Sen Babu,
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. |