Twelve hours. Thats what I reckon will take us to reach our home state. There are no bad roads ahead, no passes, no mountains to climb. Its all the very tame Srinagar-Udhampur highway.
But you know what, never assume. Esp when travelling in J&K.
Soon after hitting the main road after Sringar, we realized that driving here is a Risky job. A thing all the cabs know, and display
We are also at full risk. Every move we make, every where we brake, and every where we accelerate, there is danger of being hit my a maniac in one of these "Risky jobs". Some risky jobs are with non functional horns. So if you hear "oye oye oye", assume it to be equivalent to "I can't brake, get to the side or I will ram you".
Another interesting titbit. Every seen the glorious Army convoys in Ladakh. Here they have to travel in nets, lest something very potent and explosive is thrown into the truck
Being in Delhi teaches you a lot of "avoid getting hit" driving, and somehow we make it to the maggi and tea point before Jawahar tunnel. Another titbit. As you start the climb, there comes a point where GPS stops working. A jammer at work I guess
At Jawahar tunnel, its time for tea and maggi.
And little past 5 we are off again.
Till the tunnel its smooth sailing, and its due to the sunset. All the herds of cattle and sheep use the national highway to return to their homes, leading to crawl traffic. Nevertheless, we trudge on, slowly but steadily. Okay, not 2am but we will reach at 3am?
Its only when we cross Patnitop we realize the mess. There is a long jam from here, almost till Udhampur. A truck has broken down somewhere, leaving little space to pass. Due to this the traffic pilup has stopped traffic for 50kms, and even the cranes cannot get to the truck.
As we sit and stare around in the darkness, I observe many things. Truck drivers are dead drunk. The "risky jobs" are even more drunk. A risky job right in front of my eyes, goes bang into a truck stopped in the jam, with engine off.
Bang, go his lights. He swaggers out accusing the truck driver of driving in reverse, and the truck driver swaggers out with an iron road swinging it in the air. Few onlookers come and mutter something, and both go back to their vehicles. Risky job who is probably 10 pegs down will not drive without headlights.
No wonder, its a risky job.
As for us, we pass time listening to some music. The time for listening for hisses and leaks and clangs and rattles is pass. We are going to Safari land, where no safari problem is unsolvable.
Guess what. 1:30 am we are at Udhampur. From Udhampur we take the bypass, and right near Mansar, we face another obstacle. JK cops. The guy checks for all papers, and the like, and does not find any fault. Now its against his oath to let anybody pass without a fine, so he asks us to give him something "We are standing here in such cold weather for you blah blah".
It reminds me of the nagging I have to endure at traffic lights every day on the lines of "Bhagwan ke naap pe... Tera bhala ho" blah blah.
So I just shake his hand, say thank you, tell him "you are great and doing a good job", and simply zoom off before he can even understand what has happened.
The drive after here is uneventful. Mild traffic issues at Lakhanpur because of parked trucks. The border officials let trucks etc., park right on the road, which leads to 3-4km jams during daytime. Early morning, its just a few minutes.
Finally at 7am, we arrive at Jallandar, and take the breakfast at McDonalds. Just an hour of drive left, we proceed, splashing water on my face every 20 minutes, and arrive home in once piece.
Yes, the trip has ended.
COMING UP NEXT: All the maps and trip log