An Unlikely Account ... but true

Whilst on a visit to the Cadbury Factory at Baddi (near Chandigarh in Northern India) in January and February 2007 our Indian colleagues arranged a visit to Shimla which is about 65 km away.

This day trip did not turn out quite as expected, we should have known because on a previous visit we had spent 4 hours driving to a place that had a bouncy castle, life size plastic tigers and horses, distorting mirrors and a maze.

The Plastic Horse

In the evening we planned to have a picnic and camp fire outside a restaurant, unfortuneately the electricity had failed and ended up eating food which was a bit on the cold side. (Not the best thing to be doing in India)

In the failing light conditions (no electric lighting), actually it was pitch black, the only way we could see what we were eating was by using a car key torch.

 

 

Camp Fire at the restaurant with no electricity

 

As it was getting quite cold (4-5 deg C), we started the camp fire with wood, that when lit, was spitting out red hot lumps of burning wood embers like an erupting volcano. It was a balancing act getting close enough to the fire to keep warm and keeping far enough away to stop getting showered with the burning embers.

 

 

Anyway back to the original story, heavy snow falls in Shimla, which is situated at the foot of the Himalayas, stopped us from reaching our intended destination. Apart from that, the roads in India result in the journey of 65 km taking about 3-4 hours to drive.

It was decided that as an alternative we would go to Timber Trail at Parwanoo and take the cable car to the top of a 1200 metre high mountain and have a meal in the hotel at the mountain's summit.

Parwanoo has two hotels, one at the top and another at the bottom. Later I will recall another story about the hotel at the bottom of the mountain.

On arrival at Parwanoo the cable car service was suspended due to high winds and rain.

Fearing that the trip would be wasted our hosts decided to drive up the mountain, after all it only took about 10-15 minutes on the cable car and it was only 1200 metres away!!!!

Toyota with flat rear right tyre

We drove off, snaking our way around the mountain tracks which in places showed evidence of rock falls probably made worse with the heavy rain. The road narrowed due to landslides and in sections the road clung precariously to the mountain side with very steep drops close to the edge of the road.

After about a 2 hour drive, we were about 2/3 of the way up when the rock type changed to shale or slate which produced very sharp edges and yes you guessed it, the driver hit one of these rocks and we had a puncture right on a corner.

The vehicle was a Toyota People carrier and changing a tyre is not easy, even getting the spare out from the underside of the car proved difficult. Whilst the driver was changing the tyre we noticed that the cable car service had started again.

When the tyre was replaced, we continued up the mountain to within 500 metres of the summit, only to find that the road was blocked because they were drilling a water well and it would take them 3 weeks to complete. I have no idea why they were drilling a water well at the top of 1200 metre high mountain, it defies any logic, but at that point in time I didn't really care.We walked the remaining distance to the hotel.

View of Cable car with the hotel at the bottom just visible

As dusk was approaching, it was proposed that we stay in the hotel overnight. As there were only 3 rooms and six of us plus the two drivers it was decided that we would share the rooms and the drivers would drive back down the mountain that evening alone. The following morning we would go back down the mountain by cable car and the drivers could pick us up at the base.

 

 

 

Cross country Drive to Cadbury Factory on a rainy day

 

The next morning we were picked up as arranged but I had to go back to Chandigarh to get my medication. With the rain still coming down the driver decided to take the short cut which we had taken on previous occasions. The rough tracks, that is what I thought they were, were in fact dried up river beds and they had turned into raging torrents.

 

 

 

A week later we had to change hotels because the hotel was fully booked due to a large wedding (1200 people; January to March is the wedding season) and the only hotel available was the hotel at the bottom of the mountain. When we arrived we didn't have any hot water and they sent a boy out, he was about 45 years old, to bang on the pipes. This happened every time we wanted a wash or shower.

Cheeky Monkees... Actually they were quite viscious

 

 

On the Sunday, the sun came out and I left my chalet door open and whilst I was in the bathroom a couple of monkeys came into the room. They are quite small but very very aggressive and were not not going to leave without a fight. I did manage to get them out with the aid of a chair but thought afterwards that this was quite dangerous because they are wild and rabies is a problem in India

 

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