you only see a occasional taxi or a local bus as you drive. You go on till Pokhran and then get on to Jodhpur – Jaisalmer road.
Total Driving time – 3 / 4 hours
Average driving time – 9.5 / 12 hours. Add at least stops worth 2 / 3 hours so that would make it 11.5 / 15 hours drive.
We started at 5.30 from Delhi. By 9 we were beyond Loharu. We stopped for an hour to ease out bowels, get kids some exercise, break fast. By 1.45 were were beyond Bikaner. Stopped for an hour and a half for lunch. By 6.30, we were in Hotel. We took 13 hours to do this with 2.5 hours of stop. We didn’t go beyond 140 ever, may be 150 once or twice. On an average were at 120 for most of our trip after Fatehpur. For food stop, Bikaner has some good food joints for lunch. For b’fast, stop at Mandawa. Before Mandawa, the other big town is Rewari (via NH8).
We did it. The reading on the speedo-meter said 788 Km which also meant – Welcome to Jaisalmer. :)
Nice description. You didn’t tell me that you touched 150 also!!! So what is your feedback of Scorpio at 150km/hr?
I would repeat what I tell all the time. The real bhp is in the drive then the car :), I really have to work very hard to go as much as 150 in scorpio. Its fairly stable and cool at that speed, the only thing is that you can’t drive at that speed for long.
I also touched 150+ on Kishangarh-Jaipur Bypass road. Heard that new Scorpio (2.2 Litre) gets speed fast. For the 2.6 Turbo which I drive, you need to have quite a clearing to take it to 150.
To add more, it was easier doing this with four people and 2 kids on board. Aditya did this with just his wife around :) and i can imagine that it can get a little monotonous sometimes. But then he also did Delhi-Vadodra, just the two of them.
hmmm… good one. You DID it. That was the best part.
I have felt it in past while driving on much smaller patches… if you drive for too long on a straight road without anything there to get your attention, your mind starts getting numb and you feel as if there’s nothing in front of your eyes.
And after taking lunch when stomach is at it’s most efficient working hour, rest of your body starts aching for rest.
Congratulations on completing 788 with all these factors. Wow!
u did it ! thanks for the ride ..and wish you a very happy new year
Man, that was grand!
Never ventured beyond Jaipur but now I will!!
Pat
Thanks.
We were lucky since the Road from Fatehpur to Bikaner and then after you leave Bikaner-City, the road till Jaisalmer is really very very good. We took the plunge and it worked in our favor.
Dear Nandan , i took the South Delhi to Bikaner route suggested by you to visit a relative in Bikaner. Thanks for the advise on the short route , since almost evryone suggested route via Chaomu near Jaipur which would have been almost 175km more. The road was very good accept between Mandawa and Jhunjhunu which might have been damaged due to rains. I took a Innova . We started from Delhi at 7am and could reach Bikaner at 3 pm with 2 stops ( gap of 1.5 hr ). Thanks for your advise and excellent discription.
Not many people drive all the way to Jaisalmer and thats probably the reason that almost anyone you talk to, would refer the chomu route.
Glad that it worked for you Vivek.
could anyone please suggest the route for going on bike trip from jaisalmer to delhi and how long would it take make this trip, and what about availability of petrol pumps on the way and good hotels
Ashish – you could take the same route as in this post. I would assume that you would need to take a night halt, can take at Mandawa, for a bike trip.
Till Bikaner, there are enough petrol pumps, but beyond Bikaner, you should go tank-full and I am fairly sure that there is a pump at Pokharan so you are covered.
Its really nice, long and interesting description of long drive. I’m from Raj and I love to see / read such comments.
hi…. i am planning a trip to jaisalmer from gurgaon next week… i am confused on the route to take. please advise me the best road to take… also which is the shortest route and how is the condition of the road currently….
Anurag – Take following
Gurgaon – Rewari (via NH8 or Delhi Jaipur Road)
Rewari – Mahendargarh – Loharu (via Narnaul is longer)
Loharu – Chirawa – Mandawa – Fatehpur
Fatehpur – Bikaner – Jaisalmer
Try to do Gurgaon – Rewari very very early since this stretch would have the most of traffic. Rest of it is more or less same through out the day.
I am not sure about road conditions but I do not hear complaints about roads in Rajasthan :-) so you are in good hands.
Please update us with a quick review comment on this post on roads after you come back. Best wishes
@Nandanjha: Would it be good to drive on rewari-narnaul-chidawa-jhunjhunu-mandwa-fatehpur during night? Its an SH, thats making me apprehensive!!!
@manish – In my humble opinion, its not a great idea to drive at night.
If at all you have to do it then I do not think it bothers me to drive on the above stretch during night, you would see less of trucks and as long as you go steady and not drive fast, you should be good.
hi.. am planning a road trip from dwarka (ND) to Jaisalmer in early March. I plan to take the route prescribed by Nandan..but i am conscious that the post is a bit dated. Can somebody who has done a road trip recently in that route please update the orad condition. I will have my parents and a small kid hence getting a heads up will be great. Thanks!
My route id..
Gurgaon-Rewari-Narnaul-Chidawa-Jhunjunu-Nawalgarh-Fatehabad(Sikar)-Bikaner-Jaisalmer.
Only the road. between Chidawa and Narnaul is bad…
HI NANDAN…I AM VERY EAGER TO VISIT JAISALMER WITH MY FRIENDS. CAN U PLZ TELL ME WILL IT BE A GUD OPTION TO TAKE MY ALTO THIS FAR….LOOKING FOR UR REPLY….
Why not Ritesh. By all means. All the best.
Thanks Nandan.
Hi all–
Planning a road trip with six friends. Could anyone suggest where can I get SUV/MUV self driven on hire?
Gurgaon-Bikaner-Jaisalmer-Jodhpur-Gurgaon
Also, in Jaisalmer any suggestion on Dessert Safari?
Would you suggest Bikaner or Udiapur– if we have to choose between these two?
Thanks!
@Rahul – Autoriders.net. You can rent a car from them
I am planning to go to Jaisaimer at year end,by santro car ,from noth delhi, Which will be the best route to follow? pls. suggest any stop over during tour.
Hi,
Planing to visit to Jaisalmer as per the route Gurgaon-Rewari-Narnaul-Chidawa-Jhunjunu-Nawalgarh-Fatehabad(Sikar)-Bikaner-Jaisalmer on Bike (Enfield)
Please help in follwoing query:
1) Hotels to stay in between (best stop over) keeping in mind tht we are riding with ladies.
2) Food
3) Petrol pumps where we can refill
Thanks
Jas