[mobike008]

It all started with a plan to Goa with family including mom during the Sep 30-Oct 4th long weekend. However, just a couple of days before we were supposed to head out, wifey had been instructed to travel to Delhi on an unexpected official trip which i knew would get extended for a few more days to visit her parents there.

Left stranded, i had no choice but to send a group sms to a few friends and within an hour the plan got re-fixed with three of my friends and I was back on rails for a trip to goa.

This vacation turned out to be quite eventful with many parameters coming into play-----unexpected flood situation, Continous downpour, appaling road conditions, road blockages, landslides, slush on town roads, a car owner praying that his car's throttle sensor issue should not crop up again, fights at Baga beach, a group of 6-8 mid-thirties girlie gang that created an uproar at Baga, thoughts of how we'll return to hyderabad ensured that our thoughts were sufficiently balanced between fun re-loaded and apprehension.

As weather was mostly gloomy, please bear with the quality of the pictures, i just did some quick re-touch to a few pictures with tone balance in Picassa and that's about and you will see a lot of road pictures as that's when my camera was most active and got very few chances to pull it out when in open due to continous drizzle/rain.

And, I was once trapped in a place in goa with no shelter and rain gods venting their fury for a full 30 mins and due to which my camera now is out of action. Need to get shown to our friendly neighbourhood Nikon fella's.

Anyways, here are a few pictures just before exiting city limits including each of the pratogonists of this trip, before we continue further down the road.

[straightdrive]

So travelogue has come up earlier than expected? Looking forward to the rest - promises to be interesting.

[khan_sultan]

Wow, a vacation amidst the floods. This is going to be interesting.

At times the most adventurous journeys are those where you don't know what will happen next and when.!!! So keep it coming Mobike008.

Originally Posted by mobike008

.... fights at Baga beach, a group of 6-8 mid-thirties girlie gang that created an uproar at Baga,

Was this related or separate incidents? Nothing of your doing. right?

[akroy]

Avi, travelogue when Goa and North KA / AP roads are under water. It should be interesting !! Waiting for the coming installments.

Abhi

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by straightdrive

So travelogue has come up earlier than expected? Looking forward to the rest - promises to be interesting.

I happen to have some time today after lunch so thought why wait till next week.

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

Wow, a vacation amidst the floods. This is going to be interesting.

At times the most adventurous journeys are those where you don't know what will happen next and when.!!! So keep it coming Mobike008.



Was this related or separate incidents? Nothing of your doing. right?

I knew that was coming

Both were separate incidents and i was not involved in either one of them.

However, there was one small scuffle that i got into at Colva which i will outline shortly

[vnabhi]

Attaboy, thaar she blows----I mean the travelogue! Keep posting, Avi.

[mobike008]

This was the route plan finalized for this trip :-

Hyderabad ( Himayathnagar)- Patencheru (30km)-Zaheerabad (74km)-Homnabad (56km)-Basavannakalyan (24km)-Maharashtra Border (16km)-Umarga(19km)-Naldurg(42km)-Solapur BP (42km)-Solapur BP end (5km)-Turn Left into town-Go around 4kms passing Bus Stand on your left-Horde of petrol Pumps on your right-Railway underpass-Hutatma Chowk-Park -Chowk-Right-Degaon Road-Mangalwedha-Sangole Circle-left-Miraj-Right-Kolhapur(left under f/o)-Tawandi Ghat-Hotel Satyavati Palace-Take opp Right-Nipani-Uttur-Left-Ajra- Amboli (80km)-Sawantwadi-(25km)-Sawantwadi Bus Stand(0km)-Banda (3km)-GOA BORDER-(3km)-Mapusa(32kms)-Panjim(10kms)

We had decided to start driving by 11:00AM on Sep 30th but one of the friend was coming down from Chennai for this trip, due to which our start time got delayed quite a bit. His flight arrived late and we could not wait and decided to drive slowly and asked him to catch up with us in city drive. Eventually his brother dropped him at BHEL at 2:00PM.

And, we finally headed out towards the open,gloomy,overcasted highway.Within a few kilometers we see a 108 ambulance for some major accident that occurred probably a few minutes before we passed through that spot. I crossed my heart,took a deep breath and put on a smile on my face refused to get bogged down from viewing such unfortunate incident at the begining of a holiday.


