Team-BHP - A road trip that changed my driving horizons! 3860 kms Lucknow-Mumbai-Lucknow

Hello team,

First things first, my apologies for a very delayed travelogue. It just kept postponed for all and sundry reasons. Anyway, here it goes:

Let me start with some highlights of this trip:

Did night driving for the first time.(That too unplanned!).
Did driving in almost zero visibility fog on a chilling north-Indian night. (That too unplanned!).
Crossed that 1000 kms mark in a day (+ part of night, 18 hrs.).
Experienced a typical NH 3 jam, that too in night!
Driving the Black Tigress (Safari) on new Bandra - Worli sea link was quite an experience, so was the Vadodara - Ahmadabad express way.
To top it all, had the good fortune of meeting the HighVayKing in person at Thane. It was like a street-boy cricketer meeting the Don Bradman or Sachin Tendulkar of the Indian driving world! :)
Consider it: it was my only 2nd long driving trip! The 1st one being 2700 kms to Rajasthan in Oct. 2009. (Though had been a passenger on few long road trips).

Here are few teasers. As usual, I'll have only average pics. No SLR quality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LongDrive lover (Post 1864469)

Did night driving for the first time.(That too unplanned!).
Did driving in almost zero visibility fog on a chilling north-Indian night. (That too unplanned!).
Crossed that 1000 kms mark in a day (+ part of night, 18 hrs.).
To top it all, had the good fortune of meeting the HighVayKing in person at Thane.

Hmm...these are something that I like to do too; anyway, pls share your experience to educate newbies like me :)

Good one there LDL. And for a difference I'm seeing Ma Durga on the dash (against routing Ganesha).
The first pic shows how dangerously close that you are to that trucker, on the same lane. Were you overtaking something? Objects in photos are closer than they appear! Guess there'll be an interesting story unfolding there.

@ampere. Let's see how you maintain your "No Help" status. When LDL reaches Bangalore, I'm sure you'd be the most eager person to meet him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MX6 (Post 1864566)

Thanks MX6.
I asked my mother, and she and wifey, both told, go for Ma Durga, that's it.
The angle of the pic makes it appear so dangerous, it appears as if I am going to pounce the Tigress onto the truck :Shockked:. But believe me, there was nothing scary, and no story, both vehicles were safely on their left sides.

The story unfolds:

Was a suddenly planned trip!
As I wrote in my first Rajasthan travelogue, ever since the entry of this Black Tigress in our family, I am always looking for a road trip or the other. Its like sleeping with an Indian road map instead of pillow! It so happened in mid Dec. 2009 that we got some official work at Mumbai where I was to go. I talked to one of my colleague/friend who is also involved with me in work. We discussed possibilities as to how we can make it a road trip. We decided, if it gets approved, it'll be a triple bonanza. Driving thrills for me, a long Safari ride to my colleague who is also my good friend and a Mumbai darshan to my family!

I went to our boss and talked about this work, he said yes, you have to go there, you take a flight. Little did he know what was going in the mind of this driving enthusiast. With slight customary hesitation, I put forward my idea: "Sir, if you'd kindly permit, two can go in almost same expenditure by road" (though, it wasn't same, obviously)! It was like :Shockked: for my boss. He said, 'have you gone mad! you know how far Mumbai is!' I said, yes sir, I know, but lot of people take such long road trips, there wont be any problem, I'll even drive in my own car, if you approve it. He reluctantly approved it. And out came I, jumping in joy. :)

We immediately started preparations. First thing to come in picture was a list of possible sight seeing that can be 'managed' en route within the given time frame, as it was an official trip.

Time was less and route was not that complex. Though I thought to put up a query thread at this forum, but couldn't due to hectic schedules. Rather I opted for the easiest option, framed a plan (very ambitious, as usual, it was) and shooted a mail to the HVK sir. A couple of mails exchanged between the mentor and the trainee, fine tuning done, and it was okayed. What the Guru said, 'impossible in the given time' I either counted out or increased the time frame, and where he said 'possible with some zestful driving', I thought, we'll try if could be done safely.

Coming up next - The Plan as it was thought to be..along with pics.

The Plan, we went with:

After consultation with HVK sir, and all the modifications, we decided to do the following:

Day1: Lucknow-Kanpur- Etawa- Gwaliar- Shivpuri- Guna- Beora (Night halt) -push, if possible, to -Devas- Indore (Night halt).
D2: Indore - Khandwa -Ajanta- Aurangabad (Night halt).
D3: Aurangabad, Bibi ka Makbara, Ellora, Shirdi darshan (Night halt).
D4: Early start from Shirdi, reach Mumbai by Lunch time, drop family at the accommodation and report at the work place.

Luckily, we got an extra day as Dec 25 was a holiday. Otherwise, couldn't have dragged it the onward journey to 4 days!

D 5,6,7: Attending to Work, and also managing some essential Mumbai darshan to family by squeezing some time in between/ evenings.

D 8-9 Return journey via GQ route (NH 8, NH 76).
(had at the back of mind, to visit the Akshardham temple at Gandhi Nagar, en route, if possible).
D 10. Sunday. Rest at Home.

All such plans look fantastic, but rarely achieved, unless, off course, one is HV Kumar! Could we execute the Plan? Watch out this space to know.:)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MX6 (Post 1864659)

Boy. Office paying for the trip is the best thing to happen. Can we swap bosses?

Hmm.. No way.

On a serious note, actually, it doesn't happen in our job routinely, but, it somehow came my way.:)

Thanks samsag12.
A pleasant surprise to find someone from the City of Nawabs. Would be nice to meet up. Your no. of posts and frequency of posting shows that you must be a regular on this forum, but never saw. may be your interests are in other threads of this forum.