Beep Beep Beep.. we wake up to the clocks alarm. Its 4:00AM.
Kids are still sleeping.
Today is 21st dec 09.
Quickly we refresh ourselves. Suddenly I see something next to my wallet a small squarish stuff. Then it all comes rushing to back. Its "RAMBAAN"
Chai comes by 5:00am and kids are waking up due to noise of metal and glasses. Elder one is still asking, when do get to see the snow. "Sweetie, wait for a day or so max
we are almost there"
Everyone cherishes the sweet chai and we pack up and leave the hotel by 5:30 AM.
Ofcourse ram baan is put back to its org. status.The temperature is around 7 degrees and its sure is cold. As ususal the car heater shows its magic. The road is clear and I decide to focus the hellas and then
drive anticipating the fog.
Soon the a zen going ahead disappears from vision, and I wonder, wow thats fast maybe I should also speed up a little. Slowly i jump from 60 to 80. and still no sign.. Wow...
Then suddenly .. i see fog enveloping me and i can see that zen.. shucks.. & slow down.
After sometime some kind of brigde comes and I find myself staring at nothing. Its pitch dark outside and all i see is the a white wall. Damn!
I cant see anything at all.
Slowly i decelerate to 5kmph in first gear and crawl. Soon i find a bunch of very dim lights following me. I decide that its time to pull in the hazard
lights and its extremely dangerous situation, lest someone rear ends me.
It gets worse near a brigde where the fog enters the vehicle when I open the driver side window to peek outside.
My vehicle lights have failed :(. I cant see anything. Even refocussing the hellas to fall to 5 ft in front of vehicle doesnt help.
I decide to switch off the hellas and try to concentrate on the road ahead.
Out of the fog, slowly crawling, I can see to the left Ambala Cantt Station and realise that I am crossing Ambala.
Memories of school come back to me as I tell it to my elder daughter, how I grew up watching Hunters and Jaguars and newMirage 2000 during early to mid 80's. Sighh.. those were the days I remember now properly. I am glad I touched base Ambala during my trip.
Suddenly I see a laura doing approx 30-40kmph in that condition followed by some taxi cabs pass on me from right. I wonder if they are really used to driving in these conditions.
I do manage to catch up with them, in next 15 mins only to see that laura failed to negotiate the diversion and has crashed and a taxi cab has rearended it..
After ambala we stop at a make shift dhabha where Kids have their milk and banana's and after around 10 mins we roll again. People have warned that fog is persistant until ludhiana. So I get prepared to drive slow.
Since I was engrossed in driving, the camera was completely forgotten.
We cross Shambhu toll plaza by 6:40AM after paying Rs. 47
The roads are fogged out completely.
"Did I see a pair of white lights" I say to my self..
Oh no, drat the brat, i swere into the left lane cursing the stupid Sumo wala, going in opposite direction in the wrong lane.
He is not alone, but few more cars..
This was the second close call I had in the trip. Phew...
Now we are crossing rajpura - mandi & Khanna and nearing Ludhiana. Sun is playing hide and seek with us and before Ludhiana, everything clearup like there was nothing. WOW..!
"Ok I need to go through ludhiana and take the elevated roads." I say to myself and tell my wife in the back to look out for any signs towards Jalandhar.
After good 45 mins, I am still traversing by lanes of the industrial area. Its around 8:30 am. "I am disgraced... I am lost again" I say to myself.
A rickshaw wala comes to my rescue and puts me back on the
elevated flyover to Jalandhar a KM away. Thank You Rickshawala...
We roll by, Phagwara.. I see lots of limo's and pimped up alto's as expected
Then comes Jalandhar BP. We spot the flyover from where we need to take a right turn under it.
My fuel is midway and we decide to tank up at IOC. Man.. 31.65/- to a liter am I dreaming.. "Hey put an extra 5 liters in this fuel can as well" is all i can manage to say to the attendent with a wide grin on my face.
Soon dasuya, mukerian and beas go by.
We do stop at the Mc Donalds to refresh and rest for a while. Now I dont remember if it was before or after pathankot.
As i am nearing Pathankot, Tanveer calls up with a good news that, its snowed up there. Our fears are put to rest there and then itself.
Then comes slurry of calls from a friend in Jammu, who is waiting for us at the Jammu by pass. I say to him, that we are near pathankot and we should hit jammu bypass in next 2-3 hrs.. Little did I know what those two three hours would hold for me..
Attachment 256746
Soon we are nearing the border, madhopura, where in the details of vehicle and license is entered and then we are off to Jammu.
Smooth Tarmac....
The landscape is transforming from smooth tarmac to potholes. I cant speed up more than 50kmph. Lots of diversions and reckless bus drivers are around.
Ofcourse lots of dry river beds and bridges. I see a safari camping on the dry river bed down below.
Lovey Dovey's
Next we are stopped by J&K Police who questions where and what, when did u buy the safari etc. All answered and vehicle checked, we are off again.
We are now in J&K.
We have crossed Madhopur,River Ravi Bridge, J&K BORDER, Check Post, Kathua, Dyala Chak, Check Post, Samba, Vijaypur & Bari Brahma till now.
I pick my friend at Bari bramha and then using Jammu BP proceed towards Katra.
Finally, I pass by the place I was born . They say that our Janmbhumi calls you sometime or other. I comeback to the state after looooong 28 years.....@ Attachment 256746 The board depicts that all roads are a GO.
We are heading towards Katra now.
From a distance we can see the holy shrine of Mata Vaishnodevi.
A small video of drive to Katra.
Soon we pay Rs. 50 at Katra and checkin to Dak Bunglow Katra around 4pm
Some naive attempts
This is how Vaishnodevi looks like during daytime and one in night with lights.
Attachment 256764
Jai Mata Di..
We start the climb up from Banganga after having dinner around 9.. Reach up around 1am, get the darshan in next 15 mins peacefully.
We spent approx 1 minute inside and the come out to have warm tea.
All the pain, cold, numbness is gone after having darshan
like they say and then start off to bhaironnath.
Prayers said and no horsewala around we comedown via stairs (kids on
pithoo) all the way to banganga at around 6am.
Our backs are screaming and the pain in the knees is just too much.. I dont know whether to laugh or cry. Every step down is like some experience. So we trot down 20 steps take rest and then 20 steps again
Visit to mata is a test of patience, stamina & will power.
The to and fro journey is 26 kms approx.
Jai Mata Di !
Yes....we have done it.All in All we are happy and glad we made it
A massuer soothens the pain at banganga and we are off to hotel now to take a well deserved nap now. I decide to take a look at the ride and am crestfallen. One of tyres is flat. Noooooo.
Nevermind, will take it up later. Time to take a nap.
I wake up around 2pm, kids and wife still sleeping to glory
Go down and try to unscrew the spare tyre.. huff.. huff.
Damn I cant. I dont have the energy to unscrew, leave alone to jack up the 2 tonnner.
Then I call up a hotel guy and open up the foot pump and request him to pump up. The tyre is completely flat. Magic, withing next 15 mins the tyre is inflated to 30 psi and i wait for a minute or so then drive into katra city to get it repaired.
That done, come back go out to the town in evening, fill diesel and back to hotel to catch the sleep.
Today we start for Tangmarg...Ya
Bundle of joys.. They were awake during darshan and after a
good rest are fresh.
Thank you my ride for the lovely darshan.
. I have cleaned it usinf Jopasu
Here we come Tangmarg...