Wehad decided to drive down till Kolaphur and stay their for an overnight but fate didn't allow us with those plans. Our drive to Solapur was quite slow and cumbersome since there were thousands of devotees walking on the road towards Tuljapur and left side of the road was completely covered and we had to make a slow progress avoiding oncoming vehicular traffic. We stopped enroute for some beverage refreshments and also got some snacks packed ( Chicken 65, Kaju Chicken, Egg Burji) to be
relished along with our soft drinks from a dhaba owned by a kannada speaking Sardarji. We had succumbed to thought of making slow progress and we decided to make use of the same by singing some songs and enjoying our meal at the same time.

We limped our way to Solapur at 8:00PM after weaving our way through that humungous human traffic which completed our first 300km run. Since, it was drizzling continously we decided against continuing until Kolaphur which was another 250kms from Solapur, we decided to leave for it at 6:00AM the next day from Solapur.

We stayed at Hotel Surya International and got a room for Rs.1400 for a 4-bedded AC room which was ideal for group. We quickly settled down and ordered for some beverages and dinner which was quite good and we called it quits for Day 1 at 12:30AM.

[pulsar56]

Hmm.. Interesting! Fights, scuffles, girlie gangs, floods and the D40 out of action!

You better continue with the travelogue soon unless you want me to ping you on Gtalk for details!

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by pulsar56

and the D40 out of action!

D40....When did i own that camera? Hope you aren't mistaking your camera for mine

A view of some weary travellers resting in Surya's abode

[mobike008]

We all got up promptly at 6:00AM and freshened up, settled the bill which came to Rs.3200++ ( including the beverages and food) and quickly loaded the car into the cleaned up car ( had instructed the watchman the previous night) and headed out towards the new route that was suggested by Ranjit and Ashish Pallod.

After lot of asking around since the solapur city still remains a mystery to me even after passing through it several times in the past.

I stop the car and ask a pedestrian the route to Mangelwadhe :-

Me : Hello, Mangalwadhe Kasa Jayeche?
He : Saral ( His finger is pointing to right). And, Saral means straight ahead since i know marathi to a large extent

We decided to ask another passer-by and get similar responses and finally found our way to the correct route and without exaggerating I regretted taking it since this entire route was shot to hell.

A few kms of good road and suddengly out of the blue, craters loomed up making me frantically jam the brakes. This road saga continued till we reached the NH4 bypass .

I was thinking to myself that i wont come back again during monsoon as its difficult to handle such road condition, it just takes the pleasure out of the drive.

Coming up lots of pictures of road conditions after Solapur until Mirja.

[FastLove]

Hey Nice travelogue & lovely pictures. I am travelling from mumbai to goa via NH4 on 11th oct. Any surprises on this route via Sankeshwar?

[hillram]

Avi..Yet another travalogue from you and some nice pics.You are a bravado to wade through floods and rain and come out unscathed.

[sami316]

Hi,

Nice travelogue....waiting for more pics.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

@ avi,

hurry up, do not waste time in writing about kolhapur and stuff and start writing about the 6-8 girl gang on the beach and beach fight.

just kidding.

hey, i had not suggested that mangalwedha route.
mai to sirf ranjit ke ha me ha milaya.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by FastLove

Hey Nice travelogue & lovely pictures. I am travelling from mumbai to goa via NH4 on 11th oct. Any surprises on this route via Sankeshwar?

No Problemo right now. You dont have to go up to Sankeshwar to turn into Goa route. Much before that on NH4 on the ghat section you will see a Hotel Satyavati Palace on left, take the opp lane which is besides Kaveri Hotel which will take you to Ajra and Amboli route.

Just be prepared for lot of bad roads. Hell, first time ever i saw this route this bad.

Originally Posted by hillram

Avi..Yet another travalogue from you and some nice pics.You are a bravado to wade through floods and rain and come out unscathed.

Thanks Ram, it indeed was a tension filled trip.

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

@ avi,

hurry up, do not waste time in writing about kolhapur and stuff and start writing about the 6-8 girl gang on the beach and beach fight.

just kidding.

hey, i had not suggested that mangalwedha route.
mai to sirf ranjit ke ha me ha milaya.

Well, neither Ranjit nor you could have helped it. Rains are to be blamed. For that matter, the roads were slightly better when we were going towards Goa and on return on same roads, it had detoriated considerably.

So imagine what rains can do in only 2-3 days


Drive from Solapur onwards was pretty uneventful except for the continous gloomy weather and drizzle with road conditions changing faster than the scenary.

After driving for about an hour and half, we came across a beautiful stretch where we decided to step out and admire the scenary and take a few pictures of my red beast.