Advertisement
Published: October 8th 2020
Edit Blog Post
This trip was planned to go back and stay with my dad and grandmother in Delhi.So I planned it for Gandhi Jayanti long weekend.It was raining for past few weeks and there was a doubt that it can play spoilsport for our plan since we were on a tight schedule.
The first hurdle came when our luggage to be mounted on the carrier exceeded its capacity and we had to cover it with car body cover (bad decision!).Now the 2nd problem was that we have packet additional items which did not fit in our boot space.We had to discard a few bags at the very last moment before starting from home.
As we sat in the car it started raining, but it was short lived and after a 5 min scare it subsided and we were on our way for this long trip.I was accompanied by my mother, wife and two sons aged 10 & 3 years old.Please check pic 1 for the packed luggage and rain drops on our car parked just outside our home.
I got diesel filled up and tyre pressure check a couple of days ago and we
started directly towards our first halt at Hyderabad exactly at 4 AM.There was usual traffic on the roads in Bangalore and after 45 mins we left Bangalore and doing speeds over 100 kmph. Suddenly I realised that there was noise coming from luggage at the top and due to heavy wind my car body cover torn off.I somehow managed to tie it and commenced back to my journey.
We reached Hyderabad at 11 AM after bypassing the city using Nehru outer ring road (ORR) and took a 30 mins break at a restauent just after getting down from ORR to get refreshed and stretch our legs.At around 11:30 we started from there and roads continued to be good and the route had lot of greenery.Lunch was done in the car since there was no plan to stop anywhere to avoid exposure to the coronavirus.
As soon as we entered Maharashtra, bad roads welcomed us and throughout the drive of 100 odd kms to Nagpur there were big potholes on the road that were not visible from a distance.So I advice to keep the speeds under 80 Kmph and be very careful to manoeuvre the
car to avoid damage.After an ordeal of 2 hours we reached Nagpur at 7 PM and checked into Radisson blu hotel.The hotel was re-opened a day ago and they took utmost care for Covid-19. As we rested in our room, the dinner was served there itself.Nothing to boast about the spread, but it was just adequate and rationed.
We directly went to bed after dinner and woke up at 9 AM in the morning with no hangover from last day's drive.We had breakfast in the room and got ready by 11AM to check out from the hotel (Thanks to hotel staff for providing us interconnecting rooms that made easier and nobody has to sleep alone).We left the hotel at 11:30 AM and the roads inside Nagpur were also under construction and as bad as the highway roads approaching it.We fuel up and left Nagpur for our next destination - Jhansi.
Just outside Nagpur we were stopped by traffic cops who let us go after checking RC, license ,insurance & pollution (please keep them handy!).After this we were cruising at a good speed when we were halted by a road block around 75-80 kms from Nagpur.There was some construction
work going on NH-44 due to which we had to take a detour from inside villages and on state highway AH-54 to reach Seoni and this resulted in 2 hours & 100 kms added to our overall journey.We were off our plans and already sure that we had to drive in the night time.I was doing higher speeds, but that didn't helped and the sun went down at 6PM itself with 300 kms to go for Jhansi.There is no good stopover between Nagpur to Jhansi and I have already ruled out Narsingpur and Lalitpur due to lack of good hotels for family stay.
There is a big problem with cows sitting in the middle of the road or roaming around in MP highway roads and it becomes all the more difficult to locate them in the night.Somehow I managed to reach hotel after 10 hour long journey and 11 km approach road to the hotel (Shivpuri to Mirzapur highway) was all dirt and gravel.The Sarovar Portico refused to provide us the committed rooms and we had to stay in separate rooms.After dinner we went to bed and woke up early next morning and after light breakfast left that hotel
for good.I will not recommend the hotel since they were not taking any care for Covid-19 and did not accommodate any request for just a night stay.
We started from Hotel at around 11 AM and after fueling up and buying some fruits again headed to Gwalior on NH44.It was an uneventful 100 km drive to Gwalior with some single road due to repair work.There was one toll immediately after crossing Gwalior that took around 15-20 minutes to pass, otherwise all the tolls were passed in a breeze.
The highway keeps getting busy from Gwalior to Agra and we halted at a petrol pump at Dholpur for bio break.One needs to be extra careful for unruly driving and people crossing highway without caring about incoming traffic.This was the stretch that seems to be most accident prone.We entered Agra at around 2 PM and it took us 1 hour to reach to yamuna expressway after passing thorugh busy Agra streets.Things don't change much and Agra still has its rustic charm and old world feeling and 1 hour spent was worth in my view (my dad belongs to Agra, so it was always a 2nd home for us).
Once on yamuna expressway,nothing much is left but to cruise at a constant speed and wait for the straight road to merge into a curve to reach Greater Noida.I covered the distance from Agra to Greater Noida in around 2 hours and another 35 minutes to my sister's house in Noida.We had evening snacks and dinner and left from her place @ 11PM in the night.
Exactly after 1 hour of drive I finally reached at my home at midnight and unpacking the car was a daunting task after such a long journey.All in all it was a great experience and my kids were very well behaved during the whole journey that spanned for 3 days.My mother had swelling in her legs due to long sitting but it subsided in couple of days.The other trip statistics are provided below.
Maximum speed : 140 kmph (mother was sitting next to me)
Average speed : 75 kmph
Fuel : 130 litres ( for 2250 Kms, performance was below my. expectation on fuel efficiency metrics)
Hotel Tariff :
Radisson Blu is around 7K per room with dinner and breakfast.
Natraj Sarovar Portico 4K
per room only charges.
Toll charge : It is around 3500 including Yamuna expressway toll.
There are lot of petrol pumps on the way, but it is recommended to fill up after you hit 30% to be on the safer side.
One advice is to pack food and water and lot of fruits to eat in the car itself that will actually save time and risk of infection.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0371s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb