HYDERABAD to KOLKATA in an Alto LXI

This time it was not just the road bug that was bugging me! It was also a bit of necessity. I was shifting out from Hyderabad to my hometown Kolkata. I had to shift my Alto as well and I did not want it to be in hands of other people. Thus, the initial decision of driving the entire way. Also, I knew that I was a kid in the highway driving club and I badly wanted to graduate to a grown-up. I had earlier done a bit on the Andhra highways but never went cross-borders. I had a feeling that I could do ~800km a day and thus the entire distance of about 1600km can be done in 2 days. Then I started the research and asked people how the idea sounded to them. To my surprise, everybody who drive in the city told me that this was sheer madness to take an Alto for a 1600km, 2 day trip. My research spoke otherwise. People have taken theirs from Bangalore to Kolkata and M800 from Hyderabad to Gujarat and back. So I started to talk to TEAM-BHP people and my service engineers. None of them said that this cannot be done. This gave me the strength to plan forward. I knew, driving alone was a tough ask and tougher would be to be alone the entire trip. So, I fell back to my biggest companion on the highways, Pukin. He is not a driver, never sat on the steering, but still the best navigator for me. He can sit awake on the front seat for the entire day even after sleepless nights. Added to him was our junior, Debadrito. Debadrito is a very interesting character. He would fall asleep almost as soon as the AC is on even in terrible city traffic, :-). Still when required, he can talk for hours so that we do not get bored. So, this was the team.

(from right)Debadrito, Pukin and I

I met Ranjith from t-bhp and wanted him to see my car once and certify that its fine. That went well. Then I got my car checked up at Varun Motors, Begumpet and Carnation, Maula Ali. Both the places certified that its fine. Pukin and I had earlier spent about 3 hours to create the route map. Print-outs were taken. 28Th April was hectic for me. The movers & packers took all the stuff from my flat at Kompally. We were to spent the night at Saket at Debadrito's flat and start early next morning from there.

We started at 5 AM on 29th April with two inexperienced guides and an equally inexperienced driver. The only thing we had to boast about is the will and the passion. Ranjith had earlier told me that the time-lines are very pessimistic, but I knew that with my level of experience we might take even more than that. I took a wrong road to Uppal from Saket that took us about an hour extra. After Uppal were the highways and the Sun rising from the front as we were heading east. Lovely experience, lovely photos! 

Orissa Dhaba

Food 7

However, not so good roads. Our first stop was at Chityala, 87.6 km from Saket for a roadside tea break at Orissa Dhaba at 7 AM. Not good speed by any standards. A short 20 mins break and off to Suryapet at Highway Food Court 7. The odometer read 137.9km and we took a long break of 1 hr. Off we went for another 50 km to Kodad in the next hour and carried on to Gollapudi, the outskirts of Vijaywada by 12:15 PM. The NH9 is filled with diversions for constructions and we already overshot our time-lines. After Gollapudi, we had to take the Elluru road to get onto NH5. I was longing for the Golden Quadrilateral that I had heard so much about. But the wait was eluding to say the least. It took us an hour to cross Vijaywada. We got glimpses of the Eastern Ghats earlier and now I could understand the we were crossing from under the Easter Ghats. While we were in Vijaywada, we decided that we would have our lunch only after we cross the city. We did so and reached the other side just after 1 PM. We stopped at a very small roadside restaurant called Paradise and had our lunch there.

Rajahmundry

The next leg was the one I was looking for from the morning. It was the GQ and we were headed to Rajahmundry. We did 173 km in 2:45 hrs. We stopped once in between for a smoke break and this was better speed compared to anything in the morning. We got drizzles on the way and of course it was so soothing. I did not know till then that there were lots to follow in the day. We stopped at Rajahmundry for a tea break and expected to be in Vizag within the next 3 hours max. Things were planned differently for us. We left Rajahmundry with a storm behind us. Dust was blowing all around us and we quickly managed to run to the car. As we did rain drops started. But it was still pretty manageable and we expected the Sun to be there for quite sometime more as we were by then almost the sea shore. Within 15 mins, visibility started dropping and the storm started blowing harder along with a heavy downpour. As soon I was behind a truck, visibility was almost zero.

The setting Sun on the skyline of the Eastern Ghats was mesmerising! Once I considered stopping, but dropped the idea as this was damn exiting for me. I knew that a test was on for me, but thunderstorm on the GQ and driving through it, may be the best that any driver can ask for India. I gradually realised that I could not see even with the high beam on and that freaked me out. I thought it may be the changing light and wanted to see till it was completely dark. But still I could not see the roads. As soon as it got dark, we stopped on the roadside to see what was it. The showers have stopped a bit and I thought we were through it. I found out that the headlamps have a few layers of dust almost turned into mud. I had to rub the headlamps, the windscreen and the side mirrors to be able to see again. A white duster completely turned black. Outside was completely pitch dark by then. 

