[nithinnarayanan]

Hi Friends,


This is my first travelogue on the forum, though I am a frequent traveller (long drives)

It all started after I decided to visit my friends in Hyderabad and told my colleague about it. He was shifting from Bangalore to Hyderabad and was planning for the 2nd week of April. He asked me to accompany him for the same and plan it on 9th of April (as I was planning for 10th ~12th April for the same) so I took leave on 9th April and booked only return ticket in Rajdhani Express. This was exciting as I was visiting Hyderabad for the first time in my life.

Car : Maruti Alto Vxi 2003 done 1,23,500 Kms
Route : Bangalore (Sarjapur Road) to Hyderabad (Lingampalli)
Distance: 604 Kms (Door to Door)
Travel time : 13Hrs, including 7 breaks of 3hrs (actual running time 10 Hrs)

So the preparation (getting the car ready) for the trip started on 4th of April.

The car:
Its been around 7 months the car was only running in city and we had to check the car for a long trip. It has done 1.23 Lakh Kms in 6 years with no engine work done. We went to our mechanic for check-up and general service. After examination, it was found that the front shock absorbers have started leaking and 3 ball joints have to be replaced. We told him to replace the shock absorbers(original ones), ball joints and do the general service and oil change.


Got the car back after the service at around 6pm and the wheel alignment and balancing was pending. Checked the Bridgestone outlet on the ORR near JPMC. But they were closing down by then and asked us to come on Sunday be 10 am. So from the service centre we went to the car spa (at Total mall ) for interior cleaning and polishing. It was almost 10 pm when we got the car back from car spa.


Got the car ready after wheel alignment and balancing by 11am on sunday 5th April.
So we are all set for the trip.


The trip:
As we planned to start at 4.30am on 9th Apr, got everything loaded at the back of the car on 8th night and slept by 1 am.
Got up by 4 am and were ready by 4.45 am. As it is in the case of every planned trip we could start at 5.15 am from the place.


0515 hrs Bangalore(Sarjapur Road Wipro) - 000 Kms
0545 hrs Hebbal 026 Kms
0600 hrs Devanhalli (BIAL Jn) 045 Kms





0610 hrs Devanhalli (First Railway gate) 048 Kms


Got a puncture in the front right tyre near the first railway gate near the devanahalli town bypass. So had to remove all the stuff at the back to take out the stepney. (now I was missing my car which has tubeless tyres) so I asked my friend to go for tubeless tyres in next tyre change. It took us 10 minutes to get the stepney out. After replacing the tyre we decided to keep the tyre in the front itself (didn't want to keep on juggling with the things at the back) 15min wasted there. We start at 0625 hrs



2 B Continued..

[mjothi]

Wow, one more Bangy - Hyd Travelogue

Btw, what happen to your Indica.

[nithinnarayanan]

Originally Posted by mjothi

Btw, what happen to your Indica.

Mahesh,
She's there in Bangy. Will be taking her for a long trip to kannur next week

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by nithinnarayanan

Mahesh,
She's there in Bangy. Will be taking her for a long trip to kannur next week

Oh, good. Waiting for a long term review of your Indica once you cross 1Lac KMs

I think that would be the fastest in less than 3 years...

[akroy]

Nice start there Nitin, Eager to read more.

You should write one travelogue with your Indica drive as well.

Abhi

[muralisk]

It started off well. Am curious to know all about the 7 breaks you took from Bangalore to Hyderabad.

[nithinnarayanan]

Originally Posted by mjothi

Oh, good. Waiting for a long term review of your Indica once you cross 1Lac KMs

I think that would be the fastest in less than 3 years...

Mahesh,
Have already started a long term review,

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ms-report.html

but couldn't continue. Will try to finish the same.

I will not be able to finish 1 Lakh in 3 years which is 7000 Kms in 40 days

Originally Posted by akroy

Nice start there Nitin, Eager to read more.

You should write one travelogue with your Indica drive as well.

Abhi

Thanks Abhi,
Will write a travelogue of my trip to kannur in my indica, as I will be taking the Virajpet ~ Makuta ~ Kutupuzha ~ Iritty route. and This has to be a detail report as the road is getting repaired after 10 years!!!

[nithinnarayanan]

Continued..

0625 hrs Devanhalli (First Railway gate) 048 Kms

Now after the puncture we are on a lookout for a tyre repair shop. We find many of them but not a single one open!!! So people be aware, If you are travelling on this read and have got a puncture you will not get many shops to repair it unitl it is morning 7~7.30am.



As we approach Chikkaballapur the road becomes narrowand single lane. We cross through the market area and finally find a puncture shop which was just getting open.



0645 hrs Chikkaballapur 075 Kms

We stop over for getting the punctured tyre fixed. Had to wait for the guys to open the shop, so we decided to have a cup of tea at the nearby teashop.
The tyre is fixed and we are ready to continue after 45 mins.

0730 hrs Chikkaballapur 075 Kms

We continue on the narrow road for another 15 kms. After which the road is quite good and we could cover up for the lost time at the previous 2 stops because of the puncture.



