[thirugata]

Kolkata - Bhubaneshwar:

Day 58: 16/05/2022


My wife woke up early with uneasiness and headache and she was not feeling great. My opinion was to take another rest day in Kolkata but she didnt want to add more days to travel and told me that she would sleep in the car.
We left my friend's house at 6:45 AM. Getting out of the city was easy and road condition was good too. There were a lot of speed breakers and barricades for the first 50 odd KMs after which going was easy.
We stopped for a tender coconut on the way, my wife skipped breakfast and I had some fruits and drove on. After crossing Kharagpur, we had few deviations because of road construction barring which road condition was good throughout.
Once we entered Odisha first stop was for fuel and next stop was for lunch on a roadside hotel in Dharmanagar. Had Odisha style thali here. We reached our hotel in Bhubaneswar by 3:15 PM. My wife spent rest of the evening taking rest.
This was an uneventful day and no photos enroute was taken as the official photographer was out of action.





Route taken: Kolkata - Kharagpur - Jaleswar - Soro - Dharmanagar - Chandikhol - Cuttack - Bhubaneswar




Day 59: 17/05/2022


We woke up by 6:00 AM and thankfully my wife was feeling fresh, a full day of rest had helped her recover well. Our plan was to visit few temples in the city. We had our breakfast and left the hotel by 9:00 AM.
As soon as we reached the first location in our list we realized that there were way too many temples here than we had imagined. We decided to cover as many as possible till we get tired of exploring. We visited multiple temples and clicked loads of photos. Only Lingaraja temple does not allow you to take your cameras and mobile phones inside, so we had to walk around the temple complex and climb a vantage point to take photos. We were very impressed with the way all these temples and monuments have been maintained and cleanliness of the surroundings.



Aishaneswara temple



Lingaraja temple





Chitrakarani temple



Bindu Sagar



Parasurameswar temple









Mukteswara temple





Raja Rani temple







Brahmeswar temple







Rameswara temple




It was 1 :00 PM by this time and we were exhausted by roaming around in the hot sun. We returned to our hotel, had lunch and slept for a while. In the evening around 5:00 PM went out to visit Ram temple and Ekarma Haat to explore some local handicrafts.









Had some street food for dinner and returned to our hotel room by 9:30 PM.
Bhubaneswar was real surprise in terms of how well the city is planned and how cleanliness has been maintained. Very wide roads and ample parking space were the highlight of wherever we visited in this city.



What we covered so far

[thirugata]

Bhubaneshwar - Raipur:

Day 60: 18/05/2022


We woke up as usual around 6:00 AM, got ready, had breakfast and checked out of our hotel in Bhubaneswar by 8:15 AM. We had some city traffic to manage as we exited the city. Initial 25 odd KMs drive was in SH which was narrow and of average condition. Once we connected to NH 655, road condition improved. Our first stop for the day was for fuel and the next one for a tea.





Once we connected to NH 55 road condition became a mixed bag. This entire section of road was under construction, so wherever the construction was complete, we had 4 lane concrete highway and the rest was 2 lane pothole filled road. This slowed down our progress drastically. Most of this route passes through reserve forest area, so we had no option for food. We had our lunch once we reached Sambalpur @ Dominos at 2:45 PM. Post lunch we reached our hotel and checked in by 4:00 PM. Later in the evening went out to explore the Sambalpur market area.





Route taken: Bhubaneswar - Athagarh - Badakera - Tubey - Bonda - Redhakhol - Jujomura -Sambalpur


