If you take Cement enough in quantity to build an 8 ft road around the equator, you will be able to make another Bhakra Dam…. Sounds large isn’t it…. Well that’s what Bhakra is all about… Large… Majestic… Something that will make you proud of your country… Behind the Dam is the 96 Kms long Govind Sagar Lake which is one of the largest lakes in India as well…. And I managed to drive down to see it myself last weekend….

The last week was very hectic… daily drives to Gurgaon… and long study hours… I was being trained on a few things… and the result is
~ I am now an ITIL Foundation Certified Consultant… You can read more about ITIL here if you are interested.
~ I managed to learn a few good things about presentations in the last two days of the week… Attended a good workshop on presentation skills…

And Friday is when the drive started…. not from NOIDA this time… but Gurgaon… picked up Aro around 1830 hours after talking to Ankur Gupta and Deepak and freezing the plans to meet at the Azadpur Bypass around 2230 hours…. Reached home around 2030… Took a bath while Aro was talking to mom dad… and moved out at 2130hrs… Did not have dinner as I wanted to use the opportunity to have my favourite paranthas at Murthal…

Met Deepak @ the Bypass… Ankur, who was driving his Petra with me for the trip, was running a bit late. So we three decided to move on and wait for him at Murthal… exactly 36 kms away from there we stopped at Zilmil Dhaba… had dinner… with white mmm butter… Ankur soon joined…. This was the first time I was meeting him, though had talked to him on Orkut and on the phone… but not met otherwise… Met Nidhi… Said Namaste to his mom and dad… and got introduced to Neitya, his daughter…

And there we were, with two Fiat Cars… all set to drive away to glory… I was to follow him on the road… surprisingly I managed to overtake him a number of times… and at all the instances, I was reminded that Petra is a 1600 cc 100 bhp beast that could zoom away in front of me with a li’il effort… but I still managed to keep up with him at speeds of around 110-120 kmph….

Out biggest mistake… a right turn just before Chandigarh towards Shimla/Kalka and then the left from Pinjore which took us to Nalagarh and then Swarghat via one of the worst roads I have ever driven on…. but we still managed to reach Swarghat in good time and were there by 0530 hours… and this where were realised that the Manali highway also reaches the same place in the same distance… bad turn that was before Chandigarh… but anyway…. Ankur here gave me one of the best compliments that I have got about my driving “Prashant tu to Bawlo ki tarah gaadi chalata hai Pahadon par…” “Prashant, you drive like crazy on the hills… ” 😀 I was so happy to hear this… infact when I am driving uphill…Radha handles the roads the best… and there is so much sync between me and her that we literally burn the road 🙂

Unfortunately, there were no rooms in the new constructed HPTDC Hotel Hilltop in Swarghat… which left us with no choice but to either move to Bilaspur 40 kms ahead or go to Nangal about 50kms downhill…. we decided to go to Nangal….

While driving to Nangal, I realised that fantastic roads I had missed 🙁 but never mind… we reached Kiratpur in about an hour and the took right to reach Nangal via Anandpur Sahib… Nangal does not have a lot of places to stay… so this was now getting a li’il tiring on me…. the entire weekend I was caught up… and even now I was not getting any rest at all… so the body was almost giving up on me… we talked to a Khanna Lodge in Naya Nangal then, no rooms… and then we decided to move a li’il away towards Mehatpur hoping to get a place there… which we did… Hotel Menon… decent place to stay in… the only issue being the construction on the first floor and our rooms had wet walls… and the switch board was more then happy to give us a small electric shock when we touch it with bare hands 🙂 we still managed to stay and sleep comfortably there…

0730 is when we checked in… And I think I went of to sleep almost immediately after I sat on the bed….

woke up because of a few calls at regular intervals… but still managed to get up fresh around 1200 hours… after having a good lunch we headed towards Bhakra… we found out that the route was open only till 1500 hours and that made us rush… We reached the barrier and then were told that the pass is not issued there and we would have to travel about a km back to get the pass to go forward… went back… got the pass… deposited our phone cameras and other cameras there and then moved ahead…

Bhakra is about 18 kms away from Naya Nangal and it took us about 30 odd minutes to reach the dam… fantastic!!! loved the looks of it… I just wish I could have seen water flowing out of it… but could not 🙁 never mind… it was still a good experience to see the dam… next time i go… i will try to get the “Red Pass” that allows you to get inside the dam and get to see the turbines and all… will have to find out how to get that kinda permit…

we then moved to Naina Devi… and came back in good time by 1900 hours… when we reached Naya Nangal it started raining pretty heavy and we drove to Mehatpur in one of the best pours I have seen in sometime… overall this turned out to be a good day !!!

Slept around 2200 hours… with the plan of getting up around 0800 and then moving towards Delhi with a pit-stop at Anandpur Sahib….

We reached the Gurudwara around 0900 hours… light drizzle and the good weather made it all the more interesting… and the place more beautiful… as always… I enjoyed the Halwa at the Gurudwara… finally had something to click… so spent a roll in there… and moved from there after having some food in the langar…

a couple of pits stops for petrol, for bhutta, for Kulfi Faluda in Karnal and for paranthas later, we said Bye Bye to Ankur and Family, then dropped Deepak and Aro at the Kashmiri Gate Metro Station… and reached home safe and sound….

Time for a few things I would remember about from trip and you might want to take note of…
~ 900 kms driven in two days…
~ Saw one of the biggest Lakes in India…
~ I had drove for about 800 kms to gather a lot of mud on the car… and the only part which could be called clean was the windscreen… and one cleaner in the Dhaba @ Murthal cleaned my car 🙁 she was looking so goddam sexy with all the mud and dirt all over her !!!
~ Did not feel like clicking the mountains at all… infact the first day did not even touch my camera… so I guess… I am drifting away from Landscape photography now for sure…
~ The car handled fantastically well on the hills… and looked like I could drive her faster on the curves then on the plains… effortless gear shifting and very responsive acceleration… loved it…
~ To go to Nangal, the best route is to take the Delhi-Manali Highway…. Delhi- Karnal-Ambala-Chandigarh-Ropar-Kiratpur-Anandpur-Naya Nangal should be route…
~ You would find decent accommodation in Mehatpur… there is the hotel Menon where AC rooms are available for 500-600 bucks per day… we spent 2300 for the stay, lunch and Dinner for 7 people.

I am now waiting for Leh to happen… not many days from now, I would be in the Delhi-Manali Volvo on my way to Leh!!!

May God be with Me!!! Amen!!!