21st January 2021, 13:29
| #1 |
| BHPian Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: CCU/BLR
Posts: 179
Thanked: 422 Times
| Ahmedabad to Calcutta road-trip in a Skoda Karoq Working and living in Ahmedabad, getting transferred to Calcutta is a great opportunity for a road trip! Me & the missus wanted to drive down when I was transferred to Ahmedabad, too, but the kid was just 6mo then. Planned for end of November, the weather promised to be excellent. Route & Preparations As for the route - decided against driving through MP based on feedback that roads after Indore were in poor shape. Chose to drive through Jaipur – Agra – Varanasi – Durgapur, with stops in all these places. Which is 300kms more. Aim was to drive not more than 12 hours/day, minimize consecutive 10-12hr drives and see places along the way. After a month of discussing & poring over TeamBHP route queries, finalised the following itinerary: Day 1 – AMD Jaipur 670kms 12 hrs Day 2 – Rest (Jaipur sightseeing, meet friends) Day 3 – JPR Agra 240kms 4 hrs (See Taj) Day 4 – Agra Varanasi (via Lucknow) 550kms 11hrs (see Arati) Day 5 – Varanasi Durgapur 500kms 11 hrs Day 6 – Durgapur CCU – 180kms 4hrs For the road, bought the Mi portable tire inflator, some windscreen washer fluid, carried 2x5 ltr bisleri cans for drinking water and 2x2 ltrs tap water for exigencies. Took out the dashcam from my GT and fixed it on the rear windscreen of this car and connected it to the 12v socket in the boot so I had footage of both front & back. For navigation, I used the inbuilt nav for the highway stretches so the map could be on the virtual cockpit and the screen is free for other use. Inside cities, I switched to GMaps which mostly let me down one way or the other on this trip. Had planned movers & packers for Sunday 22nd, and then a rest day on 23rd and start off on 24th morning. But, due to a sudden weekend curfew, the packers came on 23rd morning, and finished at 7pm. So, the rest day was gone entirely. Handed over keys to my landlord and rushed to the hotel we’d booked for the night as there was a night curfew from 8pm! We were all exhausted, grimy and hungry after a full day of packing. Had dinner at the restaurant and made some rearrangements in the boot. The car was loaded to the brim and we had thrown in many things at the last minute so had to arrange things and even utilize the space inside the alloy rim of the stepney! Still, only 3 seats were vacant with one front & rear left passenger interchangeable but the rear right passenger reserved for the kid. Day 1 Ahmedabad Jaipur 692kms Got breakfast packed and headed out. Filled fuel and increased tyre pressure (33 front 35 rear) to compensate for the additional weight. 7.45am – Exited city. AMD to Udaipur is in terrible shape due to ongoing flyover constructions throughout hence took the Palanpur – Pali route. Road till Mehsana is excellent but deteriorates slightly from thereon, till Palanpur. 9.45am – 2 hours and 100kms into the drive, stopped at Luxora Festiva in Siddhpur for breakfast. I have stopped at this place before. It is 100kms from AMD, clean place and the food was excellent. 50 mins break here. The kid got off and ran around awhile in the large and empty parking. 10.35am – Resuming onwards, traffic just outside and in Palanpur was quite a bit and it took us 15 mins to cross the town. After Palanpur, the tarmac is excellent, and traffic is sparse. All the toll booths were Fastag equipped and had a dedicated lane for cash. Some even had a dedicated Fastag lane for LMVs so could get through those even quicker. Section - Abu Road to Sirohi  Beautiful roads all the way up to Beawar  1pm – 5 min stretching break under a tree. The missus had bought a coffee kettle which could be heated by plugging it into the car’s charging socket. It takes about 15 mins to heat it properly. We had mixed coffee in it before leaving which we heated and had it somewhere near Sirohi. 