Driving from Delhi to Barot | Family Trip

Couple of weeks back, I went to two of the most serene and offbeat villages of Himachal Pradesh named Barot and Chindi I have already talked about it briefly in the article: Barot – Chindi Trip | Itinerary & Road Conditions where I updated the itinerary I followed, the road conditions and toll amounts I spent. Now, its time to share the detailed Travel Tale with you all and let’s begin with Day 1…

Well, it is supposed to be a start of an year of monthly Family Trips and this was going to be the first trip among them. Ever since the trip to Chaukori in last December, I did not travel with my family. So, time had come now to please them and travel along with them before my wife ends the Travel Saga in my life for not making her part of my Himalayan trip 😀 😀

Day 1 | Delhi – Ambala – Chandigarh – Mandi – Barot

It was 5 AM in the morning when we hit the roads from our house near Dwarka, though it was decided that we will leave by 3.30 🙁 🙁 … So, already there was a delay of 1.5 Hrs. Considering the long route ahead and short daylight duration I was quite anxious. In fact the anxiety was also due to the fact that Junior, Me and Wife were traveling alone for the first time as last time we were accompanied with my cousins too. So, this has to be some different experience ;)… Anyways, by God’s Grace I had made up my mind to under take this family trip no matter what, believing there is always a first time for everything 😀

We zoom passed Delhi Outer Ring Road to NH-1 and approached towards our first stop at Zhilmil Dhabha Karnal. It was still dark and traffic was least too on roads which helped us made good progress. Junior was sleeping well, so was my wife. We passed tolls of NH-1 and reached Karnal by 7 AM, so far so good. Ordered the usual Tea + Mix Paranthas with Butter. Well, to be very frank I was really disappointed for the first time there as the paranthas tasted bad, butter was not the quality it used to be and then tea was more like sugar syrup 🙁 🙁 … I had seen quality been degraded over past couple of years but this calls an end to our stoppages there. Anyways we continued after getting couple of tips to Junior as he was crying for Cricket Bat and Ball he saw in a shop there as I could imagine how this trip with him going to unfold 😀

We resumed back the journey and reach Chandigarh in mad office hours. There was too much traffic that day and we were almost in a jam when Junior had the nature’s call and started crying. There was no way to park the car in the city neither I can see any toilets around. So, the wild guess of using diapers did the trick for time being. The whole episode made me miss the turn to Ropar and we had to go all the way long till end, took some by lanes and finally reached a desolated place on Ropar Highway to sanitize Junior. After that he was completely in the mood of enjoying the drive…

We passed Ropar and went to Himachal border where the guy charged Rs 60 for entry fees into Himachal. The roads ahead were full of pot-holes and very pathetic in conditions. We moved at nail’s pace due to bad roads. I had to meet a friend Tarun Goel (a native of Himachal and famous travel blogger at LoOp-WhOlE) and it was already 1 past 15. I knew we will not reach Sunder Nagar before 3 PM and that’s what happened. We stopped at Mayur Dhabha about 8 KMs before Sunder Nagar where in fact we had the most delicious food of the trip 😀 … Tarun came there only, met the Junior for the first time. He provided all the valuable tips for Barot, the stay there and places to see around. We bid adieus and started to rush then as I knew we are in for a race to daylight.

Junior could not sustain the curves in Himalayas and unfortunately on the second trip as well he suffered motion sickness at mountains. He puked once near Bilaspur and then again as we left Sunder Nagar 🙁 🙁 … This looked a sad reality to me but I am hopeful that he will get used to it in future but doors for high altitude places for him are closed until he starts speaking to convey the uneasy feelings 😥 … Well, we moved on to Mandi and then took the Mandi – Pathankot Highway for Barot. Well the road was fine but narrow at places. It was 4 PM and Barot was still 68 KMs from Mandi which meant about 2.5 Hrs.

Continued the drive towards Ghatsani from where the road to Barot forks via Tikkan. As we ascended the road to Jhatingiri, the sun was about to set as we witnessed a beautiful sunset over hills there. The roads were very bad and with steep ascend too. It was just the first gear that worked which slowed the pace along with bad roads. Finally I called up Amichand ji at River View Homestay, Barot to ask for directions for his homestay. It was all dark then but finally after 537 KMs and 13.5 Hrs, we reached Barot from Delhi at 6.30 PM. By that time both wifey and junior were irritated to heights 😀

So, a sigh of relief for me seeing the homestay. River view home stay is located across the river and you have to cross the bridge to reach the temple road which ultimately leads to zero point where famous haulage trolley system was present in early days of Barot. We looked at the rooms which were decent enough to stay and quickly ordered tea with buns. Buns tasted lovely and brought the nostalgic feelings 😀 … Junior was much relaxed after coming out of the car as he got the space for running & jumping around 😀 😀 …

Barot was quite cold and as it was night though could not see the river but can hear the gushing sound of water next to the room. It was really calm around nothing but that sound of river flowing besides. We ordered Aloo Gobhi and Dal for dinner at night which tasted fine enough. Finally called off the long day but Junior took sometime to sleep as he slept so much in the car itself but my wife took care of him till he slept after listening all his storied 😉 …

The Journey ahead…