|
Delhi – GOA – Delhi Road Trip (Driving Marathon) – Part 3 |
Table of contents for Delhi - Goa - Delhi Road Trip
- Delhi – Goa – Delhi Road Trip (A Driving Marathon) – Part 1
- Delhi – Goa – Delhi Road Trip (A Driving Marathon) – Part 2
- Delhi – GOA – Delhi Road Trip (Driving Marathon) – Part 3
Day 7 : Goa – Pune
Cavelossim – Margaon – Ponda – Londa – Khanapur – Belgaum – Kolhapur – Satara – Pune
We started back on Day 7 i.e. 15th of August. We were heading for Pune according to our plan and took a different route for the way back. We planned to take NH-4 for Pune and for that we had to reach Belgaum in Karnataka first which was around 120 Kms from Goa. The day before we’d asked some locals about the best route from Goa to Belgaum and followed the same from Margaon. Another way was to go via Panaji and then take the road towards Belgaum. We took the the route from Margaon as it was shorter from South Goa.
Goa – Morning of Independence Day
The total distance of today’s drive was around 450 Kms and after two days of stay and rest we were again charged for the day. We started little late around 7:30 am from our resort and after crossing Margaon took the road towards a place called Ponda. Streets and Buildings were decorated because of Independence day but we did not face any city traffic and were quickly able to cross Margaon.
Road towards Belgaum
Feel the green with speed
The road from Margaon to Ponda was again like NH-17 and in the morning it was a very beautiful sight. There were lush green forests as far as we could see. At somepoints, we literrally went through the clouds. Next milestones were Londa and then Khanapur in Karnataka. Most of the route from Ponda to Londa was through Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary and Mollem National Park. The route from Londa to Khanapur is also part of Dandeli wildlife sanctuary, so this journey was full of greenery.
Road was very bad at some stretches (because of rains) and sometimes we were also surrounded by number of trucks as well. As this route is also through the Western Ghats one has to be little careful on hilly roads specially while overtaking because hilly roads are not wide enough and always turning.
Just before Belgaum
It took us around 4.5 hours to reach Belgaum which included few breaks for leaks. Time taken in crossing the bad stretches of road was relatively more because of our earlier experience and we avoided any chance of hitting the bottom of our car.
Took first break at Belgaum on NH-4
We reached Belgaum around noon. We were now on NH-4 which was a 4-lane express way where you can clearly see few kilometers ahead and speed accordingly. After sometime, we took a tea break and spent little more time in taking pictures, checking air pressure of tyres and also streched and walked a bit.
Checking air pressure
The journey was resumed around 1 pm and at that time we were around 320 kms away from Pune. Road condition was awesome and we utilized the opportunity completely by maintaining good speed. Beautiful surroundings added to the thrill.
National Highway Number – 4 (heading towards Pune)
Just Before Pune
We left Kolhapur and Satara behind while driving on NH-4 and reached Pune around 5:30 pm. We took around 4.5 hours to cover 320 Kms which included a lunch break. We checked-in before dark in our hotel which was in Deccan area of Pune. We spent most of the evening in nearby market area and tasted Maharastrian Thali for dinner.
Day 7 was well spent and we went to sleep little early as we had to leave for Vadodara early next morning.
Day 8 : Pune – Vadodara
Pune – Mumbai – Vadodara
In this part I am going to cover only Pune-Mumbai because rest of the route was the same as we took while starting the journey and has been covered in the intial posts. We started early from Pune as we had to reach Vadodara by evening and it was around 550 Kms and as usual we wanted to reach there before dark.
We had already done some research and also asked few people there about how to quickly get out of Pune in the morning. We had to go towards Hinjewadi and then take Mumbai -Pune expressway for Mumbai.
Mumbai-Pune Expressway
When we entered the expressway, it was raining mildly. The expressway seemed like a runway in the middle of hills where driving cars is allowed :-). The expressway is six lane with maximum speed of driving 100Km/hr for cars but most of cars including mine were doing more than that without even realizing it because of its surface quality. You can read the link above for more details about the Mumbai – Pune Expressway.
Approaching a tunnel
Inside Bhatan tunnel – Longest in this route
We covered 93 kms of express way in around 1 hour and took the exit for Panvel at the end. From Panvel we continued towards Thane, followed NH-4 till Thane and then asked for NH-8. Road was in quite bad condition again due to rains and it took us more than 2 hours to reach NH-8. Due to the past experience we were mentally prepraded for the same.
We were back on NH-8 and headed towards Vadodara. We managed to reach Vadodara just before the final ray of sun vanished and then spent the whole next day there. We left Vadodara for Jaipur on Day 10 and on Day 11 came back from Jaipur to Delhi. Few Pictures on return journey:
At chittaurgarh – BP dhaba
Hawa Mahal – Jaipur
Amber Palace (Jaipur) – Last day of our journey
Few points for concluding the complete journey:
1. The round trip was around 4500 Kms (my longest road trip!)
2. Spent around 2000 INR in toll taxes.
3. Esteem survived some how but it is not a good idea to take low clearance vehicle for such a long trip especially in rainy season
4. Mumbai to Goa (NH-17) and Mumbai Pune expressway (NH-4) — A Must drive!!!
5. Long trips like this should have more than 2 people (More people = More support in difficult times).
6. Our trip was little hectic experience, one should ideally have 3-4 days extra and spend sometime at the halts.
7. Manual Air pump and puncture kit (for tubeless tyres) is must for longer trips like this. They come in handy in city as well :)
8. Despite all the harassment to Esteem, it gave an average of 17 kms/ltr. Fuel costed us around Rs 12K for the entire trip.
9. States Crossed – Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujrat, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka.
10. The longest journey in a day was Vadodara to Jaipur which was around 800Kms (12 hr journey, 6am to 6pm).
4500 Kms. wow. I am amazed to find that you could clock such good averages like doing 320 Km in 4.5 hours with a lunch break, 93 KMs in an hour and finally 800 in 12 hours. Knowing you, I am certain that it was a safe speed which makes me think that Gujrat-Maha are probably pretty ahead of North in terms of road quality.
too good.
Very well summarized. I can vouch for the Belgaum-Bombay stretch. It is amazing. You only slow down at the toll plaza and otherwise it is a runway.
Excellent pics, Aditya and hats off to your grit and determination.
Thanks Sudhir for your words.
Nandan, The roads i mentioned in Gujarat-Maharashtra are mostly expressways which are similar to Jaipur-Kishangarh or Kishangarh – Chittaurgarh where you can clock good averages easily.
I was mostly driving on 100-120km/hr (most of the times unknowingly) on these stretches for longer durations, which does matter for better averages.
The best was from Chittaurgarh-Jaipur(300 kms) which we did in 3 hours and I am sure we did not cross 130km/hr.
Driving thru green is always exciting. The route you took look awesome. Wet season may not do good to the tar but the freshness it provides is unmatched.
Wonderful journey. May your greatest dream come true soon.
Hi Aditya,
Congrats on successful completion of motor marathon.
I have been dreaming for such long stretch since childhood. Now the golden quadrangle has given us appropriate opportunity to realize childhood daydreams on such beautiful tarmac. I am contemplating a similar trip (bit short) from Delhi to Shirdi with night halts at Udaipur (Day 1), Daman (Day 2), Shirdi (Day3) in next month around 13th. I suppose the return trip will be around 3200 Kms and my target is to return within a week. I have chosen Nh8/Nh79 till Daman. I will be the lone trained and certified pilot for this planned journey along with my family (wife + kid).
I have a query from your well summarized checkpoints. Which foot air pump you are using and where do we get puncture kit for tubeless tyres?
Addy, Tanay’s dad’s (Pawan’s) comment brought me back to this post.
It is a great idea to have the trivia in the end.
Hi Smita,
I agree with you, a summarized checkpoints will be boon for other route followers.
Also Aditya’s motor marathon is an inspiration for me to do Delhi – Shirdi -Delhi.
Hi Pawan,
Welcome to Ghumakkar. We all have a common connection here through Tanay. I’m Pihu’s mausa.
The air pump (Rs 400) and puncture kit (Rs 100) were bought from a tyre shop in defence colony market but i think you can get these from any decent tyre shop.
Best of luck for your trip and do get back to us with your experience.
Hi Aditya,
It’s a great to notice that friendship between Tanay and Pihu is now our epicenter.
Thanks for the input, I was shocked by the exorbitant price of Michilin air pump (3150 INR on website).
Dates are final now, the voyage will start on 13th Morning from Indrapuram and terminate back on 21st. I suppose the mansoon effect will be least, anyway I am driving a car with ground clearance of 190mm to bear the potholes beating.
