A long awaited wish for a Bangalore to Kharagpur road trip came true for Amit Maity (https://www.facebook.com/amit.maity.5) with guidance from Indian Roadie founder Deep Banerjee and member Prateik Roy.
Amit was finally able to complete his homecoming journey of 1900 kms from Bengaluru to Kharagpur (120 kms before reaching Kolkata) in his red VW Polo on 22nd November, 2020.
Itinerary:
Day 1 (2020-11-19): Bangalore to Vijayawada. Distance driven 687 kms. Started from home in Bangalore at 6:00 am. Stopped after Kolar for breakfast at Maiyyas Restaurant. It wasn't a great experience with the Dosas. However, the Bisi Bele baat and Upma was great. Service was very poor. They spent an hour at the restaurant. It started getting hot in AP towards Chittoor. It started raining as soon as they left Chittoor and entered the single lane forest roads connecting to the Tirupati highway. Rain continued even after Tirupati but stopped once they reached Srikalahasti. He continued driving on NH71 and joined NH16 at a place called Chigurupadu Agraharam. The first two tolls were a nightmare. He stopped somewhere on NH16 for lunch. Since the family had packed food from home, they never lost any time in ordering and service. Once lunch was over it was one straight drive to Vijaywada but got stuck at the traffic signal in Benz Circle signal for 10 mins. Reached his sister's place at 6.10 pm.
Day 2 (2020-11-20): Exploresd #VijayawadaAndSurroundings viz. Undavali Caves (about 20 kms from Vzd) and Dhyana Buddha Statue in Amaravati.
Day 3 (2020-11-21): Vijayawada to Gopalpur-on-Sea. Distance driven 628 kms. Started at 6.00 am. Roads were good for a few kms but the traffic was bad. Thereafter he fell prey to advice from Google which asked him to take a diversion for a shorter route to Rajhamundry near Prathipadu which made him cross Godavari River and touch NH16 once again before Rajahmundhry. He had to drive on terrible road sections between Eluru and Rajahmundry, filled with huge and deep potholes. Sticking to left lane could have been a good idea but it was occupied by autos, bikes, buses and local transport vehicles. There were frequent diversions which slowed him down. Google directed him to take a couple of more deviations. Google asked him to take the village road from Kosta junction and join NH16 after Chilakapalem but thankfully he stuck to NH16 which saved him 15 mins and about 10 kms. Similar thing happened when he was about to enter Odissa but he stuck to NH16.
Reached Swosti Palm Resort at Gopalpur-on-Sea at 6.30 pm.
Day 4 (2020-11-22): Gopalpur-on-Sea to Kharagpur. Distance driven 490 kms. Started at 9.30 am from Gopalpur. Roads were excellent except for a few diversions. Had lunch on the outskirts of Bhubaneshwar in a restaurant called Punjabi Kulfi Dhaba. The food was excellent and so the service. All covid prevention protocols were followed by the restaurant. Post Sergarh toll plaza, the railway line had to be crossed extremely carefully or else there was very high chance of underbody being hit.
One needs to be careful at the OD and WB border as vehicles would suddenly come from the wrong direction.
Reached home in Kharagpur at 5.30 pm.
Total distance: 1900 kms.
Toll amount: ₹1895
Tyre pressure: 32 F & 35 R psi
Average mileage: 15.6 kms/ltr Full tank to Full tank. ODO showed 1 km more.
Actual running time: 28 hrs.
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