MEALS & MILES: Trip to Lansdowne

The feeling remains that god was on the journey, too!

Noida—Lansdowne—Noida

Ever since I heard the name of Lansdowne, it made me quite excited to explore this place. I googled almost each and everything about this place. Places to visit, hotels, how to get there etc. Finally one day Sujit and I planned to explore this place. We were no more novice about road trips now. So, we decided to hit the roads and see what Lansdowne has got.

I did the booking of a “deluxe hut” quickly in one of the government tourist rest house (managed by GMVN). I managed to somehow in cash my hard earned points on a credit card into petrol. My fuel meter was on all-time high. Every check box was checked now. We were ready to roll.

3rd June 2015 04:00 hours:

Our journey was not even started and the twist in the plot came straightaway. Rain god trolled us big time. We came back to our room. There was only one thing that was echoing in my mind at that time: “Why? Why today?”

Nevertheless, rain stopped at around 04:30 hours and we finally begun our journey at 04:44 hours (too precise, right?)

The route that was in my mind:

Noidaà Meerut à Bijnor à Kotdwar à Lansdowne

All thanks to the lovely weather and our precise timing we entered Meerut without any hiccups. The city was still sleeping. We asked few locals about which route to take for “Kotdwar”. People were quite helpful to guide us on the exact route. We crossed Meerut and took the road towards Bijnor.

I was awestruck by the quality of road and the scenic beauty around it. Lush green fields, trees shadowing the roads, canals, barrage and what not. The weather was also adding its quotient into it. You just cannot ask anything better than this for a road trip.

Nothing beats a road surrounded by lush green fields.

We crossed Bijnor with ease. Then we switched seats and Sujit was on the rider seat now. One thing we found out that our stamina has gone up exponentially. Till “Kotdwar” we didn’t take a single break. The stretch was around 200Kms.

We reached Kotdwar around 07:30 hours. We decided to have breakfast there. After having breakfast we were up for the mighty task: -“Hill driving”. Neither Sujit nor I had any experience of driving into the hills. Being little more experienced one, I took the riding seat and we were all set to drive into the hills.

I had mix feeling at that time, excited and scared both. I drove slowly and carefully around the sharp turns. The road was getting steeper and steeper. I was now slowly getting used to hill driving. Some small villages and tea shops were there in between.

Not to forget that girl in blue and her vivacious smile for Sujit at one village naming dhobighaat :P. The scenery was getting better and better. Pine tree was mesmerizing. We stopped by for some photographs. Lansdowne was only 10Kms from that point so we decided to move on.

Pine trees for you!!

Winner of that smile @ dhobighat

“Welcome to Lansdowne”. Yes!!! This is it. This is what we dreamt about. We were instantly in love with this place. What a serene environment!! No hustle bustle like other hill stations. This is what we were expecting from Lansdowne. I was driving with full excitement now, I was that much excited that I over ran our guest house. Never mind, we were guided by a local there.

The moment we were waiting for.

Driving through the roads of Lansdowne

After few formalities we checked in the guest house. I was still not able to believe that we have made it. It was always my dream to drive into the hill and I just did it. Tired? Yes. So, we decided to freshen up and take a quick nap.

A couple of hours later, we went to the local market and had lunch. We were very much full and still a bit tired. We came back to our guest house and took a quick nap again. After an hour we began our expedition of exploring Lansdowne by foot. It turned out to be a bad idea. Roads were quite steep, and we were not able to recall the time when we last walked. We started panting in no time.

Selfie!!

Backside of St. Mary's Church (Only opens on Saturday and Sunday)

After few short breaths and lots of blame game between Sujit and me, we were there at the famous “Tip n Top” point. WOW!!! You just cannot get any better view of the valley. We had some photograph session at that point. Few families were also there and the kids were way more excited after seeing the view. We spent almost 2-3 hours at that point.

Some pose @ Tip n Top Point

I have no idea what i was looking for!!

View of road connecting Lansdowne from Kotdwar.

To be very honest, there are very few tourist spot that you will find in Lansdowne. If you are expecting Lansdowne to be the typical hill station, then you are very much wrong. Go there to have a peaceful stay. The environment there is best suited for the people looking to relax and soothe themselves.

Deluxe Hut @ GMVN TRH

Backyard of TRH

While sitting on the bench at the tip n top point, two things were going in our mind: A) Should we stay here and relax ourselves, B) Should we leave for Noida. Then, suddenly I recalled one milestone which I saw in Kotdwar. That is “Haridwar- 66Kms”. Hell Yeah!!! We decided to leave next day for Haridwar.

The quote “The Journey is more important than the Destination” rightly fits in for this trip.