Well somethings just happen and so was the decision to drive from Bangalore to Delhi.
I landed from Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) on 4-May-2014 in Banglaore and Ankush flew in from Delhi on 5-May-2014. He just flew in to provide company - my original plan was to drive irrespective of if someone wants to join or not. However it was good company and made a big difference.
Trip meter was set to zero (the tank was filled up last night at HP) and air pressure was checked the previous night. As a preparation the documents (all except the pollution certificate were ready).
0615 hrs, Bangalore (Nani's Place, HAL Airport Road, Bangalore)
Plan for the day: Tumkur-->Chitraduga-->Hubli-->Kolhapur
Good Bye to Nani : Long Live and Prosper
We were able to beat the traffic in Bangalore and were rolling to Tumkur. We took the route via. outer ring road and there was not much traffic. Once we hit the Tumkur road - the traffic became even more sparse as it was Tuesday morning.
Breakfast - Chitradurga was a bad experience. We crossed the town and were looking for toilets as well as breakfast. It was not that easy. Had to drive back about a kilometer.
0940 hrs (186 kms) - Naveen Regency on the left side on the NH4. Thanks to Akka in Bangalore
170 bucks the food was nothing great (170 bucks for two masala dosa, kesari bath, idli vada)
The toilet was horrible and I had to shit while standing. Asked Ankush to use the newspaper as a disposable toilet seat cover. Anyones nothing beats the joy of taking a dump :D
Excellent roads all the way - walls in Chitradurga control the incoming traffic into the highway.The windmills at Chitradurga are always a delight to see.
1218hrs (360kms) - 40kms before Hubli.
We should have stopped here and there was another Kamat before this. I recommend stopping at Kamat for breakfast instead of Naveen Regency
CCD - Two coffees and cookies and we were back on the road. Handed over the keys to Ankush.
What was on our mind now - Should we drive own to Pune (459 Kms from here) or stop at Kolhapur as planned which is just another 257 Kms. We decided to drive down to Belgaum and then take a call.
**Fuel** - Refill at Jabbar (Hubli) - the same pump on the side of the highway where we fuelled on our way to Goa. Indian Oil Bunk.
INR 2000 25.19 ltrs
1353hrs (477kms done) - First selfie posted on the Whatsapp group posted to keep the team posted about movements
14:05hrs Check into Belgaum and rain greeted us. We decided to continue until we find a place for lunch.
15:19hrs - 590kms Lunch Break @Hotel Kaveri
17:40hrs - 716.8Kms decided to head towards Pune and may be stop over in Satara.
20:13hrs - 871.7kms Stopped at Pune
Day1 Summary: We drove for almost 14 hours with the average speed of 62.21 Km/hr. We took three breaks in the day. I drove until Jabbar and from there Ankush drove till Kaveri Hotel. I was driving all the way to Pune
Toll Charges: Almost 1 INR/KM
Fuel was almost running out.
End of Stay: Stayed over at Ankush's friend and met Sarna from my college.
Dinner at dhabha - INR 2470
We actually drove more than we had planned. We wanted to stay in Kolhapur and actually drove to Pune.
Day 2 plan was to start easy as we wanted to hit Bombay only and stay at my sister's place in Thane.
Few Pictures from Day I
Windmills at Chitradurga
Windmill blades being transported near Chitradurga
Selfie for the records only post Coffee Break at CCD
HIghway near Belgaum
Asked in a puncture shop and he offered us tea ! This only happens in India all we were asking for is directions and Ankush addressed the gentleman as Bhaijaan guessing by his beard that he was a muslim, He won my heart with a smile offering us tea.
**Fuel Report**
08:48 hrs 31.04 Ltrs at INR 80.52/ltr 872kms
We took Mumbai Pune expressway and the destinaion was Thane. I drove all the way.
The expressway is okay - Lonavala and Khandala are okayish nothing striking about the hills for me as I come from Uttarakhand.
We took the first break on the expressway on our side and had omlette. We should have waited the next option was much better.
The toll is expensive almost INR2/km and we paid 324 bucks to drive all the way.
The road is okayish with heavy traffic and goes through the urban areas.
I was already missing the roads of Karnataka.
11:23 hrs 1021.1 Kms parked in Thane
Agenda for the day - relax at home :)
Day 2 Summary: Expensive toll and boring roads - not even four lanes like most of Karnataka roads. There was traffic all the way after Satara and it was mix of two and four wheelers. Morning saw heavy truck traffic.
Average speed 60Km/hr
Picutres
This is how Golden Quadrilateral is near Mumbai. We are entering Thane
Gujrat McDonalds - the Ice Tea was horrible
Trip Summary
176.87 Ltr Petrol
15kms per liter on an average
Average speed of 60 Km/hr
I landed from Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) on 4-May-2014 in Banglaore and Ankush flew in from Delhi on 5-May-2014. He just flew in to provide company - my original plan was to drive irrespective of if someone wants to join or not. However it was good company and made a big difference.
Trip meter was set to zero (the tank was filled up last night at HP) and air pressure was checked the previous night. As a preparation the documents (all except the pollution certificate were ready).
Day 1
0615 hrs, Bangalore (Nani's Place, HAL Airport Road, Bangalore)
Plan for the day: Tumkur-->Chitraduga-->Hubli-->Kolhapur
Good Bye to Nani : Long Live and Prosper
We were able to beat the traffic in Bangalore and were rolling to Tumkur. We took the route via. outer ring road and there was not much traffic. Once we hit the Tumkur road - the traffic became even more sparse as it was Tuesday morning.
Breakfast - Chitradurga was a bad experience. We crossed the town and were looking for toilets as well as breakfast. It was not that easy. Had to drive back about a kilometer.
0940 hrs (186 kms) - Naveen Regency on the left side on the NH4. Thanks to Akka in Bangalore
170 bucks the food was nothing great (170 bucks for two masala dosa, kesari bath, idli vada)
The toilet was horrible and I had to shit while standing. Asked Ankush to use the newspaper as a disposable toilet seat cover. Anyones nothing beats the joy of taking a dump :D
Excellent roads all the way - walls in Chitradurga control the incoming traffic into the highway.The windmills at Chitradurga are always a delight to see.
1218hrs (360kms) - 40kms before Hubli.
We should have stopped here and there was another Kamat before this. I recommend stopping at Kamat for breakfast instead of Naveen Regency
CCD - Two coffees and cookies and we were back on the road. Handed over the keys to Ankush.
What was on our mind now - Should we drive own to Pune (459 Kms from here) or stop at Kolhapur as planned which is just another 257 Kms. We decided to drive down to Belgaum and then take a call.
**Fuel** - Refill at Jabbar (Hubli) - the same pump on the side of the highway where we fuelled on our way to Goa. Indian Oil Bunk.
INR 2000 25.19 ltrs
1353hrs (477kms done) - First selfie posted on the Whatsapp group posted to keep the team posted about movements
14:05hrs Check into Belgaum and rain greeted us. We decided to continue until we find a place for lunch.
15:19hrs - 590kms Lunch Break @Hotel Kaveri
17:40hrs - 716.8Kms decided to head towards Pune and may be stop over in Satara.
20:13hrs - 871.7kms Stopped at Pune
Day1 Summary: We drove for almost 14 hours with the average speed of 62.21 Km/hr. We took three breaks in the day. I drove until Jabbar and from there Ankush drove till Kaveri Hotel. I was driving all the way to Pune
Toll Charges: Almost 1 INR/KM
Fuel was almost running out.
End of Stay: Stayed over at Ankush's friend and met Sarna from my college.
Dinner at dhabha - INR 2470
We actually drove more than we had planned. We wanted to stay in Kolhapur and actually drove to Pune.
Day 2 plan was to start easy as we wanted to hit Bombay only and stay at my sister's place in Thane.
Few Pictures from Day I
Windmills at Chitradurga
Windmill blades being transported near Chitradurga
Selfie for the records only post Coffee Break at CCD
HIghway near Belgaum
Day 2
08:29 hrs We started looking for a petrol pump as we were running low on fuel.Asked in a puncture shop and he offered us tea ! This only happens in India all we were asking for is directions and Ankush addressed the gentleman as Bhaijaan guessing by his beard that he was a muslim, He won my heart with a smile offering us tea.
**Fuel Report**
08:48 hrs 31.04 Ltrs at INR 80.52/ltr 872kms
We took Mumbai Pune expressway and the destinaion was Thane. I drove all the way.
The expressway is okay - Lonavala and Khandala are okayish nothing striking about the hills for me as I come from Uttarakhand.
We took the first break on the expressway on our side and had omlette. We should have waited the next option was much better.
The toll is expensive almost INR2/km and we paid 324 bucks to drive all the way.
The road is okayish with heavy traffic and goes through the urban areas.
I was already missing the roads of Karnataka.
11:23 hrs 1021.1 Kms parked in Thane
Agenda for the day - relax at home :)
Day 2 Summary: Expensive toll and boring roads - not even four lanes like most of Karnataka roads. There was traffic all the way after Satara and it was mix of two and four wheelers. Morning saw heavy truck traffic.
Average speed 60Km/hr
Picutres
This is how Golden Quadrilateral is near Mumbai. We are entering Thane
Day 3
We started late :) the sleep cycle was catching up. We had slept on the night before traveling for 4 hours and then in Pune again for about 5 hours. I could not wake up on time and we left late at home.
Plan - Hit Ahmadabad via Surat and Varodra
08:25hrs - 1021Kms started to Ahmadabad and decided to take a detour to Daman.
Road was terrible to start with and then became better but there was too much traffic and required zig-zag driving between trucks. We took a detour at Vapi and went into Daman
11:49 hrs - 1199kms parked at a resturant on Nani Beach in Daman.
The food was gawti chicken and dal. And we were really hungry - even ate lunch in the afternoon.
The toilet was good :)
13:52 hrs: Started driving again to Ahmadabad. The CON was now with Ankush.
We were searching for a CCD and could not find so we stopped at McDonalds for lousy idea tea which we threw. NH8 had very high truck density per kms and it was tricky to drive.
**Fuel Report**
15:20 hrs 1330 kms 29.74 ltrs 2200INR at 74.67 Rs/Ltr
Ankush was not feeling well and had sever gas trouble. I guess it was because of the food that we ate, He asked me to resume driving.
16:56 hrs 1416 kms CCD Break - Ankush was not really feeling very good. Stopped at Varoda to buy him medicines and then again at another place to buy more. I was again driving now. The traffic was bad until vardra because of school holidays and trucks were all replaced by cars
19:36 hrs 1568.5kms Ahmadabad. The Varoda Ahmadabad expressway is awesome and may be the best road until now that I have seen in India. Only three exits and people were driving very nicely.
The driving was crazy inside the town and it was tricky to find a hotel, We stayed at Prithivi Hotel and it must be avoided at all costs. We paid 2400 INR for a terrrible place as I didnot want to drive more into city.
Ankush was feeling better now.
Dinner at McDonalds and roamed around in Auto for some time.
Day3 Summary: 11 hours Average Speed 50 km/hr
Following are shots from Varodra Ahmadabad express highway.
Day 4
We wanted to leave early and were actually able to do so.
Day plan was to halt in Ajmer about 425 Kms or maybe extend it to Jaipur.
The planned route for the day was to Ahmadabad->Udaiput->Ajmer (425 kms) ->Jaipur
08:04 hrs 1568Kms started and headed towards Udaipur
**Fuel Report**
10:59 hrs 1760 Kms 30.90 ltr INR 2319.6 (@75.08 Rs/Ltr)
13:10 hrs Lunch Break at Nathdwara.
We were looking for a restaurant and there was none until this place from Udaipur.
NH8 roads near Udaipur are terrible. Two lane roads on the golden quadrilateral were a disappointment.
The bypass to Udaipur was also horrible due to slow moving trucks and ghat. This continued all the way until Bheem. The road widening is taking place in Nathdwara and it is making things even more difficult.
13:49 hrs 1879 kms Plan changed to go to Jaipur instead of Ajmer.
15:20 hrs 1964.8kms Devgarh reached
17:03 hrs 2101 kms At Ajmer bypass heading to Jaipur (129 Kms away)
20:08 hrs Destination revised to Noida. Plan to drive via Bharatpur on Jaipur Agra highway. The road from Jaipur to Delhi via Gurgaon has been reported to be bad. Further we need to stop for dinner as well now.
Last minute information is that Bharatpur is not safe.
Fuel 31 ltrs
Fuel 31 ltrs
21:58 hrs 2368.6kms Dinner at dhaba about 60 Kms before Bharatpur. I have been driving all day except between Nathdwara and Ajmer. The plan now is I will drive all the way until I am tired and then Ankush will take over.
23:38 hrs Mathura is now 23 kms. The road traffic is really deserted and scary after we left the highway and came into Bharatpur. We drove 10 kms of bad road to join back to highway which is joining Mathura.
00:22 hrs 2480 kms I am still driving we reached safely on the border crossing we are interrogated by the cops from Rajasthan. they want to know where are we coming from, where are we going - my mobile number as well.
The only other incident where we were stopped was in Rajasthan earlier in the day. Easy one.
00:37 hrs 2496.3 kms Reached the Taj Expressway and stopped at the first resting place after the toll. My turn to hand over the reins to Ankush. I have already completed over 11 hours of driving for today.
00:45 hrs Ankush driving for home now on the best road in India. Awesome road you can easily hit 130 - wide and nicely made.
02:08 hrs 2624 kms Parked at home in Noida
Day summary - Ahmadabad to Noida in one day ! 4 states 1056 kms average speed of 58.67 Two fuelings in a day :)
Trip Summary
176.87 Ltr Petrol
15kms per liter on an average
Average speed of 60 Km/hr
