Background Story
Buying Alto K10 was a necessity for me. I was planning for
something bigger, may be Sedan class. But once I took my wife (Nandana), the
nascent mother and our days born kid (Nirajana) to hospital by my Bike, I felt,
I needed a car. But my budget did not allow me to go for my wish, so I settled down
on Alto K10 which is cheap and good to ride.
Within 3 months, Nandana visited our home town with my
daughter and I got a chance for first long drive. Companied by three of my
friends I visited Chikmagalur. I was always fascinated by hill, mountains, ghat
roads, greeneries, chilled environment. So, Chikmagalur was an obvious choice
for me.
Later in next two years, I drove my K10 to Coorg, Yercaud,
Yelagiri, Nandi Hills (many times), Chennai and again to Chikmagalur (Mullayanagiri
this time).
2 years, 6+ trips to different hill stations (except
Chennai) near Bangalore were fun but not enough for me.
I always had a plan for something bigger, a journey which is
more than few hours.
Suddenly the opportunity knocked on my door. I got a job in
USA, so planned to move out of Bangalore. Started selling stuffs and planned to
send some of the items to home town. And guess what???? Car was among those
items.
Plan was to clear all stuffs in Bangalore, travel to Home
town and come back and fly from Bangalore to USA.
But due to some miscalculation, we could not leave for Home
town on the pre-booked day. It was a boon to me.
Immediately I planned to drive down to home town, which would have following benefits:
- Save cost (as sending car + our flight tickets to home town are costlier than petrol cost of the drive)
- I heard sending car definitely cause some dent or mark to the car as the logistics guys handle roughly. I can save that provided I do not meet any mishap
- Finally, I can have my dream true
So, I started planning for routes and other necessities. But
major hiccups were, if Nandana did not agree and my 2 years old daughter, will
she sustain this long drive?
Wife was not interested initially until her uncle (a car
enthusiastic) also gets excited after listening to my plan and gave some
positive inputs. Later her cousin (Chiranjib) was also interested and arranged
few days leave, came down to Bangalore to assist me. I was totally confident as
he joined me, he is a good driver plus he works in automobile, so has good
knowledge of automobile internals.
Finally, another friend of Nandana (Monami) joined us too.
So, she got her company and I got mine.
The Preparation
All set to go, I put my car for servicing on the day
Chiranjib and Monami came to Bangalore. We loaded the car with luggage in the
evening before the journey date and filled up the tank from Shell. Luggage was little
heavy for the small car but we managed. Suddenly K10 started looking so small
to me.
Route was perfectly planned but timing was not. BTW, I
forgot to mention, we were travelling from Bangalore, Karnataka to Durgapur,
West Bengal. As per Google map, it is 1928 KM (https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Marathahalli,+Bangalore,+Karnataka,+India&daddr=A-Zone,+Durgapur,+West+Bengal,+India&hl=en&sll=12.951198,77.699766&sspn=0.043831,0.084543&geocode=FZ6exQAdtpqhBClXCR1VtBOuOzEZSR5-15R4WQ%3BFfCmZwEdYe0zBSmvfNwJ6m33OTGLYxYtGbLn8g&oq=A-zone&mra=ls&t=m&z=6&source=gplus-ogsb#bmb=1).
Our route was like this:
KR Puram -> Kolar -> Chittoor -> Tirupathi -> Nayudupeta (NH5)-> Gudur -> Nellore -> Guntur -> Vijaywada -> Rajahmundry -> Visakhapatnam -> Srikakulam -> Bhubaneshwar -> Bhadrak -> Balasore -> Jaleswar -> Kharagpur -> Medinipur -> Salbani -> Bankura -> Durgapur
We were not sure whether to drive to Visakhapatnam on first
day or we should make stop in Vijaywada. Nandana has a friend in Visakhapatnam who
can assist us for staying in there.
