Uttarkashi -> Mussoorie -> Dehradun (13.5.25)

Bird’s eye view:

Today was a bit of hard driving, more than 150 km, but then, we were moving from Uttarkashi to Dehradun via Mussoorie. 

While Uttarkashi was at 3800 ft, Mussoorie took us up to 6500 ft, and for Dehradun we descended again to 1500 ft, which was almost down to the plains. While Uttarkashi was pleasant, Mussoorie was actually hot and sunny at 28 degC, and at Dehradun we needed an AC.

The roads were actually very good all through, a mixture of two-lane and single-lane, with some scary parts inside Mussoorie.

Our homestay at Dehradun is very different. But more of that later.

We are now officially done with the hills in this trip, which is actually sad. Even in the plains, I am afraid my arms might start to swing left and right of their own volition.

Leaving Uttarkashi (7.45 am):

The last night’s stay at Uttarkashi had no particular attraction for us. It was like a business trip, with the sole purpose of putting us closer to Dehradun. We did not even wait to have breakfast here, worried that they might take an hour to service even a simple order. So we packed, paid and left.

We were promptly put on the NH by which we came to Uttarkashi from Tehri, along which we will travel southward halfway back, from where we will catch the Uttarkashi-Mussoorie Road, turning right (westward) to cut across to Mussoorie. Up to that point, I knew it would be a beautiful two-lane highway, but after that? Google maps showed a thin wavery line squiggling its way to Mussoorie, which might be a broken graded road for all we knew. We will just have to find out, won’t we?

Breakfast at Chinyalisour (9.15 am):

Body-clock breakfast, that’s what we started needing after the dashboard clock crossed 8.30 am. But as usual, no suitable joint when we need them. A little after 9.00, we passed the Mountain Delight Restaurant, braked hard, reversed and went in. It was one of those decent-sized places located on a bend, which threatened to serve many things, but what worked for us was bread-omelette, with the bread inside the omelette, as is often made in North Indian towns. We had been egg-deprived for a few days, and this was a bit of all right. In fact, a bit of quite all right. Our insides felt happy.

Reaching Mussoorie (12.15 pm):

We turned right, as planned, and took the less-used road to Mussoorie. But I need not have worried about the state of the road. It was a butter-smooth, wide-ish single-lane road, winding lazily through the mountains, without much traffic. The scenery was breathtaking, the mountains densely foliaged with no signs of felling or landslides, the sky an azure blue with wisps of clouds, and wait…are those clouds?

Goodness, that was a whole range of the Himalayas that just became visible to us, out of nowhere! We parked our car and soaked in the sight. God knows when we might get this view again, given the hazy skies in May. On second thoughts, God only knows, as we discovered later on.

I was happily telling Panna, that once we are out of the char dham circuit, at least the complications introduced by one-ways will be over. Mussoorie cannot be indulging in one-ways - it is too cosmopolitan, too sophisticated, too old school…Wham! With 4 kms to go to Landour (which we wanted to visit first, then Mall Road), a blatant one-way sign stopped us from going up, but sent us down the hill for a good couple of kilometres. Google maps was like a London cabbie in Manhattan - did not know whether it was coming or going, and kept on asking me to take a u-turn whichever way I went. Finally, a tea stall lady by the roadside pointed her wand at the road climbing up opposite her shack, and cackled: “THAT will take you to Mordor.” I mean Landour. We went up some back-roads of the city that kept getting narrower and narrower, till I was pretty sure that an opposing car would keep both of us stuck there, frozen in time, while the commerce of the by-lanes flowed and chattered around us. Finally we burst forth on a T-junction of another narrow road, whose right direction would take us to St Paul’s in Landour, which was a landmark for our sightseeing.

One can make out that Mussoorie is a very old town. Discovered by Capt Frederick and some other British officers in 1827, and promoted as a summer getaway, it flourished as a cultural centre (The name “Mussoorie” is incidentally derived from the “mansoor” shrub). Many British families settled here, giving it the colonial look.

However, all this did not help us negotiate our way up to the Landour landmark. There started a series of bends that were at once, sharp, steep and narrow, with a net rise between 30-45 deg. This included face-offs, reversals, wheel-spinning, and elevated heartbeats. This is, of course, the POV of a driver. If you were a passenger, you would probably be chitchatting about Ananya Pandey’s latest release (Don’t know her? That’s okay, nobody knew her father’s claim to fame either). Then suddenly, we burst upon that precious bit of real estate called Char Dukan, with St Paul’s standing guard behind us, and a parking guy with a token for 150/- standing in front of us.

