[JoseVijay]

Vipin,

Great travelogue. Eagerly waiting for the next episode. Please have mercy on us poor souls and take us further in this great journey.

[Vipin Kumar]

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

Vipin,
Eagerly waiting for the next episode. Please have mercy on us poor souls and take us further in this great journey.

Thanks and sure, I will post the following threads within a couple of days. I couldn't do it in a single go because I was away for the last 5 days. There are more details of the NH 7 to follow in the coming threads...

Vipin.

[Vipin Kumar]

Originally Posted by beanstalk_230

Sir, this seems to be an epic journey. Would love to share the details when you are back. And do check your PM.

Dear Gaurav, Thanks a lot. There are more sections to follow. And I am already back, safely!

Vipin.

[Vipin Kumar]

Bangalore – Mysore – Cannanore (Kannur) – Payyanur

Day 10 was to cover the most diversified of all topographies on a single day, from dawn to dusk, during my long driving. It was also different in the sense that I had to basically stay away from the national highways, at least till I touched the NH 17 briefly before I reached my home town, Payyanur in the Cannanore – Kasaragod district border. It was a day of state highways, mostly meandering through forests, national parks and the Western Ghats. Though I had driven in this section twice earlier also, the road conditions after Hunsur always remained a subject of study before one starts—that is what you learn from the thread on team-bhp exclusively devoted to update the road conditions from Bangalore to Kannur. It looks that this would be a section where you can take maximum number of alternatives, and still you encounter one or the other problem in each of them. My brother as well as a friend of mine drive in this section in frequent intervals and are pretty clear about which routes to choose. I benefitted immensely from them, in particular to know the exact conditions of road at present.

Again I was in no hurry, precisely because I don’t get to drive in these areas frequently. I was in no race on the road, partly because I wanted to enjoy every bit of it and partly because the road also does not allow to do so particularly after Hunsur (if you take the Hunsur – Kushalnagar route, a little ahead you can still race if you will). I am aware that there is an exclusive section in the Team-bhp about the Bangalore –Kannur road, under route queries. I am adding mine here because it forms a significant and ambitious section in my long journey southwards. Unlike the others who drive from Bangalore to Kannur regularly, I had no plans to bypass Mysore. Reasons are mysterious, I would say so, obviously if you want to name them as nostalgia. Mysore was to be my lunch point too! My daughter asked me whether there would be time for a brief visit to the zoo in Mysore whereas my wife wanted to know whether we could visit the famous Mysore Rajmahal (or, if not at least for a little shopping!). I was ready only for a sumptuous Andhra style lunch from Hotel RRR, where I never consciously missed to eat, from 1985 onwards whenever I was in Mysore!

Clearly my route was to be Bangalore – Mysore – Hunsur – Kushalnagar – Siddhapuram – Virajpet – Mattanur – Kannur – Payyanur. One can obviously take the Virajpet – Iritty – Irikkur – Taliparamba – Payyanur route (which is a negligible 9 kms shorter); I am also not contesting the advantages of this alternative.

I started from Nagarbhavi at 8.20 am on the new year day. I had to come to the Mysore road, that is SH 17 (no longer NH now), via the Bangalore University Campus, from the Nagarbhavi circle. And just before entering the campus, you can see NLIU gate:



And then in the Bangalore University Campus – one of the many institutions that I saw on the way:





The road inside becomes a little broader once you are on the main street:



And outside the Campus gate, on to the Mysore road:



Within not much time, I was in Ramanagara, the place from where the legendary popular film Sholay was made (the rugged rocky formations that resemble and retell a feudal episode of the northern Indian village setting can be seen in the backdrop):



You cross then Channapatana where I wanted to stop for breakfast, at Kadambam. I actually would have preferred Kamat because a trip through the southern India without at least once eating at a Kamat hotel is unjustified (in that case my trip remained unjustified only!). My wife and children knew that at Kadambam, there is a toy shop too where you get things from toys to bangles. So I had to meet the financial exigency when they are out on their shopping spree!

Channapatana is known also as the City of Toys:



We had pretty fine and un-harming food there with idlies looking like dosas! They seem to have some strange name for it which I did not bother to memorise...

Back on the road after breakfast and purchases, soon I was traversing the town in Mandya, the Sugar City:





It was not somehow that difficult to cross Mandya, despite some crowd. Now I was only 30 kms away from Mysore!



I cruised further and reached where Tippu Sultan created history despite defeat against Wellesley’s army once upon a time, in 1799 to be exact. It was thus the Historical Town of Srirangapatana, where I had to cross the famous and much controversial Kaveri river. In Srirangapatana (a place with quite a long name that the Indian Railways had the audacity to encode with just the letter “S”!):



In no time you approach the refreshing city of Mysore, with its cool and pleasant breeze all across, and all well wooded around:





I confidently entered the city, and via the KSRTC bus-stand road (due to my road travel familiarity!) and turned the vehicle from the well-known Radiant Circle to the street that would show the unmistakable Mysore:



I had to wait for quite sometime to get a parking slot in front of the Hotel RRR which always remains crowded:



Though it was crowded, it somehow accommodated us quickly. I must say that the food is what I personally find good over there; it is not a place of luxury or even comfort, as must be evident from the picture. After lunch exactly at 2.00 pm, I came back to the Radiant Circle and turned left towards the Palace, and headed towards the Double Road to approach Manasagangotri. A couple of shots in these places:









When you are in Manasagangotri, the Central Institute of Indian Languages comes across:





Cross Hinkel afterwards, you are clearly on the pleasant SH 88 (another road of prosperity as they, the KRDCL, prefer to call the development of state roads there). Just four kms before Hunsur:



Crossing Hunsur by the bypass, I was somewhere again with good roads, but it was a two-lane highway a little before you reach Hunsur:



My wife suddenly felt that we should have one tender coconut each. How can we pass these areas without having at least one each? I was lavish for myself, and one was always insufficient for me. Thus I took two, as I reached a place called Javanikoppa, near Periyapatna:



We were not making much headway in these areas in spite of good roads, and I could soon foresee that I would be very late when I reach home in Payyanur. Yet we stopped at a CCD after Periyapatna (these CCDs looked different):



After this, it was a smooth cruise, moderate but unstoppable, and I approached the Buddhist town of Bylakkuppa and Kushalnagar (I had a separate Kushinagar in UP/Buddhist thread elsewhere here):



A few kms from Kushalnagar, you get a rightward turn towards Siddhapura, another state highway. Instantly I was entering the typical Coorg district regions, with two typical pictures:





To be continued...

[Vipin Kumar]

Obviously my route from Hunsur would have been via Gonikoppal to Virajpet. Who wants to miss those orange gardens on both sides of the state highway there? But it was the road condition that made me choose this way; but it was no less enjoyable:



The coffee that grows there, after I took turn towards Siddhapuram, is fenced with electric wires! But coffee was another curious object in the plantation geography, as the typical agriculture gives way for plantation in the Coorg region:







Siddhapuram was 12 kms away at this spot, so could I sense from whatever was written in Kannada on the milestone (see the road condition):



I always had the feeling in these places that a UP vehicle is really a rarity there. And the road was neither good to acclaim nor bad to curse, thanks to whatever factors... A few more typical Coorg road scenes before I reached Virajpet:







I went further from the Virajpet town too by 5.30 pm, and crossed Perumbadi in order to negotiate the really sharp Ghats roads towards Makkut. Another set of pictures somewhere in the middle of the Western Ghats:










By the time I reached the Kerala border at the Kuttupuzha colonial-times bridge, it was already dark. I stopped for tea near the check-post near Vallithode, and I was in a territory where I became comfortable to converse with people in colloquial Malayalam, in my own district! I reached Mattannur at 7.30 pm, and could manage to traverse Cannanore town via the Caltex junction on the NH 17 at 8.15 pm. I decided to leave the NH 17 after the Valapattanam arch bridge and go via the shorter SH route of Payangadi, in order only to join again the NH 17 after Pilathara junction for a while, before I reached my home in Payyanur at exactly 9.10 pm! The route via Payangadi is best avoided, I realised during that trip; it is full of dust since it is undergoing the broadening work (another road of prosperity?).

That day, it took a long time to reach the destination, but the distance covered was around 380 kms—the minimum for any day for me during the trip!

[Vipin Kumar]

The stay in Payyanur and the Brief Trips Around

I did not have many days to spend in my hometown. It was just five days! After such a long drive one would have expected a longer stay, of course! And I had to cover the entire standard menu while at home within these few days! Apart from covering all kinds of fish which my daughters and wife are also fond of, there are a few places too. They were for the Fiesta also. When people around saw the Fiesta there, where there is usually a KL 59 registered Fiesta, curiosities are unavoidable. And I was ready with answers. The stock thing to do was to correct people’s perception that I did undertake a misadventure by driving that long distance. I always wondered why people cannot imagine that I must have taken adequate breaks to sleep, to allow the least on the way... Does any train go to Kerala from the north with one driver driving all the way? But I was a little proud that no one else drove the vehicle anywhere other than me, except the technical staff at the Vibrant Ford in Hyderabad.

