[meetarin]

Does anyone know a good doctor who can treat procrastination!?

While I sit down to write this short blog, a lot of traffic has passed through NH-19 and a lot of water through the Ganga. Nevertheless, I still thought of penning this down because well, how much of a 1500 km road can change drastically in two months!

PPE is quite the buzzword in this pandemic hit world, so I will borrow the word in this blog:
Premise
Planning
Execution

Premise - My Hyundai i10 Magna 1.1 (HR registration) had served me for 6 years and has seen all my struggles in life. A good companion always, it never let me down in any situation. The car had been plying in Kolkata and suburbs since late 2017 and the first couple of years in the state had mostly been trouble-free. However with the onset of the pandemic, it drew more attention of the cops for unknown reasons which would result in my harassment on frequent occasions. To be honest it became a bit frustrating. I did have a plan to upgrade my car, though not immediately. But with the hassle peaking, I finally decided to part ways with my beloved i10, because it was not worth spending the money for registering it in WB for a 6 year old hatch.

Planning - With the decision in place, I started enquiring locally, both offline and in the Hyundai showroom. The offers were not lucrative at all, and thus I decided to drive down to Delhi and sell it off there. Meanwhile, I also spoke to the showroom from where I made the purchase and also booked an appointment with Cars24 for the coming week of 17th Jan.

The date of the departure was decided to be 14th Jan. Accordingly, I visited the Hyundai Service Station to get a full service done including wheel alignments. The day prior to the journey, all the tyres were checked thoroughly for possible damages and punctures. I had to ensure that small hungers and sleepiness during the drive don’t go unnoticed, so I made enough purchase of chocolates and a pair of RedBulls. Of course, order was placed to Mom’s kitchen to pack breakfast and lunch; along with a flask of tea, which is much needed on a long drive, especially when you are alone.

Execution - Pros always advise on catching enough sleep before the day of the journey, but this is something which has always eluded me. I never manage to get more than 4-5 hours of sleep before the day of the journey, and surprisingly, it has never troubled me. With the alarm set at 3.30 am, I woke up timely, quickly got ready and was ready for the challenge. My parents were a bit upset that I always listen to none other than myself and I assured that I will share my live location with them. With that, I bid goodbye to them and the wheels started rolling at 4.45 am. While going to Delhi, there is not much one can experiment with the route and can simply follow the NH-19. I was no exception.

In an hour, I hit the Durgapur expressway crossing the towns of Memari and Rasulpur. Though it was the Sankranti, which is apparently the peak of winters in Bengal, the night was not very cold and there was hardly any fog. While crossing Memari, I was stopped by WBP cops, they just did a routine check and let me go without further questions. I smiled myself thinking that the farewell wasn’t bad!

My first stop for breakfast was right at the WB-Jharkhand border. The plan throughout was not to make frequent stops and by this time, I had already driven for 3.5 hours and 195 kms. After 20 mins or so, I resumed the drive again and soon entered Jharkhand. Durgapur Expressway, as most of you know is pretty good to drive. With entering Jharkhand, the quality of roads went down by few notches. The silver lining for the entire stretch of Jharkhand is that a lot of roads are being made and the day is not far when we are going to see beautiful roads to drive in Jharkhand. Nevertheless, crossing Jharkhand was not a very difficult affair, except a small delay in the Bagodar toll plaza. The folks tried to extract cash saying my Fastag doesn’t have balance, I thought it could be a trap and insisted they scan the tag using a hand-held scanner and the matter was sorted.

Next up was the drive through Bihar. Just before entering Bihar, I finished my lunch at about 12.30 because I didn’t want to lose time after entering the state and the intention was to cross the Sasaram toll plaza as early as possible. Before my drive, I had enquired a lot both in Team-BHP and few friends (who frequent this route) about the deadlocks in Bihar, and to be honest, the words were not very encouraging. I was mentally prepared for the possible congestions but to my surprise, I was crossing the dreaded bottlenecks one after the another at ease. At certain places, the road was crowded, probably because of Sankranti melas and trucks driving on the wrong side was a common sight. However, crossing the infamous bottlenecks of Sher Ghati, Jawahar Bridge and eventually, Sasaram toll plaza and Karmanasha toll plaza was a breeze. I could not thank my stars more!

The worst stretch was crossing the Karmnasha canal, the broken bridge was still there and construction for the new bridge was still in progress. This is probably where the front tyre on the driver’s side picked up a big nail and resulted in a flat tyre. At this point, I was actually driving ahead of ETA, and the flat tyre went on to prove the truthfulness of Murphy’s law. I was just 60 kms away from my destination for the day and had to encounter some moderately dense fog because of this setback.

