[dhanushmenon]

That was yet another splendid account of the wonderful journey you had. Quite extensive, elaborate and I don't think you missed any points to cover. Will be a very useful thread for all the wannabe visitors in future; which I also hope to be soon(er). I can comprehend the amount of hardwork if front of the screen to bring up something so awesome like this.
And as usual, wonderful snaps from the wanderlust eyes.
Thanks again for taking me on a virtual tour to a place which is writ in bold capitals on my bucket list.

[procrj]

Thanks for that detailed Tlog Suhas. Have been waiting for it ever since I saw the pic of optimus on FB. Looks like you missed out on LRK - I had the chance to go there in 2005 and it was quiet an experience. You can always plan a Rajasthan trip and drive by LRK on your way back

[N4Nikunj]

Excellent Travelogue Sir, You have completely explored Kutch-Bhuj. Noted down locations you visited.

[paragsachania]

So the Traveler in you has made you wander to Gujarat this time to appease your lust.

That is an outstanding, well planned and well executed Trip Suhas. It is wonderful to see that you finally managed to realize this itinerary that you have been planning since more than a year (?)

It couldn’t have been any better than Dec-Jan to take up a sojourn to this part of the country and explore the unseen.

Kutch and Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Modhera) regions were well covered – As we spoke, Saurashtra and Kathiawad regions can be on your next drive!

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

hence we have dosas and idlis which are strangely sweet

First things first – Vittal Kamat is not to be confused with the Kamat Upachar you have down south and am sure you know why. Vittal Kamat is best when it comes to trying their usual snacks and Plate meals. Always better and the fact that they advertise “Vittal Vadas” is for a reason that it tastes awesome every time I have had it. Their Sabudana Wada is another good item on their menu.

Bottom line –Best to avoid anything South Indian at Vittal Kamat and prefer Maharashtrian Dishes here which won’t let you down.

Vittal Kamat has also split into 2 since last 2 years – You may have seen few “Vittal Kamats” and few other “Idlies and Kamat” too!!

However, thankfully there is an anti climax to this. I felt the road conditions much better than anticipated.

This is something that I have always wondered as to why travelers refer it as bad. It is because of the simple reason that you get greeted by sudden spurt in traffic post enterin MH (cars, Bikes and Trucks) along with these Diversions. This surprise coming after driving for 600+ kms without much traffic is certainly a test for patience and exactly why folks end up referring to this section as “horrible”, “horrendous”, “Worst” and a lot more.

To me, except for one drive in 2014 when diversions were all gone completely bad due to rains, it has been very well managed after this every year. And now the 6 lane work is almost complete barring certain bridges that it doesn’t really eat into your time at all. Fact that you easily managed Bangalore-Pune in under 11 hours is a testimony to that and am sure you would only be cruising based on merit of roads and not really driving fast to reach your destination.

there is a huge queue at toll booth, however thanks to more number of toll booths it moves fast

One thing I have noticed in MH tolls – The density of vehicles ensures at least 2 people manning the booth. One to collect the cash and return you the ticket with the man inside prints that ticket for you. The turnaround time despite heavy traffic is pretty fast. The Mumbai-Pune expressway is even faster – They are very efficient when I compare to many other booths.

It's the longest I have driven in a day, distance wise till now. Also, its been a dream to do a 1K plus drive since a while. Happy at that accomplishment I head to the huge jam near Vasai creek due to ongoing bridge repair. It takes us around 25 mins to cross this jam. It is 06:15 PM when we cross junction near hotel fountain.

Superb achievement and needless to say, a good (early) start ensured this without much ado and am sure you would agree to this.

Early start – Defined stops for Food and Fuel – Cruising strictly between 110-120 – Breaking for lunch while rest of the crowd is driving so that when you start again, the rest of the crowd is now on breaks – Crossing major cities like Pune and Mumbai well before Peak Hours : These are some very vital reasons that significantly help in covering good distance in one shot without any fatigue – contrary to the popular disbelief that you were insanely faster and way too ambitious.

We stop before the turn to Ankleshwar / Bharuch and check the traffic on Google Maps, thankfully the traffic is clear and we decide to head on NH itself instead of Golden bridge

The usual trick of checking on traffic before taking a decision. Glad that you took the usual route than getting into the town which may have saved you time only if the snarls were really longer than usual on the regular bridge.

There was trucks on the new bridge ferrying construction material. Hope the construction will be completed in couple of months.

Oh Yes, pretty soon as per the latest pictures.