The Journey Begins
Anyways, we started our journey on 26th Nov, 2012
at 4 am in morning and I took control of wheel initially. Nobody slept in that
night, me and Chiranjib tried but could not.
We started early, thinking we might reach Vizag around 10pm
on same day. But it was little chilly day, we encountered some foggy part from
Kolar to Chittoor road. It was dark and foggy, moreover this route was one-way,
and so I could not drive faster than 80kmph.
 |
| Kolar road on 26th early morning |
By the time we reached near Chittoor, dawn started breaking
in. We were happy that now we could fire up the speed to make up the delay. But road was
still one-way and not smooth enough to go at full throttle. Loads of unexpected
speed breakers were a problem to us. I drove over one with a speed of 100kmph,
and later we realized that caused damage.
 |
| Roads near Chittoor |
We passed by Tirupathi around 8 am. We stopped at tea shop,
and found that damage, rear right rim guard has flown away and the rim had little bent. That was too small but still to worry as the journey has just
began. As per Chiranjib, that damage was due to high load in the car. We
planned if required we would just change the tyre with spare one. After a 10
mins break, Chiranjib took control now. Though I was not tired but it was more
like excitement of driving than sitting idle.
After 70KM from Tirupathi, I realised we missed the road
towards Nayudupeta where we should hit NH5 (The GQ – Golden Quadrilateral).
But it was too late to drive back to Tirupathi and our GPS said we could have
another way which goes through Rajampeta and meet NH5 at Gudur. Our bad luck,
the road was not good in condition but it was scenic. So, finally we enjoyed. There
was a ghat road just before Gudur, and many monkeys were jumping here and
there. Unfortunately a small one, rolled under our car, we were in 80kmph, and
it was so sudden that Chiranjib could not able to do anything; also it could
have a risk to avoid the same on such Ghat road. There was silence in the car
for some time, but we were back in form in half an hour once Nandana started
cracking jokes.
 |
| Ghat roads before Gudur |
 |
| Ghat roads before Gudur |
Tirupathi to Gudur
via Nayudupeta is 95KM where as we have travelled 190KM via Rajampet. We lost
around 2 hrs for this. Road condition was worse than the extra distance. Again
when we were passing Gudur town, we found dead slow traffic. Initially we thought
this was because of signal but soon we found a gang of people were slowly
marching on the road, blocking full width. Some of them were carrying
submachine guns. We did not have any clue whether they were from any political
party or rowdy gang, but they were walking with full attitude ignoring the traffic behind them. We were scared to honk as well but after 30 minutes of slow
movement, they turned left to enter some premises. We speed-ed up and moved out
of the place. This added another 30-45 minutes of delay.
 |
| Team (Chiranjib is missing) |
We reached Nellore, around 12 pm at noon. We stopped for
refuelling and then started looking for some place to have lunch. But we could
not find a decent one, so stopped in a small dhaba to have Dosas. Took some
soft drinks and water. My daughter had cerelac, though she supposed to stop
this after her 2nd birthday but in this trip we kept one packet for
safety as she might refuse to take other foods. Amazingly she was enjoying the
trip, playing with her mom and Monami, sleeping when she felt to have naps. I
was happy that she was not having any problem so far.
After Nellore, I took wheel again. And now our car was
running with a average speed of 110-120 kmph. NH5 is one of the best roads in
India and so smooth to drive that you never feel tired driving on the same
road.
We passed by Guntur at 4 pm. Here some road work was going
on in highway so there were some diversions but still smooth enough to drive
above 100kmph. In one diversion, I moved into Guntur city rather taking the
bypass. But immediately we asked natives and find another road towards bypass.
There were few fights for song selection in the car; everyone wants their
choice to be played except Monami, as she had some sickness mostly because she
did not have sleep last night. But after lunch she was feeling much better.
Around 5:30 pm we reached Vijaywada. We had a tea break, Chiranjib took back control.
We discussed in Vijaywada, and decided to drive to
Visakhapatnam that night only. In worst case, we can stay back in Rajahmundri.