3pm – Reached Sinny’s Highway Holt (sic) for lunch. Again, this is a place I have stopped at on my previous trips along this route. Clean and hygienic. Very clean restrooms. Food is good, too. 45 mins break here. 3.45pm - Getting onto the last stretch for the day, the road continued to be good, all the way till Beawar. After Bearwar toll, traffic picked up significantly and the road quality deteriorated a bit. Jaipur night curfew was from 8pm and Google Maps was showing an ETA of 7.55pm. Hmmm. A BR registered Kwid went screaming past and was lighting up the road, to speak. Was driving well but, weaving through the traffic with indicated lane changes. I decided to follow him and did so for an hour until he got stuck in the cash lanes at a toll booth. And that was a wonderful decision. By the time I left him behind, ETA was 7.35pm. Solid. I shall be ever so thankful to this guy. 40kms before Jaipur, there was a traffic jam due to construction work on the highway and I followed the cars which were going off the road on the left side. The jam stretched for 2kms and it took me around 15 mins to get out. The stretch was so dusty that I was driving in a cloud of white for some minutes. 7.20pm - Entered Jaipur and Google Maps decided to take me through the narrowest lanes possible! And one of these lanes was closed for a wedding! Phew, lost a lot of time here and got to the hotel at 7.45pm. Crazy Google Maps. To save a minute, it will take you through I do not know where all. Anyway, there is much more to this Google Maps weirdness in this trip. Day 1 Stats  Had booked at Sarovar Premiere, Tonk Road. Lousy place. I do not recommend it at all. For everything I asked, they either didn't have it or were too busy to respond. Day 2 Jaipur Sightseeing At 8.30am, they had no breakfast ready. For anything I asked, the guys said, ‘not available due to CoVID'. It was 10 by the time we finished breakfast. Hired a cab and went to Amer fort 1st. Few tourists but was overflowing with guides. It is indeed saddening to see their lives turned upside down by the pandemic. Especially in RJ, where businesses dependent on tourism are used to foreign tourists and we don't know when they will return. Saw Albert Hall museum and the quaint Hawa Mahal on the way. Decided against going to Nahargarh as it was late afternoon already. Stopped at Jal Mahal for a few pics. Had a Rajasthani thali for lunch. Went back & slept. Lovely view from atop the fort.  In the evening, headed out to meet a friend. Had dinner. Came back, finished packing, crashed. Day 3 Jaipur Agra 247kms 8.15am - It had rained throughout the night and the weather was cold and foggy. Fine rain continued to fall when we started out. Breakfast was not ready, and we did not bother to wait. Again, GMaps took me on the most congested, badly maintained roads possible. I refuse to believe that that was the only road connecting Tonk Road to Agra highway. Anyway, after hitting the highway, filled up fuel, which was mighty expensive. The road to Agra was good but with quite a bit of morning traffic. Roads were wet and the spray from vehicles ahead was constantly keeping the auto-wipers on.   10am - After slowing down at many places, stopped at Highway Tadka, a dhaba which was the only one which was housed in a building. All others were huts. There were hardly any options along this route. This place too, was deserted. We were the only customers. People running the dhabha were just waking up. It was very cold outside. My wife used the restroom and came back with a funny face. Apparently, a lizard was perched on the door handle inside and she took some time to get it out of the way so she could open the door. Man, I’d have died of fright inside, if it were me. So, she refused to have anything to eat here. Same with the son. I sat & ate alone since I was very hungry. Food was decent. Nothing tastes bad when one is hungry. We started off in 30 mins. Crossed Bharatpur and the road from hereon had a lot of patchwork. It was congested too, slowing us down. 12noon - Entered Agra, and I again cannot imagine how Google sent me to the narrowest of lanes to get me to the hotel. Phew. Checked in at Tajview at 12.20pm and immediately hailed an auto and set off to see the Taj Mahal. Very few tourists were around, hardly any queue. Online ticketing and QR scanning made it a breeze. Lovely time we had, with the cold, rainy, foggy weather. The ever beautiful Taj in the mist  Came back, had lunch at a nearby restaurant, Pinch of Spice, and walked around, in search of Agra Petha. Couldn’t find good stores, so walked back to the hotel and slept off. Weddings everywhere, the hotel was jam packed in the evening. All the rain had left my car mighty muddy. But there were no car wash services available at the hotel. So while I washed the windscreens and the tail lights, the headlight washers did a good job of washing down the mud. Ditto for the reversing camera. Day 3 Stats  Day 4 Agra Varanasi 650kms 9am - Had breakfast at 7.30am and started off. I was looking forward to this stretch, having heard much about the ALE and boy, did it live up to my expectations. I have been on the Pune Mumbai and Ahmedabad Baroda expressways, but this is in a different league altogether. It has endless lanes on either side and is straight as an arrow for miles on end. I set the cruise control to 100 and for an hour, did not have to touch it even once. Wow! Driving like this is sleep inducing. Wish the entire country gets such expressways to connect all cities. No work, whatsoever! 