Ghoom to Tista Bazar - Freaked me out! Date 3rd Oct 2018 - Headlines: Five die as car falls into Ooty Gorge. I read this and read further and find about these friends from Chennai who drove from Ooty to Masinagudi and this accident happened. It also says driving from Masinagudi to Ooty is ok but no the other way. It says its a steep curvy road downhill from Ooty to Masinagudi and only local Nilgiri cars are allowed to do the downhill and sign boards all along the route instructing drivers to go in 2nd gear. Did'nt I experience something similar a couple of days back? Eeks. Cold Sweat! Deja Vu. Date 1st Oct 2018 - Around 2 PM Darjeeling Hills in the Great Himalayas. Driving in a Swift from Ghoom to Teesta. From around 2225m come down to 1700m in 23 km to Lamahatta. So far so good though I found out the hard way that it was peculiar and not the typical hill descending with typical hairpins and straight stretches for better driving. Btw, never realised the reason for hairpins but now I do. During my pre-trip research I did see google drawn straight blue line from Ghoom to Teesta but what skipped my mind the altitude we were descending. Living in the plains altitude is never seen while seeing google maps and that did it. Stupid me. Coming to the point, from Lamahatta it was hardly 13 km but we descended 1700m to the river bed at Tista Bazar. All along the sign boards said "1st gear only". The problem is when in 1st gear the revs are too much and you can see the engine struggling and the noise being so much I felt so much for the engine that I move to the 2nd gear. However at the 2nd gear it runs down too fast and I have to apply brake almost constantly which I knew was too bad as well.
Flash back: 23 June 2012 - Chevy Spark - Evening - Change Co-ordinates to Kannur, Kerala. Boys Town. We were driving thru the Kottiyoor Reserve Forest from Iritty-Peravoor-Elapeedika-BoysTown-Kottiyoor. We were on our way to the Kottiyoor temple which I could have taken a diversion from Peravoor and gone via Kanichar. However the adventurer in me wanted to drive thru the forest and so took the former route. I was not disappointed. Very beautiful. Recommended drive. It was a lonely beautiful forest road. I saw a taxi behind me in my rear-view and slowed down and waved to him to slow down. He obliged and I asked him if this road will take us to Kottiyoor. He said yes but why didnt we take the other road which was better and shorter. I said we knew that and just wanted to explore a bit. He said we needed to be careful as there was a steep descent and we have to drive in 1st gear and apply the brakes at regularly intervals to avoid burning out of the brake pads and brake failure. Oh no. That was enough to freak me out. However his advice helped me and prepared me. 1 km for a straight dip from 700m to 500m with no ghats and a 24 hour fog cover. It even has a permanent road-sign which says about the fog and to be careful. I saw a KSRTC go down with screeching brakes down below as I started my descent. Its like a slide. Back to Lamahatta:
Though the slide of 2012 was 200m descent / km this Lamahatta to Tista Bazar slide though only 170 m/ km was 10 times longer and I found tougher. And believe me 10 km seems like eternity with this condition. So, I go 1st gear, the noisy revs increase, apply the brake, move to 2nd gear, it moves fast, apply brake at regular intervals, move to 1st gear, repeat. Tired of this routine and my heart in my mouth driving a rental car and all travel plans set ahead in clock-work precision it was too much and I stopped mid-way at Peshok. Pulled over. Walked by to 2 folks standing on the road side. I asked them if they were drivers. One of them replied in the affirmative. OK, good. "How did we drive on this road? Wont the brake fail?" I asked him with a strained frustrated voice. He walked to the car, got in. Started the car and tried the brake and said its good. I said I knew it was good but I am scared if it would fail. He told me to drive in 1st gear only and to forget the revs. I saw some local cars drive down without the red brake lights glow. Wow! How are they doing it? Or was it a better gradient we were at? I let the car cool down - both brake and engine. Had a cup of tea. He told me about another full-circle bend a bit ahead and that there were incidents of brake failures and crashes last year. I got further scared.
We started our journey. As we moved a few 100 meters ahead we saw another car - a SK04 Sikkim vehicle - hubby, wife and kid - Swift Dzire if I remember - with a brake failure and at the centre of the road. It happened just then by the look of it. I pulled over. Went and struck a conversation, just for some support. We saw an other Wagon R go by and the old person (local) repeated - please go in 1st gear and asked him to wait for the brakes to cool and maybe it will start engaging again. He asked me to move on. I went back further scared. How much more to go? Slowly but surely we reached the short, circular narrow underpass, crossed it and reached the base. On the way I saw many cars go up and thought thats how it has to be done and not what we were doing.
This article is to help people prepare for a drive in steep downhills. Suggestion is to go from Tista to Darjeeling and not the reverse. Also no matter how many years of driving experience you have, such conditions will test you with usual cars. In my Duster I see in 1st gear on a slope it was almost still. So, the question do SUVs have better engine braking? Is it specified in the car spec? What about 4WD? Are they better? Open for comments on this post and suggestions. Please do share your experiences. Btw I had a new brand Swift zoomcar which had done just 1900 km and 1 month old. |