A road trip to Vishakhapatnam: Day 1

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During this puja vacation my husband and I decided to take a road trip to Vishakhapatnam. Our 2 sons Rahoul, aged 12 years and Rishi, aged 8 years were extremely excited though road trips are quite the norm in our family.
Day 1 : 17.10.2015
We had planned to leave by 4am but we overslept after partying the night before and finally got onto the road at 5am...at that time our only concern was whether we would be able to make it to Berhampore, Orissa before sunset. Things went according to plan and we had crossed Kharagpur in 2 hours. Thereafter we slightly misjudged the turn and went along NH 6 for some time before we realised our mistake. We quickly turned back and got onto NH 60 to take us out of West Bengal. The GPS was also positioned immediately and never left us all the way to Vishakhapatnam and back. After managing to cross the queues of trucks lined up at the Jaleswar check point around 8 am, we were in Orissa and travelled unhindered and got onto NH 5 at Balasore smoothly around 8.45 am. The roads are in impeccable condition and we were totally impressed. It made the journey so much more enjoyable as we feasted on ham and salami sandwiches and boiled eggs, listened to the Beatles and chatted while the boys read and admired the beauty of our great country. We crossed Bhadrak and reached Cuttack around 11.15 am. The rasgullas of Pahal between Cuttack and Bhubaneshwar could not be missed and we stopped to taste both those and the chena poda, the famous baked sweet of Orissa. Once we had crossed the traffic of Bhubaneshwar city by 12 noon, the route became more picturesque and soon we got a glimpse of Chilika, the largest lagoon in India. The road wound itself around the hills of the Chhotonagpur plateau region and we enjoyed every moment. Soon we crossed Chilika Dhaba but did not stop as no one was hungry. The area becomes especially deserted after Tangi and one can bask in nature's glory for miles. Badkul and Rambha passed us by and by 2.30 pm we realised that we were nearing Berhampore. The decision was then to be taken whether to stop or go on. As Berhampore is near the border of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh and as we were already on the road for around 10 hours we decided to spend the night at Berhampore< where we arrived at by 3 pm. A quick check in at a pre decided Hotel Spectrum near the old bus stand, a short nap, kachoris, sweets and lassi at the local shops nearby and a quiet though extremely tasty dinner at the hotel's restaurant ended day 1 of our trip.

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