Day 61: 19/05/2022

For this day we had an appointment fixed for our car service in Raipur. TBHpian sachin_cs who knew the service manager in Skoda service center, Raipur had booked an appointment, would like to thank him for this help.
My car needs general service every 15,000 KMs and it was more than 17,000 KMs since the last service. I didnt want to take a chance and keep driving till we reach Bangalore, but this also meant we loose some time or an extra day during the travel for car service.
We checked out of our hotel in Sambalpur at around 8:15 AM after having our breakfast. We had to squeeze through some narrow roads to get out of the city. After this initial 6 - 8KMs we connected to 4 lane butter smooth NH53.
By this time, I received a call from service manager of Skoda service center in Raipur to ask me what time I would be bringing the car. I informed him about my travel plan and fixed a tentative time of post lunch, he also promised to complete the service in 3 hours which was a relief.
Going was very smooth because of excellent road conditions, we stopped for fuel and tea on the way. We entered Raipur around 12:00 PM and checked into our hotel by 12:30 PM.
This is the quickest I have covered 300 KMs matching with Purvanchal Expressway, that says a lot about the road conditions.









Route taken: Sambalpur - Bargarh - Sohela - Raitiya - Churakute - Saraipali - Pithora - Arang - Raipur



Post lunch, we visited the Skoda service center and handed over the car for service at 2:00 PM. Servicing was done quickly as promised and we were out of there by 6:00 PM.
We left for Budha Talab from here and stopped for a tea on the way. We spent rest of the evening at Budha Talab clicking loads of photos.







We returned to our hotel around 8:30 PM, had dinner and called it a day.



What we covered so far

[thirugata]

Raipur - Hyderabad:

Day 62: 20/05/2022


We started our journey at 9:00 AM after checking out of our hotel in Raipur. Having driven on NH 53 the previous day we were expecting good roads to continue.
We had some traffic to negotiate till we crossed Bhilai, from here traffic reduced and good roads continued. There were some sections of roads where we had to take deviation because of repair work barring which road condition was very good throughout. We stopped for fuel and tea on the way before entering Maharashtra.
We entered Nagpur at 2:00 PM and went in search of lunch. Bit of googling and found this restaurant called Ruchkar and had Maharashtrian thali there.



Post lunch we went to the house we had booked via airbnb and checked in by 4:00 PM. Rest of the evening was spent in the house relaxing as it was very hot to venture out. We also completed 15,000 KMs of drive in this trip.



Route taken: Raipur - Bhilai - Rajnandgaon - Chichola - Deori - Sakoli - Nagpur



Day 63: 21/05/2022


This was day for some long-distance drive but we were expecting good roads. We checked out of house after cooking and having breakfast at 8:00 AM. Road condition was good in most parts with occasional patches of bad road to keep you alert. Once we crossed to Telangana bad patches disappeared.





We stopped for fuel, this was the most expensive fuel of the entire trip. We spotted this small tea outlet called Nest Mini on the roadside and stopped for tea. Our next stop was for lunch on a roadside hotel near Sadashivnagar. A typical Andhra meal which was too heavy to digest so we had to stop for a tea again to avoid dozing off.
We reached our hotel in Hyderabad and checked in by 4:00 PM. In the evening went out walking near the hotel and had some street food for snacks. Dinner was in an Andhra mess.



Route taken: Nagpur - Butibori - Vadki - Adilabad - Armur - Chegunta - Hyderabad





Day 64: 22/05/2022


We woke up leisurely, got ready and left our hotel at 8:15 AM to visit Charminar. Roads were almost empty and we reached the location in 30 mins. We had our breakfast in a small roadside outlet near Charminar. There was not much of a crowd early in the morning, so were able to spend almost an hour here clicking a lot of photos.













There was an outlet of Pista House at a walkable distance from here, visited it and bought some biscuits and Khubani-Ka-Meeta. The heat was unbearable by this time, so we returned to our hotel by 11:00 AM.



We left from our hotel at 1:00 PM and reached Subbayya Gari hotel by 1:30 PM. This place was overcrowded and we had to wait for close to 45 mins to find a table. By the time we were done with lunch it was 3:00 PM. We had plans of visiting Golkonda caves after this, but heavy stomach and hot weather influenced the decision of postponing it for next visit.



We returned to the hotel room by 3:30 PM and slept for a while. Once the sun went down we ventured out again, explored some areas around hotel, had a burger for dinner and returned to the room.



