[animeshc]

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all” ~ Helen Keller

Disclaimer: I was about to title this as a ‘Godfather road trip’ and then saw another bhpian cover Bangalore to Ladakh and was humbled down to earth . Also, this is more of a trip report than a travelogue, sharing the details in-case someone wants to embark on a similar journey.

Like Thanos from the Avengers, the end of WFH was also inevitable. Once we got the email for return to office, it was time to relocate Lucifer to Hyd. For the sake of practicality, we debated about the possibility of using a MoversNPackers for exactly 30 seconds and then discarded it. This had always been a trip we were super excited about and the moment of reality was here.

Based on the routes discussed on this forum, the route decided was Jpr - Bhopal - Nagpur - Hyderabad. We decided to halt one night at Bhopal and a second night halt at Nagpur only if required.

The route taken.


Day 1 (Jaipur - Bhopal, ~600 kms)

We started by 6:45 am from Jaipur and took the NH52 to cruise through to Kota with a tea break at Deoli. The roads till Kota are quite good barring some diversions for the last 30-40 kms. We crossed Kota by ~ 11 am.

Onset of the daddy road trip!


The tunnel before Bundi


Post Kota, the highway is even better barring the forest area around Dara and the newly constructed Bypass post Dara till Jhalrapatan is amazing and with pretty negligible traffic, Lucifer could literally smoke the tarmac .

The magnificent Jhalawar bypass




Post Jhalrapatan, it’s a two lane highway till Rajgarh and there is a dearth of food options along the way. We only found a decent option just before Rajgarh and broke for lunch.




Post Rajgarh, you enter NH46 and the road till Bhopal is quite magical, minimal traffic and scenic surroundings and even some twisty portions, the exhausts and the B&O both sang out loud and this was the perfect caffeine to the lull created by a heavy lunch.

The NH46 stretch post Rajgarh was a dream




We reached our hotel in Bhopal around 3pm and comfortably beat the Google maps estimate by around 90 mins including breaks.

Based on a friend’s suggestion, we had booked the Jehan Numa palace. It was the perfect place to unwind after the drive and we treated ourselves to an evening SPA and a high calorie diet













Day 1 summary


Day 2 (Bhopal - Nagpur, ~350 kms)

We were ready at the breakfast table at 7 am and were pleasantly surprised by an amazing spread of breakfast buffet, it definitely beat some of the more famous 5 star properties I have stayed at. By 7:30, we took off.

Flag off, Day 2



On the Bhopal - Nagpur stretch, you drive through various forest areas which are really scenic. The only downside is that it was partly two lane and even in the 4 lane highways, we encountered a lot of diversions. This continues till Betul which is kind of the midway and also was our location for a quick tea break.









Post Betul, the highway is really smooth and we could really make up for the lost time, entering Nagpur by 12:30 pm. Potentially we could have covered till Hyderabad on the same day but thought it would be futile to stretch so much, instead we decided to treat ourselves at Haldirams and ultimately checked ourselves in the Radisson which also turned out to be a really nice property.









When in Nagpur, do the Haldiram and orange mocktails!



Day 2 summary

[animeshc]

Day 3 (Nagpur - Hyderabad, ~500 kms)

We hit the road again by 7:30 am. I had done this stretch a few years ago and the roads were really smooth. This time however we found a lot of broken patches and potholes, that considerably slowed us down than what I had expected. We were happy that we didn’t decide to do it the previous day. The road however significantly improved post Adilabad and the excitement of stretching Lucifer as well as reaching our destination meant that we skipped any breaks during this drive. We reached home by 2:30 again beating the Google map timing comfortably .

A patchy start post Nagpur


The middle overs post Adilabad helped us recover the run rate(I mean the avg speed).
















Homecoming! Hyd ORR provided the perfect death over acceleration



Osman sagar


Home!


Day 3 summary


Overall summary


Closing thoughts
As for many of us, long drives are therapeutic and meditative. It was not only very fulfiling to do this trip but in a way, rejuvenating too.
The roads in India have come a long way in the last decade or so and barring a few patches, it was an absolute breeze to drive. To be honest, I hadn’t imagined it to be this good.
Lucifer was probably the perfect car I could have asked for.
- The 6 cylinders were a continuous dose of caffeine and adrenaline (The number of times we were overtaken were less than the number of fuel stops we took ).
- Even with low profile tyres and a suspension tuned for sporty driving, we never felt any discomfort. Of-course, on some of the broken patches I had my heart in my mouth but barring one bad speed breaker, it never scaped the bottom.
- The overall mileage was about 9 km/l. On patches where I drove sedately, I could manage upto 11kmpl. But like logic in Bhai movies, they were far and few .
- The addiction with it has grown with time and we almost decided to drive to Bangalore a day after reaching Hyderabad, but unfortunately the timings didn’t work out.
- The only downside is that it tempts you to stop for photoshoots at every scenic location.
- We had some apprehensions about taking it for such a long drive, but at the end of it, it proved all those wrong and we have bigger aspirations now. Hoping for many more of these!

The parting shot

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Sheel]

The smile on your face says it all. Recently a friend of mine did a trip to Goa from Purnia via Lucknow and as he had studied in Indore, he explored a bit of M.P. he was also pretty surprised with road infrastructure, none of the patches were bad and he too could carry good speeds throughout.

The S5 must be thanking you for not making it a garage queen. Please keep traveling and sharing . Thank You.

[GForceEnjoyer]

Absolutely beautiful pictures, with an equally beautiful subject in them: your S5. India's national highways have come an insanely long way recently as you said; Hyderabad to Pune and Hyderabad to Bangalore (then Ooty) were managed effortlessly and with zero fatigue by us in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Your choice of car and colour is top-notch: I can't help but keep admiring an S5 when I see one. These German cars absolutely shine on the highway and long to be taken there (they were designed for the autobahn after all). Great travelogue!

[JoshMachine]

Originally Posted by animeshc

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all” ~ Helen Keller

+1.

And in the same breath - "What we have once enjoyed we can never lose, all that we love deeply becomes a part of us" ~ Helen Keller.

Just to be clear, am talking about the love for the S5

this is more of a trip report than a travelogue, sharing the details in-case someone wants to embark on a similar journey.

And what an awesome trip report at that! Thanks for sharing

Overall summary..

Over a 1500 km long distance trip, an average speed of 74 km/h on Indian roads is close to supersonic speed! Incredible.
Speaks a lot about the man, and his machine.

Closing thoughts..
As for many of us, long drives are therapeutic and meditative. It was not only very fulfiling to do this trip but in a way, rejuvenating too.

Can relate to this completely 100%, from my own 850 km single-day drives.

Closing thoughts: when are you planning the return trip to Jaipur?

[jagan88]

We recently Hyderabad-Mumbai-Hyderabad on a 3 day weekend and was nodding affirmatively reading that our highways have become so good and that long drives are therapeutic. A 200kms breakfast roundtrips are not uncommon anymore. It all started with the golden quadrilateral and we have been improving our road infra phenomenally well.

Thanks for the route info - Jaipur / Rajasthan tour is in my wishlist for a long time now. This seems possible now and will probably just halt at Bhopal.

[vinya_jag]

Wow, the car looks so planted and ready to pounce. Im sure low GC has a lot of advantages. Less wind resistance, wind noise and low body roll?

Absolutely agree on Indian roads getting better these days.
Highways are better than ever before. It is only those poorly maintained Bangalore outskirt roads scare me.

While watching the Grand Tour episode of Madagascar, got curios to know how other countries fared. Was surprised to see India amogst impressive company


Full list here:
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/ran...roads_quality/

[ampere]

Great to note how the Nagpur-Jaipur section has evolved. Once the Samruddhi (Pune-Nagpur) highway also opens up; the connectivity would go up a few notches.

Jaipur-Kota via Bundi is always a good road. But the roads beyond till Bhopal and there on to Nagpur are a revelation. Also the newly proposed Delhi-Bombay express way is also shaping up along this area south east of Kota. Will make a great choice cross-country drives.

[VellVector]

Originally Posted by animeshc

Day 3 (Nagpur - Hyderabad, ~500 kms)

We hit the road again by 7:30 am. I had done this stretch a few years ago and the roads were really smooth. This time however we found a lot of broken patches and potholes, that considerably slowed us down than what I had expected. We were happy that we didn’t decide to do it the previous day.

Thanks for sharing this update - the car looks fantastic.

How bad was the road between Nagpur and Adilabad? Was it continuously broken?

