[Illuminati]

FREEDOM: The reason we all love road trips -



Freedom to pause in the middle of the road to enjoy the wind, some quick snacks, and among all to take awesome pictures .

After shifting to Jaipur, the constant itch to hit the road was always there. The options were too many and the routes beautiful. After much deliberation with my friend for all the locations, routes & drive miles, we finally arrived at what matched our hearts and suited our duration. We decided to drive to The Great Thar, Jaisalmer during the Dussehra'22 holidays from 1st Oct to 4th Oct.

The PLAN -
Jaipur - Jodhpur - Jaisalmer - Jaipur


Day 1 : The First Leg - 1st Oct: Start in the morning and reach Jodhpur by afternoon-


Day 2 : The Second Leg - 2nd Oct: Finish sightseeing in Jodhpur and reach Jaisalmer, by the evening -


Day 3 : The Third leg 3rd Oct: After local sightseeing, reach Sam dunes by afternoon -


Day 4 : The Return journey 4th Oct: Start from Sand dunes towards home non-stop.


The car selected was my friend's Tata Tigor AMT.
This was the first time for me driving anything apart from manual, initial few minutes were a little odd with nothing to do with the left hand and leg! but after spending some time the convenience it provided was too good and relaxing.

On Highway, the straight-line pickup was smooth and the car was reaching cruising speed between 90 -110 in no time, but when you had to overtake, this was a real pain. It's like the gearbox does not want to downshift at all or is too lazy to do so, overtaking had to be planned more carefully and requires extra 1-2 seconds for the same.

The city driving was less so will not comment anything on AMT's performance in the city. Apart from that, the car served us really well for the trip and gobbled up all our luggage, and we completed our trip without any issues.

Total trip distance 1414 KM, fuel consumed - 4 tanks full.

To look forward to - We really wanted to visit the Longewala also, but as we were limited by the number of holidays, had to return with a heavy heart, which gives us a reason to plan for Jaisalmer 1 more time .

Photo credit to my friend Mayank with his Nikon D750, 24 -120 F/4, 85 mm F/1.8, 35mm F/1.8.


DAY 1 :
Jaipur to Jodhpur -

The plan saw its perfect execution with us finishing the First stretch of 350 km till Jodhpur without any issues. The roads were good and the traffic normal. Cruising at around 80kmph with occasional stops we reached the hotel, freshened up, and went out to see the Mehrangarh Fort.
Seated on top of a rocky hill, the 800-year-old was built by Rao Jodha. Within the fort, the main palaces are Moti Mahal, Sheesh Mahal, Zenana Dude, Takht Vilas, and Jhanki Mahal.
There is also a museum that exhibits a rich collection of history and give the visitor a taste of a foregone era of Mewar.

Now I will let the pictures do the talking -

Mehrangarh Fort -




Sheesh Mahal -






The symmetricity -


Sun peeking through -


Some random clicks in and around the fort -








Artefacts in the museum -










Sunset from the fort -






Umaid Bhavan Palace as viewed from the fort -


Night view from our hotel -




This ended the day 1.

[Illuminati]

Day 2
The second day started with a visit to the Umaid Palace -


Rest, there was a museum with the usual stuff - guns, swords, armour etc , so no photos were taken.

Next, in a separate compound, some 4-5 vintage cars were kept behind the glass for viewing pleasure, and couldn't take photographs due to reflection.


The Jaisalmer Leg -

DAY 2 - After visiting Umaid Bhavan Palace, we started towards Jaisalmer in the afternoon, the idea was to view the sunset from Jaisalmer fort. The roads are in good condition but narrow, undivided and the presence of cattle throughout made sure we couldn't achieve our desired speed, and instead of risking it, we decided to watch the sunset from wherever we will be at that point in time.

Somewhere, before Jaisalmer -


First view of the Fort -


When we reached Jaisalmer, it was time to watch the fountain show at Gadisar Lake,









Night view of the Fort -




DAY 3 -

Jaisalmer Fort -















Viewpoint from the fort -


The City-






After spending a good amount of time here, we started our journey towards Sam Sand Dunes.

The road ahead -


The Happy Faces-


The camels -




Touchdown point -



All ready for Desert Safari (with tea cups in hand)


Little did we know about the driver's intentions. From the first second, he launched the Thar with full power which resulted in the tea spilling over our jeans and we all running for cover. After screaming our hearts out we focused on finding something to hold on to and started enjoying the ride.
It was a great experience, and it is a must activity to be done. The only regret, we could not film any of it as we were only focusing on not falling down from the vehicle.



Desert safari area during the night -


Performance at our stay place-


The Starry Night


And with that, we send a good night and went for our sleep.

[Illuminati]

DAY 4

The next day morning, we went in the dunes again, this time for a camel ride-


This was booked from the hotel only.

After spending some 2 hours it was time to return.

Bye Bye Sand -


After finishing our ride, it was time to pack up and start our return journey to Jaipur.

