00: The hangover..

Once you have travelled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.
- Pat Conroy

It has been a week since we are back from our road trip. Routine has taken over, but the mind still wanders back to the last week of December 2016, when we had a fantastic road trip to Rajasthan. We did take quite a few photos and they will definitely bring back memories. However, certain memories are trapped in moments and I wanted to cherish them for a long time to come. Our kids who had accompanied us on the road trip would hardly recollect any of this when they would grow up. A blog seemed like the best idea to intertwine the memories with the pictures and create stories for them to read later on.

I love travelling. The destination is one thing, no doubt it's important, but it's the journey which gives birth to a lot of stories. Ever since I have owned the cheetah (my XUV 5OO), I keep looking out for opportunities to travel - far or near, wherever possible. I had recently been to Bijapur district in Karnataka (Pune - Solapur - Bijapur - Pune), then to Dandeli and Karwar (Pune - Belgaum - Dandeli - Karwar - Pune). The year end trip to Rajasthan with our gang had already been planned. The best part that we had agreed for it to be a road trip.

9 days and 3521 kms later, the travel had made us all richer in terms of the experience. It is definitely something worth sharing - the various shades of Rajasthan: the golden yellow desert city of Jaisalmer, the majestic and romantic lake city of Udaipur, the evergreen, chilly hill station of Mount Abu captured the beauty and variety of Rajasthan. Add to it the thrill of the visit to the India - Pakistan international border, that too by road. And the experience of driving the 2200 cc, 140 bhp beast called the cheetah on the lovely highways of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan was the biggest takeaway for me.

Many thanks to the gang for participating and agreeing to the road trip. Hats off to the kids Ruhi and Trisha for not complaining even once during the road trip. We wish the rest of the gang from our society would have joined us, but there's always a next time. Hope this blog brings back memories to those who were part of the road trip, and provides useful information for those who intend to travel.

Without further ado, here's a flashback into our road trip. The posts in this blog are ordered in chronological order, and are numbered from 00 (this post) to 15 (last post). Please feel free to leave your comments and spread the joy by sharing!

Aniket Anikhindi, Pune

01: Conception of the road trip

To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,
To gain all while you give,
To roam the roads of lands remote,
To travel is to live.
- Hans Christian Andersen

It was being discussed for quite some time. A trip was long overdue, and the gang (to be formally introduced a bit later) had been speaking about going for a week long or so trip. The most favourable time was the last week of the calendar year - not much happens at work in this week making it easier to get time off. Kids have Christmas vacations as well. While long duration trips had been discussed by the gang, I wanted to be sure about how much time people could really spare. Time is the most important parameter as most decisions are bound by the time at hand. Around a week and half was what most of the gang agreed to.

It is important to note here that the gang in question resides in the city of Pune belonging to the western Indian state of Maharashtra. In a week and half, there were quite a few destinations we could have made to. Stay cost would have been more or less similar at most destinations (one can select places to stay to suit one's pocket). After time, the other destination deciding factors were travel cost and weather.

The next question was "Where to?". Thankfully, in a country like India, one is never short of options. Our list of options included Andaman, Lakshadweep, Auli, Nainital and Rajasthan. While Auli, Nainital and other Uttarakhand or Himachal Pradesh options are wonderful places, December end was not the most appropriate of seasons to visit them, considering we had kids with us. So after a few rounds of deliberations, we zeroed down on Rajasthan.

Rajasthan is the largest state in India in terms of area, and is broadly divided in two regions - the western part is the desert region, called as Marwad. The eastern part is more urban, and is called Mewad. Rajasthan is famous for its desert landscape, the many forts, temples, its rich history, heritage, unique culture, dressing and food. Rajasthan had enough to keep us interested for a week and half. It just depended what we wanted to explore. Most of the popular tours explore the Mewad region - for it houses the famous cities like Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur which have enough glimpses of the various shades of Rajasthan and are urbanised as well - making it a great mix for the average tourist. Which is exactly why I wanted to go to Marwad. Being the traveller that I am, "sight-seeing" doesn't interest me, the experiences do.

When the gang did meet for finalising the plan (somewhere in the month of September), I clearly recollect that the majority of the gang were interested in visiting the Mewad region. If you try to get information about Rajasthan, most of the searches, for obvious reasons would list places like Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Pushkar, Ajmer in the "top" few places to see. Since that would end up making ours a "sight-seeing" trip, I clearly recall impressing upon the gang the beauty of the Marwad region - Jaisalmer in particular. I was glad the gang agreed.

Destination sorted, the focus shifted to the travel part. Travelling to Rajasthan would have to be by flight and the local travel within Rajasthan cities was anyway going to be via road. The cheetah (my Mahindra XUV 500) was beckoning me for a Pune - Rajasthan - Pune road trip. I presented the gang with this option and it took them a few days to think and finally agree to an end-to-end road trip. It thrilled me - for I always love the journey more than the destination. Driving was going to be my biggest motivation, and I couldn't thank the gang more for agreeing to a road trip. From the gang's perspective, they figured that a road trip would be a thrilling experience, and it would bring down the travel cost considerably.

It took careful consideration of stop-over places and took the gang a couple of sessions in which we discussed a variety of itineraries. We ended up picking Jaisalmer, Udaipur and Mount Abu as the places to visit in Rajasthan. Having planned that, it became clear that Gujarat was going to be our "stop-over" state in the to and fro travel. We had to factor in time taken to reach from one city to another as well as avoiding continuous travel on road to avoid fatigue. The stay part was managed with relative ease - it took us less than a day to book all hotels!

It was for real - we had all agreed to a 9-day road trip to Jaisalmer (primary destination) and back to Pune, totalling over 3000 kms. A lot of things needed to be taken care of - but the willingness shown by the gang for the road trip was the most important factor! Other things required careful planning, and I was confident we all would be able to manage it..

02: Introducing the 'gang' of road trippers

People don’t take trips… trips take people.
- John Steinbeck

A little background about the gang: The gang is a set of friends and their families residing at Shivtara Garden society in the Kothrud area of Pune city (Maharashtra state). In all, we are 6 families: Anikhindi, Kunte, Kulkarni, Bhide, Ghanpathi and Joshi. We all have been together for around 8 years now, and have a lot of common interests including playing instruments, singing, travel and hanging out in general (not necessarily in that order). 

Bhide, Ghanpathi and Joshi families had other priorities and hence could not be part of the Rajasthan road trip. We would have loved to travel together (and have done so on various occasions in the past, albeit to closer destinations). This being a long trip (week and a half) plus other reasons and priorities taking over, a lot of stars would have to align for all 6 families to be part of the road trip.

L-R: Mukul, Rama, Anant, Trisha, Gauri, Ruhi, Pallavi, Aniket

The gang of road trippers finally included 3 families: Anikhindi, Kunte and Kulkarni. Yours truly is Aniket Anikhindi, and his family includes his wife Pallavi and daughter Ruhi (aged 7). The Kunte family includes Mukul, his wife Gauri and their daughter Trisha (aged 8). The Kulkarni family includes Anant, his wife Rama and their daughter Aabha (aged 14). Aabha was the only one who didn't have company of her age and she had other stuff to take care of, hence she decided not to join the trip. That meant the road trip gang was a group of 8 folks - 6 adults and 2 kids.

Mahindra XUV 5OO - W10 Facelift version 2015

The round of introductions cannot be complete without the cheetah, our travel companion. My cheetah is a year and half old and comes from the "proudly Indian" XUV 5OO family of Mahindra cars. She belongs to the W10 model series, having sunset orange colour and a new facelift design (both introduced in 2015), being the top end model with a sun roof. The cheetah is a 7 seater, and I have gone on road trips in the past with more than 7 folks (with much lesser luggage though). We needed to ensure that the luggage was not kept inside the car. After all, we would spend a good 9-12 hours on long days travelling in the car.

L-R: Anant, Mukul, Aniket

Anant, Mukul and I would be taking turns driving during the road trip. I had driven the cheetah to various beaches in the Konkan region of Maharashtra, as well as to the adjoining states of Karnataka and Goa. Anant and Mukul had been to places in Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Goa in their respective cars, and we have been together on trips to closer destinations around Pune in my cheetah. All of us were pretty excited to go on a road trip this long! We were just hoping that the experience would be smooth and comfortable for the other road trippers as well. We decided to leave no stone unturned to make that possible.

03: The planning phase

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.”
― Lao Tzu

It is often said that people who travel belong to one of two types: tourists or travellers. Tourists are the typical "sight-seeing" category of folks, who more often than not go to see what they want to see. Travellers, on the other hand, just see what they see. They do not bother to plan out in great detail, and let the situation drive them rather than driving the situation. I definitely belong to the traveller category.

Having said that, we had enough dynamics in our plan because of the road trip angle. Before going, we still had to plan for our stay (given that we were travelling with our families), and planning for stay meant fixing the destination cities for each night well in advance. What to do in a particular city is something we didn't have hard and fast plans for, we left that to be decided at run time. This is one of those points I remember having a difference of opinion with Anant - he said it was necessary to have high level plans at least, if not detailed ones. I preferred to leave it based on the situation and time. I had no problems with being informed about what to see and what not to. I was however strictly against having a fixed itinerary where people are herded like cattle from one point to another on typical "sight-seeing" tours.