[OffRoadFun]

What a trip! Beautifully captured in pics and words!

I have to say, Audi S5 (and A5) has timeless contemporary styling which is always refreshing. Mere styling itself might be a big factor in choosing this car!

[animeshc]

Originally Posted by Sheel

The smile on your face says it all.

The S5 must be thanking you for not making it a garage queen. Please keep traveling and sharing . Thank You.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by GForceEnjoyer

Hyderabad to Pune and Hyderabad to Bangalore (then Ooty) were managed effortlessly and with zero fatigue by us in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Your choice of car and colour is top-notch: I can't help but keep admiring an S5 when I see one.

Thank you, I have been meaning to do Hyd-Pune, how much time did it take? I had done Hyd-Solapur a few years ago and it was pretty horrendous at that time.

Originally Posted by JoshMachine

And what an awesome trip report at that! Thanks for sharing
Over a 1500 km long distance trip, an average speed of 74 km/h on Indian roads is close to supersonic speed! Incredible.
Speaks a lot about the man, and his machine.

Closing thoughts: when are you planning the return trip to Jaipur?

Haha, thank you for the kind words . No plans of the return trip yet as my office is in Hyd and can't shuttle the car for shorter home trips to Jaipur, unless of-course Covid uncle decides to intervene again!

Originally Posted by jagan88

We recently Hyderabad-Mumbai-Hyderabad on a 3 day weekend and was nodding affirmatively reading that our highways have become so good and that long drives are therapeutic.
Thanks for the route info - Jaipur / Rajasthan tour is in my wishlist for a long time now. This seems possible now and will probably just halt at Bhopal.

Nice! Mumbai roundtrip from Hyd in 3 days seems quite remarkable.

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

Wow, the car looks so planted and ready to pounce. Im sure low GC has a lot of advantages. Less wind resistance, wind noise and low body roll?

While watching the Grand Tour episode of Madagascar, got curios to know how other countries fared. Was surprised to see India amogst impressive company
Attachment 2322862

Thanks for sharing the data! Yes, of-course low GC makes it a lot fun to drive. As soon as you get into the driving position, you feel like a race car driver ready to launch

Originally Posted by VellVector

Thanks for sharing this update - the car looks fantastic.

How bad was the road between Nagpur and Adilabad? Was it continuously broken?

Thank you, it was patchy in parts and took us about 3.5 hours to reach Adilabad. More than the bad roads, it was the worry of encountering a surprise pothole that slowed us down. If you are driving a SUV, probably they won't worry you much. Post Adilabad, the road is a lot more predictable.

Originally Posted by OffRoadFun

What a trip! Beautifully captured in pics and words!

I have to say, Audi S5 (and A5) has timeless contemporary styling which is always refreshing. Mere styling itself might be a big factor in choosing this car!

Thank you, yes the looks definitely played a big part

[robby0707]

Hey, Nice write up about an amazing trip in a drool worthy car. The Indian highways have come a long way. I am a constant traveller from Punjab to Kerala and back and have done the trip in all 3 of my cars, the Scross1.6, Tucson and the Octavia TDI. I even did the trip with my wife just after marriage. We drove all the way up to ky workplace in Ludhiana from my home town and I can confidently say that except some stretches and the majority roads in kerala, most other highways are really good these days!!

[GForceEnjoyer]

Originally Posted by animeshc

Thank you!
Thank you, I have been meaning to do Hyd-Pune, how much time did it take? I had done Hyd-Solapur a few years ago and it was pretty horrendous at that time.

It took a little over 10 and a half hours if memory serves, but taking into account peak traffic in Pune. On the way back, it took just over 9 and a half hours. There are only a few stretches where the average speed drops like a rock but there are more than enough excellent stretches in between to make up (or were, in October 2021). Do try reaching Pune before nightfall though, the traffic easily added another 45 minutes.

[JuggrKnot]

Originally Posted by animeshc

...
As for many of us, long drives are therapeutic and meditative. It was not only very fulfiling to do this trip but in a way, rejuvenating too.
The roads in India have come a long way in the last decade or so and barring a few patches, it was an absolute breeze to drive. To be honest, I hadn’t imagined it to be this good...

Great read! This route is one I can see myself doing within the next few months and your enthusiastic article is just the adrenaline & caffeine I need, till then