[wanderhermit]

This is an account of the Mughal Rally.

This rally is an offroad rally. This year was its second edition.

Dates: 25-26-28 June, 2011.

Start: Srinagar

End: Srinagar



There were two versions - Xtreme and Enduro.

The Xtreme was a Stage rally and the Enduro would be a TSD one.

The Xtreme section had only one Class - T1.

For the Enduro, Cars and Suv's were all in one category. Soft Top vehicles are permitted as are all modifications. Winches, oversize tyres, snorkels, roof lights and monster trucks are welcome !

[wanderhermit]

Marshalling Mughal Rally 2011

This year I got a chance to officiate as Marshals for the Mughal Rally. The twenty eleven edition is the second edition of this nascent Rally. It is a three day rally in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The first day is for the scrutiny, and next two for the actual rally itself. It basically run on the Raid format i.e. long distance cross country off road car racing.
I had missed the first edition of this rally because of a trip to Ladakh which lasted around 15 days during the time of the rally. So this year it was to be my first time I was going to this rally.


Mughal Rally is conducted by Himalayan Motorsports, which also conducts the one of the most prestigious rallies in India, ‘Raid-de-Himalaya’. The rally is christened after the ‘The Mughal Road’. And I discovered during the course of the rally, it goes around few of the most historical places going back to the times of Jahagir, the fourth Mughal emperor during the 17th century.

[harishnayak]

Although i've caught up with the action of Mughal road on FB , TV and internet however it would be interesting to see more details of the Marshals life here along with some pictures.

I remember seeing you in DS'11 ( if im not mistaken ) , I was a Marshal there in a GV.

[sudev]

Wow a follow on account of the second MRR - More pictures please.

[wanderhermit]

Originally Posted by harishnayak

Although i've caught up with the action of Mughal road on FB , TV and internet however it would be interesting to see more details of the Marshals life here along with some pictures.

I remember seeing you in DS'11 ( if im not mistaken ) , I was a Marshal there in a GV.

I think we did not get a chance to introduce ourselves. I think you were with Sudev sir.

We will catch up next year, pakka.

Originally Posted by sudev

Wow a follow on account of the second MRR - More pictures please.

I have been always been a fan of your logs. And you are the inspiration behind me becoming a rally official. Your Raid-de-himalaya (marshals account) was the starting point. So I guess I will have no hesitation to dedicate this this thread to you.

Thanks for all the encouragement and support throughout all the Desert Storms and other events that I have attended with you, including this weekend at Ludhiana. It has been an immense learning experience, just by hanging around such experienced motorsports professional like you.



Now, the updates.

As per our schedule, we were to reach Jammu by the evening. And start fort for Srinagar early morning so that we reach there at 1 PM.

We started off for Jammu early morning as my partner , Brar s’aab has some work at Hoshiarpur, which is on the way.

After completing the work at Hoshiarpur, we left for Jammu in the afternoon and reached our hotel at around 4 pm.

I did not find anything interesting to shoot on the way except this interesting no. plate on a bike near Mukerian.





We checked in to the Hotel and decided to take rest for some time as it was very hot outside.


Few geographical facts of Jammu.
Jammu is surrounded by Shivalik Hills on all sides and Tawi river flows by its side. The sedately flowing river is widest at Jammu which makes the city very humid in summers. So it felt lot hotter than Chandigarh.
Tawi river originates from Kali Kundi glacier near Baderwah in Doda district and enters Pakistan below Jammu in South east direction. It eventually drains out in Chenab in Pakistan. Indian govt. is making an artificial lake on river Tawi near Jammu for providing water to the city.