Planning, however, brought us all together and it turned out to be pretty interesting. It is said that if you want to know someone well, you should travel with them. The planning exercise brought about the various shades of thought, in terms of what seemed of interest to folks. Having chosen Rajasthan, we had a laundry list of places to select from: Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Pushkar, Ajmer, Alwar, Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Mount Abu and Jaisalmer. Broadly speaking, it was about choosing between Marwad and Mewad regions of Rajasthan. It took some convincing to shift the focus of the gang from Mewad to Marwad, and after due deliberations, Jaisalmer was chosen as the focus of the trip.

The earliest we could leave was Saturday, 24th of December 2016, and we had to be back on Sunday, 1st of January 2017. That meant a total of 8 nights and 9 days, of which 2 nights would have to be spent at stop-over locations (during the to and fro journey from Pune to Jaisalmer). That left us with 6 nights and 7 days to spend in Rajasthan. Having chosen Jaisalmer as the focal point, we decided to spend 3 nights and 2 days in Jaisalmer to soak in the beauty of the Thar desert and the Marwad region. We decided to skip Jaipur, Ajmer and Pushkar as it would lead in spending a lot of time travelling on the road. Taking rest and enjoying the cities in Rajasthan that we were to visit, was equally important.

Jaisalmer was around 1200 kms from Pune and we would need 2 days to reach there by road. We deliberated on the stop-over place - options included Vadodara (550 kms), Ahmedabad (660 kms) and Palanpur (800 kms). We had to choose a place such that it would not make any one of the two days an extremely long one in terms of driving. Ahmedabad seemed like the golden mean, so it was chosen as the stop-over location enroute Jaisalmer.

Onwards journey: Pune - Ahmedabad - Jaisalmer (approx 1200 kms):



Of the 6 nights and 7 days that we were to spend in Rajasthan, 3 nights and 2 days were dedicated to Jaisalmer. After having spent a good time in the Marwad region, we decided to move to the Mewad region. After going through the list of places, and discussing with friends who had visited Rajasthan in the past, we chose Udaipur, the city of lakes, as the next city to visit. An excursion to the famous Chittorgarh fort would be one of the attractions, hence we decided to spend 2 nights and 1 day at Udaipur. That left us with 1 night and 1 day, which we unanimously decided to spend at the famous hill station of Mount Abu. Everyone seemed satisfied with this plan, as we would be able to see most of the shades of Rajasthan: the desert, lakes, forts, palaces, temples and a hill station as well. Visiting 3 cities in 6 days would give us enough time to visit the important parts of the city as well as make the travel easy for all of us.

Rajasthan tour: Jaisalmer - Udaipur (via Jodhpur), Chittorgarh, Mount Abu (approx 950 kms):



On the way back, our last stop in Rajasthan was Mount Abu which is around 900 kms from Pune. The options for the stop-over place enroute Pune included Ahmedabad (240 kms from Mount Abu), Vadodara (345 kms from Mount Abu) and Surat (500 kms from Mount Abu). I remember discussing whether we could directly drive down from Mount Abu to Pune, but that option was quickly shot down since it would mean too much of travel on one day. It would have given us one extra night to spend in Rajasthan, but we weren't so sure whether we were prepared to travel for 15 odd hours in a single day. Surat was chosen as the stop-over location on our way back, which the ladies happily accepted as it would give them a chance to go shopping at the city famous for textiles and jewellery (diamonds in particular).

Return journey: Mount Abu - Surat - Pune (approx 900 kms):




It had taken us around three sessions spanning a week or so to finalise the above plan. With the itinerary sorted, the thing that took immediate priority was stay. We all got together to list down probable hotels to stay at each of the destinations: Ahmedabad, Jaisalmer, Udaipur, Mount Abu and Surat. After finalising on the list, it took us no more than a day to get the hotel bookings taken care of. We ensured that our stay at Jaisalmer included a package deal of two nights stay at a city hotel and one night stay at a desert camp - one of the prime attractions at Jaisalmer. At Udaipur, most hotels have a palace theme - and we did choose a pretty good one. As for Mount Abu, we picked a decent hotel as well. Mukul managed to secure bookings for our stop-over city stays at Hotel Ginger in both Ahmedabad (onward) as well as Surat (return).

By the end of September 2016, bookings and everything sorted - it was set in stone. A 9-day road trip from Pune to Rajasthan via Gujarat. There was no looking back from here on!

