I’ve always wanted to see J&K. All this while, I had heard about its beauty and the brilliant scenery. Today I was going to see it myself. Last night we had been to the Golden Temple. It was a truly a divine experience and certainly looks better than the pictures.

We had planned to enter Srinagar before sunset, so we set out early at 7.00am from our hotel. Our route was going to be NH1A and we were to pass through Katra and Vaishno Devi. The skies were overcast and it looked like it would rain. The cooler temperatures were a welcome change from the heat of Rajasthan.

As the miles rolled past, the clouds only got darker and at Pathankot where we stopped for breakfast, we saw the first drops of rain. There’s something about having a hot cup of tea in rain.

Even at Pathankot, we could already see the change in the landscape, we could sense we were getting closer to J&K. As we crossed over, we could see huge snow capped peaks in the distance and that’s exactly where we were headed.

The roads had become narrower and the climbs had started. This slowed our progress considerably. We stopped often to take in the sights. Yes it is that beautiful. The real climb started as we neared Katra.

The scenery is just awesome, you are thousands of metres high and there’s a river passing at the bottom. The roads were narrow and there were endless rows of Tata trucks traversing the difficult terrain. Not only was there truck traffic, but also a lot of animal traffic.

Our convoy was mobbed often by herds of sheeps, cattle and horses. And the best part about it was the traffic waited patiently as the animals made their way up. Try this in Bombay and don’t be surprised if you find new words in your vocabulary.

It was getting cold and darkness was starting to set in. On top of that it was raining which slowed us down. But I love rain and this brilliant road only made the drive more memorable.

There is a tunnel which is the only access to Srinagar and it closes at 12 midnight. We were a little tensed about not making it in time. But we crossed over well in time at 9.30pm. But there was still some way to go. After the tunnel, the road opens up and is mostly flat, so we made good progress and made it to Srinagar at 11pm. It was cold and chilly and we retired to our rooms soon after dinner.

Since most of the drive was uphill, we didn’t expect too much out of the cars, but on tanking up, the figures were better than expected. The lead Ikon returned 23.52kpl while the second Ikon delivered 24.47kpl.