[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

No this is in Tirthan valley, adjacent to the Tirthan river. The climbs are to a GHNP (Great Himalayan National Park) Rohla, which unfortunately was closed to public back then. It's a single lane road leading to a closed endpoint at the top.

Check out the maps link; the twists are visible.

Interesting!! We had gone very close to this place last year on our annual bike trip. Didn't knew about this place. We were on the Gushaini-Bathad road.

[SJM1214]

The Kazig (KA) loops at Spiti.

Khab Bridge is the point where Spiti and Sutlej river meet marks the starting of one of the most difficult stretches of the Spiti Circuit - The Kazigs Hairpins. Steep. Sharp. And broken at that time.

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by JayKis

You must have heard of Lavasa, India's largest hill city near Pune which caught itself in the legal turmoil and never took off as intended.

Has Lavasa shut down or is it still operational? What is there? Are there hotels/resorts where one can stay for a 3 day weekend?

[fiat_tarun]

Having grown up in the tea estates in Valparai, we used to sometime drive down the ghats to Coimbatore, climb up to Ooty and come all the way back in a day. Ghat roads were such a normal thing all through my childhood.

The Pollachi to Valparai road remains one of the best roads in our country and a drivers delight. To add to this as all TN roads are maintained so well, the surface has always been brilliant and with proper markings, sign boards and mirrors at some turns. It's such a pity we moved out just when I got my drivers license.


A pic from my trip back last year


A beautiful drone shot of this driver's dream - Source

[Entsurgeon]

If you ever come to Indore, the Mhow-Mandleshwar road offers you 4-6M wide 2 lane road with little to no traffic. This is a recently paved backroad and the whole 25 30km route has fast sweeping corners with a 5km ghat section with both slow and fast hairpins. Route is infested with cattles and ghat has primate jaywalkers. Surface is smooth and the best aprt is, you can have multiple to and fro runs at ghat section and if you are really early, its practically zero traffic.
Here is my leisurely cornering video on uphill route-

https://youtu.be/eBirWjVDXak

For the more enthusiastic, i would advise 'Never depart your lane on public roads. No racing lines please.'
Also, Bhopal is one city with lot of smooth corners on wide roads within and ou5side the city but they are not zero traffic during daytime.

[SJM1214]

A road approaching Tangste village. Pangong Lake region.

[sridharj77]

Originally Posted by Samba

Quite a few!

Sharing a few stretches, I can remember.

Where are the last 2 pictures from? They look really beautiful!

[Samba]

Originally Posted by sridharj77

Where are the last 2 pictures from? They look really beautiful!

Guwahati to Shillong stretch.

[BeantownThinker]

Originally Posted by Aqua

For me its from Abu Road (base) to Mount Abu in Rajasthan. Around 20-22 kms of single lane undivided road with twist and turns and decent gradient also.

This brings back memories. Have traveled this road 6 days a week for 7 years as a kid. This was my daily commute to school and back.

[smalhotra_93]

Thought I'll contribute my bit. Posting after ages on tbhp. So this short 90 km hilly ride from Chandigarh to Shimla this year greeted me with these views. I encountered fresh snow on the outskirts and in Shimla. And boy did this car behave ! Fresh set of PS4s gripped slippery roads like a chewing gum stuck under a table by a teenager !
Here are a couple of pictures of my baby in the snow !

[HKap]

Originally Posted by Hayek

For a twisty with light traffic and fabulous views, there is nothing to beat the roads around Pawna Dam, near Lonavala. These roads have highly variable conditions - but drive on them when freshly paved and it is one of the most pleasurable drives I have done anywhere.

Lots of our hill roads are twisty - but plagued by poor surfaces, dangerous corners and too much slow moving bus or truck traffic. Pawna avoids all of that.

100%. We accidentally ended up taking the Pawna route from Lavasa to Mumbai instead of the usual hinjewadi route. It was totally worth it and I'd take that route every time.

[kjayant]

I think driving in valleys always gets the best out of spirited drivers. What I love about these are:

1. Optimizing the gear shifts and getting maximum from the slopes to use it on climbs

2. The grunt of the engine while not pushing is too much. Being a long-distance athlete, I always keep an eye out for the motor munching miles under the hood. Keeping a nice rhythm is the key and you will end falling in love with your car over and over again

3. I am old school, was taught driving by my dad. Being a mechanical engineer he was very precise in his lessons. He always preached least engagement of the clutch and driving with brakes in hills, that really works for me!

4. and finally the correction on the steering or the precision of it in the hills.

My heart literally goes out to the heavy duty trucks running out of the breath on the climbs. So defeating to see the monster of plains bowing down to nature.

In terms of drive - I have loved driving in valley roads of Jharkhand - Tilaiya ghati as they call it, Uttarakhand Landsdowne is awesome, Chandigarh Shimla is not bad at all.

[JayKis]

Originally Posted by vharihar

Has Lavasa shut down or is it still operational? What is there? Are there hotels/resorts where one can stay for a 3 day weekend?

Havent been there for a long time. Heard that the place has decayed.

[revver]

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

The Pollachi to Valparai road remains one of the best roads in our country and a drivers delight. To add to this as all TN roads are maintained so well, the surface has always been brilliant and with proper markings, sign boards and mirrors at some turns.

Absolutely agree with you fiat_tarun.One of my favorite ghat roads as well. Delightful drive indeed.

There are always some hidden gems if you travel through Idukki & Wayanad districts of Kerala as well. Especially if you choose to drive there right after the rainy season.

wonderful thread

[Pferdestarke]

Kondaveedu Fort Ghat section near Guntur. The road has almost zero traffic and is every driver's dream!





The road had no tourists/vehicles hence we did some spirited runs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqkil5LL73A