It went to the Payyanur town the next few days whenever there was any little need... At the various points in the town:







In front of the new bus-stand in Payyanur town, with its attraction for cloth shopping, the Grand Tejas in the background:



A temple between the town and my home, on the way. I miss the annual festivals here which I used to enjoy always earlier... A typical North Malabar temple structure:





Most important of all was a visit to the Palakkode Beach in the Ettikkulam Bay near where the Indian Naval Academy is situated. I always remember that this Academy itself was strategically planned there because of an unfortunate Panama ship named as Good Fortune, if I remember it correctly, that lost its way and began to sink sometime around 1981 and eventually came ashore near Ezhimala in Payyanur. I went to the beach to see it many times from 1982 onwards till finally even its flag mast had gone under the ocean waters. The beach is only an evening ride from my home, just about 15 minutes, and the route itself is worth driving most of the times. This trip was to the farthest point, so considered I, where the Fiesta had to reach away from Lucknow. On the way there is the school where I studied, though the picture quality is extremely poor here:



This railway crossing was an unmanned one for a long time since I knew it:





You reach the river-side in another one and half kilometers; the scenes from the bridge:





I usually take the Ramanthali route, and you are on the edge of the Academy. A picture of crossing Ramanthali, though nothing special about it:



Coconut trees all around!





The road is not that good in this area, and the river joins the road along:







I stopped the Fiesta there for a while, and one cannot help but observe what the men on the tiny wooden boat are up to. I myself travelled many times on these boats across these rivers there:





A little hilly and secluded road there; it was also becoming dark:



And at last, I was at the beach in the Ettikkulam Bay after Palakkode:







It was becoming very dark, affecting all qualities of the pictures I wanted to take. Yet a few more:









I returned immediately after that, and was back home. I have a feeling that the Ettikkulam Bay does not figure anywhere in the formal tourist maps, and is at best known to the locals there, like me... Rest to follow...

[Vipin Kumar]

Around Payyanur

A briefing of the queries from people around my home. As the team-bhp-ians are all aware, it is usually unreasonable to reason with people about such a long “misadventure”... Yet the story of the breaks in between could work as a little convincing technique. Still you... driving alone... all the way...? That “doubt” is a lasting doubt. Anyway...

One decision was straight and clear, that the Fiesta would undergo servicing, since its 10000 kms service schedule is very nearly up. The PVS Ford at Kannur was the nearest one and the only way. When I told them about it on phone and asked for service at such a short notice, they readily obliged on hearing that it is a UP Fiesta and does not visit PVS Ford otherwise. I must thank them for their cooperation despite their very small facilities there at Kannur. On the third day of my stay, I took the Fiesta to Kannur, and we had to cover a couple of other things too there.

It was a routine servicing, without any repair work, to be done from Kannur. I decided to take this time the NH 17 itself in order to drive from Payyanur to Kannur, a distance of around 45 kms. I had to prove my driving skills on that highway that has been made infamous by the menacing characters of the private buses! Thus via the NH 17 I was in Kannur, and one does not pass through the Kannur area without coming across a few vehicles named Sree Muthappan ( a local god whose temple in Parassinikkadavu is famous). Thus at the Caltex junction in Kannur, there was readily one:



A regular tourism signboard on the NH 17 before Mele Chovva in Kannur:



The PVS Ford workshop and showroom, as of now, are in Thazhe Chovva. My Fiesta at the PVS Ford where they handled it as the “UP vehicle”:





The PVS staff informed me that it would take quite sometime for them to complete the servicing. In the meanwhile I decided to visit a flower show that was going on in the main city of Kannur. A few pictures of the nice flowers we could see:





























To be continued ...

[Vipin Kumar]

Around Payyanur (continued)

On our way back from Kannur to Payyanur again, my route was via Taliparamba NH 17. We stopped for tender coconut after Bakkalam on the NH 17, and some views of the typical NH 17:







Crossing Kuppam bridge after Taliparamba; though it was scenic, taking the picture was difficult as one cannot stop or slow down anywhere there:



On the way back, we had to take a brief stopover near the Payyanur College where we have a house. The Fiesta there, fresh after servicing:





That place and the one house around have included things from fruits and vegetables to pepper, again agriculturally diversified:















In Payyanur town, parking is a big hassle with too many vehicles around these days. But parking around my place is never that big a problem. So parked on the road in front of the Nagas Club near my home:



Parked in front of the bank near my home; when I have to visit the town very frequently for several things, I parked it here as it becomes easily movable:



We had a lunch on the previous day of our return at the Bamboo Fresh restaurant in Payyanur town, a restaurant that has a refreshing ambiance and food for a change:





I came across for the first time an MY 14 of the Rapid at Bamboo Fresh (the Skodas have always attracted me):



Parked at the home shed; a little construction work was on...:



It was by then the schedule to return -- a marathon return trip to Lucknow covering back all the terrains that were covered till now....