10.15am - Got to a rest area and took a short restroom break and headed back out again. The emergency airstrip sounds & looks pretty cool. 100kph is too less for this expressway. At least 120kph should be allowed. Even that would feel slow, I'm sure. 12.20pm - Exit 302km already?! Just 3h 21m for 300 kms! With an efficiency of 18kmpl. Worth paying the Rs. 2/km that they charge, right? Various advantages of a smooth highway  Expressway stats  We had planned on having lunch in Lucknow so entered the city and went in search of the famed biriyani. Maybe that was a mistake. The city was choc-a-block with traffic. Took us ages to get to the restaurant. We had some biriyani quickly and got the rest of it packed. 2pm - Started out and slowly made our way out of Lucknow. Road to Raebareilly and Allahabad was crowded, with all kinds of vehicles everywhere. Slowly made our way out but even after that, suburban traffic persisted, and progress was slow. Through the town of Raebareilly, Google Maps took me on the most insane route of this trip. Some pics here.    I mean, how can this be the road to Allahabad?? There was not a car in sight. All the circus that I had to do with a fully loaded vehicle! Man, my fault that I blindly trusted Google. How can Google point to a road which is still under construction?!? Phew. Finally made our way to the road to Allahabad. This stretch is without divider and quite busy, with buses, trucks, tempos, bikes, all sorts of vehicles overtaking one another everywhere. As we approached Unchahar, there was a line of trucks. I followed a car and drove on the opposite side to the front of the queue and then took a detour to the right and rejoined ahead. Crossed a railway line and the road was completely jammed. No sign of movement and trucks all around. Decided to enter the town and rejoin on the other side. Took a u-turn, crossed the railway line back again and took a right turn and entered Unchahar and joined the bypass at the other end. Choc a block traffic throughout. Some protests on the road apparently. Lot of police everywhere. The roads inside Unchahar were narrow and jam packed and the car’s proximity sensors were continuously beeping from everywhere. Took me an hour and half to cross a 10km stretch. It was getting dark by the time we got out of this jam. Pushed along since there was literally nothing where we could take a break. Ignored many Google maps nudges to take faster route, turn right, etc. and went along following road signs pointing to the Allahabad bypass. 6.30pm Got onto NH19. 145 kms to go and Maps said 3 h 12m. ETA 9.30pm. Could not understand why the average speed should be <50kph on an NH! By now, we’d already been driving for 4 hrs without a stop. Slowed down at a few dhabhas (many of them on this stretch, with bright lights and lots of trucks), but did not find anything convincing so pushed on. Around 7.30pm, after 5.5hrs of continuous driving, I was feeling a bit jaded and the eyes were tired when the car’s fatigue alert system chimed!! Wow! Not that I was careening across the highway or anything. My wife couldn’t spot that I was tired. I could not relate the chime to kms done or hours driven. Heated the kettle and had some coffee. While continuing to drive, of course. Was not sure about stopping on this stretch. The chime came on again in another 20 mins. I could not make out what I was doing differently but the car had figured that out!? Rubbed some wet wipes to freshen up & continued since only some 40kms were left. Wife was intrigued and read about the iBuzz Fatigue alert system. Apparently, the car continuously monitors my driving patterns (pressure on the steering wheel and throttle inputs) at the start of every driving session, above 60kph and makes & stores a model of how I drive. Then it keeps comparing with this model constantly to see if I am fatigued. Sounds good in theory. But that it came on and advised me to take a break when I was actually feeling tired is awesome. Colour me impressed. Wow man, car tech has come a long long way from my grandfather’s Premier Padmini which needed a top up of water every morning. Barring some minor congestion at tolls, nothing eventful. Followed a truck at a toll plaza where there was water logging, and my car went into a huge pothole. Came out without a fuss, too. Oh, by the way, after exiting RJ, the tolls have no segregation for cash and Fastag. They have one ‘Cash Only’ lane and everything else reads ‘Fastag Only’ but they were accepting cash in all lanes. 