The boredom with our regular routine in Delhi was increasing by the day.
We had been planning a weekend drive into the mountains for last few weekends, but every time there was an obstacle that could not be surmounted.
Finally this was the weekend, we decided to take break and enjoy some fresh air and a green drive.
So we decided to drive to Kasauli, as one of my colleagues had strongly recommended it.
Kasauli is a small hill town in Himichal Pradesh, slightly off the NH22 that connects Ambala and Shimla.
The distance is moderate of around 320 km, road is also pretty good (NH1 and NH22) and it is a dual carriageway till Parwanoo, which is preferable for a first time hill road driver like me.
Route map as below:
Road Condition:
Getting out from Delhi took a lot of time even when we started at 0500 am in the morning on a Saturday.
This was due to bad road and our lack of knowledge of local Delhi roads.
We lost 1 hour because of this and our mistake of not following Google maps accurately.
Moral of the story - Follow the Google Map and avoid taking deceptive shortcuts.
The road from Delhi to Ambala is very good (NH1).
But in some places they are increasing the number of lanes to six, due to which lot of construction activity is taking place. These areas can be potential roadblocks, but since we were early on a weekend Saturday morning, there was no major loss of time.
The green fields of Haryana and Punjab.
The road from Ambala to Parwanoo is very good (NH22) - Himalayan Expressway.
They have just opened a new 3 lane expressway, which is very good for driving,
From Parwanoo to Dharampur, it is a single carriageway.
We drove slowly and carefully, as this was our first time in Hills.
Road is decent, but you will find many mad drivers wanting to overtake.
So drive slowly and keep honking at blind turns.
Following a truck is also not a bad idea.
Travel Time:
Total 7 hours drive time, plus we took 2 breaks of about 30 minutes each, at Murthal (Vaishno Dhaba) and Zirakpur (McDonalds).
In return we our drive time was 5.5 hours, with a break time of 45 minutes.
Of this 5.5, about 0.5 hours were spent in Delhi traffic itself.
So overall we covered roughly 300 km in 5 hours on the highway.
Destination - Kasauli:
Wonderful greenery, lots of pine trees and cool breezes.
Temple on a hilltop:
Enclosed and lost in clouds just a few minutes later:
Kasauli TV Tower and the main town:
Some more post cards:
We had been planning a weekend drive into the mountains for last few weekends, but every time there was an obstacle that could not be surmounted.
Finally this was the weekend, we decided to take break and enjoy some fresh air and a green drive.
So we decided to drive to Kasauli, as one of my colleagues had strongly recommended it.
Kasauli is a small hill town in Himichal Pradesh, slightly off the NH22 that connects Ambala and Shimla.
The distance is moderate of around 320 km, road is also pretty good (NH1 and NH22) and it is a dual carriageway till Parwanoo, which is preferable for a first time hill road driver like me.
Route map as below:
Road Condition:
Getting out from Delhi took a lot of time even when we started at 0500 am in the morning on a Saturday.
This was due to bad road and our lack of knowledge of local Delhi roads.
We lost 1 hour because of this and our mistake of not following Google maps accurately.
Moral of the story - Follow the Google Map and avoid taking deceptive shortcuts.
The road from Delhi to Ambala is very good (NH1).
But in some places they are increasing the number of lanes to six, due to which lot of construction activity is taking place. These areas can be potential roadblocks, but since we were early on a weekend Saturday morning, there was no major loss of time.
The green fields of Haryana and Punjab.
The road from Ambala to Parwanoo is very good (NH22) - Himalayan Expressway.
They have just opened a new 3 lane expressway, which is very good for driving,
From Parwanoo to Dharampur, it is a single carriageway.
We drove slowly and carefully, as this was our first time in Hills.
Road is decent, but you will find many mad drivers wanting to overtake.
So drive slowly and keep honking at blind turns.
Following a truck is also not a bad idea.
Travel Time:
Total 7 hours drive time, plus we took 2 breaks of about 30 minutes each, at Murthal (Vaishno Dhaba) and Zirakpur (McDonalds).
In return we our drive time was 5.5 hours, with a break time of 45 minutes.
Of this 5.5, about 0.5 hours were spent in Delhi traffic itself.
So overall we covered roughly 300 km in 5 hours on the highway.
Destination - Kasauli:
Wonderful greenery, lots of pine trees and cool breezes.
Temple on a hilltop:
Kasauli TV Tower and the main town:
Some more post cards:
