When we started our journey around 5:30 in the morning, it was bit darker than usual. It turned out to be cloudy. Although it didn't look that threatening. We moved out of our campus shortly and then were cruising on Kalyani Expressway rather sedately. I tend to drive bit slowly during the first 15-20 minutes. The sky then decided to open up. It started to drizzle which also began to dampen our mood. We had more than 300 KMs of journey ahead of us and who would like to have their road trip soaked in rain!
It was almost a month ago when we planned this trip to Chandipur. Chandipur in Orissa has an unique beach where water level recedes several kilometers everyday between the tides. This flat beach turned out be quite enjoyable for our little daughter. Chandipur is also well known for hosting India's missile testing range which is run by DRDO and of course off-limit to the regular tourists. Among the two choices of the weekends that we had, considering my work commitment we chose it on the 3rd week of September. My primary reasoning was that chances of rain would be lower as monsoon was approaching towards its end and we had only a moderate monsoon this year. This expectation however didn't turn out to be right! Following suggestions from several online reviews, we had booked our stay at the OTDC Panthanivas and with other preparations completed we were all set to go.
Onward Journey:
Kalyani Expressway which connects the satellite city of Kalyani to Kolkata has been strengthen and resurfaced before the monsoon this year and it is now quite smooth to drive. Considering the drizzle which had made the surface bit slippery, I continued to drive cautiously. Using the Sodepur connector and then the BT Road, we merged with the Belghoria Expressway at the Dunlop intersection. Around 7 am, we crossed the Nivedita Setu to merge with NH-6 towards Kharagpur. By then the drizzle has turned into moderate rain. The dust-turned-mud from ongoing 6-laning work of NH-6, was making both the front and rear windscreen dirty. In fact, for the first time, I was forced to use even the rear windscreen wiper of our three-and-half year old Estilo VXi hatchback. At the back seat, our little daughter who will turn four in this December, had fallen asleep. The face of my better-half was having clear reflection of the gloomy weather outside.
On Kalyani Expressway
Rainy green
As planned, we took a halt for breakfast at Kolaghat which a popular spot among the travellers using this route to take a break. We reached there around 8:25 am. The rain had subsided a bit, however, the cloud had become darker. After a heavy breakfast and a cup of hot tea, we resumed our rain-adventure around 9 am. Earlier I had driven to Kolaghat few times but had always taken NH-41 towards Haldia from there. So the remaining 200 km drive through NH-6 and NH-60 was something rather new for me. As we shifted to higher gears, so as the rain. One positive side of this heavy rain was that exterior of the car which had become quite muddy got a thorough natural wash. Of course, this good feeling was short-lived, as the rain turned even heavier. At several occasion, I could feel the aquaplaning of the car as the water-logging on the highway at few places were quite deeper than I had anticipated. Within the horizon, I couldn't see any reasonable place to pull out for while. I decided to slow down and follow a truck which was doing around 40-50 kmph.
The ghostly smoke
Generally, while driving I keep the windows rolled up and have the AC turned-on. One advantage of having AC turned on during rain is that it keeps humidity low inside the cabin. This prevents condensation on the windscreen from inside. However, it was getting too cold occasionally. So I was turning the AC on-and-off regularly. Around 10:30 am when we were cruising on the concrete surfaces of NH-60, it was raining cats-and-dogs outside. Then suddenly, I noticed something terrifying! A thick whitish smoke was coming out through the AC vent. This almost gave me a heart attack. I pulled out the car immediately and stopped the engine. It was raining heavily outside. My wife inquired: what's wrong? I answered: either the engine or the AC of the car is on fire! I was expecting a panicky reaction from her but that did not happen. Somehow she wasn't convinced as there was no burning smell inside. Strange! but that was also true. Anyway, I took out the umbrella and went out of the car to see if there are any sign of damages from outside. There was none. After a while, I got back my nerve and we decided to continue our drive.
However, the question continued to linger in my mind for a while: What was the white smoke then? Did I see it wrong?
Smoke inspection under an umbrella!
On NH-60 towards Balasore
On NH-60 with hazard light on
Border crossing at Jaleshwar
Around 11:50 am, we reached the border of West Bengal and Orissa. It was still raining. There were many lined-up trucks at the check-post though the line wasn't too long. Then I remembered the tips by the fellow BHPians Wanderers and psurelia
given here. I followed another passenger vehicle and drive through the wrong side of the carriageway. This was the first inter-state trip for our car and we were quite relieved to have a smooth border crossing at the end. By paying the required toll charges there, around 12 noon we started our drive in the state of Orissa.
The rest of the drive up to Balasore was through a series of road-diversions. This slowed us down considerably as most of these diversions were water-logged. We reached Balasore at around 1:45 pm. After a brief discussion, we decided not to stop at Balasore and to reach Chandipur at the earliest. The rain had turned into drizzle by then. After crossing the city traffic of Balasore, we reached the Panthanivas at around 2:30 pm. The parking lot there was under water and I had to park the car on a higher ground. The turn of events had got all of us exhausted and without any delay we crashed into our room.
Estilo surrounded by water
The Panthanivas
and the beach...