The Prep

Car got fitted with tinted windows. Metro Ford did an OK job, but it could have been better.

Actually consulted a vehicle designer on the headlamps and he suggested NOT to upgrade to 100/90 as that would screw up the geometry. The light would be bright but will light up all the wrong places. Also, it will heat up the lamp more and bend the reflector in the long run. Changing to newer bulbs of the OEM variety was a better option as these bulbs loose about 15% brightness every year.

Got a Kenwood KDC MP6539U fitted in the car. Its a single DIN headunit made to handle iPod and data CDs. The audio quality is excellent once set up and fine tuned. Operating the iPod through the in-dash click wheel interface is a bliss. A subwoofer would help boost the audio quality even further.

• Wheel alignment and tyre check was done.
• Car cleaning. Every corner of the car was cleaned to make it feel better. It’s good to start new after a bath.
• All fluids in the vehicle were topped up.
• About 30 pages of Maps were printed with city details to avoid any delays.

First stop was Vijaywada (850 Km), Second one at Chilka (700 Km) and the third Raurkela (450km). Then Raurkela to Kolkata (530 km). Kolkata to Cuttack (405 km). Cuttack to Puri to Konarak to Chilka (240 km). Chilka to Vijaywada (700km) and Vijaywada to Bangalore (850Km)

The Start

The idea was to start a little early and cover as much ground during the time the kid is sleeping. The plan was to cover all known roads very early in the morning (bordering on Night). We got off to a good start at about 1.40 AM from home hoping to hit the clear roads to Krishnagiri a little before daybreak. The results were even better, in 45 minutes we were out of Bangalore, past electronic city and on a road with 10% traffic. We touched Krishnagiri turn-off under the fly-over to Chennai at around 3.30 AM, the roads after this were beautiful, and occasional toll gates were welcome. Driving in the breaking dawn was great and before we knew it, it was 6.30 AM and we were in Sri Perumbudur, looking for directions to get to NH5 in the least complicated manner.

In Chennai

After entering Chennai, it became a little frustrating to navigate as most roads do not have any signage to guide you to major roads. This continued till about 7.30 AM, at this point I went up to the only Police Patrol that I found to ask him for directions. They were extremely helpful, they clearly said that there is no legible signage that I can follow to reach NH5 and instead offered us a better solution. They escorted us out of the city so that we do not loose any more time.

NH5

Right after we found NH5, we stopped for breakfast. Alu-Puri being the choice of the hour. Food was good. Little Luke has his dose of Cerelac, Lactogen and Boiled Apples. We were off. The roads after Chennai keep improving. The plan was to reach either Vijaywada or Vizag by 4PM with healthy amounts of breaks. The 2.5 hours lost navigating Chennai put Vizag out of contention. Target was Vijaywada by 4PM.

This section of NH5 is beautiful for driving. Yet it’s equally boring. The roads are devoid of any bends of scenery which tends to make the drive very very boring. We soldiered on bravely, the temperatures were intolerable and the AC and Sun Shades (fitted 2 days before the trip) came in handy.

Average speeds on these roads were high, nearly hundred, as in the next 8 hours we did cover 700 Km with breaks (big long lots of breaks). When we did hit the road, it was with a vengeance and speeds were above 110 Kmph for most times. Peak speeds touched on this stretch was 140 Kmph (did not want to venture any further up with a kid in the car, and long way to go)

The Roads

The roads from Bangalore till Chennai were in one word – Excellent. The roads after Chennai were even better. The highway was 4 lane all the way with clear markings for Bus Bays, Truck Bays, Distances, Turn Offs etc. The road surface was flat, the Banking calculated to 120 kmph and you can actually take them at a little higher speed as well. For early mornings or late nights, they had Cat Eyes placed at strategic points to aid drivers and driving was a bliss.

We reached Vijaywada a little before 4 PM and went about looking for a place to stay and eat. I had a few ideas from before, thanks to my Movie Industry friends from Andhra. Finding a place to rest took about 30 minutes of our time, and we were all bathed, fed and crashed out by 7 PM.

Places to stay in Vijaywada

Hotel Manorama (moderately good)

Address: 27-38-61, M.G. Road, Vijayawada 520002, India

Hotel Fortune Murali Park (good)

Address: 40-1-28, M.G. Road, Labbipet, Vijayawada 520010.

Onward to Vizag and Bhubaneswar

Got up at my usual driving routine time of 2 AM, got everyone ready to leave by 3AM and was out of Vijaywada clearing all bills by 4 AM. The roads improved. The surface and the quality remained the same but the scenery around was breathtaking, specially early in the morning. This is where we faced a lot of thin fog as well, limiting vision to about 200 meters ahead on a clear road. Speeds dropped to 80 Kmph and I was thanking my stars that I did not upgrade the headlamps to 100/90 Phillips Rally. Well, the 100/90 does illuminate more on a clear night or day break, but it does illuminate more of the fog as observed by the countless Innovas that were traveling the same route. The fog lamps on the Fusion do a great job with the Low beam set at the lowest level to assist it.

Fog cleared after 20 minutes of travel and the windscreen literally transformed into a picture frame. We were a few Kms from Vizag by this time. In an hour Vizag came up, crossing the city was a pain as there are no bypasses that connect you through. One has to battle the regular 8 AM traffic to get through the city. Once out of Vizag, we continued straight down maintaining speeds of 110 – 130 throughout for hours on. Took breaks of 15 minutes after every 1.5 hrs.

North Andhra Pradesh

Slowly the traffic sense that I was enjoying and was used to by now was thinning away. There were the occasional tractors on the wrong side of the road which slowly increased to people walking in the middle of the road, buses traveling on the wrong side of the road, bikers having a conference in the middle of the road. In fact the road was being used for everything but for traveling. I quietly tucked myself behind a scorpio letting him do all the hard work and following him from a safe 200 meter distance. Speeds were still 90 – 100 kmph.

The Blowout

Its surprising how a good road when used badly can turn into a disaster. On a clear stretch after Sompet, the rear right tyre met its match and blew out at 120 kmph. Here’s where a heavy car showed its character and did not budge at all from it’s line. The road turned out to be a dead end. Turned back and took a diversion (which can be only found by telepathy). By not the road was the old, pot hole ridden NH5, the directions were missing or blacked out (language issues) and all hell broke loose.

We were officially in Orissa.

Stopped to repair the puncture. The Jack worked but the standard spanner supplied with the Fusion failed badly. In about 4 tries, all the grip got eaten away. With no options left, drove another 100 meters on the flat and stopped at a tyre guy. The guy managed to get the Alloy off the car and fix the Spare. The next part was to fix the destroyed rear right Goodyear. The problem was, this was the first time this chap was seeing a Tubeless. He did some job on the tyre which I did not trust one bit. Decided to sack out at Chilka and travel only the following day.

Places to stay in Chilka

Pantha Nivas (OTDC)

Location: Opposite Chilka Dhaba, Barakul, (there is another one at Rambha)

Ford Service

The following morning I got the number of Capital Ford on NH5, located on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. The Ford call center was very helpful and they were able to provide the correct number in less than 5 minutes. I was in no hurry to leave Chilika as the food was good. We headed out at about 9 AM for Bhubaneswar and next destination was Capital Ford.

On reaching Capital Ford, I was informed that they cannot repair the tyre. They cannot even take the good tyre off the spare and fit it on the alloy. In fact they cannot do anything with the tyre and actually rely for all their tyre work on the roadside chap 100 meters away who neither has a number or a name. I was was amazed.

They did check the vehicle and confirmed that everything was A OK. I did not waste any more time and continued further down to the next reliable tyre guy on NH5. Found one, got the tyre replaced. It was important to have that done as the alloy cannot be fastened in the tyre well. (Surprise!!)

Next stop was Raurkela (final destination for our first leg) and we were already late by 8 hrs.

Define Bad Road

The roads thereafter did not help much as none had any signage to indicate what road you were on. Probably a GPS would help, but the shortest route is either un-drivable or under Maoist control. I prefer asking for directions at the next local chai shop in such areas.

The roads became bad. Then worse. I was wondering why the regular crowd of Innovas and Indicas were absent from this particular road. The answer came up about a 100 Kms later with no daylight left and 60 more to go. The road was unthinkable. Imagine a gradient of 30 degrees with no surface and only large boulders to drive on. Imagine this with enough width to fit one truck. The Fusion did not complain and crossed all that was thrown at it with ample grace and attitude.

Reached Raurkela about an hour later. It’s surprising that the steel city has only that road connecting it to rest of the civilized world, the other road is taken and under rebel-control. Complacency at it’s best. Note: Even if you take a flight, you either have to travel through bad roads from Bhubaneswar, or Good roads that are under rebel-control from Ranchi.

Fords do travel far

On reaching Raurkela I parked in front of the house, only to realize the next day that the Ford parked in front of the next house was from Harpreet Ford, Gurgaon and had travelled an equally long distance to be here.

Onward

We start off for Calcutta on saturday, initially the idea was to take NH6 till Kharagpur, but now I would rather travel 120 Km extra via Sambalpur and take NH5 instead. Lets see!

Photographs: Aparajita Ghosh, Shubhodeep Das

• Bangalore to Calcutta – Part 3
• Bangalore to Calcutta – Part 2
• 10 Things to have on Indian Highways
• Bangalore to Sivanasamudram
• Caught by Cops – Part 3

Tags: Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai, India, NH5, NH6, Roadtrip, Vijaywada, Vizag This entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Roadtrips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.