A highway saga; Part 2 - Trailblazing to the city of joy

Post arrival in Bangalore and a few days spent with family and friends the day to head out again dawns close. A day prior to starting was spent with giving the car a rundown in terms of checking whether there is anything amiss and also looking at or asking google-ammachi on the best route to take or looking at alternate routes that will reduce the travelling time and the distance by any small number. A lot of permutations and combinations it was decided that we will head to Hyderabad and then make my way to Vijayawada continuing onwards to Vishakapatanam via NH-16. While that was sorted we stocked up on a few necessities like water and snacks and also the next days lunch and retired for the night.

The day of the journey dawned bright and early. Clear skies and a traffic free Bangalore provided a good start but soon after leaving the outskirts of Bangalore we get overcast skies and the highway looms ahead of us dusty and deserted dotted by a few trucks and even fewer cars. As we started early we made good time and our stomachs grumbled for food. It is then that you get hit by a strange thought, Any traveller in the south is spoilt for choice when it comes to roadside eateries and restaurants, we hardly get to see any in the time we have travelled and soon it became a game, similar to the popular Where's Waldo, to spot a good restaurant.

Managing to make do with a small dhaba we carry on and suddenly post Penugonda the road signs turn into a foreign south eastern language and this had us perplexed even further.

Apparently this is around the place where the new Kia Motors is setting up its manufacturing plant and for this the entire region is painted Korean. We carry on with nothing to hinder the journey and soon decide to change the route once we reached Kurnool and as google-ammachi points out a shorter route through a sanctuary we fall for and head that way. Bad call as the rate was single laned through several villages, and deep gutters by the road with motorists happily trying to push you into those while they hog the road. Strenuous and try to keep ones cool negating this stretch is sure to bring one to a breaking point. After a good half a day of this night falls and we are no where near Vijayawada let alone Vishakhpatnam. In the dark we rely solely on google-ammachi's direction and pretty soon the roads narrow down as we go further till a point where we are actually driving thorough the backyards of villages startling a few women as they are washing their utensils. Desperately hoping for a wider road we see that in 2kms we will be hitting NH 16.

As we get on the wet tarmac we heave a sigh of relief and pick up pace trying to hit Vishakhpatnam. Ha high hopes we have just hit Guntur! We speed through the highway and hit Vijayawada deciding to camp for the night and hit the road early next day.

The next day we set off early and head towards Calcutta and determined to cover good ground. That was not the case to be as the weather and the conditions of the roads deteriorated and we had to check our speed so as to avoid any accidents and damage to the car. The weather was so bad that it was pouring cats and dogs and a lot of canals by the road was full to the brim and on the verge of overflowing with cops trying to regulate traffic and our ever present google-ammachi giving us directions. Directions on the highway, hmmmmm, not a wise decision as we were to learn later.

A few hours past Vijayawada as we had google-ammachi on, suddenly we were asked to get off a perfectly good highway to another route to reach Rajahmundry. This new road was in such bad shape that it took us post lunch to get to Vishakhpatnam again loosing out on time due to bad roads. With still a thousand kilometres to Calcutta we stop for a breather and a good stretch at a milestone that said 1000kms to Calcutta.

We blaze our way to Vishakhpatnam once again falling for the whims and fancies of google-ammachi and deviating quite a bit before actually making a rush for Bhubaneswar. We get there at a decent hour and manage to get a good place to stay and spend the night there in the hopes of getting up early and hitting the road again.

Early the next day we make our dash to Calcutta, Enroute encountering the strangest of speed barriers. While the states in the south use metal boards on wheels to check the speed of vehicles the state of Orissa has found an ingenious way of doing the same while making best use of a sacred animal. They use the thousands of wandering gomathas to do the job for them. These beast happily enjoy a very sedate life and treat the road as their pastures in a way ensuring cars, trucks and buses don't exceed the speed limit and the drivers stay alert so as to not hit god forbid a wandering cow. Holy cow! What an idea.

Apart from this little nuisance we are able to hit Calcutta just in time for the office. Trailblazing our way from the southern tip of India to the eastern city of Calcutta, or as they say today Kolkata, the city of joy!

(A note of advice stock up on a lot of water, juice and snacks as there are very few places on the NH 16 post Vijayawada that has a decent place to eat or rest. This is incase you don't mind roughing it out in the wayside dhabas that dot the scenery and drink the local water. Also there are a few cafe coffee days that offer a good loo so in case you see one do stop and refresh yourself cause you never know when you will find another decent loo.)

A highway saga; Part 1 - A narrow escape

The month of August proved to be testament of the people's fate in the small state of Kerala. This small state I call home faced one of its biggest natural calamities in the form of heavy rains and reading of the same only didn't quite put it all into perspective.

On my way to Trivandrum i was happy that i will be returning back to Calcutta driving my humble Ford Figo and the anticipation of the drive had a permanent smile on my face. Leaving Calcutta on a Monday I land in a relatively dry Trivandrum airport and head home nothing unusual about it. On reaching home I chat with family and retired for the day. The next day dawned dark and overcast. It has been raining cats and dogs ever since. As my car was not in use for several month and inspite of having it serviced ten days ago the mechanics failure to disconnect the battery post parking it back home had drained the battery almost fully and the car refused to start. A phone call to my mechanic assured me that he will have someone come and check the battery immediately as i was schedule for a noon start. The continuous pouring ensured that the person coming to me got in only late in the afternoon by which time I had decided to change the battery in foresight of the drive to come. Getting everything set and ready we were geared to head off on the first leg of our journey by road to Calcutta.

In the evening I head to my native place Kanjirapally through Ranny and Erumely, a route that i normally take as its a lot faster and also less traffic due to the winding roads. As we speed through the night and as it was dark and raining we hardly had any concept of what was happening around us as we ford on through our journey. It was only till we read in the next days newspaper about the true devastation that followed only an hour or two post my arrival at Ranny.

The entire town was submerged in water.

We stick to our plan and we leave kanjirapally, and head to Kochi, before continuing on to Bangalore. An uncle of mine, had missed his flight as it got cancelled ( due to the flooding in Cochin International Airport) and he had rebooked his ticket from bangalore, had left earlier that day through the same route I was planning on taking and we were getting a very comfortable report of the route so we decide to start a bit later than planned. 

This proved to be a bad call as all through the journey we cross streams flowing on the road and every now and then not to risk being bogged down in a deep puddle of water we take a detour. These detours offer us a glimpse of the unparalleled Beauty that we miss as we zip through the little villages and head straight for our destinations. The highways cut through the landscape in an effort to save us some time that would be lost negating the traffic of the hamlets and the small towns that make up a district or a place. At times even I am in favour of the highways but it would definitely be worthwhile taking a longer route once in a while to check out what we other miss in our hurried run from point A to point B. Although today was beautiful it also was sad to see that most of the land was submerged in water. Lands that a few days back were paddy field, farm lands and the lively hood of the farmers.

The people of these little villages were out in full swing aiding the motorists in either trying to navigate through a deep puddle or giving the ones who didn't want to risk getting bogged down directions to an alternate route to get to the other side of the puddle / stream that blocked the road.

A lot of twists and turns, through a lot of little Hamlets, we finally got the arterial Highway. From there on it was a smooth ride to Bangalore with little trouble. This was an experience that was truly a test of one's patience and also resolve in finding ways to get to a destination. Also thanks to the umpteen times a stranger offered help and for all the prayers for a safe journey.