 Discovering India with your own set of wheels has a unique charm and of course if you love driving the pleasure is even more says AutoCar (July ’09). The Himalayas, since eons the heart and soul of India and the untainted beauty of Uttarakhand combine to make a truly blissful motoring getaway, especially if you have a week to spare. This drive from the majestic Corbett Tiger reserve to the Mountain Quail Lodge in Pangot and then on to a forest rest house at Binayak is worth the miles...
The ideal route to Pangot would be to take the left turn to Rudrapur from Rampur. The road up to Nainital is smooth and amazingly picturesque. Photography halts are many but the real transformation is on exiting Nainital in the direction of Pangot. The verdant forest on the hillsides and in the valleys all the way to mountain quail after the turn-off at Barapathar are really your raison d’etre for such a trip pronounces AutoCar (July ’09).
 Pangot is a quaint village barely 15km from Nainital. The drive takes scarcely half an hour and traverses the forested area of Cheena Peak Range via Snow View Point and Kilbury, which are the main habitats for birding. There are a variety of birds to be found here and one can expect to sight the rare Cheer and Koklas Pheasants, the Ultramarine and Verditer Flycatchers, Chestnut-crowned Laughing thrushes and many more. However it is advisable to trek in a group in this area as it is also home to leopards and bears.
Leaving Pangot, the AutoCar team (July ’09) headed down the excellent highway to Camp Corbett in Kaladhungi, 35kms away. This was Jim Corbett’s winter home and now a comprehensive museum dedicated to the renowned hunter, conservationist and naturalist. Four kilometers from Kaladhungi, on the Kaldhungi-Ramnagar highway, are the splendid 20-metre high Corbett Water Falls. Ensconced among dense forests, they make for an ideal camping site. The route down to Kaladhungi is a driver’s delight. With a wide, smooth and well-marked road all the way down, it is hard not to want to step a bit harder on the gas. The best way to explore Kaladhungi is in the company of a local expert who besides keeping you safe can also point out numerous locations detailed in Jim Corbett’s books like ‘The Island’ where he shot his first leopard.
 Corbett National Park was Team AutoCar’s (July ’09) last halt on this trip. This national park is possibly the most famous in India and one has to be accompanied by a guide and getting out of the vehicle is restricted only to a few viewing points.
One of the gems of wild India and made up primarily of Sal Forest, the park is home to a huge variety of animals and close to 650 species of birds. Also, over 50 species of mammals, including tiger, jungle cat, leopard, sloth bear, jackal, porcupine and Indian gray mongoose. There are also plenty of deer, like the barking deer, sambhar and chital. The park has diverse landscapes ranging from savanna grasslands to riverbeds and jungles leading up to the foothills of the Kumaon Himayalas. One can also take the morning elephant safari and one might be rewarded with a sighting of the majestic tiger or some pug marks.
Just the experience of driving your own car on the jungle tracks inside, amid the plentiful wildlife is enough to get your adrenalin pumping and something one can rarely come across elsewhere in the country. On leaving the jungles, AutoCar (July ’09) could not help wondering which was the true jungle – the one they were leaving behind or the urban madness that makes up Delhi.
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