8.45pm Reached Ramada plaza where we'd booked for the night. That’s 7 hours of non-stop driving. Kudos to my wife and the kid for sitting through without any fuss. As a rule, I take breaks every 2-2.5 hrs. My previous longest stretches were Hubli – BLR 4 hrs and Udaipur – AMD 3h 45m, both in the GT TSI. Had a quick dinner and called it a night. Day 4 Stats  Day 5 Varanasi Durgapur 506kms Breakfast at Ramada was awesome. Of all the places till now, this was easily the best. The spread, quality and taste were superb, really. 9am - Finished a hearty meal and started off. This was the most dreaded of all days, having read multiple TBHP reports of jams on this stretch. Refuelled after exiting the city, headed towards the busy Karmanasa stretch. A new bridge is being laid over the Karmanasa River, I guess. So, nearing this stretch, trucks were standstill on a flyover and cars were taking a U-Turn from atop the flyover and coming down and going on the service lane. So, I entered the service lane and saw that there was a line of trucks on the flyover, filling up all lanes. I went ahead and the service lane too was at a standstill. I parked behind a tempo and was wondering what to do since this showed no signs of any movement and the jam seemed humungous. A truck came and parked behind me and there was one lane free to my left. Having read about this on TBHP, took a U-Turn, went back under the flyover, crossed to the opposite side and saw a bolero speeding past on the wrong side of the highway, which was anyway empty. Followed the Bolero. The jam stretched for atleast 4kms and was just not moving. We reached the bridge and words can’t describe the scene. I'm unable to upload videos here and don't have pics. The dashcam footage is horrifying. I mean, how can this be the GT road? How can the GT road, even for a single day, be like this?! This road connects Delhi & Kolkata, two of the largest cities in India! I have no answers. Anyway, slowly, with a lot of trepidation, crossed this stretch. And then got onto the correct side. Got held up here again because cars going towards Delhi were coming on the wrong side here! Took me a total of about an hour to cross 10kms. With bits of off-roading and bumper to bumper traffic, muscling in with tractors and what not. Looking back, if I had not taken the U-Turn and if some vehicle had come up and blocked that lane, I would have easily spent 4-5 hours in the jam. I saw truckers washing their clothes, brushing teeth, taking bath even, with their trucks parked in the jam. Again, all on the Grand Trunk road, no less. 11am - After getting out of this, even 70kph felt incredibly fast. Lots of diversions on this sector. Crossed into Bihar and approached the Sasaram toll plaza which was supposed to be another major obstacle. But it was deserted. Absolutely. Zipped through it, phew. This stretch after entering Bihar, is cemented, but with diversions for ongoing roadwork. This cemented stretch continues all the way till West Bengal border. Also, at almost all the small towns along this stretch, there is ongoing flyover work due to which there are traffic jams. Takes 15 mins to cross each town. 12.30pm - We kept inspecting small eateries by slowing down and finally stopped at a decent looking place. It was called Anand Family Restaurant. Mentioning the name here since there aren't many options along this stretch. Restrooms were very clean. I so wanted to have Litti Chokha but they didn’t have it. Had tea and resumed our journey. Entering Jharkhand, the road winds through forests and makes for a pleasant drive.  3pm - We again stopped at a restaurant and had pakodas (yum) and tea. The place was new, clean and had shaded parking, almost like an alcove. Called Parivar. This was near Hazaribaug. Nice parking at the hotel! They had one such space for each car! Luxury.  