A little history
Hari Niwas Palace belongs to Raja Hari Singh of Jammu. he ruled Jammu and Kashmir from 1922-19947. Ya, the same king who acceded Kashir to India. Now, it is the property of his heirs. The Amar Mahal palace building (red one) in the pictures has been turned into a museum. It closes at 6 pm so we could not go inside. May be next time. And the hotel is in the adjoining white building. There is a interesting story behind naming of the city. It is believed that the city was originally founded by Raja Jamboo Lochan who lived in fourteenth century B.C. The Raja had gone out one day for hunting when he happened to witness a tiger and a goat drinking water from one and the same pond. This extraordinary phenomenon set him thinking and he decided to build a city at this site so that the strong and weak could live together in peace and mutual tolerance. Eventually, he founded the city which came to be known as "Jamboo" after his own name. With the passage of time and due to its frequent use the pronunciation of the name got slightly distorted and the city came to be known as ' Jammu' as it is called now.

I will leave you with some pics of the Hari Niwas and beautiful Tawi river flowing by its side.

[harishnayak]

Originally Posted by wanderhermit

I think we did not get a chance to introduce ourselves. I think you were with Sudev sir.

We will catch up next year, pakka.



I have been always been a fan of your logs. And you are the inspiration behind me becoming a rally official. Your Raid-de-himalaya (marshals account) was the starting point. So I guess I will have no hesitation to dedicate this this thread to you.

Thanks for all the encouragement and support throughout all the Desert Storms and other events that I have attended with you, including this weekend at Ludhiana. It has been an immense learning experience, just by hanging around such experienced motorsports professional like you.



Now, the updates.

As per our schedule, we were to reach Jammu by the evening. And start fort for Srinagar early morning so that we reach there at 1 PM.

We started off for Jammu early morning as my partner , Brar s’aab has some work at Hoshiarpur, which is on the way.

After completing the work at Hoshiarpur, we left for Jammu in the afternoon and reached our hotel at around 4 pm.

I did not find anything interesting to shoot on the way except this interesting no. plate on a bike near Mukerian.

Attachment 583043

Attachment 583044

We checked in to the Hotel and decided to take rest for some time as it was very hot outside.


Few geographical facts of Jammu.
Jammu is surrounded by Shivalik Hills on all sides and Tawi river flows by its side. The sedately flowing river is widest at Jammu which makes the city very humid in summers. So it felt lot hotter than Chandigarh.
Tawi river originates from Kali Kundi glacier near Baderwah in Doda district and enters Pakistan below Jammu in South east direction. It eventually drains out in Chenab in Pakistan. Indian govt. is making an artificial lake on river Tawi near Jammu for providing water to the city.


A little history
Hari Niwas Palace belongs to Raja Hari Singh of Jammu. Now, it is the property of his heirs. The old palace building (red one) in the pictures has been turned into a museum. It closes at 6 pm so we could not go inside. May be next time. And the hotel is in the adjoining white building. There is a interesting story behind naming of the city. It is believed that the city was originally founded by Raja Jamboo Lochan who lived in fourteenth century B.C. The Raja had gone out one day for hunting when he happened to witness a tiger and a goat drinking water from one and the same pond. This extraordinary phenomenon set him thinking and he decided to build a city at this site so that the strong and weak could live together in peace and mutual tolerance. Eventually, he founded the city which came to be known as "Jamboo" after his own name. With the passage of time and due to its frequent use the pronunciation of the name got slightly distorted and the city came to be known as ' Jammu' as it is called now.

I will leave you with some pics of the Hari Niwas and beautiful Tawi river flowing by its side.

Sure buddy , we would definitely meet next time or before if luck has it. Hari Niwas looks spell bounding , for a moment i thought i was not in India.

Also nice to hear how they came up with the name "Jammu " , Looking forward for more details & pictures of your experience.

[wanderhermit]

Next day we left early morning for Srinagar. Since we were advised to move by 5 am, I started at 4 just to be on safe side. Also, I wanted to spend some time at Patnitop on the way. Why start late and hurry all the way, when you can start earlier and enjoy the ride!

Another Marshall in his Force Gurkha also decided to move with us. And since we had the radio installed in the car, we went along the mountain roads chit-chatting all the way.

