Camping at Sambhar Lake

As always, Neha Thukral thought of this. In the beginning of 2012, she came across a post on Facebook by Jeypore (it is not a spelling error) Bikers and their trip to Sambhar Lake. Since, then she wanted to camp on the banks of this largest natural saline lake in India known as-Sambhar Lake.

An email was floated to a group of friends – Tarveen, Kaustav & the kiddo Eshaan, Simar & Harneet Bamry, Neha & Anindya Roy, Priya & Harjeev Chaddha and Rohan Garg- who have shown interest in our road trips and we decided to make it a trip for the group. There were some additions and some deletions in the group size as the date neared and the final group to travel was – Neha & Puneit Thukral (Duo – The Explorers), Tarveen Saha (A wonderful woman with exemplary culinary skills), Kaustav Saha (Multi talented guy with exceptional social skills), Eshaan Saha  (A kid who will brighten each second of his presence around you with his charming eyes & innocent remarks) Sushil Chauhan (A stern fellow from Indian Army “Our very own Survival expert”  has amazing experiences to share, you just can’t get enough of him), Suruchi Vaid aka ‘Simar’ (A petite woman who wants to Live, Eat and Sleep in nature), Harneet Bamry (A techie at work, Leopard behind the wheels, always at prowl to take a giant leap with his machine along with his lady), Meera Kapoor (A lady who has some amazing tips to offer us for a great health, living it all by example) & Rahul Kapoor (An old fellow, inspiring us that at his age one can still Live life and not give up living) and Vishal Chaudhury (In-house  entertainer, makes the moment lively and keep the spirits thumping) & Sumit Pandey (A shy, well mannered guy and our translator for local dialects) were to join us enroute.

On October 06, 2012 four cars assembled at what used to be the Liquor Shop at Signature Towers. The fifth car was to join us at Chomu as Vishal was already at Jaipur on an official tour. We started our journey around 6 am and the convoy were in constant radio communication. The radio chatter was one of the key factors in making this journey success and fun as well. There were absolutely zero coordination related issues and smooth flow of communication as well as rag chew kept us all alert and it gave you the much needed privacy of solo travel as well as the advantages when a convoy moves.

Our first stop was for breakfast at McDonald’s at Sector 80, Gurgaon, followed by Cafe Coffee Day, somewhere between Kotputli and Pragpura. Close to 11.30 am, we were at Chomu and a harsh Sun welcomed us at Rajasthan. Had we continued ahead it this hour, we presumed that we would be at the lake bed by 3 pm and none wanted to have sunburns. Thus, we decided on some local sightseeing. The closet was the Chomu Palace and Samode Palace.

One can see the Chomu Palace walls from the crowded market place behind which this 300 years old palace is located. The road leading to a palace is not very wide and it is surprising to see such a large property in such a cramped up place. This palace has been converted into a heritage hotel and not surprisingly enough, it was deserted, even though the official tourist season in Rajasthan begins on October 1, 2012. We were shown around in the palace by the staff and we saw rooms which had silver plated furniture and the tariff was a whopping INR 75,000 a night. The most inexpensive rooms costed 3 times the monthly minimum wages of semi-skilled labour in Delhi. The restaurant also boasted of architecture which was centuries old and at the gate was a visitor book which was quite fat.

After this, we went to check out the Samode Palace, which was 10-15 km away from Chomu and upon reaching there, we found that there is a cover charge of INR 1,200 per person to see the similar architecture which we saw earlier. The group unanimously voted against it and we headed back for Chomu. Had lunch and started for Sambhar. Vishal also joined the caravan and we were now 5 cars. The road from Choumu to Jobner is filled with potholes. Or, I should rephrase this as, the potholes till Jobner are separated by small patches of tarmac. This drastically slowed us down and by the time we reached Phulera town, the last light of the day vanished. Rahul’s car had a problem of leaking power steering fluid and we picked up a 5Ltr can of the same from Phulera and headed towards Sambhar which was few kilometers away.

At Sambhar, we checked with the locals for the way to lake bed and it was same as what Google Navigation was showing. This route was new for each one of us and it was pitch dark. The battery of my radio died and thus, we stopped to exchange radios which were being charged in Harneet’s vehicle. At this stage, Rahul expressed his desire to turn back as the couple was not comfortable spending the night in such conditions. The convoy broke into two and Kaustav and Sushil escorted the couple back to Sambhar while the rest of the caravan went scouting for a place to camp. We were now strictly following Google Maps, and it eventually led us to a place where it appeared, we can camp. Neha, Harneet & I decided to walk the track before leaving the tarmac and we realised that it was a great place
to pitch in our tents and start the cookout.

Kaustav and Sushil joined us in less than an hour and the party began. Soon we were all found engaged in one or other activity. Barbe-cue was started and Harneet & Simar were roasting seekh kebabs and chicken tikka’s on coal fire, Neha & I were helping everyone to set up tents and providing help in Barbeque , Sushil collecting woods and making arrangements for bonfire, Tarveen cooking minced chicken for dinner, Kaustav setting up poles for arranging lights plugged via Car batteries, Vishal preparing drinks, and Sumit taking pictures from time to time and helping all of us in our little chores. One could easily witness a great team spirit at the base camp. We were all too exhausted for an sky observation and thus, the telescope stayed in the car. We slept after midnight – at least some of us.

I was woken up at the break of first light by voices outside. Kaustav, Vishal, Sushil and Sumit  were all outside taking photographs. We joined in and when Simar and Harneet woke up, we took our cars to further into the lake bed for a spin. Took some photographs of the
rising sun and then went as far as the car goes without getting stuck.

Coming back exactly to the camp was not a piece of cake. The vast flat lands do not have markers to find directions. Soon we were chatting with the base camp on radios asking for rough directions. Kaustav had lit a small fire for smoke signals but we spotted Vishal in his bright red shirt and started driving towards him. After joining the camp, we had breakfast and packed up our camps.

We all wanted to take back all our non-biodegradable waste back to the human settlements but a thieving dog dragged our waste bag away from us. The more we ran after it, the further we went and disappointed, we gave up.

Then we took the entire group close to the lake and we all did some great driving there. Sushil, stopped a tractor and he sat behind the wheel and we all took rides on it and then we all danced to the local tunes loudly playing on the tractor.

We started back for home around 11 am and stopped over some places for photographs. At Jaipur, Simar & Harneet decided to go for some sightseeing and Sumit also got off (He belongs to Jaipur). Around sunset we stopped over for tea after Shahjanpur toll and Vishal and Kaustav spotted a car with blue beacon light on. We all followed the car for a while but then Neha found it to be slow and she sped away. The two cars kept on following the blue beacon vehicle till Gurgaon. We reached Gurgaon at 7.30 pm.

It was a fun-filled trip and I can safely say an extremely refreshing experience for most of us. We had great time with each group member and beautiful memories have itched into our hearts and minds. We look forward for more fun-filled trips in times to come.