Team-BHP > Travelogues


Reply
  Search this Thread
18,874 views
Old 21st April 2005, 11:43   #1
Team-BHP Support
 
tsk1979's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 23,717
Thanked: 22,769 Times
Bangalore-Nagpur-Bangalore

Hi,
I took a trip to Nagpur by car in late dec. There were 3 of us travelling in my indica DLS V2. I did most of the driving with my friend pitching in little bit as he had never done highway driving before.
We started on 17th afternoon, and returned on 20th noon. Spent one night(total 15 hours) in Nagpur and attended a collegues wedding reception. Though the trip was fun, next time i think i will take the train
Here are the gory details guys!

17 Dec.
2:30pm we started from Indirianagar after taking the regular stuff like mineral water etc., etc., and 3:30 we were still in bangalore thanks to an accident near hebbal flyover. So many miles to go and we were crawling.

The above pic was taken just ofter the flyover at old madras road, ring road junction. Finally after 1.5 houra we crossed yehlanka and discovered motoring paradise.
The roads to Hydrabad is not too wide. Its does not even have a divider. But sparce traffic in daytime and beautiful curves make it a pleasure to drive. Do watch out for bus drivers on bends. They have all been imported from USofA.
At about 9pm we reached IOC pump at kurnool. 450kms, 6 hours.A nice meal had us yawning, and we decided to call it a day. Luckily IOC has a wonderful motel right behind the big pump and at 900Rs for a 4 bed room it was a good deal. Crashed on to the beds and the faithful mobile alarm had us up at 6am
18 Dec
Started at 6am and decided to floor it all the way to Hyd. But the remanat trucks from night were still on roads, and till 7 we had to crawl at many places. After that it was all clean road and spirited driving saw us reaching Hyd at 9am. This was the first major nightmare. Everybody had a different idea of where Nagpur was. Infat everybody differed on where Ring road was and some people even differed on where hydrabad was. Finally asking some traffic policemen(they were equally bad) we could exit hyd by 11:00. 500kms to go and we had around 8 hours 30 minutes to cover some 500kms. Reception was at 9 u see .
But the good roads favored us and we were on flying. The ZVTS have a habit of confidence shattering screams and slides on ghats so i did not do too many stunts.

Byt 2pm nagpur was a comfortable 310kms, thanks to nice roads and spirited driving.

Around 4 we entered mahrashtra, and we did not need the signboards to tell us so. The roads announced and our spines screamed, so did the suspension and everything that was capable of rattling rattled. With nagpur still a good 150kms away, we prayed and prayed for a road, but nothing helped.
Below are some sample craters.

Reserved to our fate we trudged on. There were some good patches in between but barely 5 kms long. The sun was setting, and so was our patience.

Luckily around 50kms from nagpur the roads improved and the last 30kms was a wide 4 lane! Here i handed over the car to my friend for practice, and by 8 we were in town .

L-R pns. giri, me. Giri is the co pilot, and most of the in car pics have been taken by pns who was always on the navigator seat with the canon in hand.
Dead tired we got ready in half an hour and rushed to have some good food. At 11 it was time to call it a night, this time without alarm.
19 Dec
Woke up lazily at 9, got read and had wonderful home cooked breakfast. After all it was all VIP treatment as we were the highway stars. Started from Nagpur around 10:30 am. I did not start the trip. Though will let my friend do the first 150 kms through bad roads and then take on. I took on the car just before andhra, and we tanked up at the first pure for sure
That me on the left and giri the co pilot on the right.

Here are some views
. .

The roads in AP are simply too good, and pns tells us its all coz of naidu! Wish karnataka was half as good


I pushed and pushed as much as i could, and we could do a good 100-120 continuously for most parts. Around 7 we hit Hyd again. It was the most entertaining part. Esp asking for directions. That city is chaos personified. Infact i wish instead of the South india map i should have taken the hyd map!
.

Around 9 we exited hyd, and i was still grinning.

But it was at 10 suddenly all the trucks in the world, along with buses, lorrys tempos tanks, and what not decended around us. It was on a slightly deserted stretch, that was crusing at 100kmph when suddenly the car started shaking and a huge thing overtook me. It was the Volvo BR7 doing 120+. I tried chasing it, but gave up. That guy was overtaking oblivious of the oncoming traffic and even pushing trucks off road. After being pushed of many times by oncoming buses, we decided to call it a day at kurnool, which we arrived at 12 in the night. We had driven 14 hours with 2 small breaks with 12 hours out of that to my credit.
20 dec
A wrong alarm(pm instead of am) saw us waking at 7:30. Office was out of question, we we thought to take it leasurly.
Just 450 kms to go after all, and in daytime the traffic is also light
did some trainspotting on the way too

It was smiles all the way, slowly at 110 we went

Arrived at 2pm had heavy lunch at dhaba near yehlanka, forgot the name tough. And at 4 it was home sweet home and time to sleep.
Would i do such a thing again. Yes, but only if the roads are good all the way, have a faster car, and not too many trucks. Though i could cruise at 110-120, there were many stretches where 140 was easy. Also the acceleration of indica is pathetic, and it takes years to cross 100!. But one thing is there. The seats are good for tall people(I am 6'2") and the car is comfortable and handles like a dream. Inspite of the poor tyres(30000+ ZVTS) it was good, though they are too noisy. The new GIIIs are a dream

Thats the whole story folks, hope you enjoyed it!
The full gallery is at http://www.tanveerkhaira.org/cpg132/...s.php?album=24
tsk1979 is offline  
Old 21st April 2005, 14:52   #2
BHPian
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Singapore
Posts: 262
Thanked: 2 Times

hey TSK.. I did the same trip in Nov when I visited my folks for Diwali.. just me and wife, with me doing all the driving.. car was my Siena1.6.. comfortably did 120 and touched 140 on good stretches.. day driving with night halts at Hyd both ways..

Agree 100 % on the AP roads and Hyd traffic..
nitinbhag is offline  
Old 21st April 2005, 19:09   #3
Senior - BHPian
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: pune
Posts: 2,106
Thanked: 75 Times

Nice report and awesome pictures. Really good quality ones. What is resolution for that Cannon?
RX135 is offline  
Old 21st April 2005, 22:27   #4
Senior - BHPian
 
Mpower's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 10,409
Thanked: 1,729 Times

Hey TSK

Really nice writeup and pics. Always good to have more drivers on such a long trip.
Just curious, what kind of FE did you get on the trip.
Mpower is offline  
Old 21st April 2005, 23:05   #5
Team-BHP Support
 
tsk1979's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 23,717
Thanked: 22,769 Times

I got a FE of 17-18.
And RX, its a 2 megapixel Canon Powershot A20.
tsk1979 is offline  
Old 22nd April 2005, 12:01   #6
Senior - BHPian
 
satish_appasani's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 1,112
Thanked: 104 Times

Hey tsk.

Good writeup and great pics.

You should have posted here that you will be driving through Hyd. Would have had a gala welcome, a brief but nice meet and for sure an escort till the outskirts.
satish_appasani is offline  
Old 22nd April 2005, 12:35   #7
Senior - BHPian
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: pune
Posts: 2,106
Thanked: 75 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by tsk1979
I got a FE of 17-18.
And RX, its a 2 megapixel Canon Powershot A20.
Just 2 MP camera? Wow! Does Canon use Carl Zeiss lens? Many of the sony digicams use that.
RX135 is offline  
Old 22nd April 2005, 12:43   #8
Team-BHP Support
 
Rudra Sen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 11,553
Thanked: 6,477 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by RX135
Just 2 MP camera? Wow! Does Canon use Carl Zeiss lens? Many of the sony digicams use that.
Off topic.RX, Canon will kill for saying this . They're one of the best lens makers in the world now.
Rudra Sen is offline  
Old 22nd April 2005, 13:03   #9
BHPian
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 532
Thanked: 18 Times

hi tsk,
i came from hyd - bangalore on 9th April in my Nissan 1.8...
i started at 9:30 in the morning and at 5PM i was 100Km from bangalore when it started raining like cats and dogs well donkey and hourse also....
i could hardly see the road in front of me...
i reached Bangalore at 9:00pm...
last 100Km in 4 hours...
that was bad...
I have done 150Kmph on hyd- bangalore highway 2-3 times other wise my friend was not letting me go above 80Kmph:(
zulfikar is offline  
Old 22nd April 2005, 13:07   #10
BHPian
 
Rover's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Bangalore, Airplanes, Hotel Rooms
Posts: 112
Thanked: Once

Nice write-up TSK.

The pics were great. Some of the scenery on the way is really breathtaking. The road is really good and traffice less.

Wasn't there a road sign indicating the turn to take for Nagpur just before the ring road. I thought there was one (I could be wrong though).

One question I have is you mentioned Kurnool to be 450 km from Bangalore (did I get that right?)...I suppose it is 350+ kms from Bangalore and Kurnool - Hyderabad is 210 kms. Isn't that right?
Rover is offline  
Old 23rd April 2005, 02:06   #11
Team-BHP Support
 
tsk1979's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 23,717
Thanked: 22,769 Times

Kurnool is around 400kms froim blr outskirts, from city its closer to 450 and hyd is another 200 from there. And as for signs. there are no signs in hyd. Atlease when we went we did not see any signboards.
tsk1979 is offline  
Old 23rd April 2005, 10:27   #12
Senior - BHPian
 
iceman91's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: melbourne/banga
Posts: 1,961
Thanked: 34 Times

whoa...i thouht hyderabad was 550kms from bangalore at least thats waht the signbards say.
iceman91 is offline  
Old 23rd April 2005, 10:39   #13
BHPian
 
Rover's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Bangalore, Airplanes, Hotel Rooms
Posts: 112
Thanked: Once

TSK:

I think there is an error. I have never got more than 360 kms on the odo during the couple dozen times I have been through Kurnool from Bangalore. Check this link out and do a distance search, it would bear what I said....

[url]http://www.mapsofindia.com[url]

ICE:

You are right! Bangalore - Hyderabad is about 580 Kms. From our area it would be more like 560 kms. That's what I get on the odo +/- 5 kms. Which depends on whether I go via Nandidurga Road & Mekhri circle or via Lingarajpuram and Ring road

Last edited by Rover : 23rd April 2005 at 10:42.
Rover is offline  
Old 23rd April 2005, 12:31   #14
BHPian
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Singapore
Posts: 262
Thanked: 2 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by tsk1979
And as for signs. there are no signs in hyd. Atlease when we went we did not see any signboards.
Absolutely right, TSK.. Hyd does not believe in signboards.. Although I visit Hyd regularly (by flight) I had a whale of a time finding the highways in to & out of Hyd..
after my trip, a Hyd friend told me, the best way to do this is to hire an auto and follow him in your car.. of course there is the challenge of keeping up with a Hyd auto in Hyd traffic.. guaranteed to make an urban rally driver of you ..
nitinbhag is offline  
Old 23rd April 2005, 12:42   #15
Team-BHP Support
 
tsk1979's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 23,717
Thanked: 22,769 Times

Hmm i guess i noted from Indiranagar and then came through the ring road only. I guess thats why distance was closer to 400kms. Sorry for the error guys!
tsk1979 is offline  
Reply

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks