*phew*
We did it!
Some information I would wish to share about the whole trip but before that, hat-tip to amp, rakesh and narayan for all the valuable tips. They were immensely helpful for the trip. Now here goes:
1. Total distance traveled - 1694 km
2. Total no. of tolls (as per no. of receipts collected) - 28
3. Toll amount paid for tolls - Rs. 1774
4. Total fuel filled - 87 L.
5. Total amount paid for fuel - Rs. 5620
6. We started from Surat at 3:30 AM (9th Sept., Day I) and reached Ghodbunder road entry (Hotel Fountain) at 7 AM. Since we were intending to take the Airoli-Navi Mumbai route to reach the Mumbai-Pune expressway, my chauffeur took over and I was using the phone to guide him with the GPS. The last time, we did a big blunder and went via Mumbra! Experienced some heavy showers en route but the traffic was minimal and we touched the expressway around 9 AM.
7. The 4-lane road from Pune (after MPEW) to MH-KA border were in bad shape ridden with potholes and road diversions due to flyover constructions.
8. Roads after entering KA were just fabulous! A mix of concrete and asphalt roads but in very good shape, lush greenery around, straight stretches, good road manners all round. We loved this part of the journey the most.
Some snaps:
9. We reached Hubli around 6 PM just as we had planned and halted at SBI's holiday home. Had dinner from a restaurant nearby and crashed. Woke up the next day at 4:30 AM, quickly had our showers and hit the road at around 5:15 AM.
At Davangere around 7:30 AM, we experienced heavy fog for a small stretch. The toll booth located 50 m away was barely visible:
10. After Chitradurga, we were bypassing almost all the towns through the flyovers and couldn't spot a single restaurant by the side of the road! Since we had left Hubli around 5:15 AM, we were feeling hungry (it was 8:45 AM) and being helpless, called up HVK. Kumar Sir instantly gave us the directions to a restaurant (Kamat Upachar) located at Sira, barely 5 km from where we had called him. After reaching the restaurant, we called him, thanked him profusely, tanked up our tummies and left.
Kamat Upachar at Sira:
Innards:
The hotel has clean rest rooms and the food served was very good. We had pongal, poori-masala, idli-vada and tea.
11. We reached NICE road around 10:20 AM and spent close to 90 minutes to get out of Bangalore due to the rush hour traffic. Got stuck at a few traffic signals as well.
12. From Bangalore to Dharmapuri, narayans80 suggested taking the Rayakottai-Palacode road bypassing Hosur and the traffic during noon. But our experience on this road was bad. Not only was this road a regular narrow 2-lane road, it was rather curvy, the road passed through the centre of 2 towns (Rayakottai and Palacode) which slowed us down even further, there were trucks and state RTC buses plying through this road which wouldn't bother giving way to the trailing vehicles (as such the road is narrow; why would they get off the road to give way to others?!). The only favorable thing is this road has no tolls so you save up about 90-100 bucks. But that's about it. This was a stupid decision and we wasted 2 hours on this road. I guess the 4-lane road via Krishnagiri was way better. We will know during our return leg of the journey.
13. After entering TN, the 4-lane road continued almost until Coimbatore wherein we entered the L&T bypass road. But construction wasn't complete and there were small humps and undulations atop these flyovers and the vehicles had to slow down. We pay a toll fee of Rs. 31 for a single journey for the entire bypass but the road isn't any good.
14. We bypassed