Junior had Jim Corbett as his dream destination to visit someday – we made that as our prime journey destination for this trip! And the destination in itself is not everything
BHPian abirnale recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Easy roads lead to busy destination – difficult ones lead to beautiful destinations!
Sometimes you just don’t have options – and that probably is the best thing to have!
You may ask why this trip at such an inappropriate time of the year (too much crowd on the road when schools are closed!). The answer is simple – because we want to! Technically speaking, this is the only time, both our kids have got holidays for about 10 days continuously and my work isn’t going to be a hurdle for this year. So why not!
Junior had Jim Corbett as his dream destination to visit someday – we made that as our prime journey destination for this trip! And the destination in itself is not everything – we had to throw in some more flavours of via points to make it a fun trip for everyone involved! To avoid better half turning into bitter half, I better include her wishlist item – Taj Mahal on the trip too if we are to go up north!
So the plan was made up:
The highlights here are:
- Except the Safaris, everything else will be flexible and booked last minute.
- We will take things easy – Instead of ticking off the list, we will soak into the destinations we are about to list
- Jim Corbett isn’t like Tadoba – so our hopes of sighting the tigers would be low – we still want to travel through this jungle!
- The timing is odd – but thats the only time we can take out, so be it!
Preparations:
There are two key items here – people and car. For Car, it wasn’t anything specific – #TheRedSparkle is always ready to go anywhere we would like to – no special things here other than aligning luggage properly in the car!
My family (kids and spouse) have never been this far in north india are did not have any gear to protect from cold at this time of the year. So decathlon was out first choice to pick stuff for such destination and then more shopping for clothings and what not! Again nothing specific here – the only thing I ensured is everyone expects an ordinary trip so that no surprises can dampen our collective spirit.
With such a short prep and no extraordinary things, we made the plan and executed a little differently:
Points to note for repeating this trip:
There are a few things that you may want to make note of in case this trip you want to trace back again or a part of it to be done again.
- The safari tickets to be booked in advance – there is no guarantee that you will get tickets of your choice and days/ timing!
- The stays at Safari location needs to be such that your commute timing is optimum.
- The Safari timings could be odd- you will miss your breakfast or lunch. Hotel should accommodate your odd requests to support!
- The ASI monument tickets, Safari and National Park entry tickets can be booked online ahead of time – will avoid great deal of frustration and time for you!
- The hotel stays on the commute route are only to sleep at night – pick the one with parking and better checkin/ checkout experiences. Early start helps greatly to cover maximum distance before the crowd gets up and jams the roads!
- Defensive driving all the time – it’s easier that way to enjoy the trip!
Hotels we used:
- LK Inn @ Nirmal – Our Rating 2/5. Wouldn’t recommend to use again.
- Tipai Resort @ Mathani Gate – Our Rating 3.5/5. Descent place – great staff.
- Junglee Bagicha @ Sunna Gate – Our Rating 4/5. Costly though. Great staff, good support in all scenarios. Perfect location too. Great food.
- Hotel Kadamb Tree @ Jabalpur – Our Rating 4/5. Great hospitality, optimum cost and good food. Superb staff!
- Regent Shyam Resort @ Bharatpur – Our Rating 2.5/3. Costly, great location. Below average hospitality.
- Pearl of Taj @ Agra – Our Rating 4/5. Super cost optimum, best food, perfect location, Amazing staff
- Corbett Tiger and Trees @ Kyari Kham, Ramnagar – Our Rating 3/5. Average property, good kithen and service staff.
- Hotel Jeetu @ Kausani – Our Rating 4.5/5. Awesome place, Super economic, great food, amazing service!
Online resources to book tickets:
Credits for Support:
While planning and executing for this trip, these TBhpians helped with a lot of inputs and real-time guidance too:
My heartfelt gratitude for their support and guidance throughout the trip!
As we neared to our the-date, we learnt that both kids have got holidays started earlier than we anticipated/ was declared officially by School! In addition to that, I had some open time on my calendar too – hence we decided to leave a day early. Also, that would give us a little time to breathe as me and my son were suffering form the cold even before we started the trip! So we decided to start early, take rest enroute. Since Tipeshwar Safaris are our hard dates, we decided to go closer to there and stay somewhere.
Throughout the trip, my daughter was my navigator – she also has recently acquired the driving license and skills – grateful for her support during the trip. She did all hotel bookings, did satellite reece of the route and guided about the route whenever I asked for! This I think is our most important achievement – she has learnt to plan and execute these mega trips to unknown territorries! She was abl to pick the best hotels most of the times! Her choices in Jabalpur, Nagpur, Agra were superb!
Some of the the roads we had taken were amazing.
For example:
#TheRedSparkle Summary
Since TheRedSparkle has been with us for such a long time, we know our car very well by now! We know every tantrum, strength and weakness it has! We played to the best of it’s strength: ADAS, Mile-munching ability, Soft-roading and mild off-roading! The car did not have any issues with regards to battery/ startup, ICE or even the DEF. Everytime, it behaved well and mind you that we have very old shoes on the car too. Everything form the beginning worked just perfect! Though we did not expect a great FE, sticking to speed limits has it’s own benefits – we were able to much miles longer with great efficiency. Some times the FE was about 16 kmpl!
At times, the outside temperatures were at 2 degrees and the car did not let that affect us inside! We managed the temperatures inside so well that even in the foggy/ rainy situations, the windshield was always clear! This video below is a testimony of it’s tech capabilities to aid in our safety during the most unfriendly weather conditions that we drove through.
An important note: for ADAS to work, your windshield mounted camera needs to have clear vision and the sonar radar mounted behind front bumper should be clear of obstructions (like garland or mud etc.) If either of them have issues, the AEBS will be disabled thereby causing the ACC to switch off!
So the trick to drive during fogs is to ensure that there is no moisture/ fogging on the glass that causes such disruptions on the camera in ADAS unit as well as the sonar radar isn’t blocked.
To highlight the role and contribution of #TheRedSparkle, rounding up the post with some select snaps of it:
At times the outside temperatures were 2 degree celcius!
And in these temperatures too we did not see REGEN – case in point is, This is a workhorse who loves to munch miles tirelessly. If you keep it that way, DPF clogging is rarest of the rare event!
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