Bangalore to Kolkata by SX4, take me home

The thought.. 

It all started almost a year back when me & my wifey were chatting on a beautiful rainy day sipping coffee on our balcony. We were cherishing the moments from the recently done road trip to Madurai - Kanyakumari in our mighty WagonR. All of a sudden my wife uttered, why don't we go home (West Bengal) this time by road? the flight tickets are touching skies & the trains - Gosh! forget it...B'Coz of waiting list tickets & talkal queue... I immediately replied - hey it's a great idea, but will our parents support the idea? Then we diverted from the topic & discussion ended for quite a few months..

Travelling by a car to my home town was mesmerising idea & it again sparked me somewhere around Feb, 2012 when we were trying  to book ticket at the last moment for my cousin's marriage! All in vein as the tickets never got confirmed & you know what next.....

Teaser Pictures:

 

Preparation..

I started preparing for the trip right from April, 2012 & took alsmost 4 months to execute the plan!! By then I had already started googling about the road directions & hotels for night stays. I had read many blogs to get some fair idea about the journey through NH5 (Golden Quadrilateral). By June end I was ready with all the required information's & a 30 page well documented maps with other details like; eateries, staying options, petrol bunks, emergency services etc.  

But one thought was always haunting me from safety point of view, travelling such a long distance in a small car will not be viable as to & fro journey will be around 5000Kms. And you need to have the comfortable journey throughout specially when you have 16 months old baby, Saanvi that's my daughter's name. Off course, lot of people have travelled with small cars & made it looked so easy (Hats-off to them). Yes, I wanted to give my family a comfortable ride with all sorts of inbuilt safety equipments. Then came the idea of going for a bigger car & finally after lot of market research we zeroed in for SX4 which meets our expectations!! Here comes the day, the 14th-August2012 we got the car, SX4 parked in my garage.. Wonderful moment!! isn't it!! We decided not to tell any body about this including our parents in fear of dampening the road trip..& we thought will give a surprising visit..

A detailed list of "things to carry" was prepared for travelling on National Highway which included:

1. All original car documents including duplicate key
2. First aid box with all required medicines
3. Details Road map well documented with important city diversions to avoid delay
4. Lots of stuffs to chew, munch & drink (cool drinks & Juices)
5. In-Car emergency equipments like; toolkit, tow rope, torch, spare tube, tubeless puncture repair kit etc
6. Sufficient cash as most of the petrol bunks & hotels will not have credit card facility
7. Car sickness remedies (Ginger biscuits & candies, peppermint candies, alcohol wipes, paper bags etc)
8. Sufficient drinking water (preferably 20 ltrs. can)
9. All types of music CD's or songs stored in flash drives which will set the perfect atmosphere while driving
10. GPS or Google map enabled in your cellphone
11. Camera, Video Camera with spare batteries & chargers
12. Pillow & blanket &
GOOD ATTITUDE

The final travel shedule was as follows:

BLR - TIRUPATI - VIJAYAWADA - RAJAHMUNDRI - VIZAG - GOPALPUR - SONAMUKHI (by-passing Kolkata) - DUMKA - PURULIA - BANKURA - SONAMUKHI - PURI - VIJAYWADA - BLR

=> 16thSep, 4:30AM - Start from Bangalore & reach Rajahmundry by dusk (865 Kms)

=> 17thSep, 7:00AM - Start & reach Goplapur at Sea by 2:00PM, spend the day liesurely (460 Kms)

=> 18thSep, 6:00AM - Reach Bankura (West Bengal) by dusk to my in-laws place (610 Kms)

=> 22ndSep, 8:00AM - Start for my Native place Dumka, Jharkhand (200Kms)

=> 27thSep, 1:00PM - Good bye to my home town & reach Purulia where my elder brother stays (200 Kms)

=> 29thSep, 7:00AM - Onward journey begins, proceed for Jagannath Puri & reach by dusk (650 Kms)

=> 1stOct, 6:00AM - Start from Puri & reach Vijayawada by dusk (790 Kms)

=> 2ndOct, 6:00AM - Start for Bangalore & reach by dusk (675 Kms)

The travellers

Me the solo driver, wifey, Saanvi our darling baby & her care taker

The Car

SX4 - ZXi
 

Day1:

Thus began a journey that I had waited for years .. A journey more satisfying than any I have ever undertaken!!

This journey has been conquered by many & many have written their experiences, and those who look forward to travelling the same road know all the landmarks, the diversions and points to avoid.

