[guyonblackybx]

This trip was due since long time. I wanted to vist Pune, to see my only best friend.
I was thinking of making to Pune since October, but could not plan my leaves. As the work load was on lower side I though of taking a day off from work.

Planed the trip for 3 days 29th 30th and 1st Nov 2008.

I almost had to drop this trip cuz of the Mumbai terrorist attack, as my friend didnt want me take risk.
Checked out the route direction on MapMyIndia.com. 575 kms so its gonna be a 10 hour drive.

Booked accomdation on ClearTrip.com.

Woke up at 6:10am on 29th packed clothes and camera.

Started off at 7:15am in my Lady In Red2. It was raining.

Got tank filled up and tyre air pressure checked up and continued my journey.


Had little trouble driving at city ourskirts due to heay vehicles throughing up mud an dirt. As it was raining had to stick to lower kmph. Took almost 2 hours for completing first 100 Kms.
As I crossed 120 or so kms rains kinda vanished, tough it was cloudy. It was time to do "pedal to metal stuff"
Entered Karanataka.
Was expecting good roads however there was real bad patch of road for around 4 to 5 kms before Hanumabad. It was realy bad.
Then came Maharashtra
Drive was smooth, but as I travelled 70 kms into Maharashtra observed that my car was reving around 3000 rpm even when my foot was off the accelerator. Thought my Lady In Red:2 needs some rest. So I stopped by and had little shoot.




This was a 20 mins stop. Lady In Red:2 was back to normal as I started off again.
I was curious to know about the mileage and was trying to get tank filled up.
And there was no HP station which had the facility of swiping my ICICI HP card(No surchage on this card)
At one of the station I came to know that Sholapur might have HP station which may accept cards.
Crossed few interesting landscapes.

Then there was this little ghat road and Fort(not sure of rhe name of this fort) across it







Then on the way I came across a weird Swift driver who was crossin me and was flashing the indicators right and left alternatively. I slowed down so that he wont bother me any more.

As I reached Sholapur tried my luck at first HP station, was ain't lucky as I started off I saw that people yelling in my rear view mirror. Then I realised that I was one a flat tyre.
I Stoped by and replaced the flat wheel and found that the alloy was out of shap from inside and couldnomore hold the air pressure. Once again checked the air pressure and found out where I can get the bent alloy wheel fixed. I was told that there is a guy who fixes alloy wheels at "Pune naka" I reaced there and asked tha guy to fix and to my shock his method of fixing was ruthless


I almost lost the FIAT emblum on that wheel.

It cost me 50 bucks to get this wheel fixed.

It was 12:30 and 330 kms away from Hyd as I started off again. SMSed my friend saying that I will be at Pune by 5:30 as it was a 250 km drive from Sholapur to Pune.
Was confident as now I had my wheel fixed.
120 kms from Sholapur I crossed Indapur.
After crossing Indapur road was busy with bullock carts and tractors carrying lot of Sugar Cane.

I was crusing and all of sudden accelerator got loose and engine was backto ideling I was like "mummy ab mai kya karoo" "am so bad that I should have give my baby little rest. I was almost in tears that I did this to my baby. Managed to drive my Lady In Red:2 off the road. Switched off engine and called Concord Motors helpline. A guy who received my gave me a toll free number(as I was near Pune, Maharashtra) , and my luck that Idea won't connect me to the toll free number. I again called the help line askin them to give me an alternative number. He said that he would look into it and ask the concerned person to contact me.
I thought what might have happend and now I understand why I had the high reving issue that I had few hours back.
Accelerator wire failed and cut off but I was not sure of the reason may be heat or may be I kept it under stress for too long,I shouldn't have reved for so long.
I saw that there was Bharat Petrolum station few meters away across the road. I walked across to find that they were renovating. Saw that there was a servicing station board next to it. Visited there to find out that it was washing station and they don't have any kind of accessorys.
I can back to my car and tried to contact helpline then I got a call from Pune Fiat guys, my luck was so hard that I started feeling that my IDEA is realy gonna change my life. I wont let me call neither it would let me take the incoming calls.
There was little shed across the road with PCO sign. I ran across and tried to call the number that I received call from.
I could not connect even through the PCO, phone was engaged. While I was trying I got their again, luckly this time IDEA let me have the conversation and give out my details and the location where I was stuck. Lady on the call informed that she would contact someone and get back to me in a while.
I thought its better for me to stay at that shed as I wait for the help.
Shed owner said that it was as hotel and its open all night and I need not bother. He suggested me to drive my car across the road so that it would be safe. He managed to get couple of guys from near by village and pushed my car across to safe zone.
I passed my time sipping tea and cold drinks.Informed my friend, dad and the cleartrip that I am going to be late as my car broke down.
Service guys took 4 hours to reach that place and took an hour to fix the car.
Avinash and Mudassir who fixed my car


Mudassir trouble shooting It was 9:00 PM by the time mechanics left.
I clicked few pics of the owner and his kids.



