[ronz_2507]

Disclaimer: The travelogue might also include parts of vehicle review carefully disguised as well. Read on to find out which one (no peeking for pictures!!) Also I joined only in the 2nd part of the travelogue hence the first half might appear a little rushed. Finally I am not a writer so please excuse my errors. If you are impatient see Part 2 thats where I jump in with the details on the road. This is my first travelogue on TBHP hence if there are errors then please let me know they are unintentional and shall ensure it doesnt happen again.

Now that I have that out of the way, where do I start? Oh yes....

Dad: I love driving and want to drive across the country in a big SUV.

Mom: Ahh.... OOKK, first get some time off from office to do this!

Fast forward, a few years Dad is now ‘Happily retired’ and now the time off from office is definitely checked off. Now comes the second part of the puzzle big SUV.

Mean time a parallel story is also developing:

Son: I don’t like the small car at home! I am buying something else and exchanging this! I want something fast, fun to drive, unique.

From now on it goes on in first person tense...

TDs begin heart says ABARTH PUNTO!! See the vehicle in person its absolutely amazing however as I step out of the showroom with Dad the realities start hitting “Car is beautiful, fun, unique everything BUT... are you totally prepared if there are issues with it in the future??” Yes people don’t have issues with the new Fiat dealers and service but I wasn’t taking the risk. Anyway fast forward to a few more TDs and then dad says! Son you don’t buy I shall change the car and get a SUV! Now the ball game totally changes TD (Endeavour – above budget, Q3- PRICE!!!, X1 – PRICE!, XUV – hmmm, Hexa – this is a TATA!!). Sooo, Beastie enters the family! Thats Beastie below on the delivery day!



PART 1

Ok now back to the actual travelogue, Big SUV is now checked so is time off from office. Dad now goes well I need to drive across the country! Mom agrees on the condition that you (Dad) are going to drive carefully and not fly! (aka below 120kmph)

Now the decision was where? Dad starts hometown! (Bhubaneswar) Mom thinks come to think of it yes I have some work there and taking the car would certainly help carrying stuff as well ok but it has to be relaxed we are not going a strict routine. Now the planning begins on the routes to take

https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Mu...0587!3e0?hl=en

Plan was mom and dad drive from Mumbai to Hyderabad stay at aunt’s place. Relax a day next day to Vizag stay the night and then onwards to Bhubaneswar. I cant take so much of days off from work so decide to begrudgingly only join on the return leg from Bhubaneswar.

D-Day (October 21st October) – Distance 711Kms

The route to be taken has been researched via Gmaps, Tbhp posts, past trips and online resources. The route decided is:

https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Mu...5044!3e0?hl=en

Road excellent until Solapur after Solapur until Karnataka border 100kms of suspension testing for any car!

Dad decides 6am we leave home and have to have breakfast on the Mumbai – Pune expressway. So by 6:30 am (IST – Indian Strech Time) Beastie flags off!!



Just the past week Whatsapp had released live location share and I activate it on Mom’s phone so I can track them in real time. Mom and Dad make good progress along the route apart from a near scare near Solapur owing to an idiot driver (some Taxi) who cuts into the national highway without bothering to signal or check a car flashing and honking! Dad slams the brakes, Beastie reacts instantly controlling her momentum ABS kick in and they slow down in a straight line without losing traction or even getting upset. Both Mom and Dad are a little scared but everything is fine and they continue. The idiot driver has sped off without knowing what he had done. Oh well the world is full of idiots! But good job Tata Motors! The braking and the car composure

So they continue cruising munching miles and snacks and sipping Nescafe mocha along the way and then send me the photo Hyderabad in another 134kms and the time is 16:40 hrs (4:40pm).



Here I am staring excel files in my cubicle and am super envious! Also thankful they are enjoying and are safe. I reach home at 7:30pm and the moment I walk in I get a whatsapp message from mom – Reached all fine!

D-Day + 1 – Distance 591 Kms

Next day at office at 11am get a message from Dad “Bangalore is less than 600kms.” I reply, I know where this is going and the answer is NO! at 2pm I get a message on Whatsapp Mom is sharing her live location – Enroute to Bangalore with Aunt and Uncle to visit cousin in Bangalore! My expression at that stage!

They reach Bangalore by 11pm that night upon reaching everyone in the car are a little tired but extremely appreciative how comfortable the car is so stable and not at all jiggly! Dad feels so proud after all the Hexa was his choice anyway including the color.
D-Day + 4 – Distance 591 Kms

Everyone stays in Bangalore a few days and they head back to Hyderabad. Leave after breakfast and reach by early evening. Roads from what I hear were really good and smooth.

