Unlike a usual Monday when a morning glance on wall-clock feels like personal pestering by its needles,certain excitement didn't allow me a sound sleep and woke up at 3:30 AM.
Preparedness was needed so did pack some stuffs like:
First aid kit, Tyre air pressure gauge, torch, candle & matchbox, umbrella, minor toolkit apart from the car's one, lot of drinking water & regular water separately, some packaged food and extra clothes with bed-sheet, cash money in 4 different places, 1 extra SIM in a different mobile handset for emergencies .
+++ a galaxy of Bollywood songs majorly lead by Kishor Kumar's :)
Finally at 4:25 AM I was all set to start for a long awaited cross capital drive and started as per plan :
Day 1 : Mumbai > Vadodara, Gujrat (small break) > Udaipur, Rajasthan.
All day drive started at 4:30 am from Powai, Mumbai and settled athotel near Govardhan Sagar Lake in Udaipr at 4:30 PM.
** due to recent floods in Gujrat, parts of NH48 was damaged so GPS guided internal state highway routes till Gujarat end and turning of Udaipur. Except for small stretches which run near city/village, road conditions were nothing to complain about but to enjoy the drive amidst cloudy weather and green farms on both sides of road. The route was a scenic delight.**
Must to pen that Udaipur - the city of lakes, welcomes with superb scenic beauty all around blended with enriched heritage of royal medieval India in and around city. A view in evening from the window/balcony of hotel room was sufficient to pull out any exertion of road.
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City Palace (Above) & Lake Pichola Palace (Below) in Udaipur - the city of lakes.!  |
kept it a lazy day to understand if I can sustain exertion on 1st day and continue the immediate next day. Also it gave me decent time to explore local heritage sites like City Palace, Fateh Sagar lake etc on the way. Plan was : Udaipur > Ajmer, Rajasthan
After leaving hotel at 9 AM and exploring city's glam destinations, I reached my stay in Ajmer at 4:30 PM. I had sufficient time &energy to strolled down a near by Ajmer Chowpatty. Clean & tidy place built around a reservoir of water treatment plant.
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| Ana Sagar lake Chowpatty @ Ajmer |
Plan --> Ajmer > Jaipur, Rajasthan (Small break) > New Delhi (Janakpuri W)
When you have Jaipur in your route, no one can afford to give it a miss. Woke up late so left at around 10 AM from Ajmer, but reached Hawa Mahal in Jaipur around 1:00 PM.
Spent some time admiring & alluring the wonderful sculptures of Hawa Mahal and then Jal Mahal, left from Jaipur around 3:30-4:00 PM.
Wander lust offered delight of ride till I reached Gurgaon entrance. Mild rains & bad roads through Farrukhnagar paved moon like craters on Gurgaon roads, and summoned toughest 40 KMs of drive which took me 2.5 hrs of tiring snail-pace drive to home.
Day 4 & Day 5 were to celebrate Rakshabandhan & Independence day with family in Delhi.
Day 6 : Saturday, 17th Aug '19
Plan --> New Delhi > Chandigarh > Kasauli (Himachal).
Left from Delhi at 6:30 AM and reached C'garh around 12:00 PM. Roughly 260 KMS
Peaceful highway, beautiful scenes and blissful food available in any dhaba you enter on the roadside. Parantha lovers would surely spend time at Murthal to feast upon lip smacking paranthas here.
Not to forget & mention, what a disciplined city Chandigarh is, to be appreciated or idealized. Vehicles stopping at traffic signal before zebra crossing, dedicated bi-cycle lanes and pink lanes for specially abled people certainly gives you a pleasant feeling of being in the city.
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| Saukhna Lake, Chandigarh |
04:15 PM : Weather was worsening and started seeing heavy rainfall while moving towards Solan on the highway. Landslides at Dharampur stopped the traffic for more than an hour, and somewhere near 'Kumarhatti' we realised that it may not be a good idea to drive to Solan today considering the worsening weather. Next option was Kasauli for which we had to descend till Dharampur again and then exit towards Kasauli.
And our decision to stay back proved correct, when next day we read news of more than 15 vehicles drowned in flood at Solan. :)
06:30 PM : Descended till Dharampur and then started on way to Kasauli.
07:45 PM : A deafening & blinding downpour mandated stopover before the Kasauli top viewpoint . We stayed in a rusty home-stay accommodation just near by to wait till morning before plight to return. Also wanted to see the famous sunrise at Kasauli hills.
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| Clouds inside & outside.. en route Parwanoo-Kasauli..!! |
Kasauli > Chandigarh > New Delhi
4:30 AM : Woke up with deafening sound of thundering, downpour which is unusual for us, might not be the same with locals though.
5:30 AM: Realized that the cloud cover will not allow visibility of sunrise point. We took to stall nearby locations which were all cloud covered.
Sipping at smokey tea from coal lit stoves at local Tea joints would give you joy of lifetime and an eternal peace to mind for a sure shot breeze of philosophical thoughts. Spent some silent golden time.
9:30 AM : We were back to Chandigarh at my friends place.
01:00 PM : After having delicious Chole Kulche at a local food joint where Amrit was regular, had a short visit at beautiful Sukhna Lake and started rolling back to Delhi.
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| Dare not skip Garam Dharam & Choley Kulche in Punjab |
Day 8 : Monday, 19th Aug '19 :
Plan --> New Delhi > Udaipur (Rajasthan)
Till now I gained confidence on capacity on daily drive limits so decided to take a single night halt at Udaipur avoiding Ajmer unlike the onward trip.
5:45 AM : Started for Udaipur
4:00 PM : Reached Hotel room at Udaipur - 650 KMs
The famous Fateh Sagar lake was just behind my hotel, so spent the evening admiring beauty at the lake bay where they have also engraved paintings of all local destinations.
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| Evening at Fateh sagar lake - Udaipur.. |
As its the last day, full day dedicated to spend time with my Nexon... loved the Revotorq engine capacity, turbo response and overall subtle toughness of the vehicle. I wanted to drive continuous for 4-5 hrs stopping anywhere before lunch so will look for an early breakfast around 7:15-7:30 AM as I woke up at 6:30 AM to leave from Udaipur.
Total displacement stumped a final 0 when I reached at Powai, Mumbai safely 7:25 PM.
Dist covered today =754 KMs
I will soon plan for next trip #live to drive.
Mathematics of the trip :
Total KMs driven : 3800 KMs
Total Diesel (lts) : 198
Total no. of toll booths : 50
Total Toll paid :Rs 3290/-
Approx hrs of drive: 80
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| My vehicle & its footprints on map as recorded on timeline |
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