Day 27 – Renault India Diamond Trail – Lucknow to Delhi

On day 27 of the India Diamond Trail we drove the Renault Kwid from Lucknow to Delhi. The city boasts of rich Mughal history as both Babur and his son Akbar once ruled the city. In the morning we got a glimpse of this rich history as we passed by the Rumi Darwaza, an imposing gate built in 1784. It’s modeled after a similar gateway from the ancient city of Constantinople (now Istanbul) and has a massive presence in the city center of Lucknow.

We hit the highway soon after that and the tarmac was flawless till the capital city. There were no broken roads, no bumps or diversions and the last time the roads were this good was two weeks ago in Tamil Nadu when we were on our way to Kanyakumari. Lucknow to Delhi is just a seven hour drive, that’s why we decided to stop by Agra and pay a visit to the Taj Mahal.
Due to security reasons, cars aren’t allowed anywhere near the Taj Mahal and hence little Kwid needed to parked about a kilometre away from the monument itself.

It was 45 degrees Celsius when we stepped out of the Renault Kwid’s comfortable cabin. And inspite of that there were thousands of tourists who had come to admire the magnificence of the Taj. The ivory white mausoleum looked incredibly well preserved and this architectural marvel left me awe-struck just like it did 10 years ago when I last visited Agra.

We reached Delhi by 7pm and soon we met with Afzal and Alameen who are now going to take over the final leg of the India Diamond Trail. Sachin, Anand and Sunil continue on the drive while I fly back home. Stay tuned as team evo India now heads to Kargil on the ultimate leg of the India Diamond Trail.