A trip to Heavenly Virgin Hills !!. Review on Lansdowne

Let me have the pleasure to introduce the participants of this incredible journey.  At any point if you feel that I am reading any script from a fairy tale, trust me we were in one.

The Bikers:

Me . Guide and biker no 1

Bharat.  Biker no 2

Inside the Chariot Abhishek. the amazing driver

Rajiv . the navigator

Sayed . the bike-car hopper

Journey Noida to Landsdowne. 260 KMs( 1 way)*

September 29.2007

*4:00 AM Rajiv wakes up and rushes to take a bath and complete the morning routine, followed by a small morning worship for the safe journey.  5:15 AM Me, Rajiv and Bharat starts their bikes and proceed towards the ATM machine to draw some cash.

5:45 AM Sayed and Abhishek are still not there at the meeting point.

6:00 AM Abhishek reaches the meeting point and 5 minutes later we pick up Sayed and head towards the Noida Morh Petrol Pump to get fuels for out journey!  Once done, we checked the tyre pressures and then begins the journey*

The journey begins.

*We checked our maps to be 100% sure that we don't take any wrong cut and end up in an unknown location. I was well versed with the road to Meerut so I shared my short but precise road direction tips to head towards our first stop and all five of us(Bharat and me in our bikes and three of them Abhishek's car) raced to reach the place within one and a half hour.

I checked my records and consulted a few locals to reach our next destination Mawana. We took a right turn to reach Bijnor via Mawana.

The road was in a perfect condition to damage any vehicle's shock absorbers. We started with our brows up and cursed every inch we managed to cross. Hats off to Abhishek, only he knows and I know how he managed to drive that 7 km stretch. Even the bikers were troubled a bit since they couldn't drive as fast and missed the speed which they had so proudly enjoyed in the journey so far.

The bikers were as usual ahead of the car and just like the turtle-rabbit race

Bikers were way ahead of the car so we waited along a roadside dhaba for the catch to catchup with us, hwever we didnt notice but the car guyz went past us and we had to make a call to them to confirm their location, on which they retaliated by saying that hey had reached Bijnor.  On reaching Bijnor city car guyz halted to stretch their bodies and smoke a few cigarettes. Within 30 minutes the two super bikers reached the place we confirmed to meet and relaxed for some time. After that we decided to stop at Kotdwar to eat something.

The road strip between Bijnor and Najibabad was fairly ok with occasional speed breakers and ditches and small railway crossings. Abhishek has been driving all the time and needed a break, though he never asked for one. We reached Najibabad in 30 minutes and Rajiv and Abhishek decided to change seats. Rajiv took the driver's seat and Abhishek took the navigator seat. By now Sayed was fed up sitting at the back and decided to join Bharat and me on our bikes. Bharat decided to sit in the car while we all waited at the railway crossing of Najibabad. The crossing barricade was lifted and we all with our new roles geared up for our destination ahead. Landsdowne.

Rajiv  drove at a normal speed and kept wondering how Abhishek has been driving on such bad roads. By now the old and the new rabbit had raced the bikes ahead of the car and as Rajiv needed to stay close to us so he pushed the accelerator to gain speed. The road was now looking good and with less traffic around we cut through the NH 119 road swiftly as a knife on a cake. We reached Kotdwar and then Duggada within 2 hours. We stopped at a small bridge where a small stream paved its way forming meanders and the sun's light made the white pebbles under the stream look beautiful. By now we had lost the new rabbit Sayed as he did not pay any attention to the calls we made on his mobile. We took some snaps and started our journey again. Due to a last night rain their were landslides on the hills and from that scene we learned what nature can do to humans when its payback time.

All five of us were together soon and took some snaps on the mountains and decided to take lunch at Dugadda. The food at Dugadda was unexpectedly good and we had it to our fill. After having a good greasy meal we were ready to go, but this time Bharat decided to ride his bike again with me, I by then had fallen in love with the biking experience and was in no mood to sit inside the car. So Sayed was back again with us and I was on the back seat.

Soon they lost the bikers and tried hard to meet us. The roads in the hills are different and so were the driving conditions. Soon the car guyz saw me on the road side on my bike but Bharat was missing. "Now what" was the word that came out of their mouth as Abhishek stopped the car to see what went wrong. Well this time the biker rabbits had seen a bigger stream and have decided to take a dip in the ice cold water. In flash of a second the two bikers were in their shorts and the fuming rabbit of the car wanted to cool himself as well. Just short of an inners Sayed was asking for one so that he could touch the waters, with no hope from us he was about to give up when I gave him my new inner so that he could join the fun.

However at 4:00 PM we finally reached Landsdowne where we were to witness the calmness of nature. Landsdowne is small place which can be covered within three hours, but if you are an admirer of nature, you would like to spend your entire life out there.*

Places to watch: Bhulla lake.its a man made lake with 4-5 boats and two guards for watching and selling tickets. Bharat and I didn't spare those two poor souls even and kept troubling them(though our first obvious choice is always Rajiv) till the time they completed the boating.

Tipfin Top**.one can watch the snow capped Himalayas from here and sit and relax without looking down(the valley below with scare you to death). Admire the cloud formation on the hills below and believe that you live on cloud 9, up above is just God's bungalow. The three rabbits were too slow to climb the hill but the turtles were fast and determined to conquer the peak and walked fast to reach the top.

After finishing the trekking we started our journey back home and we all actually missed all the beautiful places where we had stopped to take snaps. The river bed had dried and the place where we took a dip in the water was missed while driving. The roads where we witnessed landslides, now had more rough and dangerous curves.

The rabbit turtle chase continued till the Turtles actually won the race. Our Car reached Noida by 5:45 PM(September 30, 2007). Whereas me and Bharat reached by 6:30 PM.

It was really a wonderful jorney to a wonderful place for a weekend getaway! We plan to go to other hill stations too in near future, but this time we shall be all bikers and no car!

Cheers!

R