Boy! What a day it was. The drive was awesome but very tiring. We started from Bangalore at 4:15 AM. St. (Punctual) Thomas arrived at our place at 3:00 AM, parked his Jeep, and disconnected the battery. Despite having slept for just over three hours, we felt fresh - adrenaline I guess. The first thirty kilometers were slow. The road to Nelamangala was in a bad shape due to the construction of the elevated expressway. Once we crossed the toll gate at Nelamangala, it was smooth sailing. I managed to maintain a good speed and we reached Chitradurga shortly after 7:00 AM. We had breakfast at a nondescript eatery and the food was not great. The coffee was watery but strong and that did us a world of good. I was feeling sleepy and we agreed to let Thomas drive.
I managed to sleep for two hours while Thomas drove. It was still 9:45 AM, so we decided to push on until lunch time. After another hour or so, Thomas and I swapped places. After Hubli, the road narrowed down and we found ourselves on a scenic two-lane highway. The going was very smooth and by 12:30 we reached Belgaum where we stopped for lunch at a Kamath. This Kamath was originally a Reliance A1 that the Kamath chaps had taken over. Food was good and so was the service.
Kamat Upchar on NH 4 in Belgaum
After lunch, we decided to refuel and then proceed. It was just 1:30 and we were making good progress. However, the gas station owners had other plans. Read more about this in my blog titled BBC on Government Duty. So finally, we managed to tank up at Nipani. The fuel drama had cost us one precious hour.
We finally get some diesel at a rural gas station in Nipani
I continued driving while Thomas caught a short nap. We finally swapped places and I curled up on the back seat. Chandu continued on navigators seat, taking notes, handing out cash to pay at the toll gates, taking calls, assessing and reassessing our status - lots of stuff.
I woke up at Taswade, a village in Satara, Maharashtra. This village is in the ghats and the sun was setting. The sight was breath-taking. The odd shape of the hills was accentuated by the setting sun that bathed the entire landscape a brilliant gold. We stopped to take a few pictures.
Beautiful landscape in Taswade
Sunset in Taswade
I took over from Thomas after we stopped for tea at a small road-side restaurant. The onion bajjis at the restaurant were excellent. The road, however, was very crowded and got increasingly so. Progress was very slow and frustrating. We had been warned about traffic in this area, but we weren't prepared for this. The highway was as crowded as a city road during peak hour. The unruly drivers made things worse. On one occasion, we had to literally do some off-roading to get to the main road.
Unruly traffic - pile-up
Unruly traffic - offroading
We finally hit the Mumbai-Pune expressway at 8:40 PM. We were tired and it was raining. I'm no fan of this road. It's an over-hyped piece of tarmac that's bumpy and uncomfortable and had too many twists and turns. I wonder how bad the highway (NH4) then is, that this expressway bypasses. We stopped at a "food plaza" on the expressway for a quick dinner. The place, like the highway, was very crowded. The humidity did not help either. Thomas and I had some snacks and Chandu picked up a burger from the McDonalds drive-thru. That was crowded too, with an SUV filled with prople ordering food!!!
We had to go to Thane and that meant driving for at least an hour more - that's what we though! Alas, that was not to be. We exited the expressway at the right point but the roads were all wrong :( We had to go to Thane, but there were no clear road signs. We finally made it to the hotel 1.5 hours after leaving the expressway!
The hotel, Hotel Dhiraj, was a reasonably comfortable place. The bar was closed by the time we entered, so I had to make do with some brandy that Thomas was carrying. We were very tired and understandably disheartened. We started evaluating alternate routes, but soon gave up after we realized how far away we were from NH 7.
The first day was a very tiring one. The fuel crisis drama and the traffic jam in Maharashtra, and most importantly the numerous toll gates in Maharashtra cost us nearly four hours. The toll gates, in particular, made no sense. We encountered gates almost every 80 kilometers in Maharashtra, charging us anything from 30 - 45 rupees. The were not great and the traffic was unruly to say the least.
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