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-   -   Gurgaon - Sambhar Lake - Ajmer - Jodhpur - Gurgaon (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/70196-gurgaon-sambhar-lake-ajmer-jodhpur-gurgaon.html)

Guys, and on second thought Gals,

Although the subject line conveys that it is a travel jaunt, it actually is not. There is a family wedding in Jodhpur and I've to attend. It is a case of "joroo ka bhai".

Since I am driving, I thought why not add a few destination to make it interesting to an otherwise much travelled road. So, added Sambhar Lake while going and will visit Bikaner on the return journey to finish the unfinished. All those who have read my Jaisalmer travelogue of Dec, '08 on Team-BHP, will know what that unfinished job was. Those who have not read it, can do so here - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...r-gurgaon.html

Will be leaving today midnight and return on 29th evening. I shall be handing the reins of the Bull to my son this time. Wish him all the very best..

For the travelogue and photographs, will have to wait for sometime..

And thanks Tanveer for that .kml...

Nice plan. Rajasthan trips are always fun. Shall be waiting for the pics and the narration :)

have a nice trip GD sir, waiting for pics :)

Wish your family a great trip! Stating the obvious, will await the detailed log & pics. :D

The trip happened. It was great. The wedding was fun. Had to drop a destination on way back for paucity of time.

The unfinished job remains unfinished. Have been terribly busy after return and haven't yet got the time to write the log and post pictures.

Will do so in a day or two. My apologies..

Hi,
Please take some time out sir. Waiting eagerly to catch up your travelogue. Thoda jaldi Post kijiye.

26th November, 2009 - 01:00 hrs

My wife's maternal uncle's son was getting married on the 27th and we were in a dilemma. Gauri's (my daughter) Xth pre-board had started on 23rd and were to end on 3rd December. The marriage too was to be attended. After lot of deliberations it was decided that we would leave on the midnight of 25th and return back on 29th - this way Gauri would have to miss her Maths exam on the 27th only and give the rest and we all could attend the celebrations.

Now, the Gurgaon - Jodhpur route is a well and often travelled route for me since it also happens to be my 'sasuraal'. The drive would have been quite un-interesting, hence I decided to add a sector that was previously not visited, thus making the journey interesting and thought that on my return would come via Bikaner to finish the unfinished as mentioned in my first post. Little did I know that it would remain unfinished. Next time maybe the luck would favour me.

The new destination enroute happened to be the Sambhar Lake - supposed to be the biggest Salty lifeless body of water of India. This is what Wikipedia has to say about the Lake - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambhar_Salt_Lake



But what a disappointment. More about it later.

To be continued....

My good friend Tanveer (TSK1979) had gone to Sambhar last year and I turned to him for advice. I had planned to turn right from Dudu on NH8 after Jaipur to Sambhar and then retrace my steps back to NH8 to proceed to Jodhpur via Ajmer. But Tanveer instead suggested to reach Kishangarh via Nawa after circumventing the Lake. He also mailed a .kml file of the route. That was of great help. This also was a good opportunity for me to test the efficacy of the new Satguide map for my Garmin that had 404 cities mapped and 16 Lakh POIs. I must say that the map is very accurate and precise.

So with all things set in place, we embarked on the journey. My wife invited over her brother to be a part of the entourage much to my displeasure.

The reason to leave around midnight was with a dual purpose. I wanted my son to drive and get practice and what better way than on the highway at night. Secondly, since he would drive at a speed of 50-60 kmph, we would have enough time to make it to our destination during daytime. He had a clear warning before getting into the driving seat - for every mistake committed he would get a tight slap. He earned 5 slaps from me while driving to Jodhpur.:D



To be continued....

Rajasthan is a fun place to drive, I think Sambhar would have been fun for you, did you try driving the vehicle in the salt plains?

We left at 1:40 and hit the NH8 at Honda Chowk. Anshu (my son) was driving nicely and negotiating the truck traffic quite well with my voice guidance system achieveing hight tones and sharp rebukes at times. In the meanwhile we learnt, thanks to the mobile technology, that my sis-in-law with her family too had left the same day and were having a clear 1 hour head start ahead of us in their MPFI Maruti 800.

Since they were driving straight to Jodhpur we thought it was futile trying to catch with them. While nearing Behror the midway point between Delhi & Jaipur we received a call from my sis-in-law asking our whereabouts. It turned out that they had reached the RTDC Midway at Behror just a few minutes ahead of us. We had caught up with them with my son driving. Good show...! The time was 3 am.

We had some tea and refreshments. I had not had dinner hence gobbled a plate of Bread & Butter with coffee and hit the road again around 4 am. We had no plans to stop at Jaipur so took the bypass and headed straight to Dudu. I must mention that we lost our relatives much behind and they were no where to be seen in the RVM. As they day broke and the twilight zone was over, we had crossed Jaipur and racing towards Dudu. We stopped at a roadside dhaba on the highway for tea and some breakfast.

After refreshments, proceeded towards Sambhar with me at the wheels now. There is a flyover that straddles the Dudu intersection on NH8 and underneath the flyover turning right takes you on the Dudu Sambhar State Highway.

Early morning I had an inkling that I would see some wildlife and lo behold, as I turned a curve saw a magnificient adult Blue Bull standing on the road-side. We both were surprised to see each other.

:Frustrati Found out that my camera D300 was cozily ensconed in the bag at the rear and the Nikon P&S S220 of my wife too was deep in her purse somewhere. As I slowed down, the animal bucked with a start, jumped across the road and vanished away. I got both the cameras out and then drove slowly hoping to see some more. But as they say - opportunity arrives only once, we didn't see any other form of wild life for the rest of the journey...

To be continued....

I did not drive on the salt plains because as I ventured more inside, I experienced slush at places and wheels spinning. I turned back as my ride is 4 x 2. That seemed like a 4 x 4 territory..

Where are the pics, very slow progress:Frustrati???

Anyone who thought that tyranny was prevalent only in the Moghul era should read this thread:Shockked:

@Dutt-saab: Driving with hunger pangs, brother-in-law for company, and Anshu bears the brunt of your ire! And for every slap received, I suppose he made another mistake? I agree with suman...
Looking forward to the rest of the story.

Selective reporting is called yellow journalism...:)

You are right Doc, he did commit a mistake after every punishment as while trying to be correct he got flustered.

A single lane well paved road from Dudu leads to Sambhar Lake covering a distance of nearly 30 kms. The village dwellings on both sides of the road was slowly coming to life. After some distance reached the Sambhar bus station. People milling around, buses parked but no sign of any water body. My GPS constantly showing a big blue patch on the screen with Sambhar Lake written on it.

I stopped and asked somebody as to where is Sambhar Lake, the gent drew a blank. My heart sank. Then somebody piped up from the small crowd - "jheel jayenge"? I immediately said yes. While giving directions, people said that I shall be disappointed because due to lack of rains for the past few years, there is little or no water.

My wife had seen Sambhar Lake when very young with her father while going to Jodhpur by train. Sambhar station used to be a stop then, now no more. She used to mention that it was a huge water body with shores not visible and waves rising as if in an ocean.

I had those visions in mind but on a smaller scale. But what I saw was totally unexpected.

The first look:



Drove closer to the visible water body and experienced slush. Fearing of getting bogged down, came back on the firmer surface and parked.




To be continued....