IMA/Mussoorie

Google always has kind of confused me as I searched for Mussorrie; as in it were Mussoorie of Uttrakhand India or Missouri of United States. As it had to be, the myth was busted when I first visited the place last year with my friend; and that too on a Harley. I was too crazed with the idea of playing with the toy that I bore complete disregard to the conditions in which it was to be played with. Not confusing, I mean the road conditions for the Harley were bad but I took it any which ways.

Raid imitating Endeavour

Having two falls and months of persevered waiting (as if I could do anything about it) I guess sanity has creeped in. So this time, when I have to visit GC PS Salar in the Academy, I decide to halt for a night at mussorrie and take my truck. What a decision it was to be, only the day i.e. yesterday would have unraveled. I and my friend started of timely yesterday, in the hope that we’d make in time and have the city to explore before pushing back the next day. Rains started enroute, small patches here and there. Cross Nahan, and descend the mountains there’s a jam with length extending in KM’s. Conflicting reports come from the vehicles returning from the front. It’s a landslide for sure and a big one. How long its going to take to clear was anybody’s guess. Some say 2 hours, some say the whole night and some say by the evening.

STATIC not being the characteristic of the age, we move back towards Nahan in a hope to find a new way to Paonta Sahib. Locals advise that 7 kms down the Renuka ji road comes a place Jamta from where we can take a right and reach Dhaula Kuan and on towards Paonta. Reach Jamta and the said route is closed for the same reasons as the previous one. It had been raining incessantly in the region for the past week and the evidence lay strewn over the road; broken trees, stones, slush…all over. On advice we approach Dadhua where a bridge takes us across the river and on toward Paonta. We stop in between the bridge to have a grasp of the view and discover rear right as flat. DAMN the tubeless or WOW the tubeless, I have mixed feelings. Dadhua serves our need before we cross the bridge again, only to find the road ahead washed by the raging river. Back to Dadhua!!

View from room

3^rd local advise (of the day) go to Sataun – 7 kms ahead of Renukaji – if open, we are good for Paonta. Approach Sataun to find the road has been closed for 3 months. O yea…no points for asking how long the JCB gonna take to clear. Message of the Providence being clear – this is a day of learning my child – Nahan was the revised destination. No problem reaching, as Endavour does well with me imitating Raid-de-Himalaya. After 5 hours we were back at the same JAM albeit 130 kms of EXPERIENCEFUL detour. The JAM has just been cleared but by the time we reach, the damn thing has slid down again. Whiling away 45 minutes was not a problem, given the   events of the day. Road clear, we hit Mussorrie in pitch darkness 12 hours hence.

Ilbert Manor (where we put up) couldn’t be seen much for I didn’t care till the time I had a sack to hit. This morning, with the view from my window, I feel like a kid with a lollipop after a tough test. And so the sweetness flows…