Team-BHP - Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai revisited...I love my Fiat Petra!!

(This is a repost from my Yahoo group FiatClubIndia and PalioUsersIndia)

Hey guys,

I am back with a brand new travelogue (see my last travelogue at http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buckle...ravelogue.html ), apology again in replying late as I returned back on 11th December, but than I wanted to post a wholesome travelogue and work pressure just did not gave me enough time for it! So here you go:

This time I had planned in advance for the trip and had valuable tips from my last Mumbai-Delhi trip in January. Though due to sheer distance I had told myself after last trip that “no repeat”, but finally succumbed to sheer magic of driving my Petra on highways. I was accompanied by wife and both sons (aged 2.5 yrs and 1.5 yrs). We made a platform for them by filling gap between rear seat and front seats so that they can enjoy themselves and sleep if they feel tired. Placed cushions around them to ensure that they are shielded, just in case I had to break hard. Since on last trip younger one was not very happy with Child seat, we decided not to strap him in child seat this time and of course he is grown up guy now like big bro!

We had the usual toy shop and half of the household in boot! (Each time I fly with family they charge me for at least 20 KGs extra!). One important equipment additional this time was “Tubeless tyre repair kit” which was again a lesson from last trip. Don’t expect to find a tubeless repair shop before you reach Delhi, so it is better to keep a self help kit. I did a usual pre-check of fluids and tyres (I filled 32 PSI for highway). I also carried some bottles of petrol additive to ensure right octane.

Since I suspected quantity dispersed at Reliance bunks, I tried to fill from IOC COCOs (Company Owned and Company Operated pums) as far as possible this time. I am uploading a excel sheet with details of travel, the overall FE was 16.17 KMPL (including some 600 KMs of local Delhi driving) which was much better than last trip which yielded 14.5 KMPL. I don’t know if it was due to keeping away from Reliance bunks or a better run-in engine, I strongly feel it was due to former.

One think that I noticed last time was that some toll receipts had same Kilometers printed on them so this time I was careful to always offer last toll receipt instead of cash at Toll Plazas and I found out that it is indeed true that you don’t have to pay at many toll exits just showing last receipt is good enough, so saved some 200 bucks each way this time! Though the toll clerks still try to fool you but don’t be in a hurry and ensure you are charged correctly. Total toll gates have increased, there are about 20-22 toll gates in all.

This time I have captured a lot of travel details on an excel sheet which I am attaching here which shall help and of course I have clicked lot of pictures. I did managed to touch 180 KMPH on my favorite sealed expressway…yeah you guessed it right, NE-1 between Vadodara and Ahmedabad. Don’t grill me for this one but since it was empty at 5.30 am with absolutely no vehicles and I had H rated tubeless’s permission, so I did burnt a little rubber but everywhere else I behaved well. 180 KMPH reaches at 5200 RPM (See picture), so it still has lot of steam to go! Hmm…I would have to go to Autobahn for that.

Avoid eating at Reliance’s new eating plazas “A-1” they are pathetic serving stale food, tried at least two considering being Reliance they would have some quality. Better still carry packed food and enough mineral water to last the trip.

Entire stretch between Mumbai and Delhi is at least 4 laned now with divider, in fact at least 70% of the way is 6 laned and has skid protectors. See pictures:

Day-1 Mumbai-Vadodara

Started a little late from Mumbai at 2.30pm, had planned to stay at Vadodara. We reached Vadodara at 9 pm. Total distance traveled 450KMs in 5.5 hrs clocking 82 KMPH. The stretch between Surat and Baroda has really improved since last time. But still be very careful of Gujrat’s two wheeled traffic, Grrrr….don’t remind me of it!

Day-2 Vadodara-Delhi

We started at 4.55 am, so that 2 laned stretch between Ahmedabad and Himmatnagar may be cleared before traffic starts, we got greeted by a beautiful sunrise too:

Again a word of caution about Gujrat’s 2 wheeler traffic, please be very cautious. We lost 1 hour between Himmatnagar and Rishabdev stretch due to searching for my Bluetooth headset which my wife dropped accidentally while attending to kids, best part…we found it (this is a long story). We diverted to NH-76 from Udaipur which joins back NH-8 at Kishangarh, now this route bypasses Nathdwara, Kankroli etc which is two laned highway with no divider. This NH-76 which passes Chittorgarh and Bhilwara is blessing, you would not find traffic for hours and since the highway is tarmac, sides protected and six laned, you can really freak out cruising. We traveled 1082 KMs in 16 Hrs on this day. See some pictures of this stretch:

We reached Delhi at 9 pm (please see details of route in attached excel sheet)

Day-1 Delhi-Ajmer

We started of a little late at 4 PM and planned to reach Ajmer by 9.30-10 PM but Delhi peak hour rush is not easy, we managed 69 Kms till Gurgaon border in 2 hrs 45 minutes! And this includes a 10 minutes Fuel stop and 20 minutes Haldiram stopJ. We reached Ajmer at 11.30 pm…very tired due to Delhi-Jaipur traffic. We traveled 425 KMs in 7.5 Hrs averaging 59 KMPH!

Day-2 Ajmer-Mumbai

We had planned to halt at Vadodara but somehow plan changed and we decided to stretch till Mumbai to hit the bed at home. We started off pretty well and diverted to NH-76 towards Bhilwara, the stretch was amazing, here are a couple of pics:

Blame it on NHAI signs, we missed the tarmac expressway to Udaipur from Chittorgarh, instead we proceeded on old route, we did not realize mistake till about 50 KMs and than we decided to go on but though the way was 2 laned, the traffic was not too bad and it was picturesque too, see these:

We lost 1 hour due to missing expressway. We reached Udaipur at 12.45pm. The route from Udaipur to Rajasthan border is really amazing and you see so much varied scenery around; here are a couple of pictures:

Finally we crossed Udaipur border:

The route between Udaipur and Gujrat border was also very scenic, here is an account:

Finally it was time to bid Rajasthan Goodbye!

I goofed a little with fuel calculation and was stranded on Ahmedabad-Vadodara expressway without fuel! We lost 30 minutes while I arranged for help. Actually I was really zooming on expressway at 140 so obviously car consumed more fuel which I did not account for and secondly…my wife was right…the fuel bunk was towards end of expressway! Anyways, we reached Vadodara at 6.30 but decided to proceed for Mumbai. This stretch has improved a lot but truck traffic is really bad, but if you are driving cautiously this is not a challenge. We reached back home at 1.42 am and kids were fresh after a good sleep!!

Hope I have been able to capture all the details in my excel sheet, do let me know if you need any info. I would be uploading the excel sheet and zipped pics on Fiat Club in case you don’t find these as attachment in this mail.

Cheers! Petra rocks!! And….no repeat!

-Rishi

Sorry guys...dont have patience for image shack stuff so dumping all links together here:

http://rapidshare.de/files/9523159/M..._2005.xls.html