[ambarshante]

Before Starting the Travelogue I would like to share some important statistics of the trip
Car -Ford Figo (TDCi)
Meter Reading before trip started - 54900 km
Total occupants-3
Round Trip Distance- 2450 km
No of Days -5

I love travelling and that too by road. I had no where in my mind that ill go to jabalpur till 2 months before when one of my good friend told me that she got engaged and the marriage affair will be in Jabalpur Mp and she wants all of us to be there and book our train/air tickets at the earliest. The plan stuck me at the same moment that ill go by road and that would be a surprise for her. I shared the plan with 2 of my friends who had already got their air tickets booked. They liked the idea and agreed to be a part of it.

I started going through the travelogues , but it was disappointing, everyone stated bad conditions of the road in Madhya Pradesh and all were 1 year or more older. We thought roads might have improved and decided to take the risk.

We had decided that we will strictly avoid night driving expect the Chandigarh -Delhi stretch.Keeping this in mind, after taking a brief nap we left chandigarh at 2 am. We wanted to cross delhi before the morning office traffic starts.

First tea break was taken at sukhdev dhabha



Crossed delhi and moved towards greater noida and here YAMUNA EXPRESSWAY was waiting for us.Now we knew next 185 km of journey is going to fantastic and will be a complete new experience for us.

The toll is bit high. We had to pay Rs 320 for the complete stretch from noida to agra.Thumbs up to Japyee group for the marvelous stretch.

























The yamuna expressway ends at NH2 and we have to take a u-turn for agra.

Reached agra by 11 am and headed towards gwalior. People in this area had no traffic sense, one could come from anywhere at anytime



On the way crossed the chambal valley, the area of which many people made is scared off.But realised that these were completely safe to travel at day time





After reaching Gwalior at around 2 pm we had lunch at mcd in City center complex and started searching for some economical hotel. Found a newly built hotel HOTEL RELAX ,clean and satisfactory ,1500 per room including extra bedding.

Here are some pictures of night explorations of the city of gwalior

[Loud]

Awesome travelogue, ambashante! Very nicely written, rated it a well deserved 5 stars!
The pictures add to the comprehensiveness of the content.
Last year, I also went to Agra (Delhi-Agra-Delhi) in a Swift D, via Yamuna Expressway. The ride was real fun. There a some long stretches to enjoy there. But, unfortunately, a crash happened on the way back. We had visited Taj Mahal and some more places and were heading back home at around 5PM. We decided to stop to change seats (my friend was driving till then, from there, I drove) and the car was on the last lane (almost where the Innova is in the 8th pic) that an Indica scratched the driver side area, damaging the rear door and bending the rear fender. That was the worst part of the trip. Sorry for OT.

Well, I hope you had fun on the Expressway. Where was the last picture shot?

[ambarshante]

Originally Posted by Loud

Awesome travelogue, ambashante! Very nicely written, rated it a well deserved 5 stars!
The pictures add to the comprehensiveness of the content.
Last year, I also went to Agra (Delhi-Agra-Delhi) in a Swift D, via Yamuna Expressway. The ride was real fun. There a some long stretches to enjoy there. But, unfortunately, a crash happened on the way back. We had visited Taj Mahal and some more places and were heading back home at around 5PM. We decided to stop to change seats (my friend was driving till then, from there, I drove) and the car was on the last lane (almost where the Innova is in the 8th pic) that an Indica scratched the driver side area, damaging the rear door and bending the rear fender. That was the worst part of the trip. Sorry for OT.

Well, I hope you had fun on the Expressway. Where was the last picture shot?

Thank you sir for appreciating. I cherish clicking pictures and prefer them narrating the whole story .
I am glad that nobody was hurt in this crash. I have heard such similar stories in past too. Its a world class highway and don't expect the drivers to be so careless as this Indica driver was possibly must be. Over-speeding and Excitement might be the cause.
This was my first time on this highway, got a feeling as i was driving somewhere abroad and strictly adhered to the rules but everybody overspeeding and overtaking made me realized its our India only

Last picture is of Gwalior city taken from Gwalior fort where we had gone to see night light show.Its a must watch show ,tells you about the history of the fort.Lightening work is simply amazing.

Stay tuned ill be complete the travelogue till Jabalpur very soon .

[Loud]

Originally Posted by ambarshante

Thank you sir for appreciating. I cherish clicking pictures and prefer them narrating the whole story .
I am glad that nobody was hurt in this crash. I have heard such similar stories in past too. Its a world class highway and don't expect the drivers to be so careless as this Indica driver was possibly must be. Over-speeding and Excitement might be the cause.

Well, you are right, nobody was hurt. But, the car was at MASS for 45 days! It didn't cost much to repair the door, handle, fender and bumper. One alloy wheel was damaged (cracked, you can say) and my friend had to buy another set (Rs. 20000) of wheels!

This was my first time on this highway, got a feeling as i was driving somewhere abroad and strictly adhered to the rules. but everybody overspeeding and overtaking made me realized its our India only

Usually there are speed monitoring cameras at intervals, which moniter your average speed by calculating the distance of the interval and the time taken by you. What most people do are, driving at 100+ kph and to reduce their average speed- They stop at the roadside to shoot pictures, or drive really slow when they are nearing the next stop! Hardly anyone follows the rules. But, I was very keen on not having a fine for speeding, just to save some minutes.

Last picture is of Gwalior city taken from Gwalior fort where we had gone to see night light show.Its a must watch show ,tells you about the history of the fort.Lightening work is simply amazing.