[Vipin Kumar]

My return schedule did not require much thought to be wasted: I was by now an expert provided that I choose the same route. And why shouldn’t I? Ideally I would prefer to drive to Lucknow via Bangalore – Pune – Mumbai – Ahmadabad – Udaipur – Shivpuri. It is of course longer than the route via Hyderabad, yet again it must be something new for me. Add to it, my much cherished desire to have a one-day drive from Pune to Bangalore – I mean a dawn to dusk drive – covering around 850 kms a day! That should be breaking all my existing records too, including the longest so far being 748 kms on a single day that I drove from Kurukshetra in Haryana to Lucknow via New Delhi, Greater Noida and Agra. I have learned that the NH 4 that runs from Mumbai to Madras via Pune and Bangalore is one of the finest highways in India. Anyway, let me cut short the digression. Importantly, I had to be in Hyderabad for a couple of days, and the ambitious plan can conveniently and profitably be put to rest for the time being. This time, decently via Hyderabad and Nagpur – the way you have come must be the way that is most familiar. The profit is that it gives you another “reason” for another trip for another occasion...

The schedule is therefore more quickly drafted, and much preparation was needless as the Ford has already fulfilled the service requirement from the PVS Ford at Kannur. It was as follows:

Day 1: Payyanur – Cannanore – Mysore – Bangalore. Same route, no difference, no bypassing of Mysore, lest how could I display to my people inside the vehicle my familiarity with that city... the changes were only made for choosing the breakfast point and the lunch point... But I had little plans for many photos en route. Night stay, at my brother’s flat in Nagarbhavi in Bangalore.

Day 2: Bangalore – Hyderabad. The finest surface that I had to drive, with no break for a day in Bangalore this time. But I had already planned for a late day departure, thinking that I would be able to make it up without much speeding on the way. And days 3, 4, and 5 were to be spent in Hyderabad...

Day 6: Hyderabad – Nagpur, but with a keen plan to avoid Hotel Shravan this time. It is a mystery to myself why I never felt like doing an on-line booking of a hotel at Nagpur. My father insisted that I book one in advance after my wife and daughter told him about the forgettable experience of stay in Nagpur. Yet let me see has been my approach. And of course, my worry was more about Pandharkhwada’s horrible stretches of road.

Day 7: Nagpur – Sagar, sailing across the sadly tortuous Pench regions and the Bison valley. I had a plan to take the Kareli town route rather than the bypass where I lost track while driving down to south. The drive should take me to Hotel Deepali at Sagar.

Day 8: Sagar – Lucknow, the twelve-hours drive of mine the other way should be repeated, with an afternoon, post-lunch Jhansi – Lucknow section which must be unexciting because the trip comes to an end... Dhisauli dhaba before Babina to be avoided for lunch...

-------------
The drive from Payyanur to Mysore and then to Bangalore was to start quite early on the day, the 7th of January and finish in Bangalore by 4.30/5.00 pm. Looked a little ambitious for me, as again I am not a regular driver in this route. I wanted to stick to the SH route to Kannur rather than choosing NH 17 despite the road-broadening work, and have breakfast at the Indian Coffee House of the Caltex Junction in Kannur which was a usual breakfast point for me during the student days of mine in the years between 1995 and 2000.
At six in the morning, I took the car to the town for a personal work, and was quickly ready to start the return marathon. I had to drop a person in the Payyanur town. The drive started at 7.20 in the morning, and it was smooth. Briefly the railway gate at Thaavam was closed, an experience that is must especially when you drive anywhere in the north Malabar regions. I remember a KSRTC bus conductor answering my question way back in 1997 when it would reach Kannur; the journey was from Calicut to Kannur in the late evening and the bus was coming from the Trivandrum Airport to Kannur, covering a consdierable distance of 550 kms. He said the super express would take less than 2 hours for the 90 kms, an incredible feat anyway as the driver was a performer indeed, but the only handicap was that there were eight railway gates in that 90 kms stretch!

After touching the NH 17 at Valapattanam, I crossed the arch bridge over the Valapattanam river, a bridge that was constructed in 1980. Like me, those who remember the journey to Kannur in the late 1970s would remember how the buses used to take the railway bridge...! Crossing the bridge:



We had a very short stopover near the central prison at Kannur. Whenever I reach there I tell my wife about the incidents of two executions of death penalties in the early 1990s in that prison. I reached Caltex in Kannur at 8.35, parked the Fiesta in front of the KSRTC bus station there. Breakfast at the Coffee House...

The Fiesta parked in Caltex:



An old KSRTC ordinary bus at the Indian Oil Fuel shed inside the KSTRC stand:



The next lap was to drive was to be smooth and exciting, up to Virajpetta. The lunch plan was quite vague, and I wanted to see whether I would reach Mysore by then. The SH 30 had pretty fine surface, but you have got to be careful as the road is never straight, and there are small towns in every five kilometres. I was in the Iritty town soon:



The iron bridge across the Iritty river is a sight in itself. This too belongs to the colonial times if my knowledge is accurate:





The state highway was good and zig-zag along:



After Iritty, you have to traverse many rubber plantation areas, and a few typical sights of the route with rubber trees around, as one should not miss it:





It is pretty wooded all around and all along there, until you reach the Kerala-Karnataka border bridge in Koottupuzha. The bridge is a narrow one line, causing great difficulty for long vehicles to take the rightward turn onto the bridge. It is a sight to see the Ashok Leyland KSRTC buses with the Viking chassis attempting the take the turn there. The other vehicle has to wait on the other side until you reach there. So I could not make it even slow as a tipper was waiting for my car to cross the bridge:



After the bridge you have a check-post where I had noticed the bus conductors always putting their signatures while crossing. Towards Mysore, I was 65 kms away from Abbey Falls (which I don’t have to touch) and 123 kms away from Mysore. It is a short distance, but the drive has to take time, because you are on a point where the Western Ghats, the formidable Sahyadris are there to be traversed:



Again, for a while you enter the rubber plantation territories, but on the Karnataka side, entering the Coorg district:







A very ordinary view of the eating-point at Makkut, where mostly every bus-driver would stop, and from where every traveller of this route must have eaten something sometime:



Then comes the climbing, upon smooth surface thought the pathway is narrow and sharply curvy everywhere. It is one of the most enjoyable section because of its different topography:













And then you are in the Virajpet town in an hour:



Between Virajpet and Kushalnagar, I had come across an area beautified with betel-nut trees all around. I decided to stop there for a minute or two, to see the beauty of Coorg district which I would be soon leaving behind for long:







I managed to sail across the broken roads then onwards until I reached Kushalnagar and Bylakkuppa. I was on the “Roads for Prosperity”, on SH 88 at Bylakkuppa:



The CCD at Bylakkuppa was unavoidable:



Soon it became clear to me that before 3 in the afternoon Mysore will not be within even remote sights, and the breakfast at the Indian Coffee House at Caltex was inadequate to sustain till then. Thus Hunsur was to be the lunch break. I chose “Namma Hallimane”, a good place with untrained service personnel! If you can wait, they will certainly oblige, at least to make you wait. Still good place:



A typical view of the Hunsur bypass outside Namma Hallimane, a place that I always remembered in this kind of view:



To be continued...

[Vipin Kumar]

Entering the city of Mysore, this place is almost where the Skodas have their dealer showroom in Mysore:



I chose to take the route via the Palace, the Radiant Circle and then the Bangalore-Nilagairi road that runs in front of the KSRTC bus station, a point which I found to be exactly 250 kms from my home in Payyanur, thanks to the trip meter. We instantly reached the famous Saint Phelomena’s Church in Mysore:





Back in Channapatana, in another toy shop, for my wife and daughter wanted to cover those things that had come to their mind on a second thought and those that they missed to purchase. Another exigency for me:



I was quite brisk in all those places to the extent that I did not want to stop for tea too. I tailed a KSRTC Super Deluxe Airbus that was travelling from Nilambur in Kerala to Bangalore:



In no time, it was behind us:



Almost every KSRTC depot in the Malabar region of Kerala sends one or two of their buses to Bangalore everyday, even if they don’t have a bus to send to their own state capital in Trivandrum!

I reached Bangalore at 6.30 in the evening, which I considered quite okay. It also gives time to me to do a little shopping in the evening. But whenever you reach Mysore and Bangalore from Payyanur/Kannur, it never gives the feeling that the drive/the journey is an easy one, partly because of the unfriendly mountains and forest regions you have to cross and partly because of the road conditions that add to the miseries...

[Vipin Kumar]

Bangalore – Hyderabad

I had to perform a little shopping in Bangalore in that very evening, since I would not be staying there for another day in this trip. And I did not want to do the busy Bangalore-city driving soon after I brought the Fiesta to this city; thus I told my brother to handle it in the city, and he is a many times better person to do it on the Bangalore roads, his home turf.

My plan was to start on the next day quite late in the forenoon, since I thought that would give me a little time to relax in Bangalore. And the sheer comfort that the great NH 7 offers from Bangalore to Hyderabad was another factor. Even if it is a little late when I reach Hyderabad, I would not care. After the slow morning talks and procedures at my brother’s flat, it was 11.10 am when we started, and again my brother at the steering since he would do the honours till we reach his office in the Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Bangalore, which is situated close to the main road that takes you to Yeswantpur Railway station. Three shots from Nagarbhavi and areas nearby inside the Bangalore city, on our way to IIPM:



With a huge signage that provides all directions:



A new age KSRTC town bus... the green building is one of IIPM:



We were at the gate of Plantation Management soon, where the crew changes for the vehicle:





Thus at 11.30 I was at the steering; I took the vehicle from the gate of IIPM and proceeded towards Yeswantpur and further to KIAL. The signal free flyover helped for a long stretch, and again I could cross the Bangalore Airport point by 12.45. The road after KIAL was very good:



I was in no mood to waste time anywhere, and I wanted to cover a good distance before I took lunch which I thought would be improbable somewhere near Dhone. Yet let me see...

When I reached Chikballapur, the coffee at the same place appeared to be very much unavoidable, and this time it should not be causing any problem to my wife as well--I mean entering the town at Chikballapur, away from the NH bypass. And I was back there for coffee, the same people and the same table, and the very similar enjoyable strong coffee. Once on the Chikballapur town road, there were lot of grape wines everywhere. No photo, however... At the coffee point in Chikballapur:





I proceeded from there in around 20 minutes or so, and was on the fine surface of the highway. I continued without any break anywhere. I wouldn’t say I was fast, but I was steady and remained around 110 km/ph consistently. I crossed Penukonda and the barren hills around the highway were really amazing to see:



The ecstasy that is highway; this is NH 7 at its best in the early afternoon of my drive that day:











At the same place, with wind-mill fans... my elder daughter recalled it:



When I reached the Anantapur bypass:



I wanted to reach somewhere near Gooty by the time I thought lunch would not be too delayed. I was near the entry point into Gooty town soon, and my elder daughter had a little thought on taking her juice again there which she expressed to me. I slowed down at that point, and since it is not part of return itinerary to enter Gooty town, I ventured to drive the vehicle through the bypass. One of the most memorable and amazing topographies, though extremely barren around, the Gooty-bypass drive remains in my mind with all its echo. “Echo”, I would say, precisely because of the sound of the TDCI engine when I began to keep the vehicle on my most favourite combination of 2500 rpm in the fourth gear at 80-85 km per hour! At the Gooty bypass:





Wherever I required it, I tended to prolong the rpm ratio for longer distances. It must have eaten into my fuel efficiency, but I did not care. Anyway, I got an average of over 18 kms both ways put together. Yet I was quite fast and rigorous through Gooty, and a little before Dhone, I stopped at a place for lunch. It was quite an ordinary dhaba, which anyway they preferred to call a family one. It was entirely barren around, and somehow we enjoyed that stop. We got good food too. It was all barren as much as these:











Very soon, I came across a highway signage in which I spotted the farthest distance ever shown on such boards for a place. I reminded myself that the NH 7 is also the South-North corridor, and hence not only Varanasi, but also Srinagar should have indication! Here it is with distances that call for considerable efforts by drivers like me! Srinagar was an enormous 2634 kms away from here:



I thought my tea-break should be at the Mansoor Hotel near Jadcherla, and a long way to go... I took tea here many a time earlier, though there is nothing special about it. What was more urgent now was a full-tank diesel re-fuelling, and I was looking for a place where they would accept cards. I did not fill up the tank after I left Payyanur on the previous day!

I got air in my tyres from a fuel station in Dhone, but diesel was not possible there since many trucks were waiting on the line. Soon I reached Kurnool Town by six in the evening, and I tried to locate a fuel station which looks decent. Many of them happened to be on the other side of the highway. Yet I found one, after the main junction where you have to take a turn towards Kurnool Town. There too, no card was acceptable. Hence tanked up just around 18 lts of diesel.

Next stop was Mansoor in Jadcherla, and I was there y 7.25 in the evening. It was quite a remarkable progress I had made, as I myself did not originally plan it that way. At Mansoor, after a long time, for tea:



Once I left this place, there was nothing much to think about. It was already pretty dark, and Hyderabad itself is the target. Food at night? My wife had the instant choice, Paradise at Paradise Circle itself. Hitting the city of Hyderabad by 9.25 pm, I headed straight towards Paradise Circle via Hussain Sagar Lake. When I reached the place where we had to stay, it was nearly 11. But it was a drive worth doing, and the echo remains, of course.

[Vipin Kumar]

Hyderabad – Nagpur

My three-days stay in Hyderabad somehow got extended by one more day, and as against my plans, I became, for the first time in the whole journey, a clean 24 hours late. Of course, I could have been even more late, when I began to have thoughts, with my friend in Hyderabad, about the possibilities of taking safari in the Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh on the way. He agreed to travel with me till Pench and Bison Valley. But eventually it was to be abandoned due to unavailability in safari booking.

My next worry was the stay in Nagpur. Many times I thought that I must drive up to the Bison Valley from Hyderabad, covering not only those notorious stretches of Pandharkhwada but also of the Pench region after Mansar via Paoni, and then stay at the Bison Highway Treat, Rukhad. But starting little late in the morning from Hyderabad would turn it highly ambitious and exhausting, and therefore an alternative in Nagpur only looked viable. On the other hand, breaking at Bison Valley would then require only two day-time drives from Hyderabad to Lucknow, and I could potentially make up the lost day. But thinking about it many rounds, I finally decided upon a three-day, more relaxed drive, because I am entirely and solely answerable for anything that happens on the way, and reaching home safely was more important than anything else. Therefore it was necessary to stay at Nagpur.