What we covered so far

[thirugata]

Hyderabad - Amaravathi:

Day 65: 23/05/2022


Our destination for the day was Amaravathi, but we could not find any decent hotel here for the stay. We decided to visit this place and drive further instead of staying there. So this became the only state capital in this whole trip where we did not stay over.
We started from Hyderabad after checking out of our hotel at 7:00 AM. Road condition was excellent, but there was some traffic to manage for the first 70 odd KMs.
There are multiple small restaurants and food trucks on this route, so there are lot of food options here. We stopped at one of the food trucks and had our breakfast. Our next stop was for fuel and then later for a filter coffee.





Road condition was excellent, in most places it was arrow straight 6 lane highway with minimal traffic. Once we were near to Vijayawada traffic thickened and we had to slow down drastically. We took deviation towards Amaravathi from Vijayawada. Highway was closed after crossing the city and we were diverted to a very narrow lane from here. Road condition was horrible in most parts, some sections were so narrow that even 2 cars could not pass each other. It took us more than 90 mins to cover this last section of 40 KMs.



We reached Amaravathi around 12:45 PM. This place does not even look like a capital of a state. It is smaller than most B towns and we could see farming land as close as 1.5 KMs to the city. One of my friend later informed me that actual city is getting developed somewhere else.
We reached the Dhyana Buddha temple complex around 1:00 PM. This was the hottest day of the entire trip for us, temperature was 48 degree centigrade. We spent about 30 mins here and took some photos.





















We wanted to visit Amaravathi Stupa, but it was closed for lunch. We did not find any restaurant for us to have lunch and heat was also too severe to wait for another hour. So we decided to move on. We had booked our stay in Guntur. We reached Guntur around 2:30 PM and had our lunch at Nagarjuna's Chutneys. We checked into our hotel by 3:30 PM.



Route taken: Hyderabad - Vanasthalipuram - Choutuppal - Chithuala - Narkekal - Suryapet - Vijayawada - Aamaravati - Guntur



Once the sun went down and it was much cooler, we went out to explore Guntur city. Had some snacks and tea. Ended the day with a simple dinner.



What we covered so far

[thirugata]

Amaravathi - Chennai:

Day 66: 24/05/2022


Though the title says Amaravathi - Chennai, this day's drive was from Guntur - Chennai.
We started our journey at 8:00 AM after our breakfast from Guntur. It was a short distance to get out of the city and to connect to NH and we were on butter smooth NH in no time. Entire stretch of road was in excellent condition and I would be nitpicking if I try to find fault with this road. We stopped for a tea first and then for an ice-cream on the way. There was greenery all around on this route, but it was so hot that it was almost impossible to step out of the car and enjoy it even for 5 mins.





Pulicat Lake has been in my bucket list for a real long time now. Seeing the signboards for it on this route tempted to me to take that deviation and visit even at the cost of reaching the destination late than initially planned.
I was not even sure if this was the right season for flamingos and I was certain that mid noon is not the ideal time to spot birds. I still wanted to go there and see, so we took that deviation towards the lake from Sullurpeta.
It is a total of 13 KMs drive from the NH, after roughly a KM of bad patch of road you get NH quality road to drive with lake on either side.









It was so hot that it was almost impossible to stand outside even for 5 mins. My wife refused to get out of the car just after couple of mins out in the sun. After driving for about 3 - 4 KMs on this stretch I was able to spot some flamingos in the lake. Once I started taking photos camera got switched off because of the heat. I had to let it cool and then cover it with thick hand towel to avoid getting heated up before continuing to shoot. But at the end of it, taking that chance and coming here was worth it.















As soon as we connected back to NH, we stopped for lunch at Fortune MR Grand, Sullurpeta. Post lunch we drove on and when we were about to reach Chennai it started to rain. A 15 - 20 mins of rain cooled the temperature down a bit and made our last leg of the drive for the day pleasant. We reached our hotel and checked in by 4:30 PM.



