The Amber - Vermont Estate

Car trip to Mussorie

by mantru

We were planning for an overnight bike trip to Shekhawati region of Rajasthan in February, however due to unavailability of leaves most of my friends had to cancel the trip. As the traveling bug had caught us, the remaining who could get leave, could not have let go the opportunity. That’s when we decided to drive to Chakrata.
The route decided was to drive from Delhi - Dehradun - Mussorie - Chakrata and back to Delhi. The distance from Delhi to Chakrata is approx 350 km or little more. Our group consisted of Manmohan, Rajeev, DJ, and me. We planned to start from Delhi at 7 am however as usual we were delayed and could only start from Delhi by 9 am. By the time we crossed Ghaziabad it was 11 am. The day was bright and sunny and we all started with high spirits. The road took us through Ghaziabad, Meerut, then to Roorkie. from there we took a diversion towards Saharanpur to Dehradun.After leaving the hustle and bustle of Dehradun, we started towards Mussorie. The winding roads reminded me of my hometown, Darjeeling. On the way we halted at the roadside shop for tea. The roads were clear and we could see the sun making its way behind the far hills, bringing night unto us. The sun set was a magical view from the roads. We got off the car to enjoy the last burst of color thrown by
the descending sun. We took some photographs as a reminding memory of the magical moment we spent on the roads.

We started uphill towards our first destination, Mussorie. Mussorie is a very famous hill station established by the britishers, and frequented by the North Indians every summer. It is a quite hill station with the mall starting from picture palace in the east to the public library in the west. We reached around 7.30 pm, landed in Everest hotel in the mall. We took a stroll in the mall and hopped in almost all the shops. The mall is dotted with shops, eateries and hotels.

stopping on the way for tea.

mussorie view from the camel 's back road

"Four of us"

"yamunapul"

Next morning we will be heading towards Lakhmandal and then to Chakrata. Lakhmandal lies 75 km on the Mussorie-Yamunotri road. Lakhmandal according to legends, was the shelter made of Lac, by Kauravas, who conspired to burn the Pandavas alive here. Lakhmandal is a quaint village on the banks of Yamuna. The temple is situated in the middle of a small village.

By the time we started from Mussorie it was 11 am. We had planned to start latest by 9 am, but got delayed coz my travel partners liked to sleep late. The morning sunrise gave enough warmth to open the window of the car and experience the fresh air hitting our face with vengeance. The winding road took us to Kempty falls. There was nothing much to see, as the falls had dried up and some construction work was going on. It was not a pretty picture as I had expected. After a few photographs we headed towards Yamunapul. We happened to miss the mark towards Lakhmandal and reached the Yamunapul only to realize we had to retrace our path back to the diversion and follow the Yamunotri road to Lakhmandal. As soon as we saw the clean and clear Yamuna, we could not hold back. Like children all excited over a candy, we dashed towards the river to soothe the heat accumulated from the far plains below.. After spending an hour or two we realized we had spent more time
than we had for the day. We hurriedly retraced the road up to the diversion and then followed the Yamunotri road.

continuation on chakrata page.....