Great, bud. It really looks eye-catchy!

Stay tuned ill be complete the travelogue till Jabalpur very soon

Waiting for the rest of the pics and story, with eyes and mouth wide-open!

[wanderernomad]

Driving on the yamuna expressway is a great feeling. Yes I also tried staying within the speed limits for the first part of about 150 kms but saw people dashing past at good speeds and since I had to cover a huge distance also sped for the last part. One thing I noticed was that at the time of toll, the sign in front of you starts blinking " Traffic Violation: Overspeed". If it becomes functional well you will not be able to escape the fine and wil have to pay it along with the toll. Good initiative but the question is if it will become functional.

[jacs]

Good start ambarshante. Figo's has a magic number

Nice aeriel night shot from Gwalior. Waiting for more pics.

[ambarshante]

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

Driving on the yamuna expressway is a great feeling. Yes I also tried staying within the speed limits for the first part of about 150 kms but saw people dashing past at good speeds and since I had to cover a huge distance also sped for the last part. One thing I noticed was that at the time of toll, the sign in front of you starts blinking " Traffic Violation: Overspeed". If it becomes functional well you will not be able to escape the fine and wil have to pay it along with the toll. Good initiative but the question is if it will become functional.

On inquiring about over-speeding challans from the toll booth guy at last toll booth before entering agra, i was told that speed challans are issued only at mathura and that too mostly on weekends. He told me drive the way you want to drive and enjoy the drive,just keep in mind the condition of tyres

[ambarshante]

Originally Posted by jacs

Good start ambarshante. Figo's has a magic number

Nice aeriel night shot from Gwalior. Waiting for more pics.

Cheers for FORD people for making this easy on pocket ,yet so confortable and good performance car.I am a happy FORD FIGO owner

[ambarshante]

Continuing from where i left....

Next day in the morning at 7 am we left Gwalior and headed towards Jhansi. Just after getting out of the bounds of the city the roads started deteriorating and after 20 km came the worst part. Almost no roads.This continued till we reached jhansi.



The road road work is in progress
This 100 km stretch took us nearly 3 hrs to cover.
Underbelly touched 3 times.

First thing you see about jhansi from the highway


Once crossed jhansi then road became fabulous.

Here We took a Photography break on Narmada river


These roads made us forget the bad stretch we just covered.This area has very less dhabhas or road side shops. Almost no traffic on this highway except the some trucks.

Another Photography break.





Jabalpur is connected to Sagar via state highway.Its a tolled road.Has three toll booths on way costing rs 70 to your pocket.







Reached Jabalpur at 4 pm.



As planned we reached the venue a day before the wedding and Everybody was surprised to see us there and that too in the car.
Soon Punjab Number car became the hot topic in the wedding



The wedding was a night affair so we spent the next entire day for sight seeing.





Some other clicks of the trip

[New.Novice]

Good log. Just one comment about an observation you made about chambal valley and this being safe to drive during the day time.

The "dakus" are long gone my friend and this stretch is as safe or as risky as any other part of any other highway in India even in the night. In last one year I have crossed this stretch (Agra to Gwalior) at least thrice with the time ranging between 11 PM to 2 AM. Alone once, with wife and a sister-in-law once and with parents once. Absolutely nothing to worry about except, god forbid, a break down when you can expect 0 assistance.

[ambarshante]

Originally Posted by New.Novice

Good log. Just one comment about an observation you made about chambal valley and this being safe to drive during the day time.

The "dakus" are long gone my friend and this stretch is as safe or as risky as any other part of any other highway in India even in the night. In last one year I have crossed this stretch (Agra to Gwalior) at least thrice with the time ranging between 11 PM to 2 AM. Alone once, with wife and a sister-in-law once and with parents once. Absolutely nothing to worry about except, god forbid, a break down when you can expect 0 assistance.

Totally agree with what you said sir. But still people have old stories in their mind about this area. So they tend to scare you with that. In police record too there is no such activity in this area since long time now.

[ampere]

The SH from Sagar-Damoh looks smashing! (And that too its a toll road!)

Also is that picture of waterfall at Bheda Ghat?

[ambarshante]

Originally Posted by ampere

The SH from Sagar-Damoh looks smashing! (And that too its a toll road!)

Also is that picture of waterfall at Bheda Ghat?

yes sir we were delighted to see and drive on this state highway and the picture is of DHUANDHAR FALLS bheda ghat only

[New.Novice]

Originally Posted by ambarshante

The road road work is in progress
This 100 km stretch took us nearly 3 hrs to cover.
Underbelly touched 3 times.

It's a sorry state of affairs. This road is under construction since last 10 years, what you encountered was the "improved" version with some patches (with a pinch of salt) still offering you a tarmac to drive on. An year earlier, even that was not available. Even the courts have got involved but I do not know whose curse is at play here. I believe it is a clout more than the curse which is not letting this happen. The contractor seems to be above the national administration and courts.

The statue that you see of a hockey player atop a mountain while entering is no one but legendary Major Dhyan Chand. The second most known personality from the town after, obviously, Jhansi ki Rani. Jhansi still produces some world class hockey players, the latest one playing for the nation is Tushar Khandekar.

Sorry, did not mean to high jack your thread but having spent most of my childhood in Jhansi Cantonment, I get a "local guy" feeling everytime it is mentioned. And thats the reason I got hooked to your log too as I knew you would cross Jhansi to reach Jabalpur.

PS - Where is that 5 Star button.