I finally reached my hostel (GoStops hostel) in Varanasi at 7.26 pm. The plan earlier was to experience the evening aarti but I thought it prudent to call it a day and explore Varanasi on the next back-up day.

To be continued - Day 2 (Varanasi-Delhi)

Live Video:

https://youtu.be/6iZJvmffSSE

The only pictures clicked on Day 1:




Note to admins - converting this to a full length travelogue.

[meetarin]

My heart was still longing for some more time in Varanasi. I’m not a very religious and spiritual person but the time spent yesterday in walking the ghats of Varanasi, taking a boat ride in the holy Ganga, experiencing the evening Aarti, seeing life culminating into death - all these made me search the purpose of life. I felt an eerie calm within. Unfortunately enough, the weekend was coming to an end and the Delhi was still 850 odd kilometers away. With a heavy heart, I knew I had to hit the highway next morning. Quickly, I paid a visit to the reception and enquired if they would be kind enough to pack some breakfast for me. They obliged with a wide smile.

Siri woke me up at 4.30 am and informed me about the heavy fog that had engulfed the city. I got ready, bid adieu to the goStops folks and hit the road by 5.30. As much as I was worried about the fog, I couldn’t and didn’t want to delay the start because of the hundreds of kilometers to be covered and also in an endeavor to avoid the Delhi evening traffic.

As soon as I left the city and embarked on the highway, all I could see was slowly moving vehicles with their hazard lights on, wrapped in dense white fog. I shifted to the right lane, and steadily moved along at 50-55 kmph following the white lines. The decent road conditions were itching me to floor the gas pedal but the weather had other plans. At 8, I stopped for breakfast after crossing Prayagraj and by then, the conditions didn’t improve much. There was daylight, yet the surrounding felt like an abandoned ghost town. Worse, the ginormous trucks moved along in snail pace, few even broke down along the highway resulting in congestion.

Yet another hour or so later, I took the diversion towards NH30 near Soraon which leads to Kunda bypass and eventually Rae Bareli. This stretch of more than a hundred kilometers was undoubtedly the worst I encountered till now in the drive. The fog, the heavy traffic on the stretch and a single lane - all of these made driving painful and frustrating. After an ordeal of three hours, I finally hit a 4 lane highway which leads to Lucknow and could gather some momentum now and at this point, the fog was unveiled too.

A muffin break


I was literally cruising and my car munching the kilometers nicely when the Dakhina Shekhpur Toll Plaza had other plans. One of the most unorganized toll plazas I had ever seen; incessant honking, lane and queue jumping, cars with stickers of Tyagis, Jats, Gujjars (no offence to the educated and sensible folks) making their presence felt - it was a chaotic blunder. After 25 minutes of torture, the wheels could finally roll.

Cut to 2 pm, I reached Lucknow and exiting the city was not difficult, except for some minor congestions. I had good memories of Lucknow earlier, especially of its cuisines. Come on, who doesn't like it being a non-vegetarian! However, I could not afford the luxury of stopping and hogging some biryani and/or galauti kabab for the paucity of time. Just before joining the Agra Lucknow Expressway (ALE), I refueled to a full tank. I heard of really great driving experiences on the ALE and I knew this was my chance to redeem the lost hours of the morning.

Agra Lucknow Expressway


I was really extracting the most out of a hatchback, pushing it to 90-100 kmph but there's only this much an entry level hatch could do (mind you, a 2014 made one)! Near Unnao, I got a great view of the Ganga crisscrossing the ALE, stopped my car as I thought there could not be a better location to finish off my lunch! At this point, I was driving continuously for almost 3.5 hours and also didn't plan to stop anytime soon after lunch. A quick lunch of 15 mins, and I was ready to take over the command of my steering again.

Where the Ganga meets ALE


The Ganga at Unnao


Lunch scenes


Quite a huge amount of planning went into building the expressway understandably, the entry and exit points were well marked, the quality of the tarmac was excellent and it was even barricaded to prevent random cattle and dogs from venturing. No wonder, cars consider it a heaven to drive and open their full throttles. Now came the hardest and most daunting part of the drive - TO STAY AWAKE after lunch on a highway where you don't need to do anything apart from holding the steering wheel! I was really feeling sleepy at this point. No amount of songs, singing, etc. would help when I remembered the catch line of Red Bull - "Gives you wings!". I had bought two cans before I started the drive and thought of giving it a shot. I continued taking small sips and sang loudly and funnily for the next one hour. Man, the drink kicked in nicely and I was not feeling the fatigue and sleepiness anymore!

The wings and the calm


Note to those who plan to drive on ALE - there's a food court and Fuel station right after the 228th km milestone. Please watch out for the same if you or your car are hungry / thirsty!