We wanted to tarry a while at Char Dukan, then go to Lal Tibba a kilometer ahead for the viewing platform, and then, if possible, stop at Landour Bakery which was on the one-way route (yeah, you read that right) back to Char Dukan. After that, Mall Road, if energy allowed. Because, technically, Landour is not Mussoorie.

We squeezed our car by the roadside on the way to Lal Tibba and walked back to Char Dukan, wangling a table (the Char Dukans had only four tables too, I kid you not) at the Tip Top Tea Shop, and ordered a veg pizza and waffles. People come here to spend a full day, and here we were, budgeting just an hour of this.

We spoke to the owner Mr Vipin Prakash (5th gen) regarding the place. The original four shops (his and Anil’s Cafe are the oldest) are more than a century old, from a time when the place had just these four shops, the church and a post office above the four shops (in fact, Mr Prakash's forefather had worked in the PO). Even now, further development has not been much as the govt wants to preserve the ecosystem there. He has a picture board with Ruskin Bond, Tendulkar, Akshay Kumar, Arshad Warsi et al (how many can you recognise in the pic?)

I asked him about Bond, whose house Ivy Cottage is next to Doma’s Inn, which we passed on the way. He does not do public appearances any more, nor does he entertain visitors.

We got into our car again and drove around the one-way past Lal Tibba. We did not get up onto the viewing platform, since right from road level, we could make out that the haze was too significant to allow any serious visibility. Like I said earlier, God knows, and we were allowed a glimpse of the Himalayan ranges as we drove up, so as to avoid future disappointment.

Mussoorie was HOT, friends! With UV rays beating down from a clear sky, a temperature of 28degC was like 32 in the plains! To go to Landour Bakery, we had to park near the Kellog Church and walk some 600m, but frankly, the difficulty of parking anywhere deterred us. A parking token does not create parking space. So we decided to drive down and carry on to Mall Road.

Our friend Mr Prakash had briefed us that Mall Road was itself ‘no parking’ always, and no entry after 4.00 pm, unless staying in a hotel there. You have to walk around inside. In this hot sun? Hmmm. Nonetheless, we started the scary descent down the gauntlet, reversing twice as I had to yield for upward traffic, till at a certain point…Wham! ‘One-way’, said a sign gleefully, and sent us off on another path, joining a slightly familiar road later on, and planting us bang in front of that same tea lady, who had directed us last time to Landour. I and Panna looked at each other, looked at the same road winding up, which would take us into the same narrow lanes, which will probably take us to the same T-junction, turning left this time for Mall Road…and I decisively asked the tea lady: “Which way to Dehradun?” and she did point forthwith with her wand the same way we were going, and, we, wary and weary of future one-ways in this part of the world, did drop our notion of visiting Mall Road of Mussoorie, and set our sights on greener pastures and other adventurous lands, down in the plains of Dehradun. Thus went our hours in Mussoorie.

Reaching Dehradun (3.00 pm):

The NH34 led us by the hand in this last one-hour run. Since the homestay we had booked was on Rajpur Road, the closer edge of town, our path in fact diverted into Old Rajpur Road, and through some back-channel negotiation, landed us very close to our destination. We had been told that the usual Mussoorie Road traffic is very heavy, and we escaped that altogether.

Our homestay was also a unique place. The Old British House Homestay was exactly that, purchased from a certain Mr Edward by an ancestor of this family. The lady who greeted us (5th gen) and her son (6th gen) manage the property. The houses and rooms have retained their old finishes and furnishings, and the accommodation, though not spacious, was very clean and well-decorated. The large lawns and gardens sported flowers, and Panna was super-excited to see green leechi on a corresponding tree. After an afternoon snooze, we sat out in the garden and had our tea, till mosquitoes drove us indoor. 

We had switched our choice to an AC room on checking in, and we were glad that we did, since Dehradun was around 30 degC when we checked in, and we were coming down from the hills, feeling like Hannibal did when he crossed the Alps during the Second Punic War, landed up near Po in northern Italy, and said to his lieutenants: “Methinks these fur coats are too heavy, anyone got a bermuda?”

Today we were a bit laggy from the long drive, and decided to swiggy our food in. Appam and stew - veg for me, mutton for Panna. Don’t judge, these are our favourite foods. Tomorrow we will explore the town and we already have a list of good places to gorge in. 

Among places to visit, I have the Forest Research Institute where my father studied, and the Doon School, where many people of consequence, in films and out of them, have studied. Beyond that, we shall see.

Photo credits: Panna Rashmi Ray