Reaching Pragpur- A Mini Adventure!

I like visiting places which are not overrun by tourists. Pragpur in Himachal Pradesh falls under that category as of now. I was visiting the Judge’s Court and this was a one night trip. Reaching there was a mini adventure in itself, it should not have been though. But when two women and one clueless driver are out on the roads, unscheduled adventures are bound to happen.

After commuting for 64 kms every working day, I feel quite tried as the week eventually nudges towards Friday. However on that eventful Friday I was leaving for Pragpur at night by a taxi. On invited trips I just turn up and take things from there, no route finding or any other botheration for me. We headed out a little after 11.00 pm and I was quite jittery about how would I fare on the trip. I get so tired these days!

One thing that I didn’t bargain for was getting lost. I slept a deep sleep from 12 midnight to 2 am. We were approaching Ambala when I woke up. Pooja and the taxi driver had a discussion and I decided that all was well.

When we were about 75 km away from Shimla I was not so sure anymore. We were not supposed to be anywhere near Shimla. It was time to stop pretending that I could sleep through it all. At the toll booth of HP, I decided to get out and have a chat at the person behind the booth. We should have crossed a place called Una and I was quite sure that Shimla was not the correct way to approach it. To reach Pragpur one has to detour  on the Dharamshala road. I know one can reach Dhramshala via Shimla but an internet search showed it to be more than 250 plus km. I am not fond of getting lost for so many kilometers!

I now have a fancy phone, a 41 megapixel Lumia1020 with HEREmaps on it. The trouble is I never used the navigation on my phone so I didn’t know how to switch it on when we needed it badly. When we turned back from that point towards Shimla I was desperate to reach Pragpur because my tired body wanted to pie down horizontally on a bed. I switched on the navigation from where ever we were and set it to Pragpur. It was some 167 km away. My phone battery lasted till Una. But by then it was 7.00 am and everyone knew where Pragpur was.

We finally reached Pragpur at 9.00 am. The Judge’s Court was such a welcome sight. After a heay breakfast I decided to crash till lunch. When Pooja woke me up at 1.00 pm I was still so disoriented that I opened the door and crashed on the bed once again! That is how the trip to Pragpur started!