[S.I.N.G.H]

Greetings to all fellow BHPians!

Its been a while that I written a post on the forum. The last time I posted here was when I had a fiat Linea MJD.

I currently drive a Scorpio S10, done about 60,000+ kms in about 2 years of ownership.

Just to tell you all, the road trip from Delhi to Hyderabad happened in September last year and the Hyderabad to Delhi road trip has happened in Feb this year. Hence i am combining the experience of the complete round trip and sharing as I was not able to find many posts on the internet about the route options for this route.

The complete trip was done by my dad and me. I was traveling to Hyderabad as I had got admission for my MBA at a college there. Hence I had quit my job in a German automobile company where I was handling technical diagnosis of engines and electrical related complaints at pan India level.

Dad and I decided to do a road trip as I would not have left the car idle at home as no one would be using it. And I could not convince myself to not have a road trip.

Let me start with the Delhi - Hyderabad leg

Day 1

It was a beautiful bright morning and i got up early, all excited and charged up. I had full plans of starting early, so as to cover most of the distance in day light. But, as usual, sticking to Indian Standard Time, we started at 10:30 AM. Mom wished us luck and we started the journey.

We had planned the route as Delhi - Agra - Gwalior - Jhansi - Sagar - Narsinghpur - Nagpur - Hyderabad.

Got the vehicle tanked up and headed to Agra through greater Noida and then the express way. The vehicle was set on cruise control a 100 km/hr and was gliding comfortably. I had nitrogen filled in the tyres so wasn't too concerned about the tyre running temperature. Still, i was monitoring the tyre pressure and temperature on the TPMS.

Stopped at Agra for a short tea break and started towards Gwalior. It took us a while to exit Agra as the roads were congested due to the traffic. The journey to Jhansi via Gwalior was very comfortable. The roads were good and the traffic was manageable.

There biggest pain was the next patch between Jhansi to Sagar was a nightmare. At places, the road was virtually non existent. Hence I was able to unleash the full potential of the SUV.

By this time, we had covered almost 700 Kms and fatigue had started hitting. Hence, we decided to look for a hotel to call off the day. Finally, after speaking to folks residing at Nagpur, they suggested to not cross the national park area after Nagpur as the patch has single road, broken at most places, and having high commercial vehicle movement. Hence, we decided to take rest at Narsinghpur area. Dinner was an issue as we would have reached the hotel very late at night and by then the kitchens would have closed. It had started raining cats and dogs and finding a dhaba seemed impossible as unlike the GT Road, this patch doesn’t have many places to eat. We finally found a highway dhaba, had dinner and reached the hotel. It was about 12:30 AM buy now, almost 14 hours of drive and covered about 850 KM.

Day 2

It was a beautiful morning. Woke up at 7:00 AM, quickly got ready and started by 7:30 AM. Soon, we had hit the pench national park area. And as correctly told by folks, the roads were absolutely pathetic. There was extensive commercial vehicle movement on the stretch. The only thing covering up for it was the scenic beauty. This patch of about 50 KM was the most tiring till this leg of the journey.

Soon we had bypassed Nagpur and were getting closer to our destination. The excitement was at full peak, even though it had been about 19+ hours of driving. There were no signs of boredom. As we were getting closer to Hyderabad, the road seemed to have becoming better and better.
As far as I remember, after Nagpur, there were stretches of 60-70 KMs where I had put the vehicle on cruise control at 110 km/hr and didn’t have to use the brakes even once.

We finally stopped close to Nizamabad and had our lunch at about 3:30 PM. Underestimating the spicy food , ordered a biriyani, and trust me, the benchmark of ‘spicy’ had changed for me. Dad, being a regular traveler to Telangana knew the cuisine very well and settled down happily eating the plain dosa!

Started by 4:00 PM, gliding past the beautiful roads, reached our destination – Shamshabad by about 8 PM. What a feeling it was, beyond what I can explain. The time were gliding past the Outer ring road, massive 8 lane express way, I felt like the flight captain, making an announcement –

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Hyderabad. Local time is 8 PM and the temperature is 31 degrees.
For your safety and comfort, please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until the Captain turns off the Fasten Seat Belt sign.
On behalf of S10 Airlines and the entire crew, I’d like to thank you for joining us on this trip and we are looking forward to seeing you on board again in the near future. Have a nice stay!”

