Aiming For The Sky

Some days are made for driving. Like this one. The September sun is up in the foothills of the Himalayas, the light is crisp and one can see for miles ahead through the windscreen of our Hyundai Exter. This is the kind of day that makes you glad to be out in the open, at the wheel of an SUV that is as eager as you are to chase horizons. It’s just been a couple of months since the launch of the Hyundai Exter, but the cool-looking, highly capable SUV has already been serving notice of its powerful appeal. In August, within a single month of launch, Hyundai’s latest SUV clocked a staggering 7,000 units, and since then it has kept up the momentum. It’s easy to see why the Exter has fetched such a response, especially when you are behind the wheel of one. We are on the road that will eventually lead to Ratnari, a little village about 85km from Shimla. It is, as all mountain roads are wont to be, a winding one, and the Exter, a car that is so adept at negotiating urban landscapes, adapts quickly to a less-frequented environment. With a 2,450mm wheelbase, the Exter comes across as a highway cruiser with admirable composure and its well-calibrated suspension absorbs rough patches without breaking into a sweat.

Over the past decade, experientialism, an outlook that prioritises experiences over materialism, has been on the rise, and one such experience awaits us at Ratnari. High up in the Himalayas, we are going to a village with apple orchards, a permaculture farm, and, most importantly, a Dobsonian telescope – the largest privately owned unit in India – and we are going to use it to peer into the deep skies.

Inside, Outside

The Hyundai Exter is one of those SUVs you like at first glance. With those muscular wheel arches, tall stance, beefy haunches, and silver skid plates, it looks like the kind of vehicle that you could bank on, irrespective of whether you are threading your way through Mumbai’s high streets – where its signature H-patterned LED daytime running lamps stand out – or, in our case, getting off the highway and negotiating the mostly rough stretch of tarmac that leads to Ratnari. We’ve been on the road for over six hours now, but we aren’t fatigued and a lot of the credit for that should go to the Exter’s spacious cabin. As is the case with all Hyundais, the Exter comes loaded with several first-in-segment features such as a dashcam with dual cameras, rear AC vents and wireless charging, but there are other things that also make a difference to the in-cabin experience.

The fit and finish levels deserve applause, seat comfort is right up there, and the leather-clad steering wheel adds loads of character. There’s something for everyone. Tech bros will love the slick 8-inch touchscreen that comes with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, connected car tech (Hyundai’s Bluelink offers customers over 60 features that can be activated via smartphones or a smartwatch) and 92 embedded voice commands. And the more practical minded will dig the massive 391-litre boot.

But, in case you love driving, you’ll be glad to know that the Exter’s 1.2-litre, four-cylinder Kappa petrol engine is a lively, engaging unit. If you’ll love its grunt in the lower reaches of the rev range in cities, out on the highways, the engine is both eager and responsive. What’s also responsive are the paddle shifters that our AMT-equipped Exter came with, which were put to optimum use, as we attacked the curves. The automated manual transmission, which gets electric actuators, is noticeably smooth and lags between shifts are barely perceptible.

Sky-high adventure

We got into Ratnari towards early evening and drove straight to the Meena Bagh, in Ratnari, with the Hyundai Exter’s 185mm ground clearance very handy around the village. Meena Bagh Ratnari, a farmstay, is photojournalist Sanjay Austa’s second baby (his first is the Meena Bagh Shimla). Set in the middle of an apple orchard and ringed by spectacular mountains all around, the bungalow is the kind of place that pops up in people’s heads when they talk about “building a home in the mountains”.

Besides the apple orchards Meena Bagh Ratnari, which has seen many guests including Mahendra Singh Dhoni, also has a permaculture farm, and a bunch of friendly creatures, including ducks, dogs, cats and sheep to keep you company. With its stone, mud and wooden walls, the bungalow’s architecture blends traditional Himachali style with modern chalet aesthetics. All in all, it’s a quiet, cosy place – that Dobsonian telescope only heightens its appeal. A couple of hours after dinner, we stepped outside and into an observatory that held the 20-inch Dobsonian reflector telescope. It was time to star-gaze.

If you’ve never experienced an up close and personal look at the heavens, you don’t know what you are missing. We got Venus and a crescent moon, and it got better with views of Nebulae – it was all both inspiring and humbling. A sight worth driving miles for.