This road trip took place from the 13th January 2012 to 16th January 2012.
The team, Bobby, Arpit, Bunny and Shantonil (L to R)
‘White Gold’ – this is what four of us from Gaadi.com wanted to see, feel and experience in the second weekend of January. The 2012 Auto Expo had been hectic, messy and tiring for us and what better way to unwind than to head to the snowed out roads of Himachal Pradesh. While visiting the Ford Hall at the Expo, all it took was a two minute discussion with the good guys to have the 3.0 4×4 Endeavour AT (automatic) delivered to us the following Friday. The impatient souls that we are, we decided to head to Himachal Pradesh right after work itself! Four of us were
1. Bunny Punia, head, content
2. Bobby Roy, chief photographer
3. Shantonil Nag, budding photographer, content contributor
4. Arpit Philips, budding photographer, content contributor
By 7pm, we had exited the mad rush hour traffic of New Delhi and were cruising at a lazy 100-110km/h on the ever improving NH-1 that leads to North India. A half hour dinner break at Murthal and we were back on the traffic less and slightly foggy highway. Post Ambala, we left NH-1 and took NH-22 that would lead us to the higher reaches. The Zirakpur to Kalka stretch is now a complete four-lane affair though the Kalka bypass was yet to open (as of 3rd week of Jan 2012). The Endeavour in the meantime was easily maintaining cruising speeds of over 110km/h which meant we were averaging 70-75km/hr easily.
View from our hotel's balcony in the morning
By mid-night we had started the uphill drive to Shimla. Isolated roads meant our speeds were pretty high and at Barog, the strong winds brought us our first surprise – chunks of hardened snow had fallen from the hill tops on the road! This also gave us an indication of things to come our way and also made us stop at the Chail cut-off where we sat next to a bonfire that the local cops had burnt out of a tree!
By 2am, we had entered Shimla. The air was chillingly cold and we directly headed to our hotel for the night near the Victory tunnel. Inches of brown (dirty) snow lying around bore testimony to the fact that the last snowfall was a couple of days back only. The Endeavour also got its first taste of snow on the steep incline road to the hotel’s parking – it didnt even need 4×4 to negotiate it though.
Sleeping at 4am meant we opened our eyes by noon only. Breakfast was skipped and a heavy lunch ordered, over which we discussed on what to do this day. Shimla is known for its happening mall road and this was our plan for the evening. The air was chilly though there was simply no sign of a possibility of snowfall. Dejected, we walked back to our hotel and hit the bed with our fingers crossed only to wake up to the sound of rain drops the next morning!
View from the Mall road of the snow peaks
We were told that rains are the first sign of snow and the same was confirmed by the hotel staff while we were checking out for our drive to Narkanda. It was snowing heavily ahead in Kufri and Fagu which meant traffic jams due to incapale 4×2 machines was sure to happen! Hence, it was decided that we would hit Narkanda from the long way round, via Basantpur and low lying areas. This did mean that we ended up driving for extra 2 hours but the moment we joined back on NH-22 beyond Narkanda, snowflakes greeted us. This is also where we stocked up essentials like mineral water and were told that we could no way make it up to Narkanda. The crazy nuts we were, within ten minutes, we saw a sign board with inches of snow which read “Narkanda – 20km”
The white road leading to Narkanda
Traffic was non existant and we came across a lone JCB machine, the driver of which warned us not to go ahead. A kilometer later we came across a stuck Innova and from there on, it was us and Mother Nature. We were simply driving on inches of soft fresh snow and it was hard to judge the road as all we could see was snow, snow and more snow. The Endeavour in the meantime proved it mettle and didn’t even need 4L to negotiate the steep sections. We stopped numerous times, played in the snow, shot pictures and videos and almost abused the mighty Ford SUV by sliding, drifting and driving in deep snow on the side of the road – it never gave up!
A heavy vehicle combined with a huge 3000cc engine and automatic transmission translates into gas guzzling behaviour! It needed a fill up and the attendant at the lone snowed out fuel pump at Narkanda was shocked to see a vehicle drive up from this side. With the Endeavour filled, it was time to carry on. Narkanda did tempt us with its white landscape but we decided to stay at Fagu due to its close proximity with Shimla. At some place before Theog, the Endeavour was parked on the side on the road in roughly two feet of snow, songs blaring, windows semi-open and four of us having a ball in the heavy snowfall, well, literally. We danced, we sang and we faught with huge snowballs and simply soaked in the magnificant white beauty around. This was as white as it could get ever! Numerous stops for pictures and videos meant it got dark by the time we hit the town of Theog. We hadnt come across any traffic though a couple of crazy locals were trying to negotiate the terrain with their Maruti Altos!
Snowed out!
We kept driving endlessly in dark with heavy snowfall for company when suddenly we saw the ‘Kufri’ sign-board! It seemed that the on-board GPS wasn’t working properly, probably due to heavy snowfall and accumulation of snow in the sky! With Fagu behind us and no electricity in Kufri, we decided to head to same hotel in Shimla, 30minutes away. Snowfall was our constant company and it was funny to see locals in Shimla trying to drive their way around in 4×2 vehicles. Infact, this was our favourite pass time – we simply sat in the balcony and watched cars and buses sliding around on the steep road in front of us! The Endeavour in the meatime remained parked in the empty parking, being the only vehicle to climb up the steep and slippery incline to the hotel.
We were cold and hungry though completely satisfied! Mother Nature, without a doubt, had showered more snow on us than we had bargained for. We did take risks, but the confidence that the Ford Endeavour showed us was to be blamed for this. This vehicle simply refuses to give up – be it driving in a couple of foot of snow or munching highway miles back to Delhi at speeds good enough to shame quite a few premium sedans! Lastly, this trip also shatters the age old notion that an automatic robs a SUV of its real character. For pure hardcore off-road lovers, the Endeavour fits the bill of an easy to drive SUV with sheer unbeatable capabilities. The pricing is the icing on the cake!
keywords: endeavour, ford, himachal