All our lugguges were loaded the prvious night itself to avoid delay in the morning. We were so exited about the journey that we could hardly sleep the previous night before the D-day. Woke up at 3:00AM in the morning, had my shower in cold water as it keeps you refressed throughout the journey. Started from Bangalore exactly at 4:30AM as planned from our HSR layout residence. It was pleasant outside with all the street lights guiding us the way with Ganesha vandana playing on the background. Road was almost empty & quiet which helped us to reach Old Madrass road through outer ring road in no time. Guess what?? Suddenly my wife said something with a big heavy shy on her face which prompted me park the car on the side of the highway after Hosekote. She said that she had forgot to switch off the gyser after shower, but not sure. I thought my wifey is not so insincere about such things & beleived she had for sure turned off the gyser before leaving. After all there is no point in going back again 40 Kms to our home which will intern kill our precious time, so decided to move on.. Reached Tirupati bypass by 8:00AM & had home made breakfast underneath a tree with blistering breeze coming from everywhere along with the chirping sounds of birds above the trees. Trust me, it was a wonderful experience!!

Pics..

Outer Ring road at 4:30AM

Morning time - BLR Tirupati road

 

 

With 20 mins of welcome break & stomach feeling we started again towards our destination, Rajahmundry which was another 600 plus kms from there. I was worried & bit apprehensive about reaching the destination before dusk as I completely avoid night driving with family on board. I pause for a moment & told myself lets do it step by step & at first try to reach Ongole by 12:30PM and to my surprise we were there at Ongole by sharp 12:30PM. 

We had a good 45 Mins of lunch break with wifey serving the world's best food (as I say to her) & headed towards our next destination Vijayawada. I had estimated to reach Vijayawada by 3:00PM but was late by half an hour because of 2 breaks in between (One nature's call & one for re-fuelling). We had a good tea break at a nearby dhaba & started for our last leg of journey for the day!! The last 160 Kms took me around 3 & half hours - thanks to the traffic as the entire stretch was crowded with truckers & bikers (was tiring indeed). Reached Anand Regency (a good upmarket hotel) at sharp 8:00PM, checked in, had good veg thali meal & retired for the day.

Few Pics captured during day time

Breakfast time

Raining heavily - Approaching Vijawada

Dinner - Veg thali at Hotel Anad Regency

Road Conditions..

From Blr - Tirupati: I saw it has improved drastically till Tirupati when compared 2 years back. The drive all the way was fantastic. If you are fast driver can easily do it in 3 & half hours (250 Kms)

From Tirupati to Nayadupeta: Good single road with few diversions. Watch out for incoming traffics

From Nayadupeta to Rajahmundhry: And here comes the bliss from Nayadupeta onwards, the NH5 (Golden Quadrilateral starts till Kolkata). Driving on NH5 will thrill your adrenalin with beautifully laid roads, dividers with small plants & flowers & scenic all across. It was completely a wonderful experience!

Day2

Started sharp at 7:00AM in the morning. Today it is a relaxing journey as we need to cover up only 480 Kms to Gopalpur on Sea (Orissa). By 9:30 AM we reached Vizag & guess what!! by mistake we entered towards the city & in the process we lost almost 1 hour to get out from Vizag. Confusion happened because the same NH5 road goes through the city & there is another NH5 bypass road which we missed goes bypassing the city traffic. I noticed that there are too many traffic barricading given on the main road which was making the traffic crawl. By 3:00PM we reached our destination - Gopalpur on sea..

Wow!! awesome!! was the scream I heard from behind from a lady (Opps! it's my wifey). After a long break we were back to the sea & the feeling was mesmerising. And to add to this the hotel which we booked was right on top of the beach. We couldn't have expected more as the hotel offers a large balcony facing the sea with sit outs. we had great time after a long time with lots of sea food & chilled beers..

Few Pictures of Gopalpur at Sea

 

 

 

Day3  

After spending the entire evening leisurely on day 2 back on the road at sharp 7:00AM. Today the destination was to reach my in-laws place to Bankura (Sonamukhi) bypassing Kolkata (610 Kms). On the way after crossing Baleswar, we found an excellent hotel on the road side named - "Dada-boudi" which offered a sumptuous lunch, Mutton curry with rice & crip fried Karela.

 

After a good 45 mins break & refuelling we headed towards Kharagpur & reached there by 2:30PM. Now the questions comes - which route to take?? The route which goes through Kolkata bypass via Durgapur is 320 KMs & the route if we take the route via Mednipur & Salbani is anly 120 Kms but the road conditions are worst & not drivable with fear of Maoists. My wifey suggested to take the shorter route as she knows the area very well. And regarding the road condition SX4's ground clearance is good enough to tackle the big path holes on the road. Trust me, we reached in 3 hours with no regrets!! More than 70% of the road is now well laid off & remaining 30% the work is in progress.

