Summer blast to Kerala... How hard can it be? I just recollected famous quote of Jeremy. I had always dreamt of a long drive in my OHC. Made multiple plans to do trip to Goa and Vizag. Nothing happened. Finally made a plan to long trip to Kerala from Hyd.
Took 3 weeks holiday approved. Had to work on weekends in the office to compensate for the leaves. hard times. Desperate situations called for desperate measures. Well thats enough of preface. The plan was to start travel on 10th may morning. Travel to Blore, stay overnight and then next day start from Blore to Kannur. But pressure from all sides made me cancel the plan and take the train. But somehow tatkal wasn't avilable. So Just in time, luck came in my favour. 5 days to go and excited. There was very little time to get the car serviced. Booked an appointment with Sundaram. Now the maps. Took help from HVkumar. I needed a road atlas also. Pmed Zappo since i had learned that he used one on his goa trip. I checked whether i could order it online. voila it is available. Phoned up the webiste and they guaranteed me that this will be delivered the next day itself. So ordered one online and i got it next day itself. Eicher road atlas India map for 370 bucks.
Took the car for service. Had a real tough time explaning how the car should be serviced. The first response from the service engg was 'sir your ECU is mad. engine is not switching off after removing the key'. I told don't worry. Then i gave a long list of not to do things. Don't open spark plugs, airfilter, do not change engine oil etc. Then the engineer came with an idea 'sir can i write turbojet engine'?? Yes i did say word or two on turbo.
I told him you write whatever. Don't touch the engine, wiring and ECU and the engine oil. But i complined that speedo is not working. I knew that he is not going to fix it anyway.
I also found that i need a set of new tyres. Phone up Akshay and told him, 'send two tyres next day'. Yes i got my new tyres next day itself. Thanks to Akshay for that. Dunlop Direzza DZ101. Good grips. Got my car serviced the same day eveing. As expected speedo still not working. But Paid less than 1000 bucks for general service except for the oil change. Everything ready except for the can to carry extra petrol. Searched in the old city for a jeep jerry can. All rust buckets no decent stuff available. So went back and bought a plastic one. Didn't fill petrol since i was bit sceptical. So now the spare tyre. My last trip to Blore has taught me that one stepney is not enough. So planned to keep two. So had an alloy stepney and a stock wheel stepney just in case. So all set to go. 9th evening loaded the boot with boxes to carry. Two cans of water and enough snacks (which was not at all used).
T-bhpian Suren was also planning trip on same day to Kerala. So we had planned the treip together. Somehow Suren was planned to leave on 7th. His registration was not complete (fortunately lol) and just got his registration card just in time on 9th only Thank god i have got company. All set to go now. Tanked up in the night with BP premium. Woke up early morning, as we had planned to leave by 5am. Phoned up Suren and woke him up. Freshened up. Bang on time, i was in the car by 5 and left. Suren was yet to pack his kids up!!. I took a tea break and stopped at Mehdipatnam so that we could meet. Somehow Suren couldnot leave the house still. I told my wife we will wait. She was more into a driving mood so resistes. Leave now and let him catch up later. So we were off. boosted all my way till breakfast. Drive was pretty fast kept between 100-120 to get good FE. Hyd blore highway is barren and not many good fuel stations. I was really worried about my petrol consumption.
Phoned up Suren and learned that he had left his home. still 40 kms away from me. We finised a quick Dosa from Kurnool (had breakfast earlier at the same place on my previous trip to Blore). Decent stuff. Roads are not so good. Work going on so roads are bit narrow and get wide at some places. No sights on the roads. Truck infested. Thanks to the boost. I had not problem. Phoned suren at an interval of 2 hours. Still not closed in. But after 4 hours he had closed in. I hit a dip in the road. Tried to avoid the dip and took a bit off road hit something and had a flat tyre for sure. I knew that Suren might fly past any sec. So pulled over and saw a red Verna flying past. He spotted me and stopped. Helped me in putting my stpeney. But after the change the car started to pull to the left due to a worn out tyre i put as replacement.
Sorry no pics yet since the camera memory screwed up. But i have some pics for the later part of the travelogue. |