On return I intend to visit Mount Abu, any clue on
1) What should be my route from Ahmedabad to Abu Rd?
2) Present road condition between Abu Rd and Udaipur (east west corridor work has messed traffic last year April)?
Smita, Thanks for your comment. I thought it’d be a good idea to summarize all the learnings at the end. Glad you appreciate it.
Pawan,
I have no-idea about road from Ahmedabad to Abu Rd but you should get some exit from NH 8 after Himmatnagar to go towards Abu Rd. There is another article here which can tell you more about it.
http://www.ghumakkar.com/2009/04/10/delhi-to-mount-abu-%E2%80%93-a-tiring-yet-refreshing-drive/
Patrick described it really well and you can ask for any further clarification about roads.
hello adi..
very well narrated stuff..well am planning my road tour from delhi to kozhikode(my home town) on swift vdi(newly bought)..ur inputs is really helping me to choke out my plan for the journey..i just got the route from the maps of india..and am following the same route u followed upto goa..and from goa i am planning to take route along the coastal line via mangalore to kozhikode…am too much excited…
any suggestions on my plan…
day 1…delhi to udaipur(679 km)
day 2…udaipur to panvel(779 km)
day 3…panvel to vasco da gama (560 km)
day 4… vasco da gama to kozhikode (500 km)
am planning my journey on 19 june 2009..two drivers…
pls give ur comments..
hi mathew,
did u eventually make the trip.jus wanted your assessment o the route conditions as i propose a similar trip to Mahe this October. I had earlier driven down the same route in 2000.
Hi Mathew, Thanks for appreciative words. Your plan looks great, I think there should be no problem if you have 2 drivers but still i will suggest to include a day break in your planned journey. This will really refresh you and will make your rest of journey more fun.
Udaipur-Panvel can take some extra time because I guess there is widening work still going on between Vadodara and Surat.
Do get back to us with your story.Best of Luck!!!
Great description of the entire drive. Isn’t it possible to drive to Ahd on Day 1 itself by starting an hour early from Delhi/Noida?
Thanks Abhijit, for your comment. I think one can manage Delhi – Ahmadabad by starting little bit early and can also take advantage of road between Jaipur and Chittaurgarh i.e. Speed little bit more but in control :-)
Ahd is around 250 Kms from Udaipur and road is also good. If you leave Delhi early and manage to reach Udaipur around 4-5 pm as we did, You can continue on NH-8 and should possibly reach Ahd around 8-8:30pm.
You will get zig-zag turns and little hilly drive after Udaipur but as you will cross Rajasthan border, you will get straight stretches with really better quality roads.
Do let us know about your trip. Best of Luck.
Great Aditya. But do I need to enter Ahd or are there nice places for overnight stay on the by-pass?
Thanks.
The road widening work is over between surat and vvadodara…so u people can juz clock 1.5 hours or less for the 150 kms stretch between surat and vadodara,,,,
I just did this trip Delhi to Goa and back during Dussehra. I took the Delhi-Jaipur-Udaipur-Vadodara- Mumbai- Goa through NH8 and then NH-17. While coming back I took the NH3 from Goa-Kolhapur-Satara-Pune-shirdhi-Indore-Guna- Gwalior-Agra-Mathura- Delhi through NH4 then NH3 finally NH2. Iwas simultaneously using maps from websites which I had downloaded, Road maps from INDIA, maps from different books. The route through Udaipur is longer but the road is really good. I would suggest one should use NH-17 atleast once on your way for its scenic beauty. Otherwise use NH4 which is a nicely made 4 lane road.
It was almost 2100 kms which going through Udaipur. While coming it was around 1800 kms through Indore and Gwalior. The road after Indore is with bad patches and very few cars ply on this road. You usually see only trucks. Even the road near Shivpuri is best avoided during night time or late evening.
very good road omdutt sharma
chennai 09442626017
Excellent write up, straight from the heart. and a stupendous effort.
Hats off for not giving up. Especially since you chose to do it during the monsoon season.
I can vouch for NH4 and 17, they are an experience. We once did Panaji to Shirdi in a day, nearly 700 kms. Used NH4, which is a delight by itself, but the best part was to exit Goa from the northern side via Amboli, hitting NH4 near Nippani, just 20 kms from Kolhapur.