We started off again, happy that the rain was behind us! We were badly mistaken. Ahead was not just the rain, but the thunderstorm and tremendous downpour. I have never been in such trying limits of my driving capabilities. Its rare that I am afraid of the roads ahead. This time I was, really. Driving at almost 80kmph, it was not easy to say the least. Both sides of the road were pitch dark and it was tunnel vision for me. This was the border of the Alluri Sitaramaraju Forest Area. Our plan was to stop at Annavaram but skipped all of that and headed for Vizag. I knew I had to make it to there before late. Finally, we were on the suburbs of Vizag by 8:30 PM. We had to find the Haritha and did so and parked there at 9:15PM. The last leg was a whopping 210 KM in 4 hours and next day one of my friends told me that there was a mini cyclone on the Vizag coast last night. I was [don't know what the feeling is called :-)], but proud of myself to say the least. We had our dinner at Haritha restaurant. Nothing great but all was good for me after a day of 688 km of driving. It was the first time I was having rice in the day and I had it good. Then it was a hot water shower and to bed. Good Night!

Rushikonda Beach

NH5 again!

Tiffin Center

Man of the Match

30th April, we started at 5:15 AM from Vizag. We took the Beach Road till Bheemunipatnam and the sight was too good! It was almost driving through the sea shore. We got back to NH5 a bit ahead of Peddipalem. We reached Srikakulam in 2 hours and had out morning tea and breakfast at a roadside tiffin center. The road was good ahead and I stepped on the gas at full throttle. It was lovely on both sides of the road with Eastern Ghats skyline. I wanted to cross the AP-OR border at the earliest. My first cross-border experience, as I mentioned earlier and I was quite confused. At several places, there were road bumps and police posting and we took each one of them as the border :-P and then we would see sign boards again in Telugu. Finally at one place, we could see the truck- drivers sleeping under the trucks and the private cars passing through the wrong side. That had to be it. We passed through

Enroute Chilka

without being stopped. This time we the sign boards in Oriya. We went all the way to Berhampur and stopped for tea there and checked tyre pressure. This leg was again 270 km in 2.5 hours, a pretty fast one considering the borders and all. Our initial plan was to cross Chilka and have lunch at Rameswar. But as we were approaching Chilka, we were astounded by the sight and decided to have our lunch there only. The lunch was great at the Panthanivas, Barkul Khurda. I again opted out of rice and went with local fried shark. It was mouth watering!

As we started from Chilka, we found out that we are no longer following the GQ, but the old NH5. This was not at all good. This not only a heavy toll on the schedule, but also on the car. Filled with potholes and local buses, this took us quite a bit to cover this stretch and get back on the GQ. They are constructing the GQ here. The NHAI website says this is about 16 km. This had put us so behind the schedule that I pulled through straight up to Bhadrak and we stopped at a hotel at 6:15PM. In between we had stopped just outside Cuttack at 4 PM for a tea. Added to the delay was the road from Bhubaneshwar to Cuttack. The road is a stretch of 22 km with no bypasses as people had told me with pure city traffic. It also had a few diversions due to flyover constructions. This distance as 230 kms done in 4 hours, such was the bad road conditions and the Bhubaneshwar traffic. As we started from Bhadrak, we were of the idea that we would not reach Kolkata the same day. We decided that we do the night stay at Baleshwar, 70 km away from there. The sky was again turning cloudy and I did not have the energy to do another thunderstorm drive as the previous day. We called our respective homes and said that we stay the night at Baleshwar, start off early morning the next day and reach home by next morning. Only Debadrito was a bit concerned as he had a date the next morning and he was tired of sleeping on the back seat :-P. But he knew that if I can't pull it off, he can't be of much help. So, he had to agree. We started from Bhadrak very relaxed, hoping to rest in about an hour at Baleshwar. As we were heading to Baleshwar, Debadrito was completely asleep and Pukin was dozing off. I could see the milestones saying Kolkata is less than 300 km. Something happened to me and I drove through Baleshwar and was revving at 120+ kmph. When Pukin opened his eyes, I told we are reaching home late. He was gazing at me, surprised. He knew I have already done 1300 km in last 36 hours and might not be able to pull it through. He just asked me if I was okay and I nodded. That's why I like him as my navigator. He immediately understood that the road bug and the home sickness has taken over in me simultaneously. I would not be able to stop myself. He sat up, washed his eyes and concentrated on the roads harder than me. He was pointing out every turn, every bump and every vehicle ahead. I was just sitting at the steering, actually he was driving.

We crossed the OR-WB border about 8:45 PM. The bad part was that just before the border, the road was very bad. There were minor constructions going on. But the major problem were the small continuous bumps. I drove through a couple of them at 90+ kmph and then pull back every time as Pukin pointed them out. All our mobiles beeped at the same time - “Airtel welcomes you to West Bengal”. The sign boards spelt places in Bengali. Back home after 8 years. Shivers down my spine, adrenaline gushing through my veins, - WOW! We stopped just after the border at Dantan. Again we called our homes to say that we would be back the same day, but late. Everybody were very concerned. We found out from the locals that there were no further bumps ahead. Feet on the gas at full force, we crossed Kharagpur Bypass at 10:30PM. Had a bit of tea there, updated at home and off we went again. The last leg was here. We drove though Kolaghat, Uluberia and finally into the traffic of Vidyasagar Setu by 11:30. However, it took us almost 45mins from there to Kalighat. Debadrito and Pukin got dropped at their respective homes and when I parked the car in front of my home, it was 12:45 AM and the odometer read 1563 kms.

I had just one phrase to say before I dozed off – I DID IT!!!!

VIEW ALL THE PICTURES HERE!!!