Route taken: Guntur - Ongole - Kavali - Nellore - Gudur - Sullurupet - Kadirvedu - Chennai



After freshening up, we went to Marina beach. Beach was about 15 mins walking distance from the hotel, on the way had tea and some snacks.
I am not sure if this was a low tide or the specialty of this beach, there is a huge sand bed (300 - 400 mts) for you walk on and a lot of shops set on the seashore.
We watched the sun go down and walked on the beach for a long time along with enjoying snacks being sold on the beach.

https://youtu.be/dEBGHcP0znQ

We returned to our hotel room by 8:30 PM, took a shower, had some curd rice for dinner and called it a day.



What we covered so far

[thirugata]

Chennai - Pondicherry:

Day 67: 25/05/2022


We checked out of hotel room in Chennai by 9:00 AM as breakfast got delayed a bit. Having a short distance to cover this day, delayed start was not such a big worry.
Our first stop for the day was Santhome Cathedral Besilica, we reached there by 9:15 AM. There was a huge crowd of tourists already in this place by the time we reached, so we had a quick visit, took some photos and left from here.

















Our next stop was Valluvar Kottam, this was a short drive from cathedral and we reached here by 10:00 AM. We spent about 30 mins here, the heat was unbearable, so we rushed back to the comfort of our car.













From here we headed towards Pondicherry. We had some city traffic to negotiate and by the time we were out of the city and on ECR it was 11 :00 AM. Road condition was decent enough and width kept changing from 4 lane to 2 lane frequently.
Enroute we took an impromptu decision and took a deviation towards Mahabalipuram and reached by 12:00 PM. We visited Shore temple, Arjuna's penance and Krishna Mantapa. By this time heat again made us get back into the comfort of the AC in our car. We left Mahabalipuram by 1:00 PM.











We stopped for lunch on the way at Sai Sarvana Bhavan and reached our hotel in Pondicherry by 3:00 PM.





Route taken: Chennai - Mahabalipuram - Kuvathur - Marakkanam - Pondicherry.

After taking some rest we went to visit White town, Aurobindo Ashram and Rock beach, had a coffee and snacks in A2B on the way.















We returned to our hotel by 7:30 PM, freshened up and went out for dinner. Once I entered the restaurant I realized that we were in the same restaurant which we had visited 7 years ago. We returned to our hotel room by 10:00 PM after dinner.



What we covered so far

[thirugata]

Pondicherry - Thiruvananthapuram:

Day 68: 26/05/2022


We had a long distance to cover this day, so woke up early and checked out of our hotel by 6:30 AM.
There was not much traffic, so getting out of the city was easy. We stopped for a coffee as soon as we were out side the city limits.
NH 33 was in decent condition in most places with occasional deviations because of construction work. But there were too many trucks on the road early in the morning.
We stopped for breakfast at Balaji Restaurant, Gedilam. From here onwards traffic reduced and road condition improved.







We stopped for fuel on the way and our next stop was for a glass of Jigarthanda. Once we connected to NH 44 road condition improved multifold. This NH has to be one of the smoothest highways to drive in India.







Our next stop was for lunch at Nila restaurant, Valliyur very late in the afternoon. We reached Kanyakumari and checked into our hotel by 4:00 PM.
We had visited Kanyakumari in 2007 during our honeymoon drive, it was good to be back here after 15 years. The first impression suggested that a lot had changed, obviously.



A junction from where all roads lead to Kanyakumari



Route taken: Pondicherry - Vilupuram - Ulundur - Perambalur - Thiruchanapalli - Madurai - Virudhunagar - Tirunelveli - Kanyakumari

Later in the evening we went to the beach, but unfortunately we could not watch the sunset as it was a cloudy evening.
We stayed on the beach till late in the evening, had some snacks and ended the day with a dosa at Sarvana Bhavan.

https://youtu.be/87_cyQEwreI

Continued ...

[thirugata]

Day 69: 27/05/2022


It was still cloudy when we went to bed, so we had no hopes of watching the sunrise. When we woke up at 5:45 AM sky was clear and we got a good view of sunrise from our hotel balcony.







