We all have a dream but have you ever thought to what extent can you go to fulfill that dream? These 3 girls named Neetha Jagan, Parneet Sandhu & Sunita Dugar, all in their 30s had the same passion, a keen desire to travel and for the same, they wished to bring about a platform which could serve as an inspiration for female commuters like ‘The Travelling Divas’, as they call themselves, who wish to take a tour across the nation.
If we talk about the profession of these women, Neetha is a manager, Sunita entrepreneur, whereas Parneet works in a US-based firm. The Travelling Divas made up their mind to travel from Kanyakumari to Kashmir with a courage-filled spirit, sheer confidence and not to forget Ford EcoSport.
In the words of Sunita, “We’re friends from the Chennai Trekking Club, and this was an idea that’s been taking shape for over a decade! Armed with a common love for travel, our mission was to encourage solo women travellers, and organise hassle-free trips for them to explore and enjoy, without having to pay anything extra for the services rendered. We did a test-trip of sorts to Wayanad and Chikmagalur first, to ensure our driving skills were perfect and that gave us the confidence to plan something bigger.”
The divas left on 8th August for this epic journey to begin a new, exciting and adventurous chapter of their lives. Sunita further adds, “It’s hard to pick one amazing moment from the journey — but reaching Srinagar was magical. We actually wanted to drive upto Leh-Ladakh as well, but our car broke down for the third or fourth time by then! And we had to forgo the final tip of our experience for another time and take a flight back home. But we covered more than 5000 kms.”
However, according to Parneet, this journey had been full of challenges, “Such as reaching Hyderabad after completing 1000 kms in a single day, driving at around 11 pm in the middle of the night on the Nagpur-Seoni road without a soul around, covered in complete darkness. Other areas where we could have been surrounded by lorries and thugs, with no networks on our phones…we were scared, of course, but we made it through everything!”
But a beautiful aspect of this tour was that it made them believe once again that humanity does exist. “We were driving the car on roads with really difficult curves up north, but still managed to hold our own. But the times we did face difficulty, for instance, right in front of the Dal Lake, the locals rushed to our help! They were humble and kind — which was deeply heartening,” Parneet added.
Recalling awesome memories, she said with a smile, “Taking in the diverse culture, the cuisine also thrilled us! From biriyani in M.P to Punjabi parathas, we sampled them all! The sheer variety of the food along the way was brilliant.”
After successful completion of their first exciting venture, the divas are making plans for the next as they say, “A drive from east to west of the country, definitely an international trip is in the works, and also maybe a drive from India to Thailand soon. This K2K accomplishment has also served as a launchpad for our venture, and we hope other women will step forward to join us now.”
Below are few pictures from their trip:
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Hats Off To The Courage & Spirit Of The Travelling Divas!
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