0750 hrs Road becomes good 090 Kms





0815 hrs Checkpost AP 125 Kms

We reach the AP check post. Here we see that we have covered 35 Kms in less than 30 mins.

One has to be on a lookout for the two wheeler freeks who come on the wrong side of the road and stare at you as if you have done something wrong. God save these fellows, some day they will be under those heavy trucks or busses.



While we were reaching Sumanthapalli we had to go on the wrong side as some of the stretch is still not open for traffic. One has to be little careful if you are travelling in a small car there are cuts in the tarmac level an if you are at good speed might damage your suspension.





0835 hrs Sumanthapalli 149 Kms

We were reaching Penakonda and the road is narrow and single lane.

0845 hrs Penakonda 159 Kms

We reach penaconda town and we get a small traffic jam. We take around 10 minutes to come out of the town.

0945 hrs Anantapur 226 Kms

We have to cross the junction which goes to Bellary if you take a right from there. We have to continue straight and after 45 minutes we reach Kothur where we decided to have breakfast.

We stopped at the Ghar Dhaba at the BP petrol bunk in kothur



1030 hrs Kothur (BP, Ghar Dhaba) 273 Kms

That's our car @ the Ghar Dhaba



2 B Continued..

[Bazius]

I went alone to Hyderabad in my Santro when my job moved there and then drove back when the job was done. One of the best memories of my life. All alone on the highway listening to my fave tracks emptiness all around. The last two hours or so really get to you. Best to make a pit stop at a dhaba have some food and rehydrate.

[snaronikar]

Good Nitin you started a travelogue and welcome to this section. Looks like the road conditions has improved quite a lot to Hyderabad. Good pics.

[btirthankar]

Originally Posted by nithinnarayanan

We stopped at the Ghar Dhaba at the BP petrol bunk in kothur

Attachment 123580

1030 hrs Kothur (BP, Ghar Dhaba) 273 Kms

Good to see you posting T-Logs.

The last time I was at this Dhaba. They were closed :( due to some extortion incident.

Long time nitin. I hope you will be uploading your next set of posts by atleast this weekend , i happened to check out your thread when you first posted it since then no updates ?

[kutlee]

Originally Posted by nithinnarayanan

Now after the puncture we are on a lookout for a tyre repair shop. We find many of them but not a single one open!!! So people be aware, If you are travelling on this read and have got a puncture you will not get many shops to repair it unitl it is morning 7~7.30am.

yes, you are right. that's why i keep two not one. have peace of mind.

[nithinnarayanan]

Friends, Sorry for the delay in posting the remaining part(had misplaced the chip with the pics).
Will finish by tomorrow.

[nithinnarayanan]

Continued..

1100 hrs Kothur (BP, Ghar Dhaba) 273 Kms

After having late Breakfast/Brunch (Some idlies and puri, no much choices as there was no power and the lunch would take another 1 hr) we start form there.



1110 hrs Gooty 275 Kms

We reach gooty within 10 minutes.
After Gooty the road is single but good.





We could get to see trains running parallel to the road.



1205 hrs Dhone 322 Kms

We cross Dhone.
The road is good but still single. But the widening work is going on in this part.

1220 hrs Veldurti 342 Kms

1310 hrs Kurnool 371 Kms

As we reach Kurnool the road becomes bad due to the flyover construction and the road work.
The sun is very hot and the AC is running full speed. As soon as we cross the town area the road gets better.
After 10 Kms the road is 4 lane(2+2), but we had to take deviations to the wrong side as some of the culverts/bridges are not complete.

1345 hrs Vemula (2nd Puncture) 407 Kms

We are hardly 30 Kms from Kurnool and notice the car is not smooth and is pulling sideways.
We stop to check what is wrong?
And what do we have here?? The rear left tyre is losing air. Oh man we have another Puncture.
Though the tyre was not fully deflated, it was losing air slowly.
So took the car to the other side as the road was not open to traffic and started to replace the tyre.
The temperature was very high and was not able to touch the tyre for some time.

1355 hrs Vemula (2nd Puncture) 407 Kms

We started from there after 15 mins, In search of the next puncture shop.
As usual, found one within 3 kms but was closed. Another 5 kms we got one which was open.

1400 hrs Vemula 412 Kms
The guy removed the tyre and checked for the puncture on the tube.
To our surprise the puncture sticker from the previous puncture had come off because of the excess heat.
He checked for any nails or sharp objects in the tyre for any further puncture possibilities but found none.
He suggested us to fix the puncture using heating method as stickers may come off like this because of excess heat.
We ask him to go ahead with that, so another 15 min for the fixing.
So start of from there after 20 min ie @ 1420.

1435 hrs Pebbair 424 Kms
We cross Pebbair bridge and stop to take some pics of the fort on the right side of the bridge.(I don’t know whether it’s a fort or something else.)





The other side of the bridge



2 Kms after the Bridge The road become good.
From here the road is fully done.





2 B Continued..