DAY 1: MUMBAI – UDAIPUR (800 KM)

Destination:  Udaipur

1.       The initial fascination was to make the trip to Leh and actually all my research since many a month was based on it but as 2013 came on I realized in my heart of heart that Leh was not happening this year.Anyways as I continued to sporadically read about Leh , I came across an account of a trip to THE LAND OF GODS : SPITI.

2.       As I read more on the subject I knew that this was a doable trip this year , circumstances did change in a way that I became aware of a single vision – to visit the Abode of Gods no matter how perilous would be the journey. The research went on in full steam utilising late nights  as I started researching and going thru all the data I could find. The initial itinerary was made up and revised so many times. I roped in a childhood friend of mine to accompany me : Baboo thanks for coming along , seriously your presence was invaluable at times .

3.       The final itinerary stood at close to 18 days on the road covering close to 5000 km reaching heights of 14000 -15000 feet and all in THE INDOMITABLE – THE MAHINDRA LOGAN .Well that’s what I have named it after the expedition for its attitude and spirit.

4.       The leave was sanctioned from office though again with revisions to suit office requirements , the tickets for Baboo to arrive to Mumbai were booked and I started doing the hotel reservations with careful planning. At this stage I would like to say that I really am totally floored with the amenities of the state tourism run hotels , I did experience Rajasthan tourism and Himachal tourism and both impressed me a lot . Clean rooms and spacious hotels.

5.       Initial Preparation:         The initial preparation included a trip to Decathlon to purchase essentials like a thermos flask, all terrain shoes , a foldable camp chair , gloves , head mask. I also included food items in case of emergency for a day or two. From e-bay I purchased a Belkins dual charger for simultaneous charging of mobile and navigator from the car point, a 12v heating cup to boil water , one 12 v air compressor , window cleaner , a 2 ton towing rope , d shackles. I also sourced three 20 Litre jerry cans to fill spare petrol and a 10 meter three core nylon rope. The bookings were done online and from a local visit to the HP tourism office at cuff parade. All numbers would be given by me at the end comprehensively. Few bookings were done directly with the hotels, details would be provided at the end. The car was sent for servicing to NBS international at Sewree. I explained in depth what my requirement was and a comprehensive servicing was undertaken. The only thing that I wanted to do but could not get it done was a complete change of the drive belts and bearings. The lead time was 04 days and I did not have that much time. In hindsight I should have got the servicing done earlier but somehow arranging the finance and the time slot did not work out very well. I will add at the end a total list of products purchased and details of servicing done as a source of reference including the documents carried for the trip.

6.       The D day arrived- 09 sep  and though we planned to sleep early the night before yet somehow as it was Baboo’s first visit to the city we ended up sleeping by around midnight.Consequently my aim of starting the trip at 0500 hrs got delayed as we could just not get up in time. Finally we were ready to move by 0630 hrs .Our goal for the day was the fabled city of Udaipur which was at present close to 800 kms away. We were soon speeding on the Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link as we sought to catch the western express highway which would take us out of Mumbai and on to the NH-8 towards Gujarat. The MH-Guj border near Vapi was reached by 0910 hrs covering a distance of 153 kms which included a breakfast time of 30 min @ Hotel Annapurna which is just after the Vasai municipal limits right on the highway itself.

7.       I wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge on the river Narmada as I had read that it was a complete enclosed bridge built in 1881 by the British, hence I deviated from the the NH-8 and headed towards Ankleshwar town .The road was chaotic and quite narrow but the bridge was a sight to see and I was happy that I took the decision to see the bridge. Once we cross the bridge we are in Barauch and after a bit of searching around I managed to find the Barauch by pass that would connect with the NH-8 once again. The bypass was jammed on account of heavy traffic but  maybe in the early mornings it would be calmer for I crossed it at peak noon time. We had a simple lunch at Hotel Boston International that is just outside Barauch near to Vadadla.

8.       Thereafter we proceeded towards the Baroda bypass which arrived by 1430 hrs after a distance of 72 km from Barauch by pass. Once past the Baroda toll plaza we were ready to take the Mahatma Gandhi Expressway (NE-1) towards Ahmedabad. This is a super fast expressway which just races on towards Ahmadabad and has got exits for Anand and Nadiad. It is 96 km long and a must travel aptly maintained by NHAI and reduces the travel time between Baroda and Ahmadabad from two and half hours to one hour.

9.       As researched I wanted to avoid entering Ahmadabad , so I deviated from the NE1 and turned towards the Sardar Patel Ring Road that moves on the outskirts of the city. There are clear sign boards to deviate from the NE 1 so one does not have to worry much about this actually however from the point of view of data collation from the Baroda toll plaza the exit for Sardar Patel Ring road comes after 83 km.I had covered a total distance of 548 km by this time and we were on the road for close to 10 hours by now.

10.   I rejoined the NH-8 after GIDC Naroda , it is easy to see the NH-8 at the place where the ring road intersects the highway , there is a big roundabout .From there we proceeded towards Himmatnagar town and this stretch has bad roads and also it is one lane for both incoming and outbound traffic.

11.   We reached Himmatnagar town after a travelling distance of 83 km and topped up fuel in the car as well as two spare jerry cans (each 20 liter).Soon after proceeding for around 30 km we took a tea break halt at Hotel Way Wait. It was a good break as we cleaned up the car windows of all the dust and grime as well as took a breather since now we had to cover the remainder of the distance at night though i was not very keen on driving at night but considering the distance involved and our late start there was no other option.For the remainder of the drive the music selection was all peppy numbers and i realized that chewing gum is really good especially when one is driving really long distances and not many people in the car.

12.   The RTO post at Samalji was reached in 55 min and the GUJ-RAJ border 10 min after that covering a distance from the last stop at Hotel Way Wait of 34 km.We had a early dinner at Hotel Bhagyadoy at around 2030 hrs and it consisted of hot dal , one veggie and amazing rotis followed by chaas. A superb dinner by my standards .

13.   After the dinner break of around 40 min we covered the remaining 110 kms and reached our destination of Hotel Kajri by 2245 hrs.The landmark for the Hotel is Shastri circle at University road. The restaurant of the hotel does close by 2200 hrs so we had before hand inquired about the same and informed that we would be reaching late to the reception staff.

14.   The Odometer read .  Colaba – 54485 and Udaipur – 55301.          

                                      

ALL LOADED UP 

GOODBYE MUMBAI 

SEA LINK WELCOMES 

BREAKFAST TIME 

LOVED THE ARCHITECTURE 

GOLDEN GATE 

JUST RANDOM

NO DISTANCE TOO FAR IS WHAT I HAVE REALIZED 

A DINNER TO STAND AMONGST ALL OF THE MICHELIN STARRED RESTURANTS

HOTEL BHAGODAYA

OUR STAY @ UDAIPUR - RTDC

JUST ME 

THE NE 1

THE INDOMITABLE 

SARDAR PATEL RING ROAD