That was the plan but, our thirst for the desert was yet to be satiated - so we decided to have one more bout of camel ride and desert visit.

We packed, checked out, and went to the desert again, negotiated for a camel ride, and went into the desert once more -

Isn't am beautiful?




Sand, sand, and some more sand -




The return journey was uneventful and we followed the same route via Jodhpur to Jaipur due to familiarity and were home by around midnight.

Since this trip was done during 9 days fasting period of Navratri, couldn't explore food items.

Special mention to my 4-year-old daughter, she was not well but managed to hold well during the entire trip on medication.



These kids nowadays, you will have no idea when they will sneak and take the mobile and find a corner -


Caught again -


The art -


The Art 2.0 - Hand sketch




The artist -


Group photo time -


Me proudly sporting Team BHP's tee -


Story of our married life - Never in Sync


Into the sunset -

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[ampere]

An amazing photo set there! Captures the essence of the place, the road and the people making the story!

[haisaikat]

A beautiful travelogue with family and friends along with some great photos. Rajasthan is on my bucket list but I am eagerly waiting for my kid to grow up a little more to be able to effectively enjoy the palaces and fort heritage. Your travelogue makes it even more compelling proposition of covering Rajasthan in parts, thank you for bringing forward this wonderful account. Hope to see more such travelogues from you again. And last but not the least, your artistic touch in those drawings came out lively, well done.

[mohansrides]

Lovely thread @Illuminati. Thank you.

You have rightly chosen beautiful pictures over long narratives. And those pictures are worth a million words.

Were they all shot on phones? Or did you use a DSLR / mirrorless set up for a few of the pics?

[asingh1977]

Amazing photos and travel logs. What camera was used for the wide shots ?

[Turbosailor]

Well documented travelogue. Those pictures indeed speaks thousand words, your friend have pretty good photographic and editing senses. It brought back my memories when me and my better half's went to Jaipur back in 2016. Special mention on your hand sketch
Thanks for your effort in penning down and sharing with us.

[Ashdel]

What an amazing trip - Beautiful - This leg is in my mind since ages and now that i got kids - i really wanted to take them to experience this driving journey - hopefully soon.

[Illuminati]

Originally Posted by haisaikat

A beautiful travelogue with family and friends along with some great photos.

your artistic touch in those drawings came out lively, well done.

Thanks.

Wishing for you to complete the trip as soon as you can, your whole family will love it.

A clarity - the sketches again were done by my friend .

Originally Posted by mohansrides

Were they all shot on phones? Or did you use a DSLR / mirrorless set up for a few of the pics?

Thanks.
Majority were done on Nikon D750, 24 -120 F/4, 85 mm F/1.8, 35mm F/1.8.
Some on Iphone13 and Samsung Note 9.

Originally Posted by asingh1977

Amazing photos and travel logs. What camera was used for the wide shots ?

Thanks.

Nikon D750, 24 -120 F/4, 85 mm F/1.8, 35mm F/1.8.

Originally Posted by Turbosailor

Well documented travelogue. Those pictures indeed speaks thousand words, your friend have pretty good photographic and editing senses.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Ashdel

What an amazing trip - Beautiful - This leg is in my mind since ages and now that i got kids - i really wanted to take them to experience this driving journey - hopefully soon.

Thanks.
what else I can say, Just do it !

[HowDifferent?]

Beautiful pictures. A trip like this has been on my wish list for a long time; however went on back burner for various reasons. Your post has rekindled my wish. Thanks for the post and for giving something to plan for..!

[mukeshgoel]

Great travelogue and great pictures.

We also did it in first week of Jan'23 (Gurgaon - Jodhpur - Jaisalmer - Sam - Longewala - Tanot - BP609 - Jaisalmer - Bikaner - Gurgaon).

It was one of most memorable trips.

[Illuminati]

Originally Posted by HowDifferent?

Beautiful pictures. Thanks for the post and for giving something to plan for..!

Thanks.
All the best!
Looking forward to your travelogue.

Originally Posted by mukeshgoel

Great travelogue and great pictures.


It was one of most memorable trips.

Thanks.
Your pictures are awesome.

[nda992]

Awesome Photos, you seem to be really good at Photography! Which camera were you using?

The Jaisalmer Fort is a rare fort where the praja lives inside & the Raja outside.

The story goes that this Fort was not well known till the time Satyajit Ray made his timeless classic "Shonar Kella" (Bengali: Golden Fortress) which featured the famous fictional detective 'Feluda' solving a mystery set inside the fortress.

It seems that after the movie was released (& received international acclaim), all of a sudden the town of Jaisalmer found a long line of tourists from Western Europe, UK, US & of course, Bengal; coming for a look.

This place is famous also because of Operation Smiling Buddha (1974) & Operation Shakti (1998) which catapulted India into the elite league of Nuclear Powered Nations.

The land of Mewar & Marwar is replete with history & tradition, a must visit for all Indians..