Mumbai–Gurgaon–Agra–Ranthombore–Mumbai-A brief Account

[netarchie]

Hi Guys,
I had been on a road trip from Mumbai – Gurgaon –Agra – Ranthombore –
Mumbai recently.
Here is a brief account of the same.

Car – Ford Fusion – Petrol
Members – 4
Trip Date – 4th November to 12th November
Start time – 3:00 A.M. from Navi Mumbai
Start Place - Navi Mumbai - Kopar Khairane
Reached time - 7:30 P.M. + 1
Reached Place - Gurgaon - Delhi
Road Summary – 75% of roads to Delhi (NH8 and new GQ) in excellent conditions.
Average Speed - About 100 KM/Hr on about 50% of roads. Can average more but read my caution below.
What to Expect - Lots of toll booth, Plenty of Gas stations,
refreshments ect.
What to look out for on the Roads – Vehicles travelling in the wrong direction.
Cattle's/Buffalo/People crossing the roads blindly.
Fuel Consumption - 260 Litres
Average - 12.5 Km/Lt
Fuel Cost - 13,500 INR
Total Distance covered - 3,331 Kms
Total Trip Length - 9 Days


A brief Account

we started early 3:00 A.M. on 4th the morning to beat the traffic.
The roads Upto Ghodbunder, till we hit the highway NH8 is patchy as
work is going on. As soon as you hit the Highway (NH8) the roads are
excellent up to Surat. Though you can still see lots of truck
traffic travelling on the right lane, you have to honk hard to get
them away or overtake from left, which might be risky. Surat -
Baroda strech is bad with lot of heavy traffic. There is some work
going on in the Narmada river bridge, so only one way traffic is
permitted. We wasted quite a lot of time here.
We stopped for petrol and refreshments just after Surat bypass, in
one of the reliance A1 plaza which is quite remarkable, clean and
neat. Tea was excellent, breakfast not great though.
Baroda – Ahmadabad expressway is excellent – Touched 180 Kms/Hr
here and could easily maintain 150 Kms/Hr throughout the 80 kms odd stretch.

Had our lunch at the Reliance Express dhaba (lovely
biryani's). This is before the Ghandhinagar exit. Further roads to
Ghandhinagat, Himmatnagat, Udaipur is also quite good. The GQ route
Udaipur to Chirorgrah is great. We halted at Chitorgroh – Hotel
Chetak on the first day having reaching the place by 6:30 P.M in the
evening.

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The total distance covered on Day 1 was 936 KMS. The stoppage time
was for close to 4 hours and the driving/ moving time was 11.5 hrs.
We had 2 fillings of petrol on the first day one near river Tapi
Gujarat Reliance and the next near Gujarat-Rajasthan border.
The next day we started at 10:20 A.M. and reached Gurgaon at about
7:30 P.M.
The roads were great up to Jaipur, not so great after Jaipur till
Gurgaon.
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We stopped for one filling of petrol near DUDU town in Jaipur –
Delhi Highway. And for food refreshments ect .
Though the roads are quite enticing you to drive at high speed, a
word of caution here. It was shocked to see so many vehicles coming
in the wrong direction in your roads.
And there are cattle's / Buffalos crossing the highways at will,
people walking lazily on the roads ect.
Making you all the more cautious not to drive on a higher speed.

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Had 2 days office work in Gurgaon, left gurgaon on 8th Morning at
8:40 A.M. for Agra.
Roads are quite good upto Agra, But the first 70 Kms odd, there is
heavy traffic to cope with. Reached Agra around 1:30 P.M.
Saw the Taj Mahal, Magnificent piece of architecture.

