[MX6]

Dear all Bhpians,

I'd love to share my trip with all. After almost 5000 kms of driving in around 20 days, I learnt many a things. This wasn't a trip to prove anything. No boasting about driving acheivements or conquered landscapes.
It was a very humbling experience. I'm a mere mortal. So are my family members.
Let me start with a big thank you to HVK. His words of support was a big boost of confidence.
Thanks yet again to other fellow members, who's blogs I've followed closely that helped me plan.
I started planning on this trip since Sept. Since I'm travelling with my Baby who just turned 1 early this month, I had to run through my check lists time and again. Further to this, my daughter has a fixed regime and I had to work around her schedule to fit my plan in between.
That included breaks, food, drive, stay etc. Well, you can say that I had to plan this in such a way that she never got a feeling that she's away from home.
I have to thank my mechanic who checked each and every bolt and nut in my car. I got all the tyres changed (though they had another 7 - 8 K kms of life in them). It's comfort, safety, peace of mind and better mileage that was in the offing with new set of tyres.
Thanks to my wife, I got a new car stereo with aux/ usb inputs. Hence I connected my ipod to it for endless music over the trip.
The boot was packed to core. It had my samsonite suitcase, backpack, my baby's suitcase (cabin bag size), her stroller, and other plastic bags holding her toys and surprise surprise, her Bath tub (foldable one).
I had filled petrol to the neck the previous night.
Here's the route I took!

[MX6]

The biggest hurdle I had was in convincing everyone in my family about this road trip. A trip originally planned close to 4000 kms eventually ending up at 5000 kms (including a lot of local city driving) was simply thought off as impossible. There was strict no from my parents. My wife was not sure. Everyone pointed out that my daughter is too young to go on such a road trip.
Finally they gave in looking at the passion with which I planned this.
I prepared a detailed check-list. Things to pack, things to buy, route to take, kilometers to be covered, places to visit, where to stay, where to eat. I went thought Team-Bhp forums day in and day out.
Already I had spent 27K (new tyres, new cd player and complete servicing of car and check-ups inside out).
The night of 24th was very tough to sleep. I was too excited for one and the fact that I kept opening my check-list a 100 times to see whether anything was missed out. I got my portable dvd player repaired (so that my daughter can catch up with her panacea for extreme scenarios - better known as Walt Disney's Jungle book and a tamil movie Thillana Mohanambal). I packed my Digital SLR. which I unfortunately never used in the trip. My wife took the pentax point and shoot camera which was put to good use by her.
Request readers not to read this expecting mind-blowing photos. It's an adventure my family underwent. I'm sure that readers would relate to my experience and offer encouragement in this big travelogue I'm going to script.
I tossed and turned a lot on 24th night. Surprisingly, we stuck to plan. We were up on 25th dec at 4 am. Baby food prepared, packing done, we were in our car all set at 5:30 am.
by 6, I stopped near Katraj Ghat to get socks from the boot for my wife as she felt cold. Next stop was for breakfast. My daughter was sleeping peacefully in her car seat, firmly secured on the back seat as I hit the pedal. My new year resolution that I started on christmas was this. 100/110 on express ways and 80 on other highways and lesser speed inside cities.
Sunrise at Katraj Ghat


We hurtle along as dawn approaches


View outside Natraj hotel on NH4. Misty mornings on sleepy villages..

It was very sad to note plastic cups strewn all around as in above photo. Majority of Indians don't deserve to travel. All that results is ecological disaster.

[aargee]

WOW, man you're lucky. Give me the pleasure of reading your experiences atleast

[MX6]

Thanks aargee.
After breakfast at Natraj hotel, we hit the road again. The next destination planned was Kolhapur. The road was inviting. However, every toll booth on the way was damn crowded. All the long weekend crowd that headed to Goa was there. I adhered to my speed limit of 100 - 110 all the way.
Finding a parking space in Kolhapur was very difficult. The reality sunk in. I missed a very important thing in my plans. The crowd you'd find in temples. 40 mins after scouting around for a parking space, we went to the temple, only to find 1000s of people standing in queue. We decided to skip the queue and take Darshan from outside and relax in the temple before proceeding.

Mahalakshmi temple at kolhapur



Lamp towers



Family at Mahalaxmi temple



Thirsty pigeons show how dry and warm the day was

[MX6]

We left Kolhapur by around 12:30 pm after a prolonged break. My daughter was given around 2 hours to move around freely from the close confines of her car seat. For the first time, we put bangles on her hands and she loved the same. We had a brief stop before Belgaum for a late lunch around 2. With a heavy heart I had to turn down an eager couple's request of taking photo of our baby in the restaurant.
We were on our way to Hubli and reached Hubli by around 4:30 pm. After filling up the tank completely, we checked in to hotel Ambesh (a small lodge which was good). We'd travelled close to 500 kms that day. Thankfully, my daughter took up such a long drive well. The below photo gave us a lot of cheer and confidence that she'd make the trip without much hassles.
Hotel room at Hubli

My plan was to reach Hubli by 2. Too much of congestion at toll till Kolhapur (thanks to goa traffic branching off there) and extended breaks ensured that we reached by 4:30. We just retired for the day, had dinner and my wife had extended work washing our baby's bottles/ utensils, sterilizing them and planning for the next day.
Distance travelled: 490 kms
Petrol: 25 litres
Mileage: impressive 19.6 thanks to all the great work done on my car and my strict speed limit.