04: Getting the cheetah (XUV 5OO) ready

Destination, itinerary, mode of travel and stay taken care of, last but definitely not the least was to ensure that my cheetah (the XUV 5OO) was completely ready for the road trip. It may seem trivial but required meticulous planning to ensure a safe, smooth and comfortable drive. It included taking care of whatever repairs that were necessary and getting the car serviced so that it was in good shape. It required thinking about all that could go wrong and ensuring that it wouldn't. It also required thinking about making the journey memorable and comfortable for one and all.

American Tourister polyester duffle bag

I needed to get the car fitted with a roof carrier for luggage and get a good quality rope to tie our bags on the roof carrier. We also needed to ensure that our bags were such that they would all fit well on the roof carrier. Mukul had recently purchased a good set of American Tourister polyester duffle bags. Anant and I decided to order exactly similar bags for our families so that it would be easy to fit similar shaped bags on the roof carrier. It was pretty important to get this part right - because carrying any luggage inside the car would mean compromising on leg space or occupying seating space which would have been highly undesirable.

Roof carrier on the cheetah

I got the roof carrier fitted on the 4th of November 2016. The make of the roof carrier was M-Tek, a pretty reliable brand. Among the various models available for the XUV 5OO, I chose the Galaxy model since it had a sturdy base and ample protection along the edges. As soon as the roof carrier was fitted, we had a trial using Mukul's duffle bags to get an idea of how many bags would fit on the carrier. We figured we could fit 4 bags at the base and could load more atop those. Anant and I got similar American Tourister polyester duffle bags delivered by mid November 2016. We still had about 4 weeks to get a rehearsal done.

Meanwhile, on 8th November 2016, high denomination currency notes were demonetised in India. As a result, we had to be prepared with some amount of cash for our road trip. Getting cash for the first few weeks after demonetisation was a tricky affair. Since high denomination notes were rendered worthless, low denomination notes were in high demand, and people started hoarding them. The toll that we would have to pay from Pune to Jaisalmer and back, would necessitate carrying change in order to avoid spending time at the toll plazas. India was gearing to reduce it's dependence on cash. ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) had been introduced a year or so ago. There weren't many takers initially - but demonetisation put ETC in the fast lane.

ICICI Bank, in collaboration with NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) introduced an RFID based tag collection system called FASTag - a simple to use, reloadable tag which enables automatic deduction of toll charges and lets you pass through the toll plaza without stopping for the cash transaction. FASTag is linked to a prepaid account from which the applicable toll amount is deducted. The tag employs Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) technology and is affixed on the vehicle's windscreen after the tag account is active. FASTag is a perfect solution for a hassle free trip on national highways.

FASTag RFID tag affixed on my cheetah

I started the hunt for getting a FASTag RFID tag for my XUV 5OO from mid November 2016. Getting the FASTag was an exercise in itself. The closest point of sale location indicated on the FASTag website was an ICICI bank branch which seemed to have no clue that it was the point of sale location. The closest toll plaza near Pune was that of Khed-Shivapur (towards Satara). Couple of visits to Khed-Shivapur yielded no results as they reported ICICI servers to be unreachable. After waiting for a few weeks, I finally tried the Talegaon toll plaza (located on the Pune-Mumbai expressway). I was fortunate to get a FASTag RFID tag for my XUV 5OO at the Talegaon toll plaza on Wednesday, 21 December 2016, just 3 days prior to departure. Paying toll at majority toll plazas would now be not only cashless but would save time as well.

Meanwhile I got a few issues fixed that I had been disregarding for quite some time now. The rear view mirror, AC control panel and a tyre pressure measuring sensor (TPMS) needed repair. I got all of those replaced as the parts were still under manufacturer's warranty. I also got the car's software and navigation maps upgraded - they hadn't been upgraded since I bought the car a year and half ago. The dashboard infotainment system UI changed a bit post the upgrade. The thing that used to annoy me the most prior to the upgrade was that the navigation interface did not show the current time, which used to force me to switch between the home screen and navigation whenever I needed to see the current time. The upgrade fixed this issue and I was glad they had observed this.

Rest of the items on the "car readiness list" included a mix of mandatory items, essential items, comfort/entertainment items and backup stuff.

Mandatory items:

• Car documents (registration certificate aka RC, taxation certificate aka TC, insurance policy, driving license)
• Car manual
• Tool kit 

Essential items:

• A good quality rope to tie the luggage on the roof carrier (15 - 20 mtrs long)
• Tarpaulin cover (to protect the luggage from heat and dust)
• Cargo net (to hold the luggage in place) with hooks
• Tyre puncture repair kit
• Tyre inflator
• Windshield cleaning liquid
• Micro-fibre cleaning cloth
• Air freshener
• Window sunshades

Comfort / entertainment items:

• Lumbar support
• Neck pillows
• Power charger(s) with USB ports
• An ample supply of music!