We were on NH 1A, which is in good condition. It starts from Jallandhar and ends at Uri. Somehow, this long winding road along the Shivaliks (after jammu), is one of the most boring drives. And it’s best to tackle it early mornings when the traffic is less, and you can maintain good speeds. During the day, it is hot and crowded with one of the worst traffic you will encounter anywhere in the India.

We reached Patnitop around 6:30 am. And I took a detour towards right from the main highway. I stopped along a gazebo with a lovely view of the valley, and decided to open our packed breakfast boxes.

I have always wondered about its name whenever I passed thru it. What does it mean actually. Is it a wife on the top, or a highest point with a wife on it? Any guesses.

The name is a vulgar distortion of the name ‘Patan ka Talaab’ by the British bureaucracy. Or the ‘pond of the princess’. So at one time, daughter of the king used to bathe in the pond here. There is a remnant of the pond here. Patnitop is at the height of 6640 ft and is one of the highest points in Shivaliks. The dense Deodar jungles and green meadows give visitors views to die for. I never prefer to spend a night though. Patnitop receives high amount of rain and is mostly covered with clouds. With temperatures mostly hovering around dew point ,it is one of the dampest places in the Himalayas. So the rooms are damp and emanate that weird smell. I personally do not like this damp smell from the walls, bed-sheets, washrooms, and almost everywhere. So it is best to spend some time here in the open and move on.

At 6:30 am, Patnitop was sleeping. Though we had our packed breakfast, we needed some tea. And I could not find any tea-stall or else open at that time. So we moved on and stopped at road side stall a few km ahead. The small village had a very peculiar name, Bibisher. We had nice sweet tea and Kashmiri kulcha. Other thing that you notice is that after Patnitop, the vilages are predominantly Muslim whereas before, majority is of Hindus in the villages. That reminds me that the actual name of the state should be Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Sadly in democratic India, it is the majority that rules.

We reached Centaur Hotel in Srinagar at around 1 pm. We checked in and had lunch. More on centaur in the next post.

[sudev]

No pictures? What was state of road around Banihal and Khooni Nallah?

[wanderhermit]

@Sudev: NH was pretty ok. All Tarmac all the way.
--------------------------------------------------------

The state of Centaur hotel is just like the state of Kashmir. It was grand and beautiful in 80's when it was opened.

But militancy, neglect and constant pretense of para-forces has wrecked a havoc. It location at the Dal lake and its gardens are bit of the saving grace.

The hotel was taken over by BSF and converted in to a hostel. everything in the hotel from cutlery in the restaurant to the lampshades in the lobby demand a renovation.

And Srinagar on that day was hotter than chandigarh. Andthere is no ac in the hotel. Not even roof fans. Only saving grace was that the TV had Star Sports (for the F1 Race weekend).

We had a marshals meet in the evening. This year, the marshals were divided into two groups. One group was stationed at Srinagar and other at Jammu, which would officiate mainly on 27th July on Day 3, Leg 1.



25 July-Scrutiny: we were assigned to be part of the environmental scrutineers. So, we had to be up early morning and reach Royal Springs Golf course at 6:45 am.

26th: The rally would go to Jammu thru Mughal Road. One CS on this day.

27th: The rally would start from Jammu and end at Srinagar. 2 CSs on this day.

After the meeting, we went out of the Hotel to roam about the city. The Boulevard road is no longer wide. And it jams up every evening. So we took a bus from outside the Hotel to go to Dal Gate rather than drive in gypsy.

We came back to hotel at around 10 and went to sleep as the next day was scrutiny, early morning.

Me at Titanic viewpoint after Banihal

Brar Saa'b


Mr. Grey All





A view of Dal lake from our room









Our Gypsy at Centaur


Me with another marshall, Mr. Srikant from Jaipur.







A participant Gypsy. Ready for action.








Chaar chinar in the background