BBC2Leh - Day 1, Bangalore to Thane

Boy! What a day it was.

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. For Chanda, the 'journey' started a day earlier because she didn't sleep on the Saturday night. She was working on the route plans, bookings, packing till 2.30AM - the last minute preparations!

The day started with loading the jeep and adjusting the luggage. We didn't have to put any luggage on the rack on the top of the jeep. By the way, this rack we bought for Shalini and we were taking it to Delhi. We named the rack as Punnuchamy. The introduction to Punnuchamy is important at this point because this character has its own story in our journey. :)

Coming back to the story of our journey, we started from Bangalore at 4:15 AM. 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.

We were wearing our BBC t-shirts and decided it's the best time to take a picture and upload it on Facebook. It was important because we were the first ones to get the tshirt. I took a picture of Chanda and Thomas' back.

By this time, I was feeling sleepy and we agreed to let Thomas drive.

I managed to sleep for two hours while Thomas drove. I checked with Chanda, who was keeping the track of time and distance, we finished 350kms by 10AM. We still had 650kms to go, so we decided to push on until lunch time. After another hour or so, Thomas and I swapped places again.

After Hubli, the road narrowed down and we found ourselves on a scenic two-lane highway. This two-lane was only till we reach Dharwad (30kms).

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. We called our families, Shalini and Rajiv to update about our status!

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 the post titled BBC on Government Duty. So finally, we managed to tank up at Nipani. By now, the fuel drama had cost us two precious hours.

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. Chanda 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. The unruly drivers made things worse.

After sometime, we realized the reason of all the jam on the road. The highway had a lot of wedding halls. And apparently, it was an auspicious day and lot of weddings were happening there. More weddings = more guests = more vehicles on the road!

In fact, on one occasion, we had to literally do some off-roading to get to the main road.

Unruly traffic - pile-up

Unruly traffic - offroading

Unbelievable as it is, we finally hit the Mumbai-Pune expressway by 8:40 PM only. 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 Chanda picked up a burger from the McDonalds drive-thru. That was crowded too, with an SUV filled with people ordering food!!!

We had to go to Thane and that meant driving for at least an hour more - that's what we thought! 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. It was late night, shops were closed in the market and it was difficult to ask anybody for directions. At this point, we were also getting calls and help from Rajiv and Animish for the directions.

We were tired and losing our patience with getting lost. We were getting warned again and again by Rajiv about not to enter Navi Mumbai. However, whoever we were asking on the road for directions was telling us the route through Navi Mumbai.

Finally, we stopped and asked at a petrol pump for the directions. Chanda called up the hotel guys and asked for landmarks. Finally, asking for those specific landmarks helped us!

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. They were not great and the traffic was unruly to say the least.

to be continued... (day 2)

Route Details

Take NH4 from Bangalore to the outskirts of Pune.

After that, take the Mumbai-Pune bypass road that leads to the expressway.

Take the Mumbai-Pune expressway.

At the end of the expressway, get on to NH4.

Take NH4 to Thane. This can be a confusing stretch for first-timers. So stop to take directions from the locals.