Few pics during day time heading towards Kharagpur

 

Count how many wheels 

 wifey experimenting with photography

 

 

 Day8
After spending good 4 days leisurely at my in-laws place we headed for our ancestral place, my Native place Dumka (Jharkhand). Started around 9:00AM & reached by 4:00PM thanks to stike called by the teachers association just 15 Kms before Dumka near Pattabari. We reached there at 1:00PM but was told that the strike will be called off only after 5:00PM. Having no choice & cursing the people out there we went back to Massanjor Dam  Spent time on the dam & had lunch at the road side dhaba.

Massanjore Dam:

             

 

Massanjore dam, across the Mayurakshi River, is in Dumka district of Jharkhand State. Built with Candian aid, it is also called Canada Dam or Pearson Dam. It was commissioned in 1956.

The dam is 155 feet high from its base and is 2170 feet long. The reservoir has an area of 16,650 acres when full and has a storage capacity of 500,000 acre feet. Apart from the Massanjore Dam there is a barrage at Tilpara, near Siuri. The barrage is 1,013 feet long

 

Massanjore which played the role of a host to BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani after his arrest in Samastipur during his Ram Rath Yatra in 1990, will this time miss the octogenarian leader who is again riding a rath for creating Jan Chetna among people against corruption. Mr Advani was airlifted alongwith another party leader Pramod Mahajan from Samastipur, now in Bihar on October 24, 1990 during his yatra and was brought to the irrigation department rest house located in the natural surroundings of Massanjore dam. Mr Advani remained in room number four for more than a week in the rest house and was banned to meet anyone. Mr Advani liked the natural scenario of Massanjore and loved the place.

 

Massanjore dam, beautiful

  

Welcome to Jharkhand State (Johar)

Fish Mart in Dumka

 

Basukinath (lord Shiva)

Deoghar (lord Shiva)

 



 

Day12

We headed for Purulia where my big brother practises medicine. He is a paediatrician & teaches in Bankura Medical college as a Professor. Stayed there for one day & it was great family meeting altogether as we were meeting after 4 years. Had great time there!!

 

 



 

On the way to Purulia (W.B) horrible road which goes over a bridge made of bamboo & mud, river flowing underneath.

Day14
Time to hit the highway again as we headed for Puri (Jagannath Dham) from, approximately 610 Kms from Bankura. We reached there by 7:00PM late by 2 hours thanks again to road condition & slow moving traffic from Cuttuck to Bhubaneswar.

Few Pics of Puri:

 From the hotel Balcony

 Puri Market in the evening

 Lord Jagannath Temple

Entrance of the Jagannath Temple

 



Day16 & Day 17
Last leg of our journey started after spending 2 wonderful days in Puri. It's time to hit the road again & proceed towards Vijayawada (790Kms). Huh!! Nothing much to write as the journey was so boaring till Vijayawada via Vizag.Reached by 8:00PM & retired for the day. Next day morning we went to visit the Kanakdurga temple in Vijayawada. is a famous Hindu Temple of Goddess Kanaka Durga located in Vijayawada. The temple is located on the Indrakeeladri hill, on the banks of Krishna River. It is beleived that Goddess Kanakadurga over the demon King Mahishasura.

Few Pics of Kanakadurga temple

Kanakadurga Temple

Glimpse of River Krishna from the temple premise

 Kanakadurga Temple from inside

Had breakfast headed for Bangalore at 8:00AM (675 Kms) to reach by dusk. The return journey was covered quietly & at times it was felt that the roads are never ending & travelling on &on... We reached back home at around 6:00PM as targeted. Immediately I rushed to see the health of the geyser & found it was switched off!! :) Thanks God...

Thus a wonderful journey came to an end!! Overall it was a great trip! 17 days of marathon driving mostly on NH5 came to a halt & we reached home safely, thank to the almighty. But yes, we enjoyed to the fullest & now the east cost is almost covered as we had been to Chennai till Kanyakumari earlier. We wish to cover the west cost soon....wait for my next post....

Highlights:
Average Mileage as per car trip meter – 14km/ltr
Issues with car – None
Maximum speed attained – 170 km/hr
Total trip distance – approx 4867kms
Good roads - Entire NH5 (Golden Quadrilateral)
Bad roads - Kharagpur to Bankura
Toll paid (to & fro) - 1900/- (approx.)
Lowest Petrol Cost - Orissa & Jharkhand (Rs68/- per ltr)
Caution - watch out for four legged animals on the divider as it comes suddenly from nowhere. And also be extra careful with the 2 wheelers & 4 wheelers coming from the opposite directions in your lane.