The Great Arc is ROARR’s greatest Rally and perhaps the one I am most proud of creating.
“One of the best rallies we have done” according to one participant in 2009, and another said “‘a fantastic adventure. Unbelievable roads, most beautiful sites, and the best and most luxurious camping ever!”
We drive from Cochin in southern India to the hill station of Mussoorie in the foothills of the Himalaya mountains, a distance of nearly 5000 kilometres. It is an event I have created as an eccentric journey across the heart of India for a small group of likeminded adventurers. I can take a maximum of 14 classic cars. The reason I originally did this rally for bikes, not classic cars, was due to the lack of hotels in central India, and concerns about camping.
I will admit I was nervous about the camping. I need not have feared, the camping has revolutionised India for me. Staying in camp is an extraordinary and quite out of this world experience.
Without exception everyone enjoyed the camping on last year’s Rally, and camp life has opened up a very different India; the India of the rural village life.
To put together a rally between good hotels very often means the drive between hotels has to be rushed, so main roads are used; or the hotels are too close together, and the days become too short. I can now find great drives and not be restricted by hotels, or by the distance between these hotels.
Each night we build fantastic luxury camps along the route. All the camps are set up and ready by our late afternoon arrival. The Great Arc camp sites, without exception, are in stunning locations. Set in coconut groves, beside rivers or lakes, in peasant villages or hill locations. We could be in the era of William Lampton and George Everest as they first explored and surveyed India along the Great Arc Meridian of the 1820s.
The Great Arc’s first camp is set within coconut groves, with the escarpment of the Palani Hills as a backdrop. The second camp set on to the banks of the river at Hampi, by the ancient monuments of Vijayanagara, a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site . Next we travel into the heart of India - the savannah lands and the forests lands. And finally our fourth camp - into the green hills of Pashmari. All camps are different. All camps at unbelievable locations.
All the tents are huge, 18’ x 12’, with proper twin beds, sheets and blankets, en-suite bathroom facilities. Each tent has a veranda with chairs.
Our professional chef, with a full catering team, cooks great camp meals. This may seem improbable; however the food cooked on the Great Arc 2009 was good as any restaurant, bizarrely served by waiters in black tie. To accompany our dining, lit from heaven above, Banyan Vineyard supplies very palatable young range of wines; Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel. The new wines of India came as a pleasant surprise to us all.
As well as the highlights of the ‘best moving camp in the World’ there is of course the driving!
The roads are some of the most interesting I have ever driven in India. For human interest India is the most fascinating country I know. The ROARR team worked for four months driving the quiet country roads between Indian villages, unvisited by foreigners, to find mostly reasonable, some quite outstandingly good, (some poor!), many dusty, but every one of these roads is quiet and shows off the different landscapes of rural India.
No trucks, just the occasional village bus, many bullock carts, out of the ordinary roaming holy man and the odd car. We only visit towns to cross rivers or to pass from one rural drive to the next.
As another participant put it “The road surfaces were surprisingly good with a few that were marginal for classics – this was borne out by the low number of serious breakages.” All participants finished in 2009.
There is a huge variety of the rural drives along this unusual route across India. Out of 19 days driving, 17 days are quite wonderful. The first day out to Theckedy sets the tone of the rally. The route hugs the ridge of the rolling Cardomom Hills set above the magnificence of the rolling valley below.
You would not think driving can get any better than the Cardomom Hills, until that is the next day, and for the following two days. For the Palani Hills drive will stun your senses. This is the most magnificent drive in India; one of the must-do drives anywhere and mostly on uncharted roads. From the hill station at Kodikanal to the town of Palani - this is a highlight.
On to Ooty hill station and a connection of rural roads across the plains. Then, to finish the day a climb into the Nilgiri Hill - 42 mighty hairpin bends.
One of the big drives is the 500km from Mysore to the Camp at Hampi. The roads are good and the run easy across this hot barren rock-covered hot landscape. Villages are becoming rarer, the sun seems hotter and the landscape infinite, dry and flat.
The run to within 60 Km of Hyderabad is all rural. Once the Krishna River is behind us the landscape changes becoming more green as the villages become more frequent.
Changing scenes of rural India is a strong feature of this rally, and after leaving the city of Hyderabad the drive is back into the countryside. This time into the savannah and forest lands to the Camp at Kaddam. The big numbers that make up the Indian population seem to be outside the forest and bush of Kaddam. Is this Africa?
Next stop Nagpur, but not before visiting the grave of William Lampton at Hinganghat. His final resting place is long forgotten and slowly being broken up for building materials. What a shame. The last visitor would have been the final driver from the 2009 Great Arc Rally. The next visitor to the grave will be the first driver on the 2011 Great Arc Rally.
The drive from Nagpur to Piparia, across the rolling forest lands is quite a delight. That said the drive from Piparia to the Camp at Pachmarhi is the finest of hill drives. A tight winding road hugging the hillside all the way to the Camp.
From Bhopal the rural drives meander like a river flowing along unmapped roads of the central India plains. Orchha, Gwalior, Bharatpur, Alwar, Kesroli, onto Kuchasar, and finally, with the dust of the plains behind, the final drive up the hill into the Himalayas to finish at Mussoorie.
Now - look at your own map. Ignore the heavy red lines of the main roads. Focus on the many light yellow secondary roads; then on the land between. Does it look empty? This is the area we drive. It looks uncharted and untouched. However it is teeming with rural life, offering many fine drives along unmapped country roads.
On this same map look to the west of Mussoorie. About 5 miles from the hill station is the area known as Hathipaon. This was once the estate of George Everest. His house stills stands in the most astonishing location of any property built. You can see from the map to the North is the ridge of the mighty Himalayas, to the South the great plain of India we will drive.
What you cannot see from your map, but you will see at the end of the Rally, are the magnificent views of the snow capped peaks of Tibet from the front rooms of Hathipaon House, or the sheer drop into the Doon Valley from the rear patio.
Thankfully Hathipaon House and her unkempt gardens are not on the tourist route. No coach park, no souvenir stands or cafeteria and no ticket booths; for there are no visitors. Only the house, the views, the sound of the wind blowing along Doon Valley and the echoes of Everest past.
So much to write, so much to see. However at this stage I am only looking for 14 passionate drivers who wish to be pencilled in, without commitment, who firstly and foremost want great driving, will love the oddity of the rural camping and when not in camp will appreciative the unusual country palaces and fort hotels. This is an eccentrics rally!
The cost is £19,125 per car, including a discount for early sign up. This includes return shipping from the UK, accommodation for two people, full support crew and vehicles, doctor, GPS and route book, breakfast every day, and all meals and wine in campsites, but excludes flights. The Great Arc is built around what I want from a Rally and what I have learned from our participants having run eight rallies. It is not for commercial profit. I take no money out and any surplus goes towards funding the hospital run by the young English woman Leah Pattison in Nagpur.
A Great Arc tent will be on display at the ROARR Garden Party on 3rd July. I hope all those interested in this Rally will attend and not only see the tent but meet a number of participants from last year’s Great Arc, listen to Rick Wakeman play, and talk classic cars and toast together a Classic Rally of great driving.
I offer you 23 days of unforgettable adventure departing Cochin on 31st January 2011 and arriving in Mussoorie on 23rd February. Please do telephone me on 07930 416452, look at our website www.roarrallies.com, and come to the ROARR Garden Party on 3rd July.
Conrad Birch
Randalls, Penshurst, Kent
