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Started on Monday, 3.6.13 at 0445 am from sector 61 noida residence. In my XUV500 with my wife, mother and two kids. First target destination - Patna.

on noida - greater noida expressway where it is still dark.

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Further down the yamuna expressway in the morning of 3rd june. first rays of light in the distant

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The orb finally out in full glory. Very thin traffic on the expressway. but driving is a pleasure. On concrete roads, the tyres make more noise than on black tar top roads. FM signal also available 100 kms from Greater Noida.

End of expressway in sight, in the last picture. it took us around two hours to hit NH2 on outskirts of Agra. Bye Bye Yamuna Expressway.

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Crossed Tundla, Firozabad and Shikhohabad. NH2 passes through the town in these places but being the morning time, (~0730 hrs), traffic was sparse. But as you travelled on, the nos. of motorcycles increased on the road. The road is good and well barricaded when it passes through populated areas.

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First stop at BPCL Petrol Pump at Auraiya. 380 kms from noida home. around 0900 hrs in the morning. This fuel station also has Surya Resort having restaurant and wash rooms. Looked nice. We did not go inside or purchase anything to eat as we were carrying sufficient ( and exotic) food of our own. A stop of 20 minutes.

Topped up diesel. found out mileage of 12.5 kmpl. good considering that five occupants, heavy luggage and speed 110-120 kmph. XUV500 great going.

My daughter, who is in the picture, was most excited about the trip.

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Sorry for the delay. getting spare time on weekends only and then the photos have to be collected from two smartphones,one camera and finally they have to be downsized.

So, continuing the journer, post Auraiya.restart from auraiya at 0915 hrs,There is a big hump(speedbreaker) on NH2 about 10 kms ahead of Auraiya. Beware. There were many small speedbreakers after shikhohabad which gave the car and its occupants a small tingle. This happened in the return journey also. Paid toll all along, would upload later a table of toll payments made. weather was dry and AC of the car was very comfortable. speed remained in the100-110 kmph range. just before kanpur bypass, there is a relatively congested stretch but nothing to worry.

at 10:19,Kanpur Bypass starts, distance from home(DFH) :447 kms. The bypass is above Kanpur city. One gets a good view of Kanpur city from the bypass. It seems the locals do not use this bypass for daily needs. There is no toll located on bypass but there could be good alternate roads for locals below the bypass

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At DFH 607 kms, the road signage on NH2 showed 60 kms from Allahabad. It was raining here. The first cut from NH2 towards Allahabad was at DFH 616 kms on left side.From this point, signage showed Varanasi is 169 kms.

Once you enter Allahabad bypass ( 3/6/13, 12:20 hr,DFH ~ 610 kms) , you start travelling on a road that is well tarred, wide and with sparse traffic. Toll is Rs. 160/-. Occasionally, you get a truck/tractor/motorcycle from the wrong side because of apparently inconvenient access point to Allahabad Bypass from its slip road.

Beware of approach to culvert. 20% of the culverts have sunken joints on both ends. This means that the workmanship is not good. At DFH 665 kms on Allahabad Bypass, the culvert was horrendous. The car jumped up at 110 kmph speed. Luckily, all of us and the car landed safely.

We came across one tea shop on this stretch. The stretch is largely desolate but of top quality except for that culvert. Allahabad city is nowhere to be seen from the bypass.

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Sorry about the mistique tissue paper that is visible in all photos

XUV rolls on. We were travelling at good pace and after we crossed allhabad bypass at 13:15 hrs, I started nurturing thoughts of reaching Patna on the same day. I mentioned it to my family and they jumped up with joy at this thought. All of us were of the view that Noida to Patna in one day would be too stressful.We would have stopped at Varanasi. But, surprsingly, none of us were feeling tired.Not even my 74 year old mother who was thoroughly enjoying this breezy non stop ride.I think the comfortable car and the excellent roads were responsible for this. The fact that we had so many good food items(Tangri kebab,afghani chicken,puri sabzi,veg sandwich - all home made) on board plus a mini chiller(XUV has one, photo attached) that we did not need to stop. Amazingly, PP break was also absent al though I cannot ascribe a reason for that.

