[downsouth]

Arcot, you are welcome.

This was a drive meet in the disguise of a beach holiday, total Odo reading in my Linea was 810Km, covered in 36 hours out of which I guess close 20 hours was driving in all kinds of roads, NH, SH, town, village, no-road etc etc. On the way to Chirala, I cant recall much of the scenery around except for some unique black rock formation after Nagarjuna Sagar and some Kingfishers which were flying low. Reaching Chirala at 3PM and getting in the hotel was a relief. Surprisingly the Hotel was decent, for a small town. I would suggest anyone can take this up. The food options are limited. But the Dry Prawns were just right. Good driving by MC on his newly acquired Gate-away and Ashish’s Optra keeping ahead of me of was fun. The roads after a couple of Km were purely meant for the gate-away not for low GC sedans. But overall a fun outing, wish we had more time at the beach. Special mention of Avi’s TOMTOM/Kate kept us from getting lost and surprisingly accurate even in the interior village roads. As usual Arcot kept everyone in good spirits and ensured there was no dearth of prawns. And finally the star performer Ani’s drive for anyone interested to stand in the load bay with some high-speed maneuvering on the beach, simply one-off experience. Waiting for the pictures guys.

[Neilguy]

Part description of the experience of the ride to Suryalanka:

I rode on the back seat of MileCruncher's new "Tornado" for close to 800 kms over all kinds of roads during our drive to Suryalanka. We drove over good roads, twisty/curvy roads, off-road, potholed roads, bad roads, no roads and still the ride at the back was surprisingly comfortable. There was very little body roll with a smooth ride quality. The ride did get a lil bumpy once or twice when MileCruncher refused to let the bumpy roads or minor speed breakers slow down his progress. Arcot can also confirm that the padding on the roof of the Getaway is also very soft since his head almost touched it when we went over a bump at high speeds and unfortunately Arcot was not belted in at the time.

The best part of the Getaway was when a bunch of us (7 people to be precise) rode in the loadbay of the getaway to the beach and back. We had the time of our life and the shutterbugs among us felt great to be clicking away to glory without any visual obstructions. The local people were staring at us wondering why we were being herded like cattle in the back of a truck.
The next best moment was when MileCruncher went crazy driving the "Tornado" on the beach, in the water, kicking up quite a splash, literally. And we were standing in the loadbay holding on to dear life (to the rod, actually), wind in our hairs and water splashing on our faces. Hats off to 4x4.

[ashishy]

I did not see sunrise for quite sometime because I am not a morning person. But got up before the sun two mornings in a row for this trip. This is what a road trip to an awesome location does to you.

Saturday Morning

My friends got up at 4.45 am and woke me up at 5.15. For a change I got up w/o any hesitation, all charged up and excited to do a road trip after long, the last one being a 3000 km trip for new years. My friend were excited too and everyone was looking forward to the drive we were about to begin.

Reached at Hill View Resort looking forward to finally see the Getaway in flesh, and boy was it looking gorgeous. I couldn't stop admiring the length of this 4X4. Soon Arcot arrived full of energy and we left in a few minutes. MC picked up Neilguy and then we met up with downsouth, mobike008 and their better halves at the corner of a stall where we had some awesome Idlis and tea. And the trip began.

The roads initially were not bad, we were able to maintain good average speeds. I was most of the times following downsouth's Linea or MileCruncher's Getaway because I was not aware of the roads and did not want to loose sight of them. But at times I did strech my legs and lead the convoy for a while

We crossed Nagarjuna Sagar and I was amazed with the view of the lake and the dam. We stopped at one big chilli farm to strech our legs and click some pictures. We discussed how the roads were not bad.

Saturday Afternoon

But then after this break started the bad roads. Our average speed was crushed below 50 for some time. We were crossing many villages and there were some pot holes where only the Getaway was smiling.

We finally reached the hotel and as Downsouth said, it was not bad for a small town. We freshened up, had lunch and conversations.

Saturday Evening

It was time to do what we were here for, go to the beach. I had no clue how this beach was as this was the first time for me to go to the Bay of Bengal beach on the east coast which was not really popular and commercial.

7 of us decided to sit on the load bay of the Getaway to get transported to the beach. And then began ride which pumped up all our adrenaline. Initially we sat on the load bay and enjoyed the attention from the locals. Then we all stood and enjoyed the air in our hair and faces. I must say that the Getaway is very comfortable on the back even w/o any cushioning. We never felt uncomfortable thanks to the suspension and the length of the load bay.

We didn't expect MC to park his 4X4 when we reached the beach he did exactly that. We stood on the load bay and MC was driving on the sand and water. This was one of the most interesting things I have done on a beach. 4X4 was very impressive and it did hold well all throughout. Initially some people were hesitant of going in the water but after Getaway splashed water on their plans, everyone got in the sea.

It soon became dark and better. It was full moon, sky was clear with blinking stars and we even spotted what I believe was a shooting star. The sea water was Luke warm and heated up well for us not to feel cold. We clicked pics, strolled the beach, listened to the Chennai FM station, had conversations and ate fish fry.

The best part of having the Getaway on the beach was no one had to change or dry up. We got back in the load bay and the air dried us all up in no time.

Sunday

During dinner last evening we planned to go see the sunrise. Being my first trip to a east coach beach, I didn't want to miss this and I raised my hand to join MC to see it at Ramapuram beach. MC woke me up and then we went to this very beautiful, clean and quite beach with Neilguy and one of my friends.

Late in the evening we started to come back to Hyderabad. After few discussions, the seniors decided on the route and it turned out to be better than the previous route.

P.S. Thanks Arcot for the amazing food, Chetan for arranging the accommodation and the rest all for your wonderful company!

First batch of pictures from Digantika:

[MileCruncher]

Chetan, Neelesh and Ashish: Amazing writeup guys. I'm sure the one's who didn't come must be kicking themselves

Anyways it was good trip courtesy everyone!

Cheers

[Rajesh Rawal]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Chetan, Neelesh and Ashish: Amazing writeup guys. I'm sure the one's who didn't come must be kicking themselves

Anyways it was good trip courtesy everyone!

Cheers

Seriously.I shouldn't have missed this

[pulsar56]

Originally Posted by Rajesh Rawal

Seriously.I shouldn't have missed this

Well, I would like to add myself to that list!
The man-made beaches here at SG are so damn boring!
BTW, Has anyone got videos of the tornado at the beach? (would be fun to watch!)

[downsouth]

@Ashish and neil great report man, was expecting a lot more pictures I did not even take out my camera out

@pulsar wish there was a little more light we reached near twilight and before we realized it was dark

[ashishy]

Originally Posted by downsouth

was expecting a lot more pictures

There is one more batch pending from Ayesha. She hasn't got the time for post processing.

P.S. She also applied for the tbhp membership today.

[mobike008]

It was indeed a good trip albeit the nightmarish road conditions onwards which made sure the Linea and Optra took a nice beating.

We should have stuck to regular NH9 which is simply too much hyped of congestion due to widening. It was quite a decent experience while coming back.

Loved the prawns fry, the ride on the loadbay and the superb company

[spadix]

Originally Posted by mobike008

It was indeed a good trip albeit the nightmarish road conditions onwards which made sure the Linea and Optra took a nice beating.

We should have stuck to regular NH9 which is simply too much hyped of congestion due to widening. It was quite a decent experience while coming back.

Actually, it's all relative.

I heard from colleagues around 6 months back that Nakrekal - Guntur was in a horrid state. NH9 is obviously better than that despite the congestion and road surface.

However, compared to NH7 and NH5, 9 absolutely pales and there's nothing one can do about that.

(In addition to that *I* think that NH9 sucks in absolute terms too, and a few others - ranjitp1, for instance - agree.)

The stats bear it out. In my December road trip, Vijayawada outskirts to LB Nagar took 5.5 to 6 hrs (10:15 to ~18:00) including a break. TDP agitations added to an hour's worth of delays, but still, that kind of time is abominable for only 240-odd "highway" kms. On NH7 or NH5, the same 6 hrs will see you do 550+ kms including breaks.

More than congestion, it's the way people drive on the Hyd-VJA stretch that's really worrying to me at least. Overtaking from the left, or taking up position on your left when you size up an overtake (leaving you with no chance of getting back) - all very risky stuff.

Regards,
spadix

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by spadix

Actually, it's all relative.

We should not be comparing hours = kms covered. If such comparison comes, i covered 85kms in 30 mins on Baroda-Ahmedabad road. so I should be comparing this feat and fret during all other journeys due to less coverage...lol

What I am trying to point out was the onward route was very bad with deep potholes most of the route and several unbelievable huge speedbreakers ( thank your stars your civic wasnt in the convoy) and one of them was so big, milecruncher got down and guided the other 2 cars over them. He is such a gentleman.......

While the return journey on NH9 was damn good with clean surface with not too much traffic as well considering it was a sunday. So, what really happened was we took a detour to avoid good roads

Alright, we are going offtopic from main focus

When and where is our next drive meet?

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by ashishy

I did not see sunrise for quite sometime because I am not a morning person.
Thanks Arcot for the amazing food, Chetan for arranging the accommodation and the rest all for your wonderful company!

Just wondering what "DOMESTIC" sticker affixed on the front windshield in the photograph labelled DSC_0291 stands for?

[ashishy]

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

Just wondering what "DOMESTIC" sticker affixed on the front windshield in the photograph labelled DSC_0291 stands for?

I think it is to differentiate the cars made for India vis-à-vis the ones for export

Originally Posted by mobike008

When and where is our next drive meet?

+1

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

Attachment 533436

Just wondering what "DOMESTIC" sticker affixed on the front windshield in the photograph labelled DSC_0291 stands for?

Originally Posted by ashishy

I think it is to differentiate the cars made for India vis-à-vis the ones for export

Furthermore the export and the domestic model has a slight difference in equipment level. This is a visual differentiator.

The sticker also assumes significance given that the vehicle is for domestic usage and not commercial .

[mashmash]

Eight days and no post? Hope all are doing good.

Any one driving to Bangalore this weekend? I know Sabby is. Any one else?

Could make it a nice Weekend Drive meet. I and a friend of mine leave for Bangalore on Saturday early morning and return on Sunday.

A Pic from my drive to Bangalore in January.