Wander through India : THE SPITI EXPEDITION ( DAY III : BEHROR TO BAROG )

DAY 3: BEHROR – BAROG (500 KM)

Destination: Barog , Himachal

1.       Considering the long distance that we had to travel which included the early office going traffic of Delhi we decided to make an early start from Behror.Our destination for the day was Barog , Himachal which is a small hill town situated around 8 km away from Solan.

2.       There is a tale to the name Barog as it is common to most unique places.The town is named after a certain Col Barog of the British Army.The Col. was responsible to construct a tunnel as a part of the railway project .To speed up construction he commenced digging from both sides but because of a mistake in calculation the ends did not meet in the middle ; as a penalty he was fined Re 1 by the British Government however due to the humiliation he suffered he committed suicide and was buried in the incomplete tunnel.The tunnel later constructed is the straightest tunnel in the world and longest on the Shimla-Kalka stretch amongst the 103 odd tunnels that have been constructed.The town is 1560 mt above sea level ( 5120 feet).

3.       Anyways to get back to the TL , we started by 0730 hrs from Behror and our target was to reach Murthal, one of the fastest developing villages in Haryana and a place long famous for Dhabas.Soon we were speeding on the NH-8 and crossed Manesar and IFFCO chowk exit and approached the Gurgaon toll plaza by 0935 hrs covering a distance of 114 kms .We thereafter encountered the morning office traffic of Delhi even as we sought to bypass the city travelling through Mahipalpur and then the IG airport T 3 exit. Our path took us through Dhaula Kuan and then Pitampura metro station from where we turned right towards Sonepat. We reached Murthal by 1120 hrs covering a total distance of 186 km from Behror .The breakfast was at Satnam Dhaba where we had the ubiquitous aloo paratha with curd topped with generous home made butter and a cuppa of hot tea.

4. We were now on the AH 2 ( part of the Grand Trunk Road) and continued through the plains of Haryana towards Karnal which we reached by 1300 hrs after 66 kms from Murthal.After the Karnal toll plaza we then proceeded towards Kurukshetra and Ambala Cantt. Kurukshetra was the land where the battle of Mahabharata was fought during which Lord Krishna preached the Bhagvada Gita . As one travels through the length of this country one realizes how much there is to see and assimilate.Every small town has a history and a story to tell , there is a place waiting to be explored and spoken about .Ambala Cantt had the army look written all over it and it houses the “2 Corps” one of the three strike corps of the Indian Army. Ambala Air Base is one of the oldest in the country . We crossed Ambala Cantt during the hot afternoon by 1430
hrs.Thereafter we stopped at Khalsa filling station for topping up fuel and to take a water break.

5. A few words about the Grand Trunk road that we were travelling upon is I feel most essential for it is one of South Asia’s most oldest and longest major roads.It has linked the Eastern and Western region of the subcontinent for over four centuries originating from Chittagong in Bangladesh , entering India through Howrah and then cutting across North India reaching the Wagah Border where it enters Pakistan towards Lahore and Gurjanwala and then entering Afganistan through the Kyber pass and finally culminating at Kabul, a single continuum of over 2500 kms.As Rudyard Kipling has put it “such a river of life as nowhere else exsists in the world”.

6. From Ambala we crossed over to the Ambala-Chandigarh Expressway which is a 35 km high traffic density corridor on the NH-22.Lunch was at Sethi Dhaba at around 1530 hrs.The Dhaba was actually a let down considering the décor that was designed to attract all way farers .Understaffed and unhygienic we just wanted to get on with our journey as soon as possible.One point of note was that the publicity was top grade with mannequins depicting every aspect of Punjabi culture to huge ceiling to floor posters adorned with pics of celebrities who had mentioned about the dhaba .A point which did catch my attention was that the dhaba had organized a ambulance service and logistical support at the site of the Uttarakhand tragedy .

7. After the lunch break our destination was Panchkula which is a satellite city of the UT of Chandigarh and also houses the Chandimandir Cantonment.The weather had changed dramatically as we approached Panchkula as we continued on the NH-22. After the Panchkula-Kalka toll expressway we were welcome to the Himalayan Expressway after covering a distance of 1778 kms from Colaba,Mumbai.

8. The climate grew cooler as we continued on the Himalayan Expressway and soon we crossed over in to Himachal with sudden showers welcoming us to the land of the snow leopard.The road grew slippery as we encountered holiday goers from Chandigarh and Delhi who were enjoying the scenic beauty in the mild rains and were all bound towards Shimla.

9. Our destination was Barog and we topped up fuel once again at Dharampur petrol pump and finally arrived at Barog by 1800 hrs.The Pinewood Barog run by the Himachal tourism is situated right at the summit of the hill town and has a steep ascent. A well maintained property and is a delight to stay in and offers spectacular view of the Solan Valley from the premium rooms.

10. Odometer reading for the day . BEHROR -55867 ; BAROG - 56309