Now I do not know if its happened just with me or with others too, but I would like to share a couple of real sticky situations that have happened to me while using the android's in built navigation tool.
Prologue :
In the mid 2012, we (father (tiger) , mother, brother, me and my Indigo e cs - aka Chandrasekhar Azad aka Azad) went on a trip to Kurnool and wanted to cover Mantralayam, Mahanandi, Allampur Jogulamba Devi Shakti peetam. We had started from Hyderabad on the Friday evening and planned to be back by Sunday evening.
First Event:
We had covered Mahanandi, and Jogulamba Devi temple on the saturday and wanted to visit Mantralayam on the Sunday. We started off in the morning at around 600 Hrs and got hooked on to the navigation system for the first time. We typed in the destination and it had brought us back our route. Thanks to technology, I thought. We just went ahead and till about the first 25 kms it was the best road I had seen though a single lane one. No traffic and no disturbances, just floating around with decent speeds and sun flower farms on both sides and just us in the early morning dew. And then, the hit. Slowly the road deteriorated and we kept moving thinking that its gonna get better because we had already done around 25 kms and we had another 70 to go. We trusted the navigator and moved on ahead hoping things would change. But it kept deteriorating and deteriorating and at one point, we did not even know if we would be able to make it out of this place. Azad was doing proper off roading now and would put any SUV to shame but it was terribly disheartening to see it go through all that abuse with it being fully loaded with us and our luggage. The rest 40 kms of the 70 left took us 3 hrs to travel at a slow nail biting pace and then another 1 hr to cover the remaining 30 kms on a decent track. Now, should I call myself foolish? Or just unlucky or am I a real stupid to have taken us this route trusting the Navigation system and the maps that were shown on my tab, even when we knew there was a regular route that the other vehicles take to Matralayam from Kurnool. By the time we reached Mantralayam, it was around 1100 Hrs. And then after the darshan we were back to Kurnool in exaclty 2 hrs, this time ofcourse, we played it safe and used the regular route back to Kurnool.
Second Event:
Last weekend of April 2013. This was a trip where my tiger and me were going back to Kurnool and wanted to visit Yaganti. The trip to Kurnool was just smooth, no major issues and we made it to Allampur Jogulamba devi temple in 4 hrs. We stayed there and wanted to go to Yaganti on the Sunday morning. Similar plans as last time and we asked around to Yaganti trying to find the best possible route. And we did get one just that the 90 kms distance we had heard had become 150 kms via Dhone. In the return, I proposed can we give one more chance to tab and see if we find a better route? Tiger was ready for it. And we went ahead typed the route to Hyderabad and it showed we can make it to Dhone in 60 kms unlike the earlier route which took us 100 kms from Dhone. I should have guessed the pattern here sorry but no, i went on and this time we got into a ghat, climbed it, and then the road was narrow but motor-able. We continued and then the realization, it navigated us in to places where you would not see humans for kilometers together, it was all just rock and mud and us and Azad There was no way we could have made it back as I could not take a U turn too. No place for any car maneuvering. Just had to go straight and hope for the best. Now, did not I say we climbed the ghat? It was time we got down that and the terrible situation was that I had do it with complete rocky road with boulders hitting my underbody and trying to move left and right side of the small narrow lane that now cannot be called a road and trying to get down the ghat we had ascended. It took me 1 full hr to negotiate the 5 km hell stretch and then got onto a small village and on the road to Dhone.
Yeah, we had cut short about 90 kms from this road when compared to the one in the morning but we also put our lives and Azad at risk.
Lessons Learnt:
Never ever will I touch my tab again for directions to any place.
I will do proper research before I get onto random roads.
I will keep a map which will have the bus routes and then follow them judiciously.
Its better to ask locals around than getting into sticky situations.
Silver Lining:
My Azad. Hats off to it. It got its underbody hit by rocks and had been abused to handle such roads and got us down the ghat and still ensured it did not break down or got stuck. I am pretty sure any other sedan would have just sat down and gave up, not my Azad. The respect for the Tata's and my love for my Azad has increased manifold post this trip.
Do let me know if any of us have also had similar experiences or it was just me who had to go through this.
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