We passed Rajahmundri around 8:30pm. Our drive continued, somewhere in between
I moved back to driver seat.
On the way, Nandana informed her friend Kalyani (who lives
in Visakhapatnam) for our night stay arrangements. Kalyani was excited and she
started calling us each hour for knowing our latest position. Kalyani stays
with her two kids in Vizag, her parents also stay in same city but somewhere
else. Her husband works in Navy so he stays out of India in most of the time in a year.
She called her mother as her helping hand to prepare food for us. We were
hungry, and I was imagining some yummy foods there in Vizag. This hope kept me
alive to drive. Somewhere before Vizag, when I was on wheel, suddenly I noticed
two pigs were crossing the road, but one was confused and moving back and
forth. I was with 125 kmph, no way I should try dodging but thankfully last
moment I saved hitting it except kissing it’s back with the corner of car bumper. 12 am, we reached Vizag. Tired and Hungry.
The First and Last Stop - Visakhapatnam
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| We got rain before Vizag |
Now, we need to find Kalyani’s house. I was feeling like
Kalyani should come and pick us rather we search for her house. After 30 min search,
she actually came out and waited for us on the highway. The house was 5-10 min
walk from NH5. Chiranjib was on wheel, I was on phone for getting direction
from Kalyani. We reached her home at 12:30am.
As expected, we had great food in Kalyani’s house. I was not
in mood of taking bath then, rest of us took baths. My daughter got some homely
food and then she slept well as well. All were smooth.
 |
| Nostalgic trios |
In morning, we woke up around 8 am. Kalyani’s elder son was
moving out to school. We said hello to him and then started planning for next
day. Initially, we planned to leave Vizag around 11 am and continue drive till
Durgapur. We were expecting to reach Durgapur very early morning. We enquired
about roads further. And news came that during the stretch from Balasore to Jaleswar,
we might find some big potholes on the road. But again from some more sources we came to
know roads till Kharagpur was smooth. We were little confused and Nandana’s
uncle called and strictly said not to do night driving.
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| Chiranjib in Vizag |
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| Nandana with Nirajana and Bunny |
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| Nirajana and Bunny |
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| KF calendar hunt upcoming model |
Finally, we decided, we would keep original plan of night driving as it was, but we would start little late from Vizag, so that by the time we would reach Kharagpur, it would be in early morning.
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| Dosa in breakfast |
 |
| Bunny did want want us to leave |
We had nice dosas in breakfast. After breakfast, I and Chiranjib went out for refueling and rechecking tyre pressure as front right tyre was having less and we measured it was 20 psi. We replaced the spare tyre with the damaged one by ourselves. Nandana, Monami and Kalyani were recollecting their old school day’s memory and Nirajana was busy with Kalyani’s younger son.
We left Kalyani’s house at 3 pm, planned to visit RushiKonda
beach before leaving Vizag. Nandana visited Vizag in Kalayani’s marriage back
in 2005, so she insisted to visit Rushikonda beach. And after visiting we felt
it was worth spending time there. The beach was 15-20 minutes from Kalyani’s
house. The road next to sea was awesome. There was sea at one side and greenly
hills at other. I loved it.
Sight Seeing - Rushikonda Beach
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| Way to Rushikonda |
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| Sea and Mountains |
We parked the car next to Rushikonda beach, spend around an
hour there. We had tea, corns over there. Nirajana enjoyed the sea beach too.
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| Rushikonda Beach - I like it more than any Chennai's beach |
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| Water Sports |
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| Heavenly beach |
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| Who's this? |
 |
| For FB profile |
We started at 5 pm from there. We had a small doubt about
the road condition in Odisha. So, planned to drive slowly once we will reach
Balasore, observe for some time and then drive accordingly. But we would be
double alerted in night, as any damage to car would prove fatal in night time.
 |
| Way back to Rushikonda towards NH5 |
The Odisha - in night
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| Night Drive in Odisha |
Around Balasore we found the front right tyre pressure
became down again. It brought some tension among me and Chiranjib. We stopped
in a tea shop in a petrol bunk, but could not find any air pressure machine
there. We thought of replacing the tyre, tough we were sure it was not a leak.