We got ready after a while and went to have our breakfast in one of the many restaurants on the beach.
On our way back we visited sunset point and drove beyond it to a beautiful part of the beach with no human being around us. Spent more than 30 mins here clicking loads of photos.













We returned to hotel room, got ready and checked out by 9:30 AM. We had a short distance to cover this day, so we were in no hurry, so we decided to take the SH hugging the coast instead of the NH.
Road condition was average with few potholes unexpectedly springing up, narrow roads and lot of traffic. But that was expected when we decided to take this route.
We stopped at multiple places to click photos. Also found wild jackfruit in one of the village shops and stopped to eat it. As a child I used to relish this fruit which used to grow on our neighbour's tree, had not eaten this fruit in more than 30 years now.







We reached Thiruvananthapuram by 12:45 PM. There was some political rally happening in the city so the traffic was in complete mess.
We reached Mother's Veg Plaza to have Kerala Sadhya lunch, it was interesting to watch a traveler from South Korea who was sharing the table with us trying to figure out how to eat this lunch.
Post lunch we went to visit Kanakakkunnu palace. Once we reached there, we were informed that this place is closed for public for a while now. We checked into our hotel by 2:00 PM and took some rest.





Route taken: Kanyakumari - Colachel - Karungal - Kollamkoda - Poovar - Kovalam - Thiruvananthapuram



Plan for the evening was to visit Kuthira Mallika Palace and Padhmanabha Swamy temple. Since we were staying at a close proximity to these places we decided to walk and explore the city.
On the way visited Pazhavangadi Ganapati temple and spotted Vettimuricha Kotta.



Pazhavangadi Ganapati temple







Vettimuricha Kotta

Once we arrived at Kuttira Mallika Palace, we were informed that a section of it is closed for public and the remaining is an art gallery. Decided against entering it and we went to visit Padhmanabha swamy temple.
To enter the temple you have to wear the prescribed attire and no camera or mobile phone is allowed inside the temple. So we were able to take photos from only outside. We waited till the sunset, clicked few photos and returned to our hotel room.









For dinner had Kerala parotta and called it a day.



And that covers all the states

[thirugata]

Thiruvananthapuram - Bangalore: (Homerun)

Day 70: 28/05/2022


When we started this day, the plan was to drive as long as possible and see how far we can reach, take a pit stop and continue the next day. We also wanted to see if this can be done in one day, so we wanted to start early to make sure time does not become a factor for us to stop halfway through. Having said that I didnt want to push myself on the last day to make sure we reach home the same day. It would have made no difference if we reached the same day or the next.
We woke up early and checked out of hotel by 6:15 AM. Plan was to take NH 66 till Nagarcoil, then NH 944 to connect to NH44 and then it would be NH 44 all the way till Bangalore. Our first stop was for a tea on a roadside tea stall who had just opened for business for the day. Next stop was for breakfast at Udupi International restaurant, Kumaracoil.
NH 66 had some traffic to tackle with even though we had an early morning start. But once we connected to NH 44 traffic just vanished and the butter smooth road opened up. We were able to churn miles here with ease. Sky too was at its artistic best and I kept driving and crossed Madurai with another coffee and a fuel break in between.

















Our next stop was for lunch at Sri Nathi Restaurant, Paramathi. Once we reached Dharmapuri there was some traffic jam and this added about 30 mins to our travel time. We stopped for a coffee one last time on this trip and reached home by 6:45 PM.
Thus, it turned out to be the longest drive day in terms of time and distance on the last day of this mega trip.



