The Long Desert Highway

The Idea

India is an excellent tourist destination, offering all types of geographical terrains in the world, snow capped mountains, beautiful islands and beaches, tropical forests and hot and arid deserts. The Indian Desert of Thar, one of the most popular destinations among overseas tourists after Goa and Agra, lies in the state of Rajasthan. But tourists’ visits in this area are limited to erstwhile princely cities of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner along with the capital Jaipur. Indian desert is much more than these cities. It spreads almost the entire length of Rajasthan from north to south and about half the length from east to west in central and southern parts. It is different in shape and size in different parts of the state. One can feel it if one has seen it thoroughly and out side these cities. One way to do that is to drive through its entire length.

National Highway 15 or NH 15 travels the entire length of Rajasthan from north to south. It passes through important cities of Sri Ganganagar, Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Barmer. All, less the first one, are situated in the thick of the desert. Travelling along NH 15 can enable a person to see most of Indian Desert in shortest of the time, especially if it is the desert and not the princely palaces turned hotels one wants to see. Though, well acquainted with desert, I planned a quick drive through along NH 15 to recall my earlier visits to the desert part of Rajasthan. To avoid scorching heat of summers and chill of the winters I selected late Feb for my desert safari. The route chosen was, north to south, starting from Sri Ganganagar and terminating at Sanchor, on way to Ahemdabad. The car I choose was my own Maruti Suzuki 800cc, the one most popular with Indians; fit enough to travel the distance as I had planned not to go cross country anywhere.

Drive to Suratgarh

I reached Sri Ganganagar, on the eve of my planned Safari. Sri Ganganagar is about 430 kms from Delhi, with about nine hours of road journey. Next morning I started sharp at seven AM. There was hardly any traffic in the city and it took me about five minutes to clear it. The countryside was lush green with well-cultivated fields, good enough to confuse anyone driving in Rajasthan on NH 15 and looking for sand dunes. But as I had been here before, I did not get confused. Sri Ganganagar district is bordering Punjab and is well irrigated by canals originating form Sutluj River. Not only the surroundings here, but also the people at places appear more akin to people of Punjab than Rajasthan. The 60 km drive between Sri Ganganagar to Suratgarh took about one hour, and mostly it was through green countryside. Though the more I moved ahead the more sand I could see on the sides of the road. Just short of Suratgarh I was getting the feeling of getting near to desert. I could occasionally see outline of a dune behind the skyline made by green trees in the horizon.

Approaching Suratgarh I moved outside the military area, driving through which wouldn’t make one feel anywhere near the desert, because of the additional greenery created there. But the moment I was out of tree line of military area, I got the first view of sand, a massive lone sand dune on north side of Suratgarh city, on the road going towards Hanumangarh. But NH 15 moves in opposite direction, bypassing the city and devoid of any vegetation worth mentioning. Approaching the other side of the city gave the full view of desert land and the vastness of it, which was lying ahead.

Into the Desert

As soon as the last built up area of Suratgarh ended, I was practically inside the desert. A broad gauge railway line was running parallel to the road on the eastern side. One could clearly see the sand dunes on both sides of the road. Now a day everywhere on the sand one can see bushes of a shrub, which was spread in desert to arrest its spreading eastwards. Other than these shrubs there were rare trees in the scenery, mostly along the road. Road generally straight, had climbs and descent throughout, as it would have been constructed through smaller dunes. There was nothing else but just sand and sand. No villages, roadside shops or any other habitation visible anywhere, even after travelling few kms. Yes occasional railway stations on line parallel to road were definitely there.

Roughly fifteen kms from Suratgarh, one could again find good number of trees along the road for a km, and also lots of Eucalyptus in a row. Then, at Birdhwal, I crossed a massive canal, full of water, in the thick of desert. That spoke of the presence of so much greenery. This was IGC or Indira Gandhi Canal. It originates again from Sutlej River in Punjab, and irrigates desert all the way from Hanumangarh to Barmer. It has changed the life at places through which it or its distributaries flow. On the other side of canal there were lots of Dhabas, the Indian roadside restaurants in shacks, making full use of easy availability of water and probably the fishes of the canal too. There were number of trucks, including lots of army trucks parked here, and people having their breakfast in early morning sun.