3.40pm - Having spent around 30 mins, started off. Enroute, there was congestion at many bridges and at the WB border. Not too much, though. Entering WB, the road quality improved but again, in stretches. As it was dark, it was difficult to maintain a good pace, not knowing what diversions spring up when. Again, one Hyundai Eon guy was weaving in and out of traffic, passing everyone like a pro. Stuck to him like a brother and cut an excellent pace for an hour or so. Traffic is bad at small towns on this stretch, with 20 mins in each town. Crossed Asansol and was on the last stretch for the day, cruising when I saw a huge (HUGE) pothole too late and the passenger side wheels went right over it at full speed. On my side, apart from the sound, I didn’t feel a thing. But my wife, sitting on the rear passenger side seemed a bit shaken. In my view, the car took it solidly, I just had one hand on the steering and it didn’t budge one bit. 7.45pm - Reached Durgapur and hotel Fortune Park, where we'd booked, is right next to the highway so got there and put it in the parking. That’s when I heard a knocking sound from the engine bay. Like something had come unstuck. Maybe the pothole did it? Too tired to inspect right away, headed to the room. Went down for dinner but the restaurant was very crowded so went back and dined in room. Day 5 Stats  Day 6 Durgapur Kolkata 183kms Shortest stretch of the whole trip and expected it to be one of the most uneventful, too. 9am - Had a leisurely breakfast and went down to check about the sound under the bonnet. Opened it up and started the car but no unusual noise. Everything seemed ok. 10am - Headed out and refuelled (no Xtra premium). The road was 2 lanes throughout and lots of intermittent patchwork. I was taking this very easy since it was just 180kms and I had no pressure to get anywhere within any time, when a Scorpio overtook me and close behind it, a Passat scorched past and then a WBSRTC Volvo went past. My wife, who till now was almost half asleep in the front seat, suddenly sat upright and was like “why are you driving like this? Why can’t you pick up some speed?? How can you let a bus overtake you!? Go catch that Passat!"  The Scorpio was a self-drive rented vehicle and he seemed to have the least concern for the vehicle. I saw him overtake from the left of the leftmost lane, with one set of wheels off the road and huge potholes there. He didn’t slowdown one bit. And the Passat guy was driving well but was flooring it, clearly. I switched to paddle shifts and targeted the bus. These patchy roads are nothing for the bus. The undulations are absorbed by the tyres themselves and does not even reach the suspension setup, I guess. 2 lanes only, so very less space. Eventually, I could only get past him when he had to make a scheduled stop at a town!! Carrying on, caught up with the Scorpio and Passat, which in turn were caught up behind some truck traffic. Hah, nice sentence there. Some 30 mins of this spirited driving and my mileage, which was 16kmpl for the day, dropped off to 15.5kmpl!! Eventually lost them at some toll booths. 12.15pm - Finally, after 4.5 days of driving, entered Calcutta and reached hotel by 1.30pm. Day 6 Stats  Journey Summary  The car, well is brand new so I never expected it to have any issues. But, otherwise, got to spend some time with it. It is very comfortable in all seats, with hardly any complains over long stretches of patchy roads. Sunroof makes the cabin feel airy and spacious and definitely helps a lot in lifting up the spirits of the passengers and my kid had one more place to stare out of. While a proper mile muncher, the car is also a breeze to drive in congested, narrow by lanes, with right-turns and u-turns and bumper to bumper traffic. DSG, of course is a star. There are threads with thousands of posts about DSG, its intricacies and its horrors. I've been fortunate till now that it hasn't failed me. But then, when it works, it is a joy. There's hardly any other auto box that even comes close. Despite being fully loaded, the car took all the minor off-roading in its stride and did not scrape anywhere! I was pleased. The NVH management is excellent. Very little noise and even lesser vibrations come into the cabin. Finally a wonderful 2300km road trip comes to an end. Saddest part is that we had been preparing for this trip from August. Looking forward to it, planning itinerary, things to carry, etc., complicated by the fact that we were moving to a new place and needed clothes and other essentials for at least another 15 days after reaching! And the road trip came and went in the blink of an eye!  |
