A quick and short New Year road trip from Bangalore to Goa (Bangalore_Goa) and back by Abhijit Chatterjee with wife and daughter.
Distance: 602 kms (onwards drive).
Dates: 30th December 2021 to 2nd January 2022.
Fuel: 50 lits
Toll: ~Rs.800
Car: Maruti Brezza ZXI+
An impromptu and spur of the moment decision resulted in the 3 of us packing our bags in the middle of the night and started our journey on a chilly Bangalore morning just a few days before our next Bangalore_Kolkata road trip scheduled for 6th January 2022.
The early morning traffic was pretty dense than normal, probably owing to many people having the same idea of spending the New Year eve in Goa.
Driving on the AH47 after Peenya was full of cars rushing to race each other, groups of bikers meeting for an early morning breakfast ride or trucks carrying essential items making their way through them all. Since it was early morning there was a dense fog on the road however it did not impair our vision. Maintained a steady cruising speed of 80 kmph while other rushers/speedsters sped past. In a short while, it was time to fill up our empty stomach and a CCD came to our rescue. First job was filling the lill one's belly with her cerelac and milk. Next we had coffee and sandwich which more or less made us full. Out comes Arijit Singh and Atif Aslam in amazon music and the rest of the way seemed like an endless series of groovy songs. Even my little one started dancing to many of the tunes.
Finally once we reached Karwar, we could smell the sea and stopped by the side of the road to take in the sights. After about 30 mins we crossed over to Goa and reached our destination in Patnem, Canacona. The booked hotel was a beachside cottage but the car parking was about 500 meters away hence had to carry the luggage (plus my daughter) all the way through the sandy approach roads. She is afraid of sand and water still. Time on the clock: 5:30 pm.
After completing the check-in formalities, settled into the beachside shack for some refreshments and coffee while enjoying the view of the Arabian Sea.
Next day, we woke up early morning and took a stroll on the beach searching for sea shells and conch but could not find any. Breakfast with eggs and bread followed the stroll followed by daughter's long hours of playing in the sand (finally) and we lazing in the deck chairs setup in the beach. In the late afternoon, we took another round of roaming in the beach after the sun went down clicking enough pictures to fill up a storybook.
We started prepping for the evening's festivities (fireworks, music and bonfire) by taking a quick bath, change of clothes and heading to our favorite spot on the beach. Mojito in hand (wife had Watermelon juice) we soaked in the view of hundreds of sky lanterns being released from all around us and different beaches within visual range. Then started the fireworks and one after the other shells exploding in the clear night sky was a sight to behold. Bonfires were lit at regular intervals by all shack operators to signify the end of bad times and ushering in the new year (little did we know then, that it will all be for nothing).
Clock struk mid-night and fireworks doubled up and there were heers all around. We joined in the celebrations and finally returned to our cottage.
Next day was spent lazing around Patnem and Palolem, finding out what's there in these South Goa locations since we did not want to venture into the overcrowded North Goa territory).
On 2nd January 2022 we started our return drive back to Bangalore.
Narrated in the 1st person by Indian Roadie Abhijit Chatterjee.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/indianroadie/permalink/2014532852038149/
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* Drivelog
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