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Left from Agra for Sawai Mahdhopur Ranthambore at 4:30 P.M.
The roads here are bad throughout. The Agra – Jaipur highway is in a
bad shape as construction is going on for 4 lanes of the roads. And
since we were doing a night drive, it was all the more difficult. We
had to enter the Dausa city for continuing on the Sawai Mhadopur
route. This road is again a pain, since it is single road for about
90 odd kms. It means you have to get off the road for the oncoming
traffic. We reached at about 11:30 P.M. in Sawai Madhopur. Checked
in a Hotel (quite cheap – 1000 rs per night for 4 people). The next
2 days was fun. We went to the jungles, but just could not spot
tigers. Just could see the spotted deers, some bluebears ect.
The 2nd day we hired a gypsy for the jungle trek to spot some lepords, but again could not spot any of them.

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We left for Mumbai on 11th November at 10:10 A.M. Since we had to
join the NH8 for our return journey, we had to come via TONK, DEVLI,
BHILWARA, roads were not good at all till we reached Chitogrhad. We
had to drive about 150 odd kms to reach chitogra. Once on the GQ, we
heaved a sigh of relief. We had our lunch at Padmini hotel in
Chitograh at about 3:00 P.M. We reached Ghandhinagar at 9:30 P.M.
stayed at Hotel Anjali on the Highway itself. Excellent food.
Next day we stated at around 9:30. The Ahmadabad expressway is a real fun to drive road. That day the traffic was so less, we could cover the entire stretch in about 35 odd minutes. But after that the roads , traffic all were a real pain till the surat bypass. Still had a lot of truck traffic on the Surat Mumbai highway. Heavy traffic after entering Ghodbunder . We reached Navi Mumbai at around8:00 P.M. completing the whole trip. Expect for one or two incidents the whole trip went on very well and the drive was quite exciting. We had 3 drivers to alternate and that made it less tiresome.

About the Car

It was a sheer pleasure driving the monster on the highway. She has
a lot of power under the hood, you feel like going on and on this
lovely car on the highway. She truly stirs out the enthusiast in you.
Step on the gas and off she goes, gobbling the tarmac as a hungry
beast. It is rock sturdy even at 180 km/Hr showing no sigh of
fatigue.

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Throwing her around corner is lot of fun though. Managed to take
quite a few sharp corners at high speeds. A sharp corner which I took was at 130 odd kms/hr where she wagged her tail and drifted a little off track but was quick to regain her composure back again. Characteristics of a well handling car!!


Overtaking is a fun on the highway and moreover effortless. The
silent purr becomes a mighty roar above the 3500 RPM mark which is a real music to the ears. I enjoyed her thoroughly in the 3300 km long
trip and will do more such trips with her again.
The car is quite comfortable for long journey having good space. The backseat is quite comfortable.
We had 1 incident which is better forgotten, on day 2 of our travel
when we were cruising at a speed of 130 km/hr on the Jaipur – Delhi (3 Lane , very less traffic and broad daylight) highway, out of nowhere a truck started changing lane onto the right most lane. I was at the driver seat, I though first he would swerve and move away to the left, but he continued coming on the right lane. Now I was approaching dangerously close to him, at which time I slammed my break hard stopping inches away from the truck and the divider. Luckily for me my ABS came into play and i could still guide the car from crashing into the divider. The best part is we did not panic even for a moment. Kudos’s to the Fusion. Just missed a bad crash.

Overall the trip was excellent.
We lost our log book which contained all the logs of our journey
from Mumbai – Gurgaon. I will be attaching a log, with whatever I
can remember and also from the GPS information I have.

Thanks for taking time to read.

[suman]

Hey Netarchie, nice crisp review. The car looks good in that snap! Yeah, vehicles driving (like lunatics, at high speed) on the wrong side of the road is a major hazard that we NCR-ites have to battle every day! They can be a handful I tell you as they mostly appear without any warning!

[ntomer]

I was in Ranthambore on 25th and 26th November. Went on two jeep safaris, but couldn't sport anything. However people on another safari spotted a tigress with three cubs in zone 3. Planning to go there in a couple of weeks again.

\N

[ramkya1]

Hai Fusioner,That was a great account of your trip and good photographs too. I like the snap with the jeep packed with ppl, so typical and so Indian.--Ramky=======

[magiceye]

Wow ... great report...very informative and the pics were lovely. The people hanging onto the jeep is a perfect ad for Fevicol!