re: Humbleh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himacal Pradesh) As in the 2009 drive (when we assembled 7 cars from all over India), this time too our team came form all over India.
How did the vehicles come together? Bolero of Jeep Captain - left from South Kerala in the second week of September on a very long journey to Delhi, driven by Jeep Captain's cousin brother. They reached Delhi via Bangalore & Bombay on Sep 12. Bolero Stinger - had an all-Kerala gang starting from Bangalore, left Bangalore along with Jeep Captain's Bolero, with 2 of the team flying into Delhi. They also reached Delhi on Sep 12. AP Swift - driven by the youngest team members, it started from Vizag and left Hyderabad on Aug 11 morning and took the difficult Central India route - via Nagpur, Laknadon, Sagar, Jhansi, Gwalior & Agra - to Delhi, arriving after a non-stop drive through some of India's worst roads on Aug 12. Baby Alto - VK drove it all alone from New Bombay, reaching Delhi on Aug 10. HVK's Scorpio - we (including Lalu) left on the night of Aug 11 and drove non-stop to Behror, just short of Delhi reaching the night of Aug 12. Mumbai Roadster Swifts - they left 20 hours later from Bombay, leaving the humid environs of Bandra's Carter Road on Aug 12 and to catch up with us 3 days later. BolBOlero Bolero - he had a different drive plan, wantingt o come via Amritsar & Srinagar, so he left only on Aug 17 (1 week later) to join our group only on Aug 22 at Kargil.
That is how on the early morning of Aug 13, the HVK Scorpio, Jeep Captain Bolero, AP SWift, Baby Alto & the Innova met at the Pahalwan Dhaab at Murthal north of Delhi on NH1.
But more on our Day 1 of the drive. Aug 11/12: Bombay-Surat-Baroda-Ahmedabad-Udaipur-Bhilwara-Jaipur-Behror, 1402 kms
When to do the Bombay-Delhi drive is always the big question. And how long to take for it.
I have been driving the Bombay-Delhi sector regularly for over a decade now and have preferred to do it always non-stop without any breaks, but whenever my plan has been to go further north, RTDC resort at Behror just 85 kms short of Gurgaon is my favourite overnight halt simply because I can escape the expensive hotels of the NCR and also cross Delhi the next day without encountering city traffic early in the morning before the rest of its citizens wake up. I also do not like the "short-cuts" to avoid Delhi (like the Rewari-Panipat road) because NH8-NH1 is simply too good and easy.
The best time to do this drive is an very important issue - optimise your drive time. I have taken anywhere between 17 hours (my best) and 22 hours to do the Bombay-Delhi drive, and the time variations are all because of the time of the day I have taken different sectors. IMO, leaving Bombay at around 9 pm gives you the best results guaranteed to reach you in Delhi in 18-20 hours despite the road widening mess in Bombay-Surat & Jaipur-Manesar. Unfortunately, we could take advantage of that time window since Lalu was scheduled to land in Bombay from Bangalore only past midnight and after delays, we could leave our home in Bombay only at 105 am.
The NH8 leading north from Bombay is one of the busiest road corridors this part of India. The road is being widened to 6 lanes till Surat and there are innumerable flyovers under construction. We plunged into peak hour traffic and got grounded for 2 hours just north of Bombay (at Vasai) with engines switched off waiting in a long 5-km line of trucks and took an unwelcome nap! It was also raining intermittently and the roads were already worn out by the incessant monsoons this year. But once we broke free of teh traffic logjam, it was a unbridled drive rest of the night, as we sped into South Gujarat via Vapi, Valsad, Navasari to Surat which we crossed at 700 am.
The River Narmada Bridge on the NH8 Ankleshwar-Bharuch bypass has been facing major traffic jams for the last few months and we decided to take the path of least resistance by going into Ankleshwar town and crossing the River Narmada on the Golden Bridge - built in the year 1881. Truly a great achievement of Britsh India, this bridge has outlasted the "new" bridges - one of which was shut down, causing the jams - and enabling us to continue our journey without any further delays.
None of us are the tea-drinking or snacking types, so we drve uninterrupted, once we hit the 6-laned beauty after Surat. With such wide roads, you have trucks all over the place and one has to drive zig zag to cross the recalcitrant behemoths that straddle the road. Crossed Baroda at 930 am and taking our first refuelling break before the rest of the world rose and shone. It is weird that there are no petrol pumps on the long Baroda bypass - on the left hand side, although there are several on the right side of the highway - and once the expressway to Ahmedabad starts, I know there are no petrol pumps for the next 75 kms! Therefore, we had a take a slight detour to refuel on the Baroda bypass.
Driving on the Baroda-Ahmedabad is always a pleasure although I think it is time they started widening work here too judging from the phenomenal increase in traffic. You do not have to enter Ahmedabad city, instead take the Sardar Patel Ring Road towards Himmatnagar/ Udaipur to avoid the urban jungle. We had crossed Ahmedabad by 1030 am, and had our customary photo session at the Tropic of Cancer line just before Himmatnagar. The roads were transformed into runways, traffic was sparse and our purses were rapidly getting emptied for all the toll that was collected, but we were mesmerised by the sight of greenery in Rajasthan as we climbed up the Aravalli Hills towards Udaipur. I took a small 10-minute nap as the midday heat slowly roasted us despite the overcast skies.
Our team had settled down by now - the head of the "household" was the octogenerian SSS from Ahmedabad who had taken complete charge of the food and hsopitality on board - since we carry packed food and do not stop at hotels - and Lalu was busy making up the wonderful photo album that will unfold as we go along.
The first 800 kms to Udaipur was up by 230 pm (excluding the 2-hour traffic jam time lost, 11 hours out of Bombay), and happily the Udaipur bypass was not jammed. The end of Udaipur bypass causes lots of confusion for many - Navigators and Maps and logic demand that you continue of NH8 towards Jaipur via Ajmer, but the GQ road is actually in NH76./NH79 via Chittorgarh & Bhilwara, which means you have to take a right turn towards Udaipur airport at the end of the bypass. Therefore, anyone using Navigators, etc, please note the change in highways.
The Udaipur-Chittorgarh-Bhilwara-Kishangarh-Jaipur sector (450 kms, drive time 5 hours) is the one I love the best, a superfast highway where you can make up all your lost time and definitely one of teh most boring of highways as far as landscapes are concerned. But before that, we tookm a well-deserved break at the BPCL Ghar petrol pump after Chittorgarh so that our team could catch up with their ablutions and a cuppa tea, their first ever since we left Bombay. Notwithstanding some sharp rains after that, we crossed Jaipur by 9 pm. The Jaipur bypass is all dug up as part of the road widening exercise but luckily that day, traffic was mild and we could make good progress.
We seldom make any advance reservations in hotels, but understand what facilities are available. When we crossed Kishangarh, we called up RTDC Behror and were assured that rooms were available and immediately, we made a telephonic request for a couple of rooms. On reaching Behror at 11 pm,. we scraped the vessels and got ourselves the last meal left for the day in their restaurant!
That was the end of a very satisfying day - Delhi was just round the corner and we were on schedule for the rendezvous with the rest of the team the next day morning....
Last edited by hvkumar : 14th September 2011 at 12:29.
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