The beautiful journey had come to an end, with the start of a 7-8 month stay at Hyderabad.

This was a brief about my experiences during the leg 1. Shall post the leg 2 of the journey as a trailing post to this very soon. Any of our friends here who wishes to plan a similar trip can feel free to send me a DM. I’ll do my best to guide on the same.

Thanks for spending your time spent to read through the post! Cheers!

@Mods – Please divert to suitable thread if topic already available.

Caption 1: Flag off from Delhi


Caption 2: Agra Express Way toll 1


Caption 3: Pench National Park


Caption 4: Pench National Park


Caption 5: Hard to find Dhabas on this route


Caption 6: End of the journey

[S.I.N.G.H]

Coming to the second leg of the journey, this happened 8 months after the first one.

This time, I had got a marketing internship with a company and had to operate out of Delhi. Hence another road trip had to be planned as there was no way I would have left behind my baby for 4 months at Hyderabad.

Again, my partner in crime, my dad joined in for the road trip.

This time, we planned the trip having a different route.

Hyderabad- Nanded- Ratlam-Jaipur- Delhi

We had to attend a wedding function at Jaipur, hence took this route. Bhopal was another route which we could take, but instead we took the Nanded route as we wanted to visit the historic gurudwara there.
All in all, this was a 2000 km trip.

Day 1

Started for Nanded from Hyderabad at 6 pm. Picked up dad from the Hyderabad airport as he had just landed to be a part of this trip.

Nanded was about 250 KMs away from Hyderabad. Talking about the route, it was beautiful till the Telangana border. After entering in Maharashtra, I could see road in between the pot holes, it was that bad. There was no toll for the private vehicles in Maharashtra. Hence there were no roads either.

Reached the hotel by 11:30 PM and called off the day!

Day 2

We had a beautiful darshan at the gurudwara and with the blessings of the almighty we started at 9:30 AM after having the langar at the gurudwara.
Nanded to Ratlam was again a nighmare. Initially the road was fine, but in the later part of this leg, there were single roads, in shabby conditions. Mostly this leg of the journey was under construction. The only good patch was till Ellora caves.

Reached Ratlam by 11:30 PM. Got the dinner packed and headed to the hotel as the kitchens would have closed by the time we reached. 14 hours of the journey covering about 750 KM, was really tiring.

Called off the day post dinner!

Day 3

Started from Ratlam early in the morning at 7 AM. All of a sudden, realized that we were running on low pressure as the pressure had dropped in the cold tyres. Now at 7 AM, were had hit the highway and were not able to find any puncture guy open then.

Drove at slower speeds for a while before finding a puncture shop. Cooled down the tyres for a while before getting the inflation done. Enjoyed some tea and breakfast in the meanwhile.

Soon we were flying low. Hitting the beautiful roads of Madhya Pradesh, passing by wind mill fields. That was again a treat for the eyes. So much greenery around. So much calmness and no pollution at all. Unlike what one sees and gets at Delhi!

The roads at Rajasthan were even better. Although there were road widening projects going on en-route, but the way the traffic was being managed, it was brilliant. We were actually flying low. A feeling which had not been enjoyed till now in this leg of the trip.

9 hours and 520 KMs later, we reached Jaipur. It was about 4 PM by the time we reached. Took some rest and headed for the marriage function.
Called off for the day post the function.

Day 4

Went around Jaipur throughout the day, attended the function in the evening and then started for Delhi by 8 PM. As usual, the road was beautiful, but the commercial vehicle traffic was at peak en-route. With this, at 1:30 AM we reached Delhi and that was the end of the beautiful road trip. All in all, it was a great experience.

I shall be doing a Delhi – Hyderabad trip again as I would be joining back college after my internship ends. Will start the trip on 29th June 2018. Looking forward to some more adventure.

Below is a pic covering the 2000 KM in one frame.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!