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
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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
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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
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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!
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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