I have been shuttling between small town of Betul ( my home town)situated in the lap of Satpura mountain range and Bhopal, since I settled down here in 1985. Those were days of trains pulled by steam locos and buses. Last traces of steam locos were still in use. Canadian steam loco with shining star at the nose, roared through the track pulling morning Janata Express. Despite bygone 25 years, I never lost the charm of Midghat. Narmada bridge, tunnels passing through Budhani Ghat and Ghat just before Betul. One can not resist peeping out of window on route to Nagpur via Betul,as the enchanting forest, mesmerizes every soul in all seasons, be it scorching summer, pouring monsoon, or chilly winter. Ups and downs, sharp curves, streams running down from cliffs of Vindhyachal and Satpuda , gushing under the railway track bring back childhood charm. Rains, in particular make this journey a life time experience. Spring is a time of emergence and migration.

My last road trip to Haridwar was in Feb this year. After this trip again in March this year I did a road trip to Wagah Border.And now after five months here comes my road trip again.This time too during Rakhi Holidays , we again planned a road trip to Dehradun, Mussoorie and Haridwar similar to every year. My Last years wonderful Mussoorie experience is described in my previous post -”Road Trip to Mussoorie – The Queen Of Hills “. This time Rakhi was a little late ie. in the last week of of august , and this time was the peak of monsoon. However , our plan was made a month in advance. We had to go to Dehradun this time by different route. We had decided to follow the Route – Delhi – Panipat – Shamli – Saharanpur – Chutmulpur – Dehradun. But rains played havoc to our plan. We knew that this is the state highway and the condition of roads were not good due to heavy rains. So just a day in advance , we changed our plan and decide to go by the same old route of National highway. Details of the trip –

No. of Adults – Four
1. Myself – The solo driver
2. My Father
3. My mother
4. My Great Grand Mother

My Car – Maruti 800
Total distance covered in the trip – 750 Km
Avg distance per litre – 18 Km/Lr
Total cost of fuel consumed – Rs 2500

It was 22nd August’10. Rains were on its full throttle. But our plan was made. We left Delhi on 22nd at 5 am. Continous rains were pouring. We followed the route from ISBT , Dilshad Garden on NH-24 towards Ghaziabad .
From Ghaziabd we turned on NH-58 towards Meerut.

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Krishna said in Bhagavat-Gita: “Amongst rivers I am Ganges” and all over the world you will hardly find a river more worshiped and more sacred than Ganges.

In the Morning we checked out from Hotel Shivalik – Dharali & left for Gangotri at 6.00 AM.

Gangotri Temple

I have visited Dehradun a lot of times and mostly by train only. As the road condition (Ghaziabad, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Roorkee) is not very good and traffic is very high, the road travel is always very exhausting.

This time, me and 1 of my friends, Nishant planned to go for a 1 night trip to Dehradun, travelling by own vehicle. But we decided not to travel via Meerut, Muzaffarnagar etc. Instead we decided to go via Baraut, Shamli, Sahranpur.

13.05.2010, Delhi to Dehradun , Driver: Nishant (Solo), Accompanying: Myself

We started our trip at 6.30 am from my Home in Bhajanpura, which is very close to Loni More.  Soon, we were out of Delhi, heading towards Baghpat. Road was OK and traffic was very minimal. After Baghpat, the traffic started increasing. This was a single road only and a lot of villages are there on both side of Road, so we were carefull in driving. Around 7.45 we reached Baraut. Normally at baraut, there is lot of traffic jam and you need some 15 minutes to cross this very small stretch of some half a KM. But we were fortunate enough that road was clear and crossed Baraut in 2  minutes.

After Baraut, the journey became very pleasant, as day was not very hot. On both sides of Road, lot of mango trees, full of Mangoes were there. Traffic was very minimal and we were running on a speed of 90 km/hr easily.

Around 9 we reached Shamli and around 10 we reached Saharanpur. After crossing Saharanpur, we took a halt at a Dhaba and had our breakfast.
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