Hello everyone,
This is my first travelouge in Team-Bhp and it also happened to be my fist long distance travel in a car.
Goa... The idea of visiting Goa came to us in 2012. My friend, an IT employee from Bangalore suggested this trip to Goa from Bangalore in his Hyundai i10. We almost got ready to make the trip, but failed miserably.
Then came 2013, I got my new Honda Amaze S mt Diesel. Unfortunately, my best friend got an on site opportunity and could not come with us to the trip. This trip is for around 2200km I was a little bit scared on doing this trip in a brand new car. But experts in Team-Bhp suggested me to go for it.
Got my car delivered on 4th August 2013 and decided immediately that we would make the Goa trip as soon as possible. October 2,3,4 and 5 was fixed as our journey dates.
Day 1: (01/10/13)
Since I am from Rajapalayam, I started by October 1st 11a.m and reached Bangalore via Madurai, Salem and Hosur on NH 208 and NH7.The route is excellent and the stretch between Karur to Krishnagiri is one of the best and well maintained roads in Tamil Nadu.
Total distance is 522km and toll charges came to Rs.500. Reached Bangalore at 9:00 p.m with lots and lots of pit stops and one lunch break for 1/2 hour.
Had an excellent drive with 100-120kmph as constant at all the time except for one idiot who came in the wrong direction and gave me a slight heart attack by stopping in the middle of the road horizontally. As usual, I gave him an angry Rajini Kanth look and continued my journey.
The car on board kmpl calculator showed 21.8kmpl for this trip which included moderate traffic in Madurai area and Heavy traffic from Hosur to Bangalore. Full tank to full tank method calculation gave me 20.8kmpl.
Calculation:
Trip start 1194 to 1716 => 522km
Diesel consumed : 25ltr.
So, 522/25 =
20.88
Trust me friends,
25kmpl is easily achievable if we drive at a constant 80kmph. And one more thing, it is now cheaper to drive a car for a family of 4 or more than to take the private or public buses.
Day 2: (02/10/13)
Original plan was to start by 4:00 a.m in the morning and reach Goa by 1 p.m because of our check in time in the resort… But, we started from Bangalore by 4:45 a.m (late as usual) and took the NH4 which is an absolute buttery smooth road with less toll charges than the ones in Tamil Nadu.
Of course, there were some diversions and bad patches in some places but it is worth the money spent. It is safe to say that this road is a 4 way and not a 6 way because in most places, the 6th way was under construction.
Though I knew very well that there is a Kamat restaurant at Ranebennur, we were hungry like hell and started discussing about dishes which made us stop at the next hotel at 8:30 a.m. We had breakfast in a roadside hotel at Anagodu which is near Davanagere and continued our journey towards Hubli. The roads were excellent, a proper 4 way road, less toll fee, less traffic etc., but…
There is a small stretch of say 10km near Harihar which is supposed to be a four way lane but there were traffic every were. It passes through a village next to Harihar and people do not care about right or wrong sides. Please be careful at this stretch.
Once we reached New Hubli, there were some bad stretches (as usual) and started climbing small hills which were cut in half to make way for the roads laid in between them. I remembered Cars animation movie at that time. Friends who have not seen the movie, please go ahead and watch it. Actual hill climbing started at
Alnawar and the roads were acceptable to a certain point and became worst towards
Garli. The fuel level was low and so, I filled her up with 10ltrs of diesel. The views were excellent after
Garli and it started raining a lot towards
Molem. We lost our hope of enjoying in Goa seeing the rain but…
The rain got settled once we reached
Ponda and we reached our destination Castle House Resort,
Calanguate by 4:00 p.m. Total journey timing is 11:15 hrs with multiple pit stops and one long stop breakfast stop. Resort is well maintained and food is also good. Got refreshed as soon as possible and went to the
Calanguate Beach which is approximately 500 mtr from the resort had fun, came back to the resort and crashed into bed.
Day 3: (03/10/13)
Got up early in the morning and washed my car. (This is the first time I am cleaning my car and it happened to be in Goa).
We got ready and went to
Aguada Fort which is 6km from
Calanguate, went for a boat ride to see dolphins and came back to
Baga beach for lunch. Had lunch at Britto’s which was excellent. Please do not miss this place. It’s a little pricey, but its worth it. Enjoyed a lot at Baga beach, came back to our rooms and went inside the city for
Paradise Cruise ride at 6 p.m and entered
Casino Royal by 8:30 p.m. End of day 3.
For all the Petrol Heads in the forum, Check the prices:
Day 4: (04/10/13)
Got up late in the morning, had breakfast by 11:00, filled the tank and calculated the kmpl. On board indicator showed 20.58 and our calculation showed 19.47kmpl.
Calculation:
Trip start 1716 to 2417 => 701km
Diesel consumed : 36ltr (including the 10 liters filled yesterday.)
So, 701/36 =
19.47
Started our journey back to Bangalore the same way. We thought of changing the route via
Karwar, Ankola, Udupi and Mangalore but…
My uncle asked me to pick up some stuff from his home at
Ponda and we finally decided to use the same route and started by 12:00p.m and reached
Bangalore by 11:00p.m. When I parked the car at Bangalore, the Odometer read this…
Day 5: (05/10/13)
Being a Saturday and I had originally planned to reach
Rajapalayam by Sunday, we slept like kumbakarnas and will have to start early in the morning. Will definitely post another Tank full to tank full mileage check up once I reach
Rajapalayam.
Regards,
Guru...