All toll booths have huge line of trucks and this slow us down considerably

Few booths between Mumbai and Ahmedabad are very well managed – The toll queues for cars have a barricade placed that only LMVs can enter. I liked this arrangement as this helps cars move faster which unnecessarily get stuck between sea of trucks. Trucks beyond Mumbai are way too many as you noticed. Beyond Ahmedabad towards Delhi, their density increases further.

We stop at Honest hotels at 12:30 PM, this is a decent place and one of the numerous 'Honest hotels' we find during our GJ trip

Honest Restaurants are A2Bs of Gujarat Highways! Next one getting popular are HFM – Highway Food Malls. I am glad that their numbers are only increasing and not just restricted to Mumbai – Ahmedabad highway but almost all other highways leading towards Kathiawad and Kutch regions too.

We reach Mandvi beach as it's getting dark. There is an parking fee of Rs 30 while entering the beach. Time is 06:40 PM.

Quite famous a place for Kutchi Dabelis which you said you missed. Again, a wonderful place for some unexplored pristine beaches. What you want obviously would be a tourist beach since you were charged parking fees. When I drove, I had a relative staying in Adipur (Gandhidham) who took us to a secluded beach near Mandvi.

Also, this region has plethora of Jain Temples (Derasars) which you may have noticed. We visited couple of them during our drive.







And that famous wooden ship building industry of Mandvi:

The place is bit difficult to make out, since the hotel is located below a flyover. However, we like the food, its 12:00 PM when we start from the restaurant after breakfast.

A similar co-incidence with me and my father when we drove back from Ahmedabad once with a post lunch start and we had stopped exactly here for our evening snacks. When you said its below the flyover, I could easily recall the one you were referring to. The good part about this restaurant was that if you are attentive, you won’t miss that huge hoarding asking you to take service road for reaching this restaurant.

[abirnale]

A long awaited trip-log. I am sure you would have spent enormous time editing and building it to the perfection for us. otherwise your Facebook pictures and WhatsApp forwards were the only teasers I had seen so far!

I am glad, I always wait for you to do the trip and read the log - so much so that I can repeat it without a second thought! Superbly compiled.

[mallumowgli]

Amazing. Wonderful trip you have had - not many misses. Whatever you have missed are not major ones, right? As everyone has said, you have really put in your efforts on the travelogue. Rated 5 stars

[NPV]

@wanderlust traveler Suhas - Excellent trip and great travelogue with superb pictures to go with, thanks for sharing
Seems like a lot of homework was done on the planning front and it shows in the execution of the trip.

Great level of detail as always and this time I'm wondering how you managed to track your arrival and departure from various places to the exact minute

So, the next trip is to the Eastern most point I guess ? Assuming you want to do West (Done now!), then East followed by North and South (being closest do it last) ?

[guyfrmblr]

Beautiful travelogue! Enjoyed reading it.

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Next to the ashram, the river front is beautifully done. Last time I visited the ashram, it was just like any river flowing through any Indian town.

Do they allow visitors to roam around the water front now? When I visited there in 2014, they just allowed us to the place where you have taken the pictures. Visitors were not allowed beyond that point.

[narayans80]

Was looking forward for a full trip log from you. Its encouraging to know parts of GJ can be covered in a week's trip. Goes to prove, it might take 2-3 one week-ish trips combining different sections to properly cover GJ.

How was the weather in terms of clothing to pack and fog situations for driving? I see you mentioned the former in parts on the different days.

Were you the only driver for the entire trip?

Originally Posted by NPV

I'm wondering how you managed to track your arrival and departure from various places to the exact minute

I think its from the dashcam

[arun_josie]

Very nicely written along with beautiful pics

I have bookmarked this TL and will refer when I plan for a GJ trip.

[justintime]

Wonderful log and excellent pictures. How to approach White Rann from Dholavira? Is it towards the fossil park side and is it possible to take your car there?

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by ampere

So what next? The wild life parks of MP? Leh? North East?

Thanks.

Would like to say ' All of the above', all of them are locations which I dream of driving at sometime. But then, when is the question. No big trips planned anytime soon due to leave constraints.

However out of the ones listed above, would like to visit MP parks first since I never been there, but not this year for sure. Leh and part of north east was covered earlier in taxi, driving down will have to wait longer.

Originally Posted by dhanushmenon

Thanks again for taking me on a virtual tour to a place which is writ in bold capitals on my bucket list.

Thanks.
And lazy Mr. D, move the other travelogues out of assembly lane.

Originally Posted by procrj

Looks like you missed out on LRK - I had the chance to go there in 2005 and it was quiet an experience. You can always plan a Rajasthan trip and drive by LRK on your way back

Thanks procrj. Yes, LRoK was one place we were looking forward to. Had to give it a drop due to delay in starting from Bhuj towards Dholavira.