Moving ahead, towards Bikaner, I kept on enjoying the beauty of desert, and the temperature at this time was still pleasant. Here, in this part of desert, I could see medium size dunes, most of which have converted into ridge lines due to joining of a series of dunes over a period of time. The relative heights were 20 to 50 metres generally. The area adjoining these dunes was either in shape of dunal valleys or sandy plains till one reaches next dunal ridge. Being on the highway, there was no feeling of being secluded in this part of desert. There was a fair movement of vehicles on the highway especially heavy trucks along with other types of transport, the camel carts being the next popular one. Off and on one saw army vehicles, some moving alone or in small group and some in long convoys. And than there was the railway line always giving company just about hundred metres away from the road, and so were its stations. Then there were some settlements every few kms, especially at the origination of link roads to villages. But in between these settlements, there was miles and miles of desert and nothing else, good enough to give a sense of chill to a first timer in this terrain. There were occasions when one didn’t see anything except desert and the long road ahead for up to a full quarter of an hour.

Further ahead, I crossed the small village of Mahajan. Here I saw number of army soldiers. One could see even tanks on the highway, not moving on their own but loaded on heavy trailers towed by massive vehicles with four huge wheels on either side. In fact I found these at many places between Suratgarh and Barmer. Had they also come for desert safaris? It was damn difficult to overtake these vehicles loaded with tanks, especially if they were in convoy of more than one vehicle, due to their enormous size and than they were towed by left hand driven heavy vehicles. More often then not their driver missed my horn as well as was unable to see the little car in his rear view mirrors. The best choice was to simply follow them and wait till they halted or slowed down on their own.

The army convoys through out the highway moved in very disciplined manner with no vehicle overtaking the other. They were halting also with discipline, generally away from habited areas, without causing problems to the highway traffic. However, it cannot be said for lone army vehicles of any shape and size, which may be speeding like a F1 car on Bahrain Track. But overall these vehicles moved more disciplined than any other on Indian roads.

The drive till Bikaner was similar to what it was up to Mahajan. I got the feeling of approaching a big city few kms before Bikaner, due to appearing of built up pockets and increase in the traffic, especially of jeeps, two wheelers and dare devil cyclists, who were generally invisible so far. Into the Bikaner city, staying on the Highway I avoided the city centre and moved on to the road to Jaisalmer. From the Highway I could see the Palace of the city made of red stone, which anyway I had no desire to visit. The city limits ended at a railway crossing. There were number of Dhabas next to the crossing, a right place for quick lunch, which I was already carrying with me. I preferred only to purchase a bottle of coke from the Dhaba, whose sitting arrangement I utilised for the break.

The Flat Desert

Leaving the Dhaba, I moved ahead towards Jaisalmer, the place I had chosen for the night halt. Pokran was the next major spot towards Jaisalmer on NH 15. Here the scenery of the desert changed altogether. The dunal heights, which were prominent all the way between Suratgarh and Bikaner, vanished, giving way to a flattish desert. On both sides of the road there was miles of flattish sandy and arid land with rare lonely trees. A dune or rocky knoll was visible at times. The land though it appeared flattish, had depression, high grounds and numerous invisible ascends and descends, which one can otherwise discover while moving cross-country.

The highway again was mostly straight, and traffic similar to what I encountered in the first half of the day. The temperature was good enough to drive the car comfortably with windows open. But afternoon time the high-speed desert wind was hitting like a storm. So it was better to have window glasses up and maintain inside temperature by car AC. By 3.30 PM I reached the outskirts of Phalodi. I took the bypass, which had few dhabas and one could see number of huge windmills on the far side of the city. On one cross road on the road going to Nagore, there was a board indicating a bird sanctuary on a nearby lake. This part of the desert has fair amount of bird life, the black flying duck being the most common bird found mostly near rare water bodies. I had no desire for bird watching, so I continued moving towards Pokran. Here one found number of people moving in various processions chanting some greetings to almost every passing vehicle. They were moving towards the local pilgrimage at Ramdevra, located among numerous dhabas on the highway itself, which were appropriate for a quick tea break.