[MX6]

The next day I was up again at 6 am. But there was a lot of preparation to be done. Hence we checked out of our hotel by around 8:50. I missed out a turn near the bus stop and ended up going to the hubli end of the NH4. Had to retrace back and wasted around 40 mins and managed to get on to NH63 to yellapura finally.
We reached Yellapura by 11 and took a small break for breakfast. My daughter kept the restaurant owner busy while we washed down plain dosas with filter coffees. Soon we were off on NH63.
We reached Kamat hotel near Ankola an hour behind shedule and had a late lunch yet again at 2 pm.
Soon we were off towards Murdeshwar where we planned to take a longer break.
Break after Ankola


Us on the way to Murdeshwar


Crossing Sharavati


Towards Murudeshwar


Murdeshwar has changed a lot since I last went there, way back in 1996. It has become very commercial and crowded. We have towering gopura and a huge shiva statue apart from a big hotel there. I remember old days when 3 - 4 of friends used to bike the way till murdeshwar and sit on those rocks for hours together watching giant waves lash. The temple was surrounded 3 sides by sea. Now it's surrounded by plastic filth.

We reached Murdeshwar around 3:30 pm. Coming up next is Murdeshwar photos.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by MX6

With a heavy heart I had to turn down an eager couple's request of taking photo of our baby in the restaurant.

Why to feel heavy heart? You've every right to protect yours & your family's privacy. Why would someone want the picture of your kid? I wouldn't even allow stranger to talk with my siblings.

Originally Posted by MX6

Mileage: impressive 19.6 thanks to all the great work done on my car and my strict speed limit.

A Ford Ikon, Petrol, 19.6 Kmpl? Boy!!! Is it possible?

[himavanth_m]

5k kms. You are lucky to get permission from your folks and vacation from work for 20 days. While writing the travelogue, could you also let us know about the road conditions?

[MX6]

@ Aargee. Loads of people come and request me for taking a photo, earnestly that too. I try telling them that it's my family and I need the privacy and above all, I'm very protective about my daughter. The sullen look on their face says it all. I apologise to them for saying no, which is probably the best thing I can do.
I was very happy with 19.6 the first day. normally, I used to get around 18 on highways. having spent 27K on my car to ensure my trip is excellent, I was amazed to see it return this kind of mileage. The overall mileage of the whole trip ended at 14.8. Except between Karur and Tirunelveli, I stuck to being light footed on the pedal. There were loads of angry stares as cars over took me on NH4, because I was doing 100 - 110!

Here are photos of Murudeshwara. My daughter had her first encounter with camels. Also she had her first exposure to a beach.

Murudeshwara temple and shiva


With a camel at Murudeshwara beach


First time on beach wave



Tallest Gopuram in the world


Boats at Murudeshwara


Family at Murudeshwara


The temple was immensely crowded. Hence we just hung around for a while and decided to move ahead without the darshan of Shiva. Once again, my plans didn't envisage such a crowd and hence we kept losing precious hours. So we had to skip the darshan.

[sdp1975]

That's a lot of travelling you did. I'd like to one really long trip like that. Your daughter seems to enjoyed the trip quite a bit . Keep the pics coming.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by MX6

@ Aargee. Loads of people come and request me for taking a photo, earnestly that too. I try telling them that it's my family and I need the privacy and above all, I'm very protective about my daughter. The sullen look on their face says it all. I apologise to them for saying no, which is probably the best thing I can do.

That's why I don't even take a chance to have a look into the eyes of strangers. My wife does not know how to say "NO", so I take the charge.

No words to describe my inner feelings on the pic "Towards Murudeshwar"; looks beautiful.

[MX6]

@ SDP1975 and Aargee Thanks for your kind words.
Thanks to my friend and mentor Mr. R Hariharan (who is 60+ young, and travels once a fortnight), I'm posting some of his photos of Murdeshwar with his permission. All below photos of murdeshwar are his from his trip which he did shortly before me. It's a pity I missed out going inside and climbing up! Enjoy the views of the photos taken by my friend Hariji below.

[MX6]

We left Maravanthe around 4:30 pm. It was humid and warm there. We could feel that effect on the thirst levels of my daughter. She had 600 ml of water. How can such a small baby drink so much of water?

On the way we stopped at Maravanthe to have a view of the sunset. Maravanthe is a landmark zone, with Sowparnika river running parallel to the Arabian sea with just the NH17 in between.

On NH17 at Maravanthe


Family waiting to catch the sunset


Varahaswamy temple at Maravanthe



Islands in Sowparnika. Very idyllic spot. Been there sometime in 1997 last. The climax scenes of Kannada movie Panchama veda was shot there. One of my close friends even played an extra in that movie.





Much awaited sunset. Unfortunately, the sun disappeared behind thick clouds at the last moment.

Room with a view!


The sun goes down


But I have miles to go before I sleep.


We reahed Udupi at 7 pm. Nothing like sweet home. The road from Hubli to Ankola was splendid (NH63), the stretch of NH17 from Ankola till Udupi was surprisingly very good. The triptometer read 825 kms from Pune.
The next day I was just roamed around Udupi and Manipal.
The mileage recorded between Hubli and Udupi, when I refuelled completely was 14.64 Guess the ghat section and usage of A/C at full blast and heavy traffic between Kundapura and udupi (took almost 90 mins for a 40 km stretch and I couldn't go over 3rd gear) took it's toll on the mileage.
Next 3 days was spent in Udupi. I shall soon post photos of Udupi.

[aargee]

The last pic of the car at sunset is killer & especially the large sky is very beautiful. I like to take pics of large sky with little landscape & I love sunsets more than the sunrise. Keep them coming

[ElantraGT]

5K Kms with a 20 day trip with a 1 year old kid, I would call it Awesome Mx6 . The photos of the sunset and your friends photo of Murdeshwar is fabulous. I am not surprised on the mileage. My car (Elantra GT-Petrol) gave me 14.8 average for a trip close to 1500Kms. I used to get 8KMPL in city . Keep it coming my friend.