Route taken: Thiruvananthapuram - Nagercoil - Velliyur - Tirunelveli - Madurai - Dindigul - Namakkal - Salem - Krishnagiri - Hosur - Bangalore

[thirugata]

Facts & Figures:

Total No. of Days: 70
Total Distance covered: 18025 KMs
Car: Skoda Fabia 1.2 Elegance HTP (2012)
No of drivers: 1
No of travelers: 2
Amount of fuel consumed: 1144.88 Lts
Mileage achieved: 15.74 KMPL
Toll paid per KM: 0.74 Rs
Running cost per KM (Fuel + Toll): 7.5 Rs

No of NHs touched/driven: 72
Min. temperature encountered: -5 degree C
Max. temperature encountered: 45 degree C
No of breakdowns: 0
No of punctures: 1
No of times fine paid for traffic rules violation: 1
No of times luggage was checked: 4
No of states where ILP needed: 4
No of places where vaccination certificate was asked: 1
No of states where mask was mandatory: 0


Fuel (Petrol):


Most expensive: 120.57 Rs /Lt (Telangana)
Cheapest: 94.72 Rs/Lt (Dadra)
Average cost: 106.47 Rs/Lt

Note: During the travel period there was a sharp rise in the fuel prices because of hike in crude oil price.


Split of distance covered:


No of days where less than 100 KMs covered: 13
No of days where the distance covered is in between 100 - 250: 21
No of days where the distance covered is in between 250 - 400: 23
No of days where more than 400 KMs covered:13

Least distance covered in a day: 0 KMs (23/4/2022)
Maximum distance covered in a day: 714 KMs (28/5/2022)


Photography Gear:


Panasonic FZ100
Nikon P900 (Wildlife)
Motorola Edge 20 Fusion
Nokia 7 Plus


Shopping:


My wife has a list of things we bought that runs up to 3 pages. But that is not important, I am adding this to let you all know how we managed to shop all that when we literally had no space in the car to carry them. We used the courier facilities from Jaipur, Srinagar, Lucknow and Ranchi and sent the things we shopped to home. That way lack of space need not stop you from buying the things you want when you travel.

Epilogue:

This brings me to the most difficult part of this entire travelogue when I am trying to attempt to put it in few words about the experience we have had over 70 days.
If I have to put it in a single word that would be unreal. It still feels unreal, and I end up pinching myself when I think about this trip.
If I have to single out one factor that I did not like that would be weather. Summer is my least favorite time to travel and we ended up having our best road trip in summer. But if I look back, this could not have been done in any other season as winter would have made sure we miss out on Leh and monsoon has become too risky to travel of late. So summer was not an ideal time for us, it was ideal time for this trip.

I will not get into categorizing or rating what was best and what was worst as that is personal choice and can also become controversial. And it would not be right on my part to judge a place by visiting it for 2 -3 days.
All in all, it was a wonderful experience with hardly anything to complain about. Yes, there were some bad roads and some bad traffic, but they are part of any road trip. On a good day you will have lesser trouble with road and traffic but you can never avoid it completely.
I would like to call myself lucky that we were able to complete this road trip without any health issues or issues with vehicle. When a journey starts from not knowing how to complete to not knowing how it ended, it would invariably be awesome.



Me and my 2 companions of this trip




This is how the history location on google maps looks like after this road trip ended. Now to compare it you will have to scroll back all the way to the first section of this travelogue.

By the way hope that popcorn bucket lasted this while.

[GTO]

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

Going to our homepage today

[FAIAAA]

Epic! Heartiest congratulations to you three on an amazing journey through our beautiful and diverse country.

Have done a few cross country trips ( 6.5k and 5.5 k kms across 3 and 2 weeks respectively) so can relate to some extent to what you have achieved and experienced. But it doesn't come even remotely close - in terms of the days, mileage, covering all states and the detailed description.
Well done, again!

[TechnoBloop]

Damn!! Full respect to you for writing such a huge travelogue and taking us members on a road trip around India virtually. Loved every bit of it. And the car, another lovely thing, good old Fabia HTP!

Once again buddy, full respect!

[anish]

This is amazing. Not many people get to experience India in all its splendour. This is a road trip that many of us dream about.
The idea of couriering stuff back home from major cities was too cool. Hats off to all three of you .

[jetsetgo08]

Well, this is a mega-travelogue. Travelling continuously for 70 days, you must be hyper dedicated, super fit. Hats off!!!