Also, saw some query regarding Shimla & Manali. Hope to see another set of beautiful pics from you soon.

Originally Posted by N4Nikunj

You have completely explored Kutch-Bhuj. Noted down locations you visited.

Thanks.
But there were lots of places to visit still. Bhuj local sightseeing was not done by us. Ideally would have required another 3 more days to cover all places. However, getting leaves for longer was not possible.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

That is an outstanding, well planned and well executed Trip Suhas. It is wonderful to see that you finally managed to realize this itinerary that you have been planning since more than a year (?)

Thanks.
Yes, its been more than a year in planning

Kutch and Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Modhera) regions were well covered – As we spoke, Saurashtra and Kathiawad regions can be on your next drive!

Yes. There is a lot to be seen in GJ, I guess it will take 2 weeks for covering complete GJ. Getting leave for that long is something most of us are not able to do.

Also, hope the tourism department starts promoting the not so famous places in a better manner. I felt, GJ tourism department was milking the salt lake a bit too much and not giving much importance to other equally beautiful places (almost how KA tourism does with Mysore promotion).

First things first – Vittal Kamat is not to be confused with the Kamat Upachar you have down south and am sure you know why. Vittal Kamat is best when it comes to trying their usual snacks and Plate meals. Always better and the fact that they advertise “Vittal Vadas” is for a reason that it tastes awesome every time I have had it. Their Sabudana Wada is another good item on their menu.

Yes, I too was of impression that it is part of the Kamat Upachar group you see in KA till I saw their signboard ( with a different logo). We try to have the local dishes to maximum possible extent so that food is fresh. In Vittal Kamat, we were keen to order rice / meals. However, since it was bit early (~ 12:00 PM) we were told that we may have to wait another half hour. Hence we opted for the readily available options.

Also, one intresting point. All around GJ, south Indian breakfast items (dosa, idili) was available.

Vittal Kamat has also split into 2 since last 2 years – You may have seen few “Vittal Kamats” and few other “Idlies and Kamat” too!!

Oh, Ok. Saw few signboards. Some of them very next to each other. Thought it was some knock-off trying to cash-on the Kamat name.

Fact that you easily managed Bangalore-Pune in under 11 hours is a testimony to that and am sure you would only be cruising based on merit of roads and not really driving fast to reach your destination.

Yes. This was something I forgot to mention.

As mentioned, we had a delayed start. The plan was to start at 04:00 AM, but it was 04:30 by the time we started.

We had three breaks till Mumbai - Pune expressway
- Chitradurga VRL depot ~ 5 mins
- Nippani BP COCO ~ 20 mins
- Vittal Kamat, Karad ~ 25 mins.

So all together around 1 hour, still we were able to reach expressway toll at 03:05 PM.

So total time around 10:30 mins including 1 hour break.


Now, for the return trip. We started from Pune Ginger hotel, which is next to highway at 07.50 AM.
Three stops enroute -
-Breakfast near Sai Park Inn ~ 55 mins
-Lunch break at Kamat before Hubli bye-pass ~ 1 hour
-Coffee break at CCD Sira ~ 45 mins

We reach Yeshwantpur at 09:40 PM and Indiranagar at 10:20 PM.

So total time of 15:30 hours including break of 2 hour 40 mins.

The difference in both timings were due to the time we were able to make up due to early start for onward journey due to an early start. With which, we were able to clear the slow Bangalore - Tumkur route before traffic picked up.


Also, return journey being on a Sunday. It had its own traffic issues.

Early start – Defined stops for Food and Fuel – Cruising strictly between 110-120 – Breaking for lunch while rest of the crowd is driving so that when you start again, the rest of the crowd is now on breaks – Crossing major cities like Pune and Mumbai well before Peak Hours

The usual trick of checking on traffic before taking a decision. Glad that you took the usual route than getting into the town which may have saved you time only if the snarls were really longer than usual on the regular bridge.
Oh Yes, pretty soon as per the latest pictures.

Yes. Thanks to your suggestion on that.

Also, hope the new bridge is open soon. From what we saw, only major work pending was for surfacing approach roads. From the pics I noticed that the new bridge is having 4 lanes instead of 3 lane road before the bridge. Hope this will also help in cases where the current bridge is closed for any repair like Vasai creek bridge currently.

Honest Restaurants are A2Bs of Gujarat Highways! Next one getting popular are HFM – Highway Food Malls. I am glad that their numbers are only increasing and not just restricted to Mumbai – Ahmedabad highway but almost all other highways leading towards Kathiawad and Kutch regions too.

Yes. Service at food at Honest restaurants we went to were good (which is not the case in A2B's usually). Also, they had proper parking too.

Only grouse is that they do not accept card payments.

Quite famous a place for Kutchi Dabelis which you said you missed. Again, a wonderful place for some unexplored pristine beaches. What you want obviously would be a tourist beach since you were charged parking fees. When I drove, I had a relative staying in Adipur (Gandhidham) who took us to a secluded beach near Mandvi.

Yes. Again one thing which was missed. I guess Mandvi will require around 3 hours to see and one should reach there late in afternoon so as they see around the town / beach and then head off to Bhuj after sunset.

Originally Posted by abirnale

A long awaited trip-log. I am sure you would have spent enormous time editing and building it to the perfection for us. otherwise your Facebook pictures and WhatsApp forwards were the only teasers I had seen so far

Thanks.
Do plan the trip. I was driving for the entire trip though my friends too are capable drivers. It is a pleasure to unleash the cheetah on highways. You know, the occasional 'ding ding' sound.

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

Amazing. Wonderful trip you have had - not many misses. Whatever you have missed are not major ones, right?

Thanks.
Yes. Apart from LRok, most of the planned places we were able to visit. Still there is lot to see around though. Also, would have been nice if both of us were in Ahmadabad on the same day too.

Originally Posted by NPV

So, the next trip is to the Eastern most point I guess ? Assuming you want to do West (Done now!), then East followed by North and South (being closest do it last) ?

Thanks NPV.
Yes, south could be done without much planning and leaves. East and north are the ones which requires more planning. Hope to do atleast one of them in next couple of years.

Regarding the time. My wife notes down time we reach at each destination and KM's covered in a log book we have since our Alto days. She notes the time based on XUV's infotainment system, that's the reason you see it to the last minute.

Originally Posted by guyfrmblr

Do they allow visitors to roam around the water front now? When I visited there in 2014, they just allowed us to the place where you have taken the pictures. Visitors were not allowed beyond that point.

Thanks.
No, its the same. There are steps which goes down toward the river, that is the furthest you can access. Not sure why it is closed though.

Originally Posted by narayans80

Goes to prove, it might take 2-3 one week-ish trips combining different sections to properly cover GJ.

True. It will take 2 weeks of sightseeing for entire GJ for sure.

How was the weather in terms of clothing to pack and fog situations for driving? I see you mentioned the former in parts on the different days.

Day time it was pleasant, however nights were too cold. We were not able to make out the exact temperature. However, based on the external temperature displayed on vehicle infotainment (it usually is bit off due to engine heat) I guess it was around 6 or 7 degrees.

No issues with fog anywhere. Also, I guess fog is not much of concern in GJ compared to RJ and all.

Were you the only driver for the entire trip?

Yes. There were 4 other people in the car with license and two people who had substantial (~ 15 years)driving experience. However, entire trip was driven my me.

I think its from the dashcam

It was from vehicle infotainment system.

Originally Posted by arun_josie

I have bookmarked this TL and will refer when I plan for a GJ trip.

Thanks.
Also, any plan of penning down last weeks TN drive?

Originally Posted by justintime

Is it towards the fossil park side and is it possible to take your car there?

Yes. You need to drive towards fossil park. However on reaching near fossil park, road forks in to two. The right one goes to fossil park, its the concrete road in the pics. The straight / left one goes towards BSF post (BOP Karni). From both these locations, it is possible to get on to Rann, however driveable path is only via BOP Karni.

From what I heard from a friend who traveled in Dec, they do not allow vehicles to be driven to rann now. Earlier, it was possible to drive down. I guess it was due to few people getting stuck in rann.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Thanks.
Also, any plan of penning down last weeks TN drive?

We returned on the same day, so just a small write-up in my ownership thread,

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post4148376

[centaur]

Nice travelogue. I have been wanting to go to the Rann for a long time. The thread gives a good deal of info for me to start with. Thanks for sharing

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

This test XUV was along with us for a long while. There was no visible modifications on the outside, hence we doubt if it was for the Android Auto update rumored to come sometime this year end.

Probably the petrol XUV that is being tested supposed to be launched in the first quarter next year

[dhanushmenon]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

And lazy Mr. D, move the other travelogues out of assembly lane.

Ha ha. I think I need to knock some sense into my car for tarnishing my reputation so much of being lazy
Well, the travelogue is in finishing stages. It should be soon online I hope.