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In this edition of Un-Popular Weekend Destinations (from Delhi), I got stuck in dunes near Jaipur and traversed some narrow streets of Mandawa in the Jimny.
With the Good Friday long weekend approaching, I had my eyes set on exploring some dunes and sandy trails of Rajasthan. A quick search for dunes led me to finalising Kalpana Nagar dunes as my destination for this adventure. It’s one thing to drive through sand pits deep enough to get even a burly SUV stuck at an off-road track. It’s another to drive through endless sands where you could not only get stuck, but also get lost.
But, I wanted some privacy. Privacy to explore my limits. Privacy to get stuck and not have someone remind me that I’m a newbie. After all, I was looking for places to get stuck. Because how you get out of it is what matters. That’s how you gain experience.
I spent a few hours there playing around with the various combinations of 2H, 4H, 4L and electronic off-road settings. I wanted to learn how to get rolling when I dug my wheels in too deep. After playing around with the Jimny, it was time to head back home. Time well spent!
When I was done, I noticed that I had several missed calls from Piyush, who was in Mandawa at that time and I called him back to apologise. But I had a damn good excuse!
He insisted I visit him, and knowing that I had a 4X4, recommended I take a detour wherever possible to absorb more of the local vibe. I think he just wanted me to get lost in the vast desert or get stuck in some narrow passages with a dead end and no way to reverse out of.
Along the highways, and via Sikar, the drive to Mandawa from the other side of Jaipur is almost 200km and about 180km from my hotel in Jaipur. “Do hell with it. Let’s see what the Jimny can do.” — I thought to myself and promised to meet Piyush the next day.
To make sure I don’t turn my back on him, through his connections, he allowed me access to a privately-owned forest reserve near Jaipur. Before wrapping up my day, I spent a few hours in the reserve where I saw deers and nilgai. When I had dunes on my mind, forests were nowhere near my plans. Yet, I ended up playing in the sands and meditating in a mini forest, all in a matter of a few hours.
Tales Of Trails
The next morning, I started my drive from Jaipur to Mandawa a little early. I took a few detours and picked lines that look like they’re barely a pixel wide on Google Maps. Till dusk, I held my horses and decided that I shouldn’t stray too far from the wider roads. I didn’t want to disturb the locals with bright lights and leave them covered in dust. But once it got sunny, I had greater visibility and I could better evaluate the risks when going off the road.
I engaged in enough trail hunting to lose my way. In the desolated regions of Rajasthan, not only did I lose the data and cellular connection, even the GPS started acting up. With intermittent GPS disconnections and poor accuracy, if I wanted to reach Mandawa the same day, I had to do some old school navigation. For the Gen Z, that means performing the tough task of getting out of the vehicle and asking people for directions. In person, no less.
Via Kamalsar, I finally reached Mandawa. I should have been drained by this time but the caffeine flowing through my system kept me energised and awake at the wheel.
Now that I have had time to think it over, I guess it was probably the itch to gradually keep moving towards the Jimny’s limits and keep pushing my own in the process that kept me going. I think it was adrenaline, but I’ll let caffeine take the credit for this one.
Driving through Mandawa, once again, had me thanking my stars that I had the Jimny. Its narrow body granted me the freedom to drive through the open air art gallery. As fun as it would have been to walk through it all, after so much driving in the last 2 days and a lot of physical and mental exertion, having the option of bringing the car with me felt like a blessing.
We met at the Mandawa Castle, which, back in the day, used to be the accommodation for the royals. Now, a good part of it is turned into a hotel. So, it’s a nice way to experience the royal life and get a feel for travelling back in time – some 250 years or so.
After a lavish lunch, Piyush took the keys and we started moving again. He said something about experiencing ‘horsepower’. “Petrol engines are known for horsepower and I have been experiencing horsepower for the better part of the past day and a half. How else might I experience horsepower?”, I thought to myself. Through some trails, we arrived at the Mandawa Safaris stud farm, which is owned by one of his acquaintances.
There, I got up close with true bred Marwari horses. These are said to be part of Chetak’s bloodline. For those who barely stayed awake in the History class, Chetak was the legendary steed of Maharana Pratap. He trusted Chetak with his life when he led his army into the battles during the late 1500s. And the horses paid for that trust and love with an unmatched loyalty.
I can say with pride that I have had the honour of riding some of these horses, though not galloping at their full strength. Having that much power at your command and keeping it under control at the same time takes a lot of training and practice. I certainly didn’t possess either of those but a short trot did feel like I was starting to get in the rhythm with these magnificent beings.
By the way, if you have a long weekend to experience a royal lifestyle, horseback riding in the timeless sands of Rajasthan and dune bashing, then you don’t need to go through Jaipur like I did. You can skip the Pink City, which gets even more crowded on long weekends and head straight to Mandawa.
