06: Day 1: Pune - Ahmedabad (670 kms)

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
- Lao Tzu

The day had finally dawned. Or should I say, the night had. Saturday the 24th of December 2016 it was. Just past midnight and we were on our way to Ahmedabad from Pune. 670 kms to cover in a single day, first long road trip for most of the gang, a road we had never travelled. But we had embarked on the journey.

I remember taking my time in deciding who would be at the wheel first. The first section of the road was familiar to all of us - we had to take the Pune - Mumbai expressway and head towards Thane. All 3 drivers were pretty fresh to begin with, but it's the time between 2 am and 5 am that is most critical - that is when I have seen drivers start dozing behind the wheel. While I had complete faith in Anant and Mukul, I backed myself to cover critical sections during the drive. Reasons being I was most comfortable driving my cheetah and I was the most nocturnal amongst the three of us.

I decided to let Anant take the wheel first, figuring that we would reach Thane in about couple of hours. I would then be driving for around 3 or so hours and then let Mukul take over. Gauri started as the navigator. I told Mukul to sleep since he was going to be the last to take the wheel. Mukul occupied the last row along with Ruhi and Trisha. The middle row was occupied by Pallavi, myself and Rama.

The odometer read 16580 when we began the trip shortly after midnight. Anant began cautiously and in well under an hour, we had reached the Talegaon toll plaza at Urse on the Pune - Mumbai expressway. We ensured that we entered the lane marked with "ETC / Fastag" so that the toll collection would be cashless and we would save time. Driving on the expressway was pretty much of a breeze and the kids Ruhi and Trisha were asleep shortly. In another hour or so, we crossed Ghansoli on the Thane - Belapur road, soon after which we had our first halt for driver changeover. I took the wheel and told Anant to try and get some shuteye.

In about half an hour of me taking over, we were on Ghodbunder road, making our way through a lot of slow moving trucks. Soon after, we hit a major traffic snarl at a T-junction ahead. The navigation showed that we were due to take a right turn at the Gujarat-bound Versova bridge in 150m (see the road marked NH 48 in the map). 

And then all of a sudden all trucks and vehicles around us switched off their engines. I ventured out to ask a truck driver what this was about, and he said that this is a regular thing at the Versova bridge - vehicles are released in batches in order to avoid a choke up on the weak Versova creek bridge. North bound vehicles are diverted on the two lane south bound bridge (in batches at a time), and only two wheeler vehicles are allowed to ply on the north bound side of the bridge which has developed cracks and cannot bear the weight of heavy vehicles. We ended up spending a good hour or so waiting to take that right turn which would lead us to the Versova bridge.


Soon after crossing the painful Versova creek bridge, we hit another traffic snarl in about half an hour or so. We saw many vehicles had started driving on the wrong side of the road to get past the near-stationary traffic. Navigation indicated it was the Khaniwade Toll Plaza ahead, and it took us about an hour and a half to get past a distance of 5 kilometres. Most of the traffic on the road was trucks - it is important to note that truck drivers prefer night driving as they get to avoid cars which block their passage during the day. Which is one of the reasons why most car drivers avoid night driving on the highways in India.

We were unaware of the bad traffic conditions on this stretch, and now that we were on the road, the only option was to keep moving. I remember that we spent an eternity crossing Thane district. Waiting for the slow traffic to move made us all feel restless. And hungry. Rama had prepared a variety of sandwiches - some with cheese, some with chutney and some with mayonnaise. They were yummy and everyone helped themselves to multiple servings of each variety. Sandwiches are best consumed while fresh, so we took it upon ourselves to consume the majority while sitting there waiting for the traffic to move.

It was only after crossing the Khaniwade Toll Plaza that we moved at a steady speed. In little over an hour after crossing the Khaniwade Toll Plaza in Thane district, we crossed the Maharashtra - Gujarat border and entered Gujarat state. We had lost a good 2.5 hours in traffic jams and had almost blunted the advantage of leaving early. However, we were now cruising at a good speed. We crossed Vapi and reached Valsad by 7 am. It was around 6.5 hours since we had left home and I was behind the wheel for a good 4 or so hours. We decided to halt for breakfast and chose a hotel on the highway at Valsad. Thanks to Anant's location tracking data, the name of the place happens to be Khodiyar Hotel. We spent about an hour here - had a mix of Marathi and Gujarati dishes for breakfast. Folks freshened up, and this seemed to be the perfect time for a driver changeover.

I retreated to the middle row (back to where I was) and Mukul, who had taken rest so far, took the wheel. Gauri was tired being the navigator - she had not slept through the night, and she decided to move to the last row. Anant who had been resting so far, took over from Gauri as navigator. Since I was awake all night as well, I intended to take some rest while Mukul was at the wheel. Ruhi and Trisha had completed a good night's sleep and were pretty fresh and chirping. Gauri was at the back row with Trisha while Ruhi decided to join myself, Pallavi and Rama on the middle row. After staying awake for some time, she fell asleep in Pallavi's arms. I tried to get some shuteye.

