Discovering Delhi - The Muddy highway and the Forgotten mines - The wrong Turn

It started with a Quest to find the “Hell” lake with the help of Maps and GPS locaters but nothing worked out as planned, though what we found was not bad either, rather exciting. After deciding on where to go we finally made up our minds for the Lakes Hidden somewhere in the Aravali Ridge Area near Haryana-Delhi border. They are called Hell lakes for some reason, may be cos of rumors that it claims 100 deaths. But anyways we never made it.

So loaded with our “Directional Sources” we finally found this turn opposite to this famous institute. And we took this turn and came across this Police Check Post right in the beginning. We thought it ll be nice to Inquire about the lakes so we got down. Suddenly looking at the cop and the dog with a deep Scar on its face…flashes of ‘Texas Chainsaw massacre came onto my mind’. The cop was alone and was preparing to cook something. He was least expecting that someone would just enter the Post. He surely got startled and irritated. Initially he said it’s not allowed to go there. But it was clear he didn’t know where the Hell was the lake. So after telling him we are professional Photographers he said “Go find yourself”.

So we carried on our ride through this Forest…a muddy highway under construction. Trucks loading and unloading, after regular lapses workers on the road could be seen under hot sun and on hot tar roads. No one knew about any Lake. Even if they knew it turned out to be something else. After coming across dump-yards and graveyards for animals we thought of giving it up and go for Asola Wildlife Sanctuary. But somehow we kept on going with little bit of Hope left and came across a roadside Dhaba probably for the truck drivers. We had tea and cigarettes there. The dhaba owner seemed to be a nice guy so naturally we made our last inquiry. It turned out even he didn’t know of any lakes but he knew about the old mines just behind the dhaba.

Now that was exciting, suddenly it was a new spark and filled us with curiosity again.

We finished our tea and straightway followed the small paths into the forest behind the dhaba. Wow and there it was, a Big, vast pit in front of us. A glimpse of monitor lizard hiding behind the bushes, skull of a monkey, almost like a human skull. The place gave me an impression of some Horror flick on the lines of “The hills have eyes”.

We learned that the mines were abandoned way back and were left like this after the mining was banned. So now its just huge rocks, Hills and Jungles and you can feel the animals peeping from behind the rocks and shrubs and hiding away before you can see them. You can imagine any kind of animal there and it won’t be a surprise. Miles and miles of rocks and jungles spread in that area. It was a treat. I was wondering if that area was ever explored for its Mysterious animals. May be or may be not.

I wonder if we will find the Lake…but this place was worth discovering. But would love to explore this place more next time and set the base camp at the Dhaba. What say?

Paule'