I reached Pokran around 5pm. Again a bypass passing through a series of railway crossings; put me on road to Jaisalmer avoiding the main city. Somewhere nearby, India conducted its nuclear explosions in 1974 and 1998. But I didn’t feel any radiation, so didn’t the herds of sheep and goats crossing the road at various places or at times moving on the road itself and blocking the, otherwise smoothly moving, traffic. At one place there was a procession of camels doing the same, steered on road by their owners, probably returning from some local weekly market.

Evening in Jaisalmer

Short of Jaisalmer, the dunes started reappearing, not very massive to give any chill to nerves, but some of them did show the typical knuckle shape heights. The road turned to double lane on entering the city. A rail terminal, recently converted into broad gauge, had some crowd outside it, indication of arrival of some train. The sight of city mostly made of houses of sand stones or painted with same colour, in twilight was absolutely pleasing. There were some decent hotels and eating places and these were flocked by overseas tourists. The numerous shops at the main market dealing with foreign exchange indicated the quantum of the tourists and their origin. It was almost night, the cool zephyr and the gala looking tourists made me think of a decent drink and meal followed by a good night’s sleep, in order to enjoy more desert next day. The terraced restaurant of the hotel was an appropriate place for the dinner. It gave a good view of the fort, located on a higher ground, in which most of the city is housed. The place was of middle range, with nothing too great to talk about. But most of the people on the tables were tourists from abroad. None of them spoke English, except when talking to hotel staff, and in fact I could make from their language, that they were speaking French and German. But surprisingly, despite of continental food on the bill of fare, mostly Indian menu was being served.

The Mighty Dunes

I declined the offer by the hotel manager for an outing to Sam, about 45 kms from the city, the destination of most of the tourists as there one can see the might of desert. I had been to desert, west of Jaisalmer and Barmer with similar surroundings. The dunes there are much more massive and barren. They form the typical knuckle shape heights 60 to 90 metres high towards northeastern side that descends into various finger shaped ridges on to southwestern side. Knuckle side is almost vertical with loose sand, while the fingers have much firmer sands; good enough for a 4 x 4 drive, or even a 4 x 2 drive by an expert. I loved moving the latter way. One can climb knuckle heights through any of the finger, and if the lose sand of knuckle top is negotiated one can drive down through the knuckle walls too, but one cannot climb up that way. The site of various dunes forming big valleys in between them presents a very good panorama, but enormous problem for cross-country traveller, on foot or in vehicles. It wouldn’t take long for an inexperienced person to get lost between these dunal heights with any habitation, vegetation or water miles away, and that too in direction not known. Most of the terrain is devoid of any road or marked desert track, with only the desert deer, black buck, along with variety of reptiles and stray old camels to give company to any lost soul.

Next day I moved towards Barmer. The highway here onwards was not as straight. It had various turns and ascends and descends through minor dunal compositions or broken ground. The dunes towards west were more intense and higher than those on the east of the road. The really high dunes still lying 30 to 40 kms westwards. The habitation was scarcer than anywhere else on this route, including that on the highway. Here one gets the real good feel of being in desert if sticking to NH 15. Between Jaisalmer and Barmer the only place having some sort of amenities was Shiv, which had usual roadside dhabas. Short of Barmer the road passed along complexes of police forces. Barmer also had a bypass, which I gracefully took. There was a railway crossing, again of a recently upgraded broad gauge railway line. This line doesn’t terminate there and instead moves on, amidst the westerly high dunes to Munabao and onwards into Pakistan.

This pure desert area did suffer some heaviest of floods last year, inundating a number of villages, taking the inhabitants by surprise. Due to virtually no rainfall in this area, there is no natural drainage system here. Most of the villages are situated in a bowl amidst dunal valleys, almost in a depression, where generally deep wells are found. When torrential rain came, with no flow outwards, the water from all sides flew to the depression, inundating the villages forming natural lakes. Nature when go nastier can create problems of absolutely unknown kind. This place faced one.

The End of Odyssey

Leaving the problems behind and leaving the city of Barmer in the background, I moved towards Sanchor, the last town in Rajasthan on NH 15. The dunes became smaller and smaller, finally reduced to small heights as I reached Sanchor, late in the afternoon. I left NH 15 at Sanchor, and moved towards Mahesana, in Gujarat to get to Ahemdabad by late night.

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