The Drive 26 Dec 2011
We started from Bangalore Bellandur at around 1430 hrs. the plan was to start by 1300 hrs. so as delay of over an hour was worrying me as we would not be left with enough time to have a good sleep.
The Bangalore Hyderabad NH7 highway is a dream to drive, one can cruse at above 120 speeds easily. I consistently maintained speeds above 120 as the traffic was sparse and roads were good, we were making good ground until.
Anantpur I saw a reliance petrol pump which was on the other side of the highway. Decided to exit the expressway and go under the bridge to get to the petrol pump. While filling up fuel noticed a hiss sound from the tire underneath. First felt that its a puncture but was not sure as I have not come across any place where in one could have a puncture but anyway decided to show it to a tire shop nearby.
He was busy with looking at other Scorpio tire change hence we waited. In about 10 mins the tire was flat, it had lost all the air. After we pulled out we found a 1-inch bolt had made a 3mm wide hole. Was not confident if this could be fixed. Anyway he fixed it after wasting 45 minutes we continued. Drove slowly for sometime as was not sure if the tire would loose pressure again. When everything was in order pushed harder to get to Hyderabad in time. In between we stopped for 15 mins to finish dinner that we had packed along.
Reached the Jawahar Lal Expressway at around 10 in the night, it had speed limit of 140, saw everyone zooming past me. Pushed the car harder, touched speed of 180 and then decided to slow down to 100-140 ranges.
Wasted some time in finding out the hotel for night stay. Sitara Residency was not so easy to find. Finally the guy on phone understood where I was and asked another hotel boy to accompany me to the Hotel. Reached hotel at around 11 in the night. Freshened up and crashed on the bed.
WELCOME TO HOTEL SITARA GRAND
Decent hotel, decent place to crash out at night. For anything more please look elsewhere. We did not try food or breakfast.
The Hyderabad highway is a very good highway, saw well behaved trucks, following lane discipline, well behaved two wheelers they would wait at the center before crossing the road if they see you coming at decent speed. Only spoilers were the tankers and tractors who surprisingly decided to come in the same side of the road in the opposite direction. Fortunately my speed was not very high and brakes are good hence never had a hair raising incident.
27 Dec 2011
Plan was to start at 6 in the morning to get to Nagpur in time. We planned to keep the kiddo sleeping and carry her to the car and let her sleep in the back seat. We all would finish the morning chores and let her finish if needed on some good place on the highway. Decided to sms/call Kumar sir. Somehow calling to his phone gave a message All lines in this route are busy, its been many years since I have heard these lines. Anyways, messaged Kumar sir. In the meantime the kiddo also got up and she was willing to get ready.
By the time everyone was ready and we started it was 730 hrs. and we were late in starting again by and hour. The mapmyindia played erratic, kept saying searching for GPS, was almost lost and dependent on phone Google maps and asking people around and kept getting confusing answers. Decided to reset the Caska, and give it the Indian style fixing, pulled out the SD card and blew some air and re-inserted it, and it started working again.
From there on sailing was smooth, was outside the HYD city within 30 mins and within and hour or so found a decent restaurant so finished breakfast there. After sometime got a call from Kumar Sir, explaining there would be a AP Tourism hotel which is decent, but I had already done over 100Kms from Hyderabad and if felt I might have already crossed it. Thank you Kumar sir.
Not sure if it was the GPS playing prank again or the road construction that we were on NH16 for sometime, and the GPS showed we were going to join back NH7. I guess we wasted some more time in this and eventually joined NH7 about 300Kms before Nagpur.
Saw some of the most horrific roads ~200Kms before Nagpur. Although the car did not scrape anywhere I was down to under 10 speeds on these sections of the road. Worse then the roads it was a bigger horror awaiting us, when we reached a check post and he asked us to pay toll. When I asked What for he said there was a bridge that you crossed (I dont remember crossing any bridge, or even if we did it must have been very small. The toll naka looked like a shady one temporally built hence felt something fishy but kept moving, as we had to make it to Nagpur in time. The bad roads continued for quiet sometime, and ~80Kms before Nagpur the good roads were back. Decided to push and was in Nagpur at around 1400 hrs.
Reset the GPS to show me route to Raipur, and it worked well, it did not recommended me getting into city and wasting time. Were out of Nagpur in no time. At around 1430 we stopped at a Reliance Petrol pump which had a eat out next to it. Had some quick Dosas and moved out by 1500 hrs. Word of advise for travellers, keep enough cash, as most of these petrol pumps do not accept cards, and Reliance does accept card but says they would only know after filling up petrol whether card worked or not. So one needs enough cash on in wallet.
The Nagpur-Raipur was uneventful, although at start the road was single lane, hence we could not maintain decent speeds, as one has to follow trucks and cannot overtake them, after driving about 100Kms we had decent divided roads (4 lanes, i.e. 2 lanes on each side). Did some decent speeds and covered good ground. Arrived at Raipur by 1930hrs. Freshened up, had Dinner and crashed out.
The Chhattisgarh highways are good and the places they are good we did not had to pay toll, but when the roads were too narrow to do any speeds we had to pay toll. Did not understood the logic, decided to ask the toll plaza guy and he said the toll is for the bridge. Its really painful to pay toll for such bad highways in the name of paying it for the bridge.