But Nandana, Monami and Nirajana were sleeping deeply, we did not want to
disturb them so decided to look for a air pressure machine. Chiranjib said if not found within
10 km, we would replace the tyre.
Luckily, within 2 km we found and old fashioned air pressure
machine. Chiranjib tried to use it by his own but it was not working so he
moved into the small Jhopri (hutt) for help. Suddenly a scream came out and
within few minutes Chiranjib and a boy came out. Chiranjib was laughing and said
when he called the boy, he was in deep sleep and thought him as thief and
screamed. Later he explained him the situation. We asked him to put more
pressure on that tyre. Paid him 10 bucks and moved on.
The road after Balasore removed all our doubts. It was good
enough to keep our car 100kmph. There were few areas due to road work; the
incoming traffic was also on same road. But it was wide enough except some
trucks were causing us to slow down. We noticed, once we passed Odisha, traffic
on highway increased amazingly whereas the load on road in Andhra Pradesh was much less.
Later in some area (not sure where), we saw one highway
patrol jeep was chasing a truck. They both crossed us; the truck was on full
swing and the jeep was trying blocking its path. We slowed down, thinking the truck might cause an accident. Later in a
short time we found, the jeep was coming back, which means it could not catch
the truck.
West Bengal - finally after Karnataka, Andhra and Odisha
 |
| Dawn in breaking while entering West Bengal |
In early morning 6 am, we reached Kharagpur. GQ ends here.
Durgapur is around 160 KM from Kharagpur via NH60. We had almost made it, the feeling of success started coming among us. In
Medinipur, we stopped for a tea break. Tea, with all those Bengal
special biscuits....after long days.
 |
| Hmmmmm.....hard to find who is who except Nirajana |
The NH60 was bad, and when I said bad...it was literally
bad. But never expected worst yet to come. We asked the tea shop guy, how long
these bad road would continue, he answered “all the way”...
Our journey continued, with time we found road was becoming
bad to worse to worst. We passed by
Jangal Mahal, nothing special to notice there except the bad roads. By the time we
reach Bishnupur, the road was terrific. We were moving with a speed of 20kmph
at the max. In one big pothole, our car touched the road with its silencer box.
So we became more careful and decreased the car speed further.
 |
| This is just a preliminary sample road of NH60 |
We became tired driving these 50KM stretch while driving all
the way from Bangalore to Kharagpur was nothing to us.
Once we reached Bakura, we found road became good but single
lane. We boosted up the speed and started driving in 100 kmph except we need to
speed down frequently due to single lane and more trucks and buses on the
road.
My Childhood City - Durgapur
 |
| Roads became good after Bankura |
 |
| Observe closely, the tyres are floating |
We reached Durgapur Barrage at 10:15 am. Finally we touched
Durgapur, my childhood city, still makes me nostalgic. Though modernisation,
high rises, malls, multiplexes are destroying the old city beauty but still I
love this city.
 |
| Durgapur Barrage |
 |
| City Center - Big Bazar |
We dropped Monami at her home and then reached my home at
11:30 am. Meter says 2122.6 KM since we left Bangalore house.
Chiranjib had some food and went back to Kolkata that day
itself.
We finished a wonderful and eventful journey. And I miss it
still now.
Statistics
Started From Bangalore: 4 am on 26th Nov, 2012
Reaching time in Vizag: 12 am on 27th Nov, 2012
Starting time from Vizag: 5 pm on 27th Nov, 2012
Reaching time in Durgapur: 11 am on 28th Nov, 2012
Meter Reading in Vizag: 1100 KM
Total Fuel Cost: Rs. 8995
Overall Toll paid: Rs. 883
Overall Meter reading: 2122.6 KM