I had dinner at same hotel and continued my drive.
On the way I felt that something was wrong and checked tyres to find that one of them was low on pressure. After traveling a few kms I got the air for the wheel and reached pune by 12:30.
I need to mention "toll road" of Pune which was awesome. I am willing to shift to Pune just to use this road :P
I had realy bad time to find the route. Contact person was helpless with directions instead he sent me the addres in SMS and you wont believe me the address that I got on the cleartrip.com receipt was totaly different from the one I had in SMS. Spent almost 1 n half hour to find the hotel. Few people were not at all helpful in letting me know the proper directions. Where as there were who very patiently explained.
It was good and well maintained place. I checked in and had good sound sleep after long day on road.
Next morning woke up and visited my friend. Feels so good to meet some one dear to you after long time. Nothing can measure up to that feeling.
Then we decided to go out, she called up one of her friend who suggested some dam. So we started off and then on the way I got my punctured tyre fixed which was loosing its pressure.
We reached that dam


Here I thought I should get some pics to create my first vertical panorama


We felt like it was not enough and need to visit Sinhghad a fort built by Shivaji. It was 8Kms form that place and was visible from the dam.

We back on road towards Sinhghad, road was in pretty bad condition and a part of it was ghat and its condition was pathetic. They charged us Rs 50.
On our way up the hill we came across a "Fiat Linea" which they were testing.

After reaching Sinhghad had hard time finding spot for parking. But that plase had stunning view of the surrounding landscape . We had lunch over there the local style (onion pakode, roti baigan ki sabzi, and creamy curd). After lunch we moved on foot to view the fort.
Sky was beautiful, had quite number of pics and a lovely panorama. A few candid shots too














We started off back toPune by 5:00 PM.
I thought of gifting thepics that I clicked at the hotel.
Visited a photoshop and gave 4 pics to print.
We had snacks as we waited for the prints.
Collected prints and droped my friend at her place and had little chat for a while and then left for my hotel at 11:00PM and there I figured out that I forgot one of my sandle at my friends place. It happend that as I was bout to leave a room mate of my friend came over, I had my right leg in car and left leg on the ground as I was getting in. Amid this confusion I left my left slip in on the ground and drove off :P.
I collected my other slip in next morning.
I filled up the tank and waved off my friend and left Pune at 8:15PM.

On my way back I stoped by that shed and handed over the pictures. Owner was on cloud nine as I told him that I got pics for him.


After starting I stoped by couple of time to check tyre pressure and once for lunch after leaveing Sholapur. Had delicious Dal fry and roti and continued my journey back to home.
Reached Home by 7:30PM .

[Rajesh Rawal]

The fort whose name you are not sure is called naldurg fort ,it falls while approaching towards sholapur...

did any traffic cops catch you outskrits of sholapur? ,usually they do seeing an AP number car!

Lot of ppl usually get caught @ sholapur by pass!

first impression of Linea from your pic! ,looks classy no doubt!

[zen91]

Nice travelogue buddy.The fort on the way to Pune that you were trying to figure out is called as Naldurg.

How did you have a bent alloy wheel from inside and it was painful to see the way the guy was fixing it.

[mobike008]

@guyonblackybx, pretty good attempt at the first travelogue but there were several errors in your write-up and if you dont mind, like to point out a few, for e.g :-

a) The days you took off for the holiday seems confusing, i guessing it should be Dec 1st instead of Nov1st

b) How can you get your right foot in and left foot on ground when your getting into the driver seat? This completely beats me!

c) Write-up is all over the place, no proper punctuation, paragraph based etc.

d) Finally, since your a photographer ( or have lot of interest in this hobby), photos you posted could have been a lot lot better.

e) Finally, this seems to be your first outstation trip in your car and looks like you were really plauged with problems all through it.

Hope you didnt get offended, just thought let you know an honest opinion.

Neverthless, good beginning and look forward to more in future.

[guyonblackybx]

Originally Posted by Rajesh Rawal

The fort whose name you are not sure is called naldurg fort ,it falls while approaching towards sholapur...

did any traffic cops catch you outskrits of sholapur? ,usually they do seeing an AP number car!

Lot of ppl usually get caught @ sholapur by pass!

first impression of Linea from your pic! ,looks classy no doubt!

Thanks, now I remeber seeing those sign boards fo Naldurg

I was expecting the same to be stopped by police atleast in Pune. But I was lucky.

