To elaborate the title in a short sentence "
7298 kms driven through 8 states to catch a glimpse of the paradise"
How it all began
Ever since I got the Linea home and Rohit's Leh Trip "
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...akh-linea.html" came up which made my urge stronger by the day to drive to LEH. I started planning for the trip by taking loads of inputs from Rohit. There was a bit of resistance from everyone at home. However, after showing Rohit's thread to parents they finally relented and the Green Signal was given. The next hurdle was getting the leaves sanctioned from office. Since I had already discussed my intentions with my manager to drive down to LEH for a vacation, the leave approval though took time was approved well before I started making bookings for the drive.
With all the hurdles cleared, the preparation for the drive started. The car was shod with new tyres and the basic checks were done. The below items were stocked and packed.
1. Engine oil - 1 litre
2. Coolant - 1 litre
3. Araldite
4. Air Filters - 2
5. AC Pollen Filter - 1
6. Hydraulic Jack (borrowed from Sidhu)
7. Tow Rope (borrowed from Rohit)
8. Funnel (borrowed from Rohit)
9. Jerry Can 20L
Note: I lost one memory card which had photos from the second camera. Posting photos left over from the mobile and the first camera.
The car went through a routine wash and wax session a day before the journey.
With all the required stuff for us and the car packed, we were ready to hit the highway on the 26th July 2013.
The boot fully packed Odo at the start of the Journey Journey Leg 1
Started off from my house at 5.40 am and headed to RR Nagar to pick up the remaining team. Ended up starting at 7.10 am from RR Nagar and exited the city through the NICE road. Stopped at Kamat (a few kms after Dabaspet) for breakfast. With a nice sumptuous breakfast drove on towards Belgaum for our Lunch Stop.
Beautiful NH 4 The clouds threatened The rain started giving company A quick photo break The 20000 mark achieved on the way
Had decent lunch and tanked up fuel at Belgaum outskirts and continued driving towards Pune. The progress was quite quick till we reached Kolhapur. The roads sort of deteriorated with various deviations and the road conditions were getting poor. Stopped over at Satara for a quick tea break. Continued the drive but the progress was slow due to traffic, poor roads and to make matters worse the drizzle kept company. Stopped at Katraj for Dinner at one for the Vaishno Dhabas. The roads until the Mumbai Pune Express way was quite bad.
Beautiful roads in Karnataka (NH4) Pathetic roads around Satara
The progress was good on the express way. Took a coffee break at the coffee day and the cappuccino recharged me and we made good progress to exit the expressway and entered Navi Mumbai. Here the nightmare started. A huge pile of trucks we were stranded for about two and a half hours. Later the traffic started moving at a snail's pace. One helpful soul who was in an autorickshaw helped us by guiding us through the narrow lanes to exit the mess and finally enter the Gorbander Road.
From here on the roads were quite good, but the heavy rains kept us a bit slow. Then a VRL volvo overtook us. Simply followed the VRL multi axle Volvo who did the job of clearing the path by weaving between the trucks. This continued until we reached the outskirts of Valsad. We stopped at one of the hotels for freshening up and breakfast.
Effect of driving in Rains
With light breakfast to ensure I dont feel sleep continued driving to Ahmedabad. Stopped for lunch on one of the hotel for an early lunch around 11 am on the Sardar Patel Ring road. The AC restaurant and the tasty food kept us happy. The drive continued and had a small stop over at Himmatnagar to refuel at one of the COCO HPCL bunks.
Vadoara - Ahmedabad Expressway
After the refuel it was a non stop drive to Udaipur. Reached hotel Mewar in around 3.40 pm. With the other passengers deciding to rest, I headed to one of the Car Spas to get the car cleaned.
Returned to the hotel and off we went to dinner at Hotel Nataraj.
Hotel Nataraj Tasty Rajasthani Thali
The sumptuous dinner ensured only one thing a good sleep. The cosy bed at the hotel just gave this opportunity.
End of Journey Leg 1 Journey Leg 1 - Map To be contd...