Backup stuff:

• Rope (in case the first rope snapped for whatever reason)
• Stretch ropes (to additionally secure the luggage if needed)
• Spare car key fob

I had taken it upon myself to get the mandatory, essential, comfort and backup stuff lists covered. Most of the items were taken care of well in advance.

First trial of tying luggage to the roof carrier

I wanted to ensure that we had a rehearsal with our bags tied securely to the roof carrier and the road trippers going on a trial drive with the luggage tied to get a feel of the actual journey. That way, we would be able to make adjustments if required - be it in terms of reducing the luggage or managing certain must-have luggage inside the car. What irked me was that despite repeated reminders, the gang kept postponing this rehearsal. It finally happened on the night of Thursday, 22 December 2016, just two days prior to our actual departure date! The rehearsal with the luggage tied with ropes proved to be pretty successful though - it gave us confidence that we would be able to manage the luggage pretty well.

We had the bags secured with the rope that I had, but I had not managed to get the cargo net (to hold the luggage in place) as yet. I had searched quite a few places - shops as well as online stores, but none had the kind of cargo net I was looking for. On Friday, 23 December 2016, a day before the departure date, I was lucky enough to find a car accessories shop in Karvenagar area which had the cargo net that I was looking for - it was sturdy, large enough to support the two-tier luggage structure we had, and it had hooks to fasten the cargo net to the roof carrier. The best part was that the maker of the cargo net was the same as the maker of the roof carrier (M-Tek) and hence the hooks were compatible. The cargo net added the much required stability to the entire structure - addressing whatever lingering doubts we had about the luggage remaining stable throughout the drive.

The cheetah was ready to take on the road - we were all set for the road trip..

05: An early start

Start early and begin raising the bar throughout the day.
- Bruce Jenner

A few weeks prior to the Rajasthan road trip, I had been on a road trip to Dandeli and Karwar in Karnataka along with my school friends. One of my school friends is a native of Karwar and travels there pretty often. He is used to driving at night, and had suggested that we leave Pune at night. Karwar is around 500 kms from Pune, and takes around 9 hours to reach during the day. My friend covers the same distance in 6 - 7 hours by travelling at night. While night driving can be risky if one is not used to, it does help in cutting down on the travel time. We experienced the same when we drove to Karwar at night in November 2016.

For the Rajasthan road trip, we had decided to start from Pune (towards Ahmedabad) at 4:00 am sharp on Saturday, 24 December 2016. The luggage consisted of 7 bags in all - 6 same sized duffle bags and 1 duffle bag that was a little lesser in size. During the luggage tying trial, we had taken about 45 minutes to secure the luggage and we were hoping to better that time. Anant, Mukul and I had decided to meet at 3:30 am on Saturday the 24th to give ourselves half an hour this time around. On the group chat, we bid good night at 9:30 pm on Friday the 23rd and planned on getting some rest. There was a twist in the tale however..

Despite bidding good night, we continued chatting for few more minutes. Seeing that no one was asleep, I proposed that we tie bags at night itself. Mukul raised the bar by proposing that we leave at night instead of in the morning. I remember saying that I was in love with night driving ever since I had driven at night to Karwar. Anant checked with Rama, Mukul checked with Gauri and I checked with Pallavi. All showed readiness, and all of a sudden we decided to prepone our departure by 4 hours by leaving at midnight.

Luggage secured to the roof carrier with ropes and cargo net

By 10:50 pm, we were downstairs to tie the luggage to the roof carrier. I secured one end of the rope by tying a figure-of-eight knot at one of the base brackets of the roof carrier. This knot would not be removed till the end of the trip. The rest of the process was already tried and tested. We bettered ourselves and finished securing the luggage in 30 minutes.

Anant, Mukul and I decided to take baths so that we would be fresh during the night drive. Trisha hadn't slept and she was with us while we were securing the luggage. Ruhi had slept already so we had to wake her up. In a short while everyone was ready, and by 12:30 am on Saturday, 24 December 2016, we were on the road, 3.5 hours before the planned departure time of 4:00 am.

The much awaited road trip had finally begun in the most unexpected of ways. The group had shown indications of being travellers and not tourists! We hoped to make the most of the early departure, and it all depended on the traffic conditions now. The target was to reach Ahmedabad by lunch time and take enough rest before the second day's drive.

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.