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21st January 2021, 14:19
| #2 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Kolkata - Pune
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| re: Ahmedabad to Calcutta road-trip in a Skoda Karoq Welcome to the City Of Joy ! Hope to see you in our next meets in the city  |
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21st January 2021, 14:57
| #3 |
| BHPian Join Date: Jun 2018 Location: Nil
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21st January 2021, 15:11
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21st January 2021, 15:15
| #5 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2020 Location: Hyderbad
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21st January 2021, 16:21
| #6 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: KOL-DEL-LKO
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21st January 2021, 17:16
| #7 | ||
| BHPian Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: CCU/BLR
Posts: 179
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| Quote:
I'm surprised that you faced trouble in Ahmedabad. My other car is a KA registration and the 4 years that I spent in AMD, I've driven all over GJ and never once has anyone bothered about my registration. They were after me for not having an HSRP number plate but not for KA. I'm hoping that the situation will be the same in Kolkata and I'll be able to drive one KA car and one GJ car here without trouble. I hope we get a pan India registration system soon. Quote:
Last edited by Sheel : 22nd January 2021 at 11:53. Reason: Please edit / multi-quote your replies instead of back to back posts. Thanks. | ||
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21st January 2021, 17:24
| #8 | |
| BHPian | re: Ahmedabad to Calcutta road-trip in a Skoda Karoq Quote:
Sorry for taking this OT. I have usually never paid fines. I average twice a month to Ahmedabad they stop me randomly (not always) just for checks (alcohol) and papers (Always on SP Ring road circles). But it's a good 15 to 20 mins waste of time while they search under the seats etc. I had a a funny one on my Dash cam too don't now where the video is now. I agree with you that India should have one registration. It would help so many people who keep moving with work. | |
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22nd January 2021, 09:24
| #9 |
| BHPian  | re: Ahmedabad to Calcutta road-trip in a Skoda Karoq The Karoq is an amazing car! Congratulations, and hope you had a safe trip. Nothing is as satisfying as seeing your car covered in mud after a trip. Immensely fun. Related thread: What's the dirtiest you've gotten your car (What's the dirtiest you've gotten your car?) I couldn't help but notice you wearing a samsung watch but using CarPlay,,, what's going on  Last edited by GTO : 22nd January 2021 at 09:40. Reason: Kodiaq = Karoq |
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22nd January 2021, 11:25
| #10 | |||
| BHPian Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: CCU/BLR
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| Re: Ahmedabad to Calcutta road-trip in a Skoda Karoq Quote:
Quote:
 Quote:
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22nd January 2021, 11:34
| #11 | |
| BHPian  | Re: Ahmedabad to Calcutta road-trip in a Skoda Karoq Quote:
I have one question though - Why didn't you use the rear wash/wipe even once!? | |
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22nd January 2021, 13:22
| #12 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: CCU/BLR
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| Re: Ahmedabad to Calcutta road-trip in a Skoda Karoq Quote:
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22nd January 2021, 16:14
| #13 |
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22nd January 2021, 16:58
| #14 | |
| Senior - BHPian  | Re: Ahmedabad to Calcutta road-trip in a Skoda Karoq Quote:
That was a great drive focused write-up which was a treat to read after such a long while. It's good to see the FE figures the car returned and the consistency with which you drove to reach the targeted destinations on time to allow for the overnight rest. Wish you a long and happy journey with the Karoq. | |
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22nd January 2021, 18:56
| #15 |
| Distinguished - BHPian   Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Bombay
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