Originally Posted by zen91

Nice travelogue buddy.The fort on the way to Pune that you were trying to figure out is called as Naldurg.

How did you have a bent alloy wheel from inside and it was painful to see the way the guy was fixing it.

Thanks again for providing out the name.

I have no idea how I bent the wheel :(

Originally Posted by mobike008

@guyonblackybx, pretty good attempt at the first travelogue but there were several errors in your write-up and if you dont mind, like to point out a few, for e.g :-

a) The days you took off for the holiday seems confusing, i guessing it should be Dec 1st instead of Nov1st

b) How can you get your right foot in and left foot on ground when your getting into the driver seat? This completely beats me!

c) Write-up is all over the place, no proper punctuation, paragraph based etc.

d) Finally, since your a photographer ( or have lot of interest in this hobby), photos you posted could have been a lot lot better.

e) Finally, this seems to be your first outstation trip in your car and looks like you were really plauged with problems all through it.

Hope you didnt get offended, just thought let you know an honest opinion.

Neverthless, good beginning and look forward to more in future.

Thanks a ton for the feed back. Feedbacks are always welcome. I have put this together in a hurry. Reg photographs did not get time for editing. Anyways an error is an error. Will take of these things next time I post anything.

[vnabhi]

Holy smoke, you took nearly 23 hours to reach Hyd on your return trip! Or was it a typo?
I'm sorry that you had so many problems with your car. How old is it?
As regards the fort, is it Naldurg fort or Omerga fort?

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by guyonblackybx

Thanks a ton for the feed back. Feedbacks are always welcome. I have put this together in a hurry. Reg photographs did not get time for editing. Anyways an error is an error. Will take of these things next time I post anything.

I am usually not critical and was hesitant to peep back into this thread.

Glad you didn't mind. Please take your time for everything.

Jaldi ka kaam shaitan ka kaam hota hai, aisa bolthe hain, muje bhi nahi malum

[guyonblackybx]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Holy smoke, you took nearly 23 hours to reach Hyd on your return trip! Or was it a typo?
I'm sorry that you had so many problems with your car. How old is it?
As regards the fort, is it Naldurg fort or Omerga fort?

Its typo should be 8:15Am.

Its just a year old.

Originally Posted by mobike008

I am usually not critical and was hesitant to peep back into this thread.

Glad you didn't mind. Please take your time for everything.

Jaldi ka kaam shaitan ka kaam hota hai, aisa bolthe hain, muje bhi nahi malum

Mujhe bhee nahi pata thaa. Abhee observe karooga

[akpd0659]

Has anyone travelled on Pune-Hyd stretch in August / Sept 2012? Request feedback on road conditions, driving time and whether the construction work of 4 laning is completed.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by akpd0659

Has anyone travelled on Pune-Hyd stretch in August / Sept 2012? Request feedback on road conditions, driving time and whether the construction work of 4 laning is completed.

4laning is nowhere near complete.Budget for a 10hr drive to Pune.I am driving today and My expectations are setThere are alternate routes via pandharpur and via baramati.These have been discussed under the Route Queries section.Search for Hyd Pune and you would get the relevant thread

[ambivalent_98]

Man this route I have done like 10 times solo. I did have a nightmarish flat on the Pune to Hyd run and one at night on the way from Hyd to Pune. Well the 4 laning of Pune to Solapur looks promising albeit the work is slower than GQ. If I look at the travel time I could divide it into two zones.

Hyd to Solapur - little traffic roads OK can do this stretch of 250 kms in about 4 hours.
Roads in the 80 kms of Karnataka are deceptive 10 kms from AP side and Maharastra side are really good and well kept in the middle they are broken and the truckers weaving all over the place trying to avoid potholes. If this stretch is done and maintained it would reduce nearly 1/2 hr of travel time.

Solapur to Pune - loads of traffic , notorious traffic jams if lady luck is on your side , pathetic roads in Solapur district esp after crossing the Ujani Dam. 4 laning almost done in the Pune district side. This stretch takes an hour more although it is 230 kms. This takes 5 hours. To be avoided in a car at night due to notorious potholes and confusing 4 laning where locals have the upper hand as they know complete but closed roads and zoom off leaving the not so regular travellers confused. The main bottlenecks were the bridge near the dam , though a new one has opened so this is no longer an issue.

Well its a legacy highway and had the road quality been good would be an amazing drive.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by ambivalent_98

Well its a legacy highway and had the road quality been good would be an amazing drive.

Originally Posted by akpd0659

Has anyone travelled on Pune-Hyd stretch in August / Sept 2012? Request feedback on road conditions, driving time and whether the construction work of 4 laning is completed.

Latest update on the NH9 status between Pune & Hyderabad has been updated on this thread:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post2936949