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Here is Part 1 of my experience of the Blr-Cal-Blr trip.
We decided to have 3 stops on the onward journey and 3 on the return. However, we deviated a little on the return and had 4 stops.
17th Dec 2004: We left Bangalore (Richards Town) at 5:30 PM and started driving towards the NH7. By the time we passed Yelankha circle it was almost a good part of an hour. The road was familiar (having done Blr-Hyd many times) and very good. After 353 kms of driving we reached Kurnool at 11:30 PM and rested the night there.
18th Dec 2004: We left Kurnool at 9:30 AM and took the state highway via Markapur-Atmakur-Doranala-Vinukonda-Narasaraopet-Guntur. This road goes through the forest between Atmakur and Doranala a distance of 61 kms. It is extremely narrow and we were down to a crawl. Rest of the road is wide but with sudden huge potholes for the unwary driver. At Guntur we got on to the NH5. It was some of the best stretches. After 748 kms we reached Vizag at 10:30 PM and rested the night there.
19th Dec 2004: We left Vizag at 10:30 AM and continued on the NH5. The roads, though under construction (part of the Golden Quadrilateral), were very good in all of Andhra Pradesh. They started getting bad as we went in to Orissa. After 640 kms we reached Balasore (Orissa) at midnight and rested there.
20th Dec 2004: This was the big day. I was going to my hometown (Durgapur) after 5 years. We had 3 destinations in West Bengal. The last one being Calcutta. We were advised by continue on NH5 and not take the shorter NH60 as the condition of NH5 was better. We left Balasore at 9:30 AM and went upto Bangriposi where we joined NH6. Our nightmare began. At Baharagora in Jharkand there was no road. It required all my skill to keep the car upright. It took us almost an hour to drive 15 kms. Once we entered Bengal it improved. At the Kharagpur circle we left NH6 and took NH60 until Bankura the road was terrible. From Bankura we took NH61A till Durgapur. 370 kms later we reached our first destination Durgapur at 6:00 PM.
This journey of 2111 kms was undertaken with me driving the entire distance. I was accompanied by my wife, 12 year old daughter and 9 year old son.
The entire journey was without any untoward incident. We were all very excited.
In the next part I will share my experience of the return journey and what I would have done differently if I had to do it over again.
i now this is off topic but you mentioned you started at richards town. i live in the same area. i live on cookson road.near richards park.
awesome trip...would love to do a nice road trip soon.
Small world, I used to live on Hall Road 25 years ago
Nice detailed writeup!
What car was it?
Such a long distance with a 12 yr ol and a 9 yr old!! Didnt the kids get bored?
It was Tata Indica. The kids loved it. They were the ones who were the main instigators for the trip...
In a Indica? Thats good to hear there is no hiccups in your trip.
Should have taken this way->
BLR-Chittor->tirupathi->Nellore->Guntur...
Phew thats one long trip in an Indica!
By the way I live in fraser town ;)
cheers,
Rai
did you stay at hotels en route? If you did, did you plan those as well?
Nice write up. Did you take any pictures along the way?
Enjoy the Ride man .. have a safe trip....
Wow... nice writeup and thanks for sharing this. I did my engineering from REC Durgapur. Has any braveheart done similar trip with a zen? I guess, if I do a similar trip to Kharagpur (my home town), I'd have to sell the zen parts by parts to the roadside repair shop in Jharkhand
-Protege
Small world indeed...Fraser town, Coockson road, ex-Hall road and I'm on Clarke road...
Dev:
I did a lot of 350+ kms trips on my Indica never had any hiccups...(touch wood).....next time I do the trip I might consider your suggestion on the route to Guntur. Been upto Chittoor on my way to Madras several times don't know after that. Again I just might go via Hyderabad.
Simran:
We stayed in hotels along the way at Kurnool (AP Tourism Punnami), Vizag (Taj Residency) and Balasore (Torrento - won't recommend). Everything was planned and booked well in advance. We didn't take any photos on the way, though. I did have my cameras and assortment of lenses but was more focussed on driving. Maybe next time would be different.
Quote:
Our nightmare began. At Baharagora in Jharkand there was no road. It required all my skill to keep the car upright. It took us almost an hour to drive 15 kms.
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know what u mean.. all u see are craters on the road !
my farmhouse is an hr beyond that.. on the road to jamshedpur
Awesome! Awesome!! I'd love to do such long expeditions some day. Dream is to drive down from Bombay to Ladakh in a big SUV, preferably Land Cruiser :)
hey rover,
great write up.
what FE did u get.
i think the nagpur bangalore road which is also a part of the golden quadrilateral is very good.
is there any way that u can take that road.
drive safe
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