D-Day+ 5 – Distance 662 Kms

They stay a day at Hyderabad and then head out to Vizag early at 7 am. Roads I hear are smooth but filled with toll gates (angry smiley). Reach Vizag at 9pm. Meet some family friends and go to sleep at 12am.

D-Day +7 – Distance 450 Kms

Folks flag off at 10am after breakfast, roads are good smooth sailing not a lot of eatery joints so be prepared. Sea food lovers there is the Chilika lake and Chilika Dhaba which shall be explained in Part 2 of the travelogue. At 5pm dad messages the below with the message reached safely!



Stay tuned for Part 2 of this travelogue.......

[ronz_2507]

PART 2

So either you are really interested in this travelogue or you directly jumped to part 2. Either way lets continue, though everyone who has read Part 1 thank you for your patience!

The return plan was pretty straight forward Bhubaneswar to Vizag to Hyderabad to Mumbai with just night stays at all the places and absolutely no deviations. We had to be back in Mumbai by 10th November evening as my sister was flying in the very next day from Dubai.

From now on since it’s the return leg the countdown is R-Day.

(R-DAY) 8th November Distance to travel 449 Kms

We set off at 9:30am after having morning breakfast and coffee from our home in Bhubaneswar. I was super determined that I have mostly driving the return leg after all Dad drove over 3000Kms while coming here. My mom and sis secretly think me and dad were long distance truck drivers in our past lives.

My Uncle had come to see us off. We slowly make our way out of Bhubaneswar, roads are fine the annoyance are the bikers who seem to think that they are either totally permeable or stuff bounces off if anything touches them. I keep driving at a cautious pace at 70-80 kmph on the National highway when suddenly out of nowhere a stray dog just jumps from the bushes dividing the lanes right in the middle of the car. There was a bike with a family on my left and the lane divider on my right and a state transport bus behind me!

Folks I am an animal loving person so now what happened was extremely sad and disconcerting. I did try to swerve and brake to safe the poor animal but it was totally shocked/confused it ran right into the car and next thing I hear are loud thud under the driver side wheel front and back. See in the rear view the poor animal is struggling. The state transport somehow swerves and the poor dog is saved under the axles. Now I hear a nasty ripping and flapping sound from the front driver wheel area, fearing for the worst I gingerly pull over to the left to examine the damage. Upon getting off, myself and dad see that the wheel arch flaring cladding on the front driver side has been ripped out as most of the plastic locks have broken off. All this happened just 1.5 hours of leaving home.

Thankfully we don’t see any mechanical damage and try to totally remove the side flare off but feared it would do more damage than good so left it on. Now had to think something on the fly so we could atleast get moving as this was in the middle of nowhere. We thought of tieing the cladding with the body using the mobile charging cable and limp to the nearest city to get some better solution. Yes you read it correctly mobile charging cable.
Attachment 1699105

We limp at a slower pace everyone is a little upset with the sequence of events however don’t see any major city so stop by small shops and try and get some ropes and plastic wires to tie the damaged wheel cladding more firmly. Manage to get some ropes and they do a reasonably good job, seeing that there was no damage to the car mechanically we thought of continuing to Vizag albiet a little slower than expected and get it looked at there. So we continue and reach Chilika lake around 12pm.

If you are a sea food lover this is a place to be! We got 2 king crabs fry for only 800Rs!! and almost a dozen of medium sized prawns with gravy and chapattis for 200Rs! Coming from Mumbai when we saw the rates we were (shocked) are you serious!! The place to be is Chilika Dhaba its right on the national highway and ask for the fried crab with capsicum and less masala.

Attachment 1699106

Now I hand over the helm to dad and he drives we stop on the road after an hour as the ropes had come loose and could hear the knocking again so again tighten the ropes inspect no damage and continue. Tata Motors your car so butch and strong looking but a small dog hit almost left us stranded! C’mon please fix this apparently this is a common issue amongst other Hexa owners found out much later from Tata Hexa Owners group (THOR).

The roads are fine only bottle necks are at occasional toll gates in Odisha which are small and rudimentary and toll guys work at a separate time zone! There was a small jam at the border for some reason however we passed that and continued on. After a few hours again time for tightening the ropes cause there was flapping sounds. On the plus side this was a good indication of when to take a break. Now stopped again this time inside Andhra Pradesh again coffee and snacks time and posing time!