It was almost sundown when I crossed Agra, the Taj Expressway nicely lit with all the lights had a magical hue in the golden hour.

Taj Expressway at the Golden Hour


The ETA stood at 8.45 or 9 pm and I thought it was still not that bad, considering the delay in the morning. I left the Taj Expressway by 7 and hit the Yamuna Expressway. "Known tarmac and I should be able to make it within the ETA", I thought but guess who had plans to torment me? The infamous fog of North India. It was back, stronger. The visibility was almost reduced to zero, stopping was not an option as I was already on the right lane.

Fog chal raha hai!


I was squinting my eyes hard to see what's ahead and behind. I used to stay in Delhi/NCR for 6 years but this fog was one of its kind, one I have never experienced. I remembered how I used to abuse Indian Railways for not running the trains on time during my home trips to Kolkata from Delhi in winters. I could only imagine what the loco pilots went through! I kept on tailing some car or the other just to ensure I am not stranded. The ETA was getting delayed every minute, but all I had was a helpless feeling and could be nothing expect for careful and cautious. Announcements were being made at the toll plazas to exercise utmost caution while driving with advice to stop if possible.

The phone kept on ringing - my parents back home and my friends waiting in Delhi wanted to enquire about my whereabouts. I assured them I was absolutely safe and was taking it slow amidst such challenging conditions. At about 9.45 pm, I finally exited the Yamuna Expressway and entered Noida. I immediately felt at home coming from a hostile environment. The final leg of the drive from Noida to my friend's place in Delhi was a breeze. I was glad I could pull off this entire drive of almost 1500 kilometers alone and had a grin on my face.

Dilli <3


It was 10.30 when I reached my destination, my friends waiting impatiently for me to join the dinner with some amazing bhetki fish paturi (steamed fish in banana leaf), mutton kasha and steamed rice!

Live video:

https://youtu.be/0mRZfLEw9wk

Trip particulars:
Total distance: 1485 kms
Fuel used: 77.28 L
Fuel economy: 19.21 kmpl
Fuel Cost: Rs 6551
Toll taxes: Rs 2495

[batladanny]

Lovely! Solo drives rock! Just you, the car and your music/podcasts.

I did Bangalore-Mumbai and Mumbai-Hyderabad-Mumbai drives recently and have fallen in love with long-distance solo tripping. Just a note of caution: Do share your live location with loved ones. I had a heart-stopping moment in Pune city during the Hyderabad drive and while nothing happened, was glad that my parents knew where I would've been in case anything untoward did occur.

[OctYFAN]

This travelogue is amazing. Short but highly descriptive. I love reading these. And yes, I know about the fog too. I was in the Delhi/NCR region for over two years for work. I and my family took a trip back then(December 2017) in a friend's Duster. We were thrown off schedule due to some unforseen circumstances on the way and we're a day late. We were returning from Dehradun at around 8 pm and there was an extremely dense fog on either side. Not being a local, I relied on Google Maps for navigation.

The fog became so dense that the lights were not enough. I had to crawl at the pace of 50 km/hr on the highway. I was like "God I will build you a temple if I reach home safely" kind of scared. And Google being the thing it is took me off the highway to a faster route. It was a single cart track on the bank of the Ganga irrigation canal. On the other side was a 10 foot drop to some fields below. I had to go even slower in these parts. But thankfully a person in a Swift Dzire helped us till Noida where we parted ways.

The above was the scariest experience I have ever had on Indian roads.

Cheers
OctYFAN

[Rahjain]

Thanks for sharing this travelogue! Delhi's Fog is always killer. Last year I was returning from Agra to Delhi and was hit with sudden fog. I remember for at least 30-40 mins, all cars were just limping about bumper to bumper even while the road was clear.

[Ashdel]

I always wanted to do Super Long road trips, however my wish came true last year in August, where i did solo Delhi - Pune - Delhi (via halt in Indore) in 5 days. This was more of a business trip, and Serious Thanks to COVID - i refrain from public transport and did it in my Brezza.

[snappysam]

Wonderful! Loved your travelogue. I too am into long solo drives but always limit them to less than 800-1000KM one way.

[Reinhard]

Nice thread. Loved reading through. Thanks for sharing. Indeed nothing like solo quiet drives

I've been blessed to have been able to drive solo on quite a few occasions. Plenty through the scenic landscapes of central Europe also. The top pick for me would be a Brussels-Berlin solo drive starting late evening after office around 8PM. A solo drive through the night, to reach near dusk. Return was during daylight so I got a better view of the scenes . The machine I had booked with AVIS was an Audi A3 diesel to do some nasty speeds on the autobahns but at last moment they managed to apologize and give a Fiat500X Diesel instead. That sure made a hash of things to some extent, but had a lovely memorable 4 days of holiday in one of the most unique cities of the world for sure and driving for sure.

