So the final plan was as below
23rd Sept :
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1 PM start from Bangaluru.
Lalu would reach my home just in time and leave his car in my parking lot and join me in the car.
We would join anainar at Tumkur at 2:30 PM and then drive tandem till satara.
Tea Break at Chitradurga, Fuel break at Ranibennur, Dinner break at Hotel Sankam, Belgaum
2 AM (next day) reach Satara, check into Hotel Maharaja. I made quick call and ensured that we get 2 non AC rooms. My marathi speaking ability helped in this without I have to make advance payment / money transfer of any sort.
24th Sept :
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10:00 AM till 7 PM : visit to flower valley, thosegar falls, sajjanghad, windmill farm.
25th Sept :
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5 AM to 8 AM : revisit the flower valley for taking pictures
9 AM to 10:30 AM : Meet the BHPians rom Pune, Mumbai, Baramati
11 AM : start from Satara, drive bank to Bangaluru.
on way visit Bhilwadi (Chitale Bandhu) and/or Kolhapur Mahalaxmi and reach home by midnight.
Preparations :
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Approx distance that we would cover was 1600KMs over 2+ days. Such a travel would need a vehicle in excellent condition. My 17 months old ever-ready Honda ANHC provides lots of confidence to me to take up such trips.
Still lot many things needed to be done prior to the trip on 23rd Sept.
I still had an important client meeting on 23rd morning, i managed to get it done by 11 AM.
Second key job was purchasing some snacks, packaged food, bread, juices etc needed for the trip.
Third was getting the vehicle cleaned thoroughly including interiors, exteriors, engine bay and under the car chassis. It took about 50 minutes at the neighbourhood service station to get it done.
Fourth key job was fueling and ensuring right air pressure in the wheels (including spare wheel). Visit to the neighbourhood IOCL fuel station ensured everything ready within 10 minutes.
Next was to fill up enough water bottles, one never knows when one would need them. I generally ensure that we carry 10-12 ltrs of water on our any trip. ANHC has enough space to stack five, 1 liter bottles inside the cabin and remaining bottles under the rear seat along with the two umbrellas.
next was to refresh the memory stick with addditional music. Wife had already downloaded some latest bollyhood hits as well as marathi songs written by Mr. Sandip Khare, composed by Dr Salil Kulkarni and sung by both of them together. These additional music folders were added to my 16 GB memory stick which had other genre / type of music including Golden oldies, devotional in Hindi, Marathi and Kannada languages and instrumental as well.
Took some printouts of the distance charts, as well as the XLS sheet prepared during the Kaas trip confirmations.
Wife had already done the packing for the trip including some sandwiches to be consumed on the way at the tea break. We quickly finished the lunch and wife started winding down the kitchen and home.
In the morning, Lalu called to inform that he would be delayed by some 30 minutes as he too had last minute priorities at work.
For the first time in 6+ years (she started attending playschool once she turned 2 years), my daughter did not attend the school (remained absent) as i did not had time to pick her up from the school early.
At 1:20 PM anainar calls and informs that he is on NICE road and would stop at CCD near the second toll both prior to Tumkur for Dinner. He would wait for us there so that we can drive together.
Eventually at 1:30 PM we were ready, with everything loaded into the vehicle. Lalu reached by 1:40 PM, and we started our trip by 1:45 PM. Called up anainar and confirmed that we indeed have started from home.
So at last, after so much of twists in (or turns of) the events we were on our way to Kaas.
770KMs long journey (one way) to see flowers !!!...only crazy guys seems to do such a thing, in other words, we were crazy.