Attachment 1699107
Attachment 1699110
Unsuccessful attempt to click the sun set.

There is some traffic on the outskirts of Vizag and quite heavy traffic once we reached Vizag around 6:30-7ish in the evening. Folks if travelling try and driving through try and avoid filling fuel in Andhra it was the highest from all the states we travelled through. Roads are smooth all through out from Bhubaneswar to Vizag however please be aware of lot small animals which randomly cross. Maybe we were extra cautious of our incident. We reach our hotel by 7:30pm. One of dad’s junior colleagues from office was there to greet us and thankfully he knows a local workshop owner who can have our problem looked at. I thought of calling Tata service hotline however at that time everything in Vizag was closed or closing and I speculated that it would unnecessarily get us delayed from reaching Mumbai on our timeline. So I take the car to the local workshop and the guys see it and say yea we can fix it, they quickly inspect there was no other damage to the car, I was really relieved. They merely take off cladding from the plastic hooks and clamps, solder the broken ones in place fix it back, check the wheel alignment/balancing and everything is fine and the car looks as if nothing has happened. I am happy (clapping). Then head back to the hotel take a shower head out for dinner with some of Dad’s friends in Vizag and retire by 11:30pm for the next day’s journey.

(R-DAY + 1) 9th November 2017 Distance to travel – 620Kms

I am up by 6:00am with the plan to leave by 7:15 am after a quick coffee and shower plan was to have breakfast along the way as it was supposed to be a 12-14 hour journey.
[Attachment 1699114
Beastie all fixed up in the morning

We head out of Vizag, I have to say Vizag is Clean! The roads on the national highway are 2 laned on each side with occasional city traffic but really smooth. I planned to keep cruising at a comfortable pace between 90-110kmph. Its not that the car cant go faster there is more than enough grunt the engine is comfortable even at 150kmph, however I am more comfortable at this speed. You rarely ever need to put the car in Sport Mode the normal mode has so much grunt to move its addicting. Add to that the smooth shifting auto gearbox and comfy seats its super comfortable for long roadtrips.
About 2-2.5 hours outside vizag on route to vijawada there is a nice highway eatery, its very easy to miss we almost missed it.

Attachment 1699119
Attachment 1699120

There are extremely clean washrooms and really fresh food. We had yummy dosas and vadas service was quick had some coffee and we were all stuffed.


Thats me and at the Breakfast place with our gentle giant.

The place is also scenic, make sure to get a parking in the shaded car park. Anyway continuing on we cross several Hanuman temples with big idols.


We also cross a bridge over Godavari river, I presume the river would be much more full in the monsoon times.



We had a heavy breakfast hence thought lets keep continuing and stop only if hungry and saw we would be reaching Vijayawada by 2:30-3ish. So we decide we shall have lunch at Subway or a Mcdonalds which ever on the route. We find a Mcdonalds which wasn’t too far of a diversion and head there for lunch within the city. Fill up some diesel and continue with our journey after lunch at around 3-3:30pm. Now I don’t know why but Google Maps thought the best thing to do is to go via old part of the city through busy roads, either way it took us 45 mins to get out the city and get onto the National highway.

Again the roads are beautiful with fields on either side I don’t know which crop but very scenic, here the problem is cattle crossing the national highway. Just exercise a little caution as we saw a few battered trucks which I presume would have been cattle hits. Now on the way we encounter idiot 2 a guy who thought that his car is made of jelly or maybe our car is invisible he randomly swerves right and I had to brake to avoid him from sideswiping us. Later when we see he was too busy texting on his phone. DON’T USE THE PHONE WHILE DRIVING!! Especially on a National Highway!!

We keep cruising listening to music mom has laid the back captain seat flat with the sun shade and put on a blanket she is super comfy while me and dad are talking about how TATA motors is trying so hard, to geo politics, to road networks, new technology, and the next long road trip.


By 6-6:30pm we start hitting the outer ring road of Hyderabad. I have to say from all the roads I have driven in India the outer ring road of Hyderabad is the best!!


I see that we have to drive another 50kms on the outer ring road and I was super happy, switch on cruise control set the speed at 100 and calmly cruise in the third lane. Whoever would like to pass had another 2 lanes on right and I had 1 lane on the left as well. Oh the pleasure. We comfortably reach my aunt’s place after an hour and a half as we hit some traffic.



But all of us are granted tired from the distance but still fresh and nothing hurts I am impressed with the car.

