Road trip to Deoghar with my mother in my Maruti XL6

Mom had absolutely no issue traveling for long hours in the XL6 and that alone makes the purchase worth it.

BHPian Leoshashi recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Place visited:

Deoghar

Prelude:

When grandma breathed her last in early 1990, shortly after my mom getting married, "Visit Deoghar on your way back" were her last words. Call it destiny, every time it was planned, something or the other went wrong. Then everyone got busy with their lives and that desire remained in mom's heart for 31 years. Last year she took voluntary retirement but then COVID happened and all religious places were shut down. Last month, mom again expressed her desire to visit the place and I was determined to fulfill that for her, and time decided was after Durga Puja.

We both have been vaccinated, still I wasn't too excited to visit such places where large gatherings happen. We agreed not to enter crowded places. We visited the temple in evening but the crowd was maddening. A friend in local administration advised us to come early next day. We visited at the recommended time and found the place almost empty. Thus it was the best darshan one can hope for.

Routes available:

• Via Barhi.
• Via Hazaribagh-Bagodar.
• Via Phusro.

The road via Phusro was in shambles due to regular commute of coal laden trucks as reported by BHPian Blowhornok, and the stretch between Ormanjhi and Sikidri valley is also broken post rains. The stretch of Hazaribagh-Bagodar was also a bit battered due to rains, and we decided to skip it and opt for long but beautifully surfaced roads. Had some job at Dhanbad so decided to club it during the return leg.

Route Taken:

• Ranchi-Barhi-Dumri-Giridih-Deoghar (5 hours).
• Return leg: Deoghar-Giridih-Dumri-Dhanbad-Chas-Ranchi (7 hours).

Distance travelled: 753.8 km

• Fuel taken: 40.48L
• Efficiency: 18.62kmpl

Problematic areas:

The town of Giridih is quite congested with narrow roads. Best to take the 2 lane which bypasses the city rather than taking the town head on as advised by Google. The outskirts of Deoghar may be problematic and surface is average at best. On the return leg, Dhanbad-Chas 4 lane was closed for some work, hence I had to travel through some really nasty roads.

An example of the massive pothole we crossed:

Taking a massive pothole head on with the Maruti XL6

Some pictures:

On GT road, near Bagodar:

Near Joda-Pahari, Giridih:

Beautiful 2 lane road:

At our Deoghar stay:

The famous Baidyanath temple:

The van:

Pic of the odo:

Beautiful 6 lane part of the Dumri-Dhanbad section of GT road:

Rare sight, a broken down new Fortuner:

Mom had absolutely no issue traveling for long hours in the XL6 and that alone makes the purchase worth it.

Regards,

Shashi.

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