The drive is considerably shorter than Delhi-Jaipur but it’ll take about the same time to reach this un-popular weekend destination from Delhi. You don’t even need to bring your own 4X4. They have their own collection of ATVs and off-roaders.
After a good long sleep, I started my journey back home. Driving along the highways to Delhi, I had a sense of satisfaction that the Jimny afforded me. If I had something bigger, I would have had to leave it at the gates of Mandawa and explore the art on foot. If I had something without 4WD, I wouldn’t have had so much fun playing around the sand dunes.
Since Piyush has a lot of experience driving around in the sands of Rajasthan, I engaged him in a conversation about the car we were driving. While we were discussing 4WD vehicles, we also discussed the importance of having a heavy vehicle. You see, when a vehicle gets stuck, putting extra weight on it, helps it find grip where we have none and get out of a sticky situation. This led me to believe that a heavy vehicle should be ideal to traverse the sands of Thar desert.
Then he dropped on me a profound piece of nugget, which I’ll never forget. He asked me:
Do you want to ride on the sand or in the sand?
There was no back and forth between us on the topic after that. But there was a lot of pondering to do on this subject on my way back. I used the peace and quiet while driving on the highways to think of situations where extra weight would be helpful in the sands. I couldn’t come up with any. Could you?
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I believe the mountains do not call everyone. Some visit them out of compulsion. I have my reasons to go to the highlands of Uttarakhand; my wife has her extended family there. Unfortunately, she’s not fond of long drives, and particularly dislikes the twisty mountain roads. Yes. Such people, even with their origins in the hills, do exist. We also had our daughter along for the ride. She neither minds the twists nor the smooth highways as long as she has some source of entertainment and her ‘papa’ and ‘mommy’ by her side.
Monday being a Holi-day, we had our long weekend planned with the extended family in Mussoorie, and I had the task of driving my people up the mountains without any complaints.
Almost a year back, the V3Cars Team drove the Audi Q7 from Mumbai to Delhi via the Statue of Unity in Gujarat. The car left us impressed with its comfortable seats, superbly insulated cabin and the powerful 3.0L turbo petrol engine. There are very few cars that my wife approves of when it comes to comfort, and I knew the Q7 would get her approval.
“Are you sure we have the right car for this drive?” asked the wife, and added, “It’s going to take us more than 6 hours to reach, and it’s a long weekend for everyone else too. We need something comfortable when we are stuck in traffic.” The Q7 is plenty capable in this aspect.
We usually pack more than what is required. While it was just the three of us, we had two large bags, a laptop bag and a tote bag with some essentials for the weekend. The Q7 is a three-row car, and with the third row completely folded, the space was more than adequate. We always tell our daughter to help us with our chores. She played her part by pressing the button to lower the Q7 to help us stuff the boot!
And off we went, leaving early in the morning so that we could beat the rush. We started from Gurgaon and passed through Delhi, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar to reach Dehradun via Haridwar so that we could avoid the twisty roads. The Q7 is a mile muncher of the highest order — the front seats are particularly well-cushioned and accommodating.
Our daughter found her sweet spot in the rear bench with the Q7’s entertainment system playing her favourite content on YouTube. I liked her using it more than the iPad – this way the screen is farther and she could sit more comfortably with a lower risk of neck pain.
The Q7 is a large 5m car and it feels like it’s taking up more than just a lane on the highways. But, its 3.0L 340PS engine makes sure you can move from one cluster of slow-moving cars to the next pretty quickly. Before I even had a chance to have some fun with the acceleration, we were in the twisties leading up to Mussoorie.
Hill stations these days are heavily commercialised, but we reached before the narrow uphill roads got congested. Nevertheless, our average speed for the entire trip was around 40kmph only, such was the traffic.
While I didn’t get my chance to floor the pedal and enjoy quick acceleration, I got more than enough time to truly connect with the Q7. The Mumbai-Delhi drive was mostly on wide, flat highways where we have little opportunity to get a good sense of the Q7’s handling. Climbing up the hills, steering out one curve into the other suddenly made the car feel far more compact than it is. I never expected a car as large as the Q7 to feel so nimble.
With the car’s responsive handling, my natural tendency led me to push it a little further. Thankfully, neither the wife nor the daughter felt enough discomfort to even notice that we were keeping a good pace. Until then, I did not know if the Q7 would pass my wife’s comfort test, but I was heavily impressed with the fact that I could enjoy my mountain drive while the occupants experienced barely any inconvenience.
And so, we reached Mussoorie. Without any complaints from anyone this time around.
“Are we here already?”, asked my wife. This was probably the first time ever that she felt that the drive ended earlier than expected. I immediately knew that the Q7 had passed the test with flying colours. As I parked the car, I felt relieved as my choice got my family to Mussoorie in utmost comfort. I’m also thankful to the wonderful team at Audi India for arranging the Q7 on such a short notice.
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