[ronz_2507]

(R-Day+2) 10th November Distance to travel 711 Kms

Finally the home stretch, we decide to leave Hyderabad before the morning rush hour and set off by 7:30-8am. Within 45 mins we are on the Outer Ring Road and boy oh boy I just love this road.



Soon we exit the outer ring road and onto the national highway. Its again a 2 lane on each side really smooth tarmac. The weather was super pleasant at just 23-24 degrees celsius, we filled up diesel at a reliance pump along the highway as we felt we would get good quality fuel there.



We continue onwards and were not extremely hungry and had packed breakfast so had that along driving in turns. After crossing from Telengana border into Karnataka parts of the road are being developed by L&T and the parts which are developed are really smooth others are still subpar.





At one of the toll gates of L&T we had to visit the wash room and asked the guy at the toll booth he was very kind enough to tell the guard ahead who allowed us to cross over to the other side with all the signals and took us to the main construction supervisor’s office. The gentle man was extremely courteous and he happily allowed us to use his personal washroom and even invited us to have some coffee or tea. We thanked him and politely declined since we were full and had just had some coffee anyway. After some time we came across this board.



Telling us we had crossed over into Maharashtra and I have to say the roads are horrendous! If I could call them roads, in a car like Hexa it was uncomfortable I fear what it would be like in smaller cars. This continues until Solapur for about 100Kms and after 2.5 hours of sheer torture we touch proper tarmac again. Our plan was to bypass Solapur and stop along some decent place to have lunch. I spot a board for Vithal Kamat in 5 Kms and we decided to have lunch there. Have lunch there and hand over the keys to dad so he could take over for the next few hours. The road is smooth with tons of restaurants along the route. After a few hours dad hands me the keys as he was feeling a little drowsy, we stop at a restaurant have some coffee to wake ourselves up and carry on. We reach the outskirts of Pune by 5pm and hit bad traffic and have to cross through the heart of the city to reach the expressway.

It takes us almost 1-1.5 hours to cross Pune city and come onto the expressway we stop just before the exit onto the expressway and have some coffee which mom was carrying and mom gets some fruits from the vendors and then we set off. Now we almost feel like we have reached home. Cross the toll gates, Lonavala, stop at the rest stop fill up some diesel (not that we needed but its cheaper than Mumbai) and have food at the rest stop and get some chikki and walnut fudge. Now I wanted to see the comfort of the back seat and also I didn’t want to drive in Mumbai traffic when we would reach home so I ask mom to go ahead and I went to the back seat.



Soon dad starts hitting Mumbai traffic we cross into Mumbai and reach home by 9-9:30ish in the evening.

So summarize our driving was total of 4660Kms with 840 Kms of traveling in Bhubaneswar and neighbouring areas making a total of 5500Kms.



Summarizing would we do another road trip – Definitely the question is when!

As for the car, TATA Motors bravo! I am not a fan boy but yes you have done a phenomenal job with the Hexa we absolutely are smitten with the car only wish that the cosmetic bits and bobs are not so fragile. Overall the engineers have done a phenominal job on the engine, suspension, brakes, sound system, ride quality, etc.

[blackwasp]

A long trip - that too with parents is a nice idea. Unfortunately my mom isn’t a big fan of long road trips (2k km or more).

Great to see the Hexa perform well. Next time, we’ll plan a trip together - probably the GQ trip we have been discussing.

[mostlynerd]

This looks like an amazing journey! Thanks for sharing this detailed travelog.

[McLaren Roxx]

Read it through & through. Glad that your family and you had such great fun in the beast. That's some pretty long distance you covered in it.
Hexa is the perfect car to do such a trip in.

[soul-on-4wheels]

Fantastic travelogue! Thanks for sharing! I have an annual visit to BBSR (was born there, completed all studies and married an Odia) and have been thinking of driving down to BBSR often. I do the BOM-BLR-TVM stretch once a year (TVM is where my parents are!) and might do the BBSR trip this December! Will refer this page when I do that! Thanks, again! Cheers!

[prasanna_indaje]

Amazing journey. And HEXA is supremely comfortable.

I did Bangalore - Nagpur- Pench - Aurangabad - Pune- Bangalore in Dec last year and enjoyed the road trip.

Keep driving !

[mppaulose]

Planning a Mumbai to Bhubaneswar road trip in January, 2021. Any route plan. Also which are the places we can travel from Bhubaneswar to north or east side for a 15 days drive further.