My journey from Hyderabad began only at 10.30 in the morning. I left Tarnaka, and came to the Begumpet side in Secunderabad and got onto the NH 7. Once I reached the Medchal area, it was 11.30. I wanted to cover Pandharkhwada during day-light, by all means. And we had to collect two bags on the way at Kamareddy for a friend of my wife, and carry them all the way to Lucknow.

I was quite fast on the highway, almost at 110 – 120 km/ph, without letting anyone feel so inside the vehicle. Playing in a low volume some slow instrumental music would essentially help in such requirements. The place called Kamareddy arrived in no time, and I met the people in a fuel station on the bypass itself, since entering the town there, I would not do. By 2.30 in the afternoon, I reached Ichoda in the Adilabad district, and stopped at the very same Annapurna Family Dhaba where we had lunch while on our way to Mysore/Payyanur. Instant recognition and similar food; but surprisingly I felt that this time around they charged me less!

My tea-stop was again the same tea-point after crossing the first bad stretch, where I had met the Bangalore people heading towards Delhi the other day. As soon as I stopped for tea, a person came and asked for lift up to Wadki which is a few kms away from there. I flatly refused to oblige saying that it would take time to go as I had to take tea, etc, he told me that I could issue him a ticket for which he would pay me! I would have been a better conductor if not a good driver... Soon that person got another small truck for Wadki. The people at the tea-point had already become friends to me, with instant recognition; a couple of truck drivers were discussing where the UP 32 car belonged to, and they knew Lucknow. And I confirmed it to them without any delay...

I was in Pandharkhwada, and crossed the other stretch too. The railway gate at Hinganghat was closed for two trains to go, the second gate that I had to stop at after Thaavam before Kannur on the first day of the return trip. In Jam, “unpredictably”, I took that sharp left turn towards Nagpur. Mind you, before the junction there, there is a signage that shows Nagpur to be straight! Yet you take the left turn? Yes, you do that; I did not have to ask anyone. Then only you will reach Nagpur. But before 24 kms rom Nagpur, I had the Nagpur Industrial Zone at Buti Bori where I spotted two hotels. I decided I would check. As I took the left turn towards the industrial area away from the NH 7, inside, that is behind the two that you can see from the highway, I saw Hotel Mayur Vihar. I checked there, and to my surprise that turned out to be a very good and new business hotel. Interestingly, that was also the cheapest accommodation that I ever got in this trip.

This was a drive without any photo taken en route! The only note I can make is this. I feel Mayur Vihar could help those who want to take Nagpur bypass, avoid the city, and stay somewhere on the highway there. It has ample parking space; and the rooms there are really good. This is only a non-ac room which I occupied, if it tells the condition of the facility available on the highway:





It has an excellent restaurant also inside that gives you decent food. If you like to move out, there are ample dhabas on the highway, and in 5 minutes walk, you would be there.

I did sleep well, got up fresh next day morning, and was ready to have the exciting drive via Bison Valley and Lakhnadon up to Sagar in Madhya Pradesh.

[Vipin Kumar]

Buti Bori – Sagar

My drive from Buti Bori should have started around 7.30 in the morning. At least that is how I had planned it. Yet in the return trip everywhere mornings were slow, and finally I hit the highway at 10.10 am only. May be I took it easy since I could bypass Nagpur and the distance was just around 400 kms to cover that day. Pench/Bison Valley area certainly remained a worry. Starting at 10.10, we required breakfast too.

But once you are on the Oriental Nagpur Bypass, you have absolutely no facility to eat, until you reach at least Mansar. You don’t have to pay the first toll on the bypass if you had paid at the previous toll-gate and if you reach this gate within four hours. That was the “mistake”: Buti Bori comes in between and so does Mayur Vihar! So I paid again the same toll there. But more urgently, we required many things: breakfast, diesel, air.

The bypass is empty. The good roads are exciting but cannot help in these matters. Yet at I stopped at a point where it would capture how the Nagpur bypass looks:



And approaching Mansar, it is beautiful and almost the end of the four-lane grandeur of the very long NH 7. After this place, NH 7 never becomes that good with consistent four-lane sections until it reaches Benaras:



I required air too; so once I saw a fuel station, I got diesel as well as air:



Breakfast was still a problem. There was a resort-type place at Mansar, but you don’t get anything fast over there. So I proceeded up to Paoni, covering the difficult 15 kms section with utmost care and caution, reversing the vehicle many times over in order to choose the right path

At Paoni, I stopped at the first place that I saw thinking that I would get at least some snacks and tea. Though my wife wanted it, I had no patience for locating the Sardarji dhaba there. Instead I offered her good lunch after sometime. There I was thus, at the small Paoni town:



At Paoni, towards Lakhnadon and Jabalpur:

[Vipin Kumar]

Once I left Paoni, it was indeed a surprise that awaited me: the terrible Pench reserve area had undergone road patch-work in the two-weeks’ time that went in between! The drive, though not smooth by any means, is not difficult too. You have to be a little slow, that is all. And you will enjoy the forest areas around, and of course, the thin NH 7 as it lay several years ago also. The following pictures are from the Maharashtra side, and they tell you how the NH is somewhat made motorable:



Though thin, NH 7 in the Pench region is long, straight, wooded, enjoyable and almost endless:



The road continues:



The board erected by the Maharashtra side is in this shape. And this is the Mah – MP border. They simply don't care:



The Madhya Pradesh side of the NH 7 is many times better, though not very broad; yet very much enjoyable. I felt we were getting late, keeping in mind the destination which is neatly 201 kms from Lakhnadon itself. And I was not even anywhere near Seoni, leave alone Lakhnadon and Narsinghpur and places like Kareli – a very long way to go, and it was more than 2.15 in the afternoon...

Entering MP, the condition is comparatively very good:









Lot of trees in the forest area:



And lot of monkeys too. You only need to stop for a second, thousands would gather. And in this animal world, BBC will fail:



Entering the Bison Valley much before Seoni, NH 7 continued to be good, and given the density of traffic here, four-laning is not that urgent, I felt:





Alas, I am back at the MPTDC's Bison Highway Treat in Rukhad for lunch:



My Fiesta was parked again at the same place, close to NH 7:





The tree that tells you histories of a five hundred years...



I was getting terribly late, and the Treat takes time generously to get food on your table. I am yet to reach Seoni. I then began to modify my timing, as I could not see myself reaching Sagar before 10.30 or 11 in the night if I follow my running pace while on this highway a few days ago. I thought, if I hit Lakhnadon at five in the evening, then I would take another one and half hours for Narsinghpur. A tea-break at Green park there, of half an hour. I should be able to cover the distance of 150 kms from there, starting at 7 pm, in decent time. The facilities are frighteningly rare, and the places are highly desolate in these areas. Add to it, you have the Kareli town where I had ventured to take the bypass in a daringly lonely way when I drove to Nagpur from Sagar. Since it would be dark, I thought the town route is the only advisable way. And then the many diversions at all the places where the bridge work is not yet complete. There is no one way in several such locations, and it delays you considerably.

I was back on the NH 7 from the Highway Treat at Rukhad after lunch, nearly around 3.40 pm, and was again driving in the Bison Valley. In all these places patch-work is already done. A pleasant relief:



Soon I saw the four-lane stretch of NH 7, and Narsinghpur is 83 kms away:



However, this broad section does not last for long. You are back again in the narrow NH 7:



Exactly at 5 in the evening, the typical view of the Lakhnadon flyover came. This was the last point I had to touch on the NH 7 after I entered it in Bangalore, days before! So before I come here again... You have to take left turn here, if you don’t want to go to Jabalpur. The T-junction where there is nothing to see, in Lakhnadon:



I was more confident that I was not lagging behind from the modified scheme of time. In another hour, I covered the next 65 kms, and managed to reach Narsinghpur; filled up my diesel tank that must be taking me from there to Lucknow, around another 700 kms! Green Park was unfortunately closed, and thus my plans of discussing the road matters with the proprietors were also gone! Otherwise I would have boasted to them how I defied their advice the other day to drive via Chindwara to Nagpur, and how I have come back without being hurt anywhere despite driving via Lakhnadon...

The drive through Kareli was not that smooth, because of lack of one-way, the little crowd of the town, the closed railway-gate in between, etc. My daughter asked me whether I could repeat the same feat near the incomplete flyover, taking the incomplete bypass... I refused. It was dark. I took tea at one point soon after the town but before rejoining NH 26 towards Sagar. Another 50 kms, it was to shuttle the car from one side of the road to another since diversions were too many and too frequent. After I crossed river Narmada, again where it was quite thin, I was more or less on the straight four-laned highway, the South-North Corridor. My doubtless and brisk driving targeting Sagar at the earliest possible time, to everyone’s surprise in the car, took us to Sagar’s Hotel Deepali exactly at 8.45 in the night. Ample time for food and to relax. The next day was to be the finale of the trip...

[SajiNSalin]

Very interesting narration and beautiful photographs too. You have mentioned the need to check air pressure several times during the trip; any particular reason? I check it prior to the journey and only make sure it is not visually low and there is no puncture.

In another trip from Lucknow to Payannur, you could try the Udaipur-Ahmedabad-Bangalore (or Goa) route. It may take you less time.

Saji