In India - solo Golden Quadrangle & Solo Atal Tunnel+Chandra-Tal are in the bucket list. Amen.

[911CarerraS]

Wow,. A crisp Travelogue Indeed!

I can relate with your Delhi fog predicament
I too pass by Dwarka every morning around 5 am in winters and it's the closest thing to hell I've seen!
I crawl at 30 km/hr to avoid any other car or tree!
I'm happy that you reached your destination unscathed and safe!
Wish you many happy miles ahead!

[meetarin]

Originally Posted by batladanny

Lovely! Solo drives rock! Just you, the car and your music/podcasts.
[/i]

@batladanny - Solo drives are love, isn't it? You get so much time with yourself and can reflect on life
As a practice, I always share my live location with my parents and a friend or two who care about me so they always know where I am!

Originally Posted by OctYFAN

This travelogue is amazing. Short but highly descriptive.
I was like "God I will build you a temple if I reach home safely" kind of scared.

@OctYFAN - Thank you! I cant totally resonate with the "God I will build you a temple if I reach home safely" feeling! Trust me, at one moment I was like why did I even do this! But, there's the Divine which guides you home always.
I also know of the shorter route through the Ganga Irrigation Canal and a friend was sharing a similar experience where he was driving in the night on that route unknowing of the fact that there's a drop on the other side of the road! Scary!! Glad that you navigated home safely.

Originally Posted by Rahjain

Thanks for sharing this travelogue! Delhi's Fog is always killer. Last year I was returning from Agra to Delhi and was hit with sudden fog. I remember for atleast 30-4o mins, all cars were just limping about bumber to bumber even while the road was clear.

@Rahjain - Thank you! Totally agree. However I saw so many cars speeding even in that dense fog like there's no tomorrow. I could not understand how and why they were so daring!!

Originally Posted by Ashdel

I always wanted to do Super Long road trips, however my wish came true last year in August, where i did solo Delhi - Pune - Delhi (via halt in Indore) in 5 days. This was more of a business trip, and Serious Thanks to COVID - i refrain from public transport and did it in my Brezza.

@Ashdel - Oh great! I guess COVID changed a lot of things for good.

Originally Posted by snappysam

Wonderful! Loved your travelogue. I too am into long solo drives but always limit them to less than 800-1000KM one way.

@snappysam - Thank you!

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Nice thread. Loved reading through. Thanks for sharing. Indeed nothing like solo quiet drives

In India - solo Golden Quadrangle & Solo Atal Tunnel+Chandra-Tal are in the bucket list. Amen.

@Reinhard - No wonder Sir, with the huge experience you have of driving! It comes across always in your posts and the technical knowledge you possess Hope your bucket list comes true soon!

Originally Posted by 911CarerraS

Wow,. A crisp Travelogue Indeed!

Wish you many happy miles ahead!

@911CarerraS - Thank you so much!

[mmxylorider]

Must have been a great experience. My solo drives in India have been limited to Mumbai-Pune runs and have not had the opportunity for anything longer yet.

Longest in the US has been Los Angeles to Austin in 2018 (about 1500 miles over 36 hours including overnight halt and breaks). Completely monotonous 75% of the time but saw some very unique landscapes and places (Davis Monthan Aircraft Boneyard). Rows upon rows of mothballed planes.

[meetarin]

Originally Posted by mmxylorider

Must have been a great experience. My solo drives in India have been limited to Mumbai-Pune runs and have not had the opportunity for anything longer yet.
.

Yes it was absolutely enjoyable! Hoping you get to explore the length and breadth of our country soon!

[Sukanta73]

Excellent write up. Although you have mentioned timing, appreciate if you could please share the summarized timeline, if you have it or at least toll plaza time details?
Thanks in advance.

[meetarin]

Originally Posted by Sukanta73

Excellent write up. Although you have mentioned timing, appreciate if you could please share the summarized timeline, if you have it or at least toll plaza time details?
Thanks in advance.

@Sukanta73 - Thank you! I didn't have to wait much in most of the Toll Plazas surprisingly except for Bagodar toll plaza where I waited for 10 mins and Dakhina Shekhpur toll plaza for 25 mins. I could cross all other bottlenecks (Sasaram toll plaza, Mohania toll plaza, Jawahar bridge) with ease. Attaching a timestamp from my Fastag history of all the tolls I crossed which will give you a better idea. This doesn't include 3 or 4 tolls which I crossed in Taj and Yamuna Expressway. Hope this helps

[eyeman]

Excellent write up. Your trip was both gutsy and enjoyable at the same time. Do keep us posted about your next ride.