DEV BHOOMI - Day 1

4th July 2010.

The day had finally arrived, when I set out on my long cherished dream of DRIVING down (or should I say up) to LADAKH. I am accompanied on this crazy (that's what people kept telling me) dream drive by two of my dear friends:- Dinesh Maskeri(R) and Arshad Husain(L), both probably as crazy as me.

and my old faithful Bolero Sportz 2004.

Left the house at 4.00 am (Yeah that's right), to be greeted by pouring rains. What a start! Picked up Dinesh and then Arshad from their residences, and we were on our way. Reached Dahisar Toll plaza by around 4.50 am. That is the last we would be seeing of Bombay for the next 15 days.

Made good time on the road, even though it was pouring. The NH8 running through Maharashtra till the Gujarat border is nothing to write home about. But Gujarat is another story altogether. The roads are wider and better surfaced. There are stretches, where some flyover construction is going on, but the diversions are clearly marked and the road itself is not too bad. Stopped at Udwada to have breakfast and teas. Dinesh took over the driving from this point and managed to keep up a good speed.

After Surat the road gets even better. We stop somewhere near the Kosamba exit for a tea break. The Surat - Bharuch section is actually a 6 lane highway. Before you know it you are at the bridge over the river Narmada. Onwards to Baroda and we reach the Baroda exit at around 11.30 am. Time to refuel before we hit the Baroda-Ahmedabad Expressway (NE-1).

The NE -1 is a nice stretch of tarmac and you can easily keep a very fast pace, without having to worry about potholes, etc. We reach the Udaipur exit at around 1.00 pm.

Onto the Ahmedabad ring road, where we stop at a place called Hotel Gaamthi, a very ethnic kind of place, with lots of charpoys. Have a delicious Kathiawadi meal, topped with some cooling Chaas. Leave after an hour (too much time wasted, in my opinion) and head towards Udaipur. Unfortunately miss a turn and then take a wrong turn. Better sense prevails and ask around for directions. Finally onto the right road, Chiloda circle. This part of the road is a 2 lane highway, well paved, but 2 lane nonetheless. A little crowded at places.

Finally onto the 4 lane NH 8, again superb roads. Make good time. Arshad driving. We enter Rajasthan at around 6.00 pm. Stop for teas at a roadside dhaba, at Bichiwada.

Sitting in the back and enjoying the drive, A.C. full on and then suddenly, start getting a burning smell in the car. Panic sets in. Its the first day, this should not be happening! All three of us step out of the car: Maybe the brakes are jammed, Maybe the tyres are under inflated/overinflated, Maybe there is loss of coolant, Maybe a thousand other things have gone wrong. Call the mechanic in Bombay. As luck would have it, he does not pick up his phone (Its a Sunday, remember). Do a thorough visual check and find no fault. The smell has stopped now. Decide to drive on. I take over the wheel. Drive on for few klicks, without the A.C. No problem. Heave a sigh of relief. Put on the A.C. as it has started raining and the glasses get fogged up. Go on for a few more kms. and the smell starts again. Stop car, get out, check again, nothing unusual. Again no smell after the car has stopped. Decide to drive on, without A.C.

And then it starts pouring. I guess the NHAI did not take into account this amount of rain over a short period of time. There was water logging at many places on the highway. By the way, the Bolero has this nasty habit of spraying water on itself (sort of like an elephant) and more specifically on the windscreen, whenever it passes through a large collection of water. Believe me it is scary, you can't see a thing on the road. The only prudent thing to do is to slam on your brakes and wait for the water to drain off before proceeding. (Wipers don't help). Went through a series of starts and stops due to the rains and the water logging. On the flip side the burning smell somehow had not reappeared. Progress was a little slower than anticipated.

Managed to reach the Udaipur bypass at around 7.30 pm. Contemplated, whether to carry on till Chittorgarh or halt for the night at Udaipur? Chittorgarh it was, so made a call to RTDC Panna in Chittorgarh and booked ourselves a room for the night. Drove on through the rain, with pretty poor visibility. Average speed had reduced considerably.

All through, we were discussing the possibility of not being able to drive onwards tomorrow, because of the Bandh call given by all the opposition parties. Decided we would face that hurdle tomorrow and concentrate on reaching Chittorgarh tonight. Reached Chittorgarh town at around 9.15 pm. Headed straight to the Petrol Pump, to tank up. Decided on filling the spare fuel cans for the next day as a precautionary measure, in case of the Bandh/Strike being enforced and petrol pumps across the route being shut.

Reached RTDC Panna at around 9.30pm. Checked in to our room. Very decent and large. Ordered food at the restaurant and had a simple dinner. Paid up for the room, the dinner and for the next days breakfast and teas, which we insisted, be served at the unearthly hour of 5.30 am. The staff was quite accommodating and assured us that we would have teas and breakfast at 5.30!

Retire to our room, wash up and discuss plans for the next day. Hope we reach Chandigarh before nightfall, hope the burning smell doesn't appear again, hope the bandh/strike doesn't affect the highways and a lot of other hopes!

to be continued...................