Maybe we did not seek out eating joints on NH2 in this stretch but it is a fact that NH2 in this stretch is not endowed with dhabhas of the quality and quick availability like the ones on Delhi - Rajpura stretch on NH1.

We crossed Varanasi and the mighty Ganga river after Varanasi. At least, here, unlike Allahabad, the city was visible at a distance from the ganga bridge on NH2.

After Varanasi, the truck population on the road increased dramtically.And, the incidence of jeeps/ motorcycles coming from wrong side increased.

3/6/13, 14:21 hrs, DFH 788 kms, - We crossed Ganga Bridge near Varanasi. It was drizzling slightly.

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Here is the mini chiller in XUV that proved to be very useful. Coke cans and tetra packs. one batch chilled in an hour , with AC working continuously.

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Next milestone was Mohania border after Varanasi. After Varanasi, 3-laning work is in progress on NH2 but it does not cause any inconvenience. This work is also on in other sections of NH2 like after Kanpur towards Etawah which we noticed while returning.

Mohania toll post reached at 15:19 hrs, 3/6/13, ~DFH 845 kms.stopped for ten minutes to unload the trash that had piled up in the car. The railway line was running parallel to the road on the left side.

Mohania could have been troublesome because of the multiude of trucks stationed there. Please note we did not see that when we returned. So, something must be wrong on that Monday. The truck line on both sides was >1.5 kms. Mercifully, the truck guys had left one lane free on the wrong side. We hopped onto it becoz everybody was doing it and then about 750 meters away from the toll gate, rode over the divider( thanks to XUV, but a Santro also did it in front of us) and plonked ourselves on the lawful right ( but left!!!!!) side of NH2.

The left turn to Patna is 5 kms from Mohania toll on NH2. There was no signage though.

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15:35 hrs, the first 100 mtrs after the left turn towards Patna. This is also NH but the first 10 kms are not good. Single road but wide enough to accommodate two vehicles. Too many motorcycles.

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some more photos of mohania border. I do not remember when I had seen so many trucks at one place

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The separate posts that you see are segregated according to 150-200 kms of raod sections. noida to end of expressway, expressway to auraiya, auraiya to beyond kanpur bypass, kanpur bypass to allahabad and varanasi, varanasi to mohanai, mohania and then enter bihar post mohania.

will try to do as advised. this is my first attempt. was trying to follow the pattern in recent approved and uploaded threads. thanks for the suggestions. will do it as suggested sometime in future. the thread is incomplete.

thanks.

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Too many motorcycles on road near Kochas, my paternal village. felt so excited. i had gone there only once in my life, when I was a toddler for the 'Mundan' ceremony.Kochas does not look like a village now. It is almost a small city now

Roads on this NH30(Mohania-Patna) are OK. All the bazaars are on the NH.







before & after kochas, passed villages like parasthua,lahari,dinara,




DFH 969 kms, 17:30 hours ,reached Arrah. The bypass in this city passes though the city and is in very bad shape. Railway station of Arrah on left side of bypass




Approach to famous Koelwar Bridge after Arrah, on river Sone. DFH 987 kms, 18:08 hrs.

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That is the Danapur Railway station on right. It was 19:00 and dark. we came straight from Koelwar bridge, went straight through Khagual(roads are OK) and not through Maner,Danapur Cantt and reached Saguna more in Danapur.From there took right turn and got stuck in a jam near Sheikhpura/Raja Bazaar on Bailey road extension for 45 minutes. An overbridge was being constructed.

REACHED PATNA HOME(S.K.Nagar) AT 20:00 sharp, 1029 kms Total from Noida Sector 61, in 15.25 hours.