Continuing on NH48, Mukul maintained a steady speed and we crossed Chikhli and reached Boriach Toll Plaza shortly. A lot of trucks travelling through the night meant another long queue at the toll plaza. However, we managed to clear this one in about half an hour. It was difficult to locate the ETC/Fastag lane, and we ended up being in the wrong lane, and had to cut across a couple of lanes to enter the Fastag lane. The truck drivers co-operated and we were on our way again. Soon after, we crossed Navsari then bypassed Surat at our west, and crossed the Choryasi Toll Plaza without much fuss. The electronic toll collection was proving to be a boon. We then hit Ankleshwar and I remember waking up. We had started slowing down and I recollect reading on a forum that there is a bridge on the Narmada river at Bharuch where it is advised to take a diversion to avoid a massive traffic snarl created by heavy vehicles. There was a traffic jam before we hit that point but luckily we did not lose a lot of time there.



In 15 minutes or so we had crossed Bharuch where we took a quick pit stop for freshening up. Mukul had been driving for about 2.5 hours and hence we decided to change drivers. Mukul took over as navigator from Anant who now moved to the middle row for getting some rest. I took over the wheel. It was around 11 am and we were around 200 kms away from Ahmedabad. I intended to cover the remainder of the distance. In a little over an hour, we had bypassed Vadodara and we hit the road I was badly waiting for. NE1 is a fast corridor between Vadodara and Ahmedabad, around 100 kms in length. There was another cheetah on the road, and I could not resist chasing. We had a lot of luggage tied on the roof carrier, and my cheetah was comfortable till speeds of around 160 km/hr after which I could feel the resistance because of the luggage affected aerodynamics. I averaged around 120 km/hr throughout NE1. I was in control all the time but there was no room for any error because of the high speed. As soon as we crossed NE1, a traffic police looked at my car registration plate and seeing an MH (Maharashtra state) registration, stopped me to check all my car documents. I did not have the Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate, but the cop did not trouble me for that. He just reminded me to get one.

Whatever time we gained by driving fast on NE1, was lost in the city traffic as soon as we entered Ahmedabad. It took us close to an hour to get past the last 40 odd kilometres, and at 2:07 pm in the afternoon of Saturday 24 December 2016, we had reached Hotel Ginger in Ahmedabad. A distance of 670 kms from home, covered in 13.5 hours (which included 2.5 hours dedicated to traffic jams and 1 hour breakfast stop). That meant a drive time of 10 hours, which in my opinion is pretty decent.

Mukul and I on the roof carrier untying luggage at Ahmedabad

Mukul, Anant and I managed to untie the luggage in 10 minutes. We checked in and had lunch at Hotel Ginger as we all were pretty hungry. After lunch we decided to take some much needed rest and meet in couple of hours or so to decide the plan for the evening. All of us preferred to take baths after such a long and tiresome drive, and then slept for a while. At about 5:30 pm in the evening, the ladies wanted to go shopping and hence we took two autos to go to the Teen Darwaja area of Ahmedabad. We got to know that the area is extremely congested making it impossible to navigate the cheetah on those roads. We let the auto driver take care of driving - I took a nap for half an hour or so that we took to reach Teen Darwaja.

The 45 minutes or so taken by the ladies to shop for "bandhani" sarees and dress materials seemed like hours to me. Ruhi was pretty frustrated and she wanted me to buy her some footwear. It didn't seem the best place to buy footwear and I was in no physical or mental condition to do shopping for her. I promised her that I would get her some good footwear after reaching Rajasthan. After a little bit of tantrum throwing she finally agreed and looked forward to going footwear shopping in Rajasthan. After one shop the ladies wanted to hop to another. It was no doubt irresistible for the ladies, however I had very little patience left (I am not the best company for shopping). I just said I was done and said I was proceeding to the hotel along with Ruhi. Pallavi and Anant decided to join me while Gauri, Mukul and Rama ventured to shop some more. The gang wanted to go out and have some authentic Gujarati food. I excused myself and before the others reached, Ruhi and I were done having a quick dinner of Dal Khichdi. While putting Ruhi to bed, I didn't realise when I fell asleep myself.

It was good to know that the longest day (in terms of driving distance) was already behind us. Since we survived this day without any hiccups, we definitely looked set to cover the rest of the trip in relative ease. There was no fatigue that we felt because of driving and the overall journey was pretty comfortable for everyone. The only reason we were tired was because we were missing some much needed sleep. Looking ahead at the drive to Jaisalmer the next day, I thought sleeping early (before 9:00 pm) was a wise decision. I later learnt that the rest of the gang had dinner at a nearby place and they were all in bed well before 11:00 pm.