With the Honda Jazz as his loyal companion, Sarmad Kadiri sets out on a trip to quench his thirst for adventure
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
Zorbing, paint ball and motocross dirt biking!” that was how my colleague, Adhish, had described the Della Adventure and he immediately had my attention.
Simply an irresistible offer for an adventure-loving, adrenaline junky! No question of saying, ‘No’. After reiterating the above sentence to Aspi with some additional voice modulation, I managed to convince him to hand me the key to the Honda Jazz. Not only did I have a perfect destination, located as it was at Lonavala, for a day’s trip, there was the additional lure of a perfect ride – in the cerulean blue Jazz. Our fun-loving lensman colleague, Sanjay, opted to join me on this trip to the promised adventure land.
After referring assiduously to the lunar calendar, appointment diaries and the almanac, we zeroed in on an auspicious day, but the rain gods had other plans. It started to pour cats and dogs in Pune and, when we rang up the guys at Della, they told us that at Lonavala the rain was more like elephants and 
hippos. What a dampener! Alas, my karma was catching up on me. I shouldn’t have bombarded the innocent girls of my neighbourhood with water-balloons during Holi and the other 364 days of the year.
Thankfully, the next day was a little better, though there still was a drizzle, and we started on our journey early in the morning. I picked up Sanjay from near the NIBM and began driving the large hatch towards NH 4. As I got busy squeezing between cars, manoeuvring around bikes and zipping ahead of the city traffic, Sanjay made himself comfortable by adjusting his seat, stretching his legs and setting the air-con temp to his liking, the air vents trained at himself. Thankfully, the Jazz is a joy to drive and I was having fun with it even in the chaotic Pune traffic. All I needed was some good music and good old rock would fit the bill well to deal with the chaos on the road. The car’s music system pepped things up and set the mood for a nice drive.
With potholes, ditches and loose gravel, the city roads are at their worst during the rainy season and the commuters, ever in a hurry, make sure you don’t miss a single one of these. This is where the Honda Jazz excels. Its suspension and ride are among the best in its class as it absorbs most of the shocks. As I struggled, Sanjay was nicely ensconced in the Jazz interior, listening to fine music and fiddling with his new touch-screen mobile phone.
As we reached Chandani Chowk, it started to rain heavily, but there was no turning back now. We wanted our share of adventure and we wanted it today! The wide windscreen offered us a broad view of the road and the front and rear wipers were a blessing in the downpour that we were braving. The road now was decent and very soon the Jazz brought us to the autobahn of this region – the Pune-Mumbai (aka Yashwantrao Chavan) Expressway.
What followed can be best described in the most popular three words of automobile journalismPedal-to-metal! I whizzed past several people’s carriers and the Jazz remained composed and assuring. But it’s human nature to ask for more and I wished it had a bigger mill, so that the RPM needle would remain in the mid-2,000s rather than in 4,000s. However, the small Honda didn’t disappoint us even in the ghats and the credit should go to its neat handling, ride quality and smooth power delivery.
As we crossed the first toll-booth on the expressway, we realised that the air-conditioner was performing really well. It was time for a break. Having first relieved ourselves, we tucked with relish into misal-pav and tea. A little later, we tanked up the Jazz at a petrol pump and headed for Lonavala again. We approached the beautiful hill town, which also is a quick getaway for many Bollywood stars. This buzzing hill station has shops everywhere and is popular for sweets like chikki and chocolate fudge. I picked up several goodies from a Super Chikki store and left with heavy handbags and a light wallet. In spite of so much luggage, the smart interior of the car was ready to accommodate even more.
We followed the directions displayed on a Della Adventure board and turned right from the main road. The two-kilometre drive from there was like driving on the moon, thanks to heavy showers. We crossed a small bridge over a rivulet, where picnicking schoolchildren were having a gala time. We stopped to take a few pictures before driving on.
As soon as we arrived at the resort,we were thrilled by its vast size. It is the brainchild of Jimmy Mistry, who is an avid petrol head himself. The list of adventure sports offered here is a long one indeed. Despite the heavy showers Sanjay and I tried our hand on few things like horse riding, ATV rides and Zorbing which is a massive plastic ball that rolls down a hill and you are strapped in its belly to experience the ball’s fury. As the missal-pao summersaulted over the cup of tea in my tummy I decided to teach the zorb-ball a lesson and raced the Jazz against it. No prizes for guessing the winner here. There are loads of other activities to keep you busy all day like paint ball, snag golf, artificial rock climbing, para-gliding, bungee trampoline, archery, radio controlled cars and planes, mountain cycling etcetera. They also have some queer stuff (which most girls would find ‘cute’) like walking the dogs and milking cows. 
After spending the entire day jumping, climbing and rolling on things we decided that we had milked the resort of all its worth, at least for the day. Wet, exhausted and super thrilled we cruised back to Pune with tiered eyes and silly grins on our faces, relishing the car’s comfort. I couldn’t have asked for a better companion then the Honda on this adventure trip. The fuel tank had still enough fuel left for us to reach home as the car gave impressive fuel economy of around 16.5 km/l. If Aspi is gracious again to lend us the Jazz, then like the Governor of California once said… “I’ll be back!”
CAPTIONS:
1.The Jazz adds colour to the paint-ball arena. The place has a great collection of radio-controlled aeroplanes and choppers.
2.Della Adventure has several restaurants
and we chose continental for lunch.
3.The small Honda inspires the miniature RC cars.
4.Siddhant, the brawny stallion eyes the pretty 88 horses of the Jazz
5.Para-gliding and high rope activity are one of the major crowd pullers at Della Adventure
6.The 90cc to 200cc ATV would cost between Rs 750 to Rs 1000 for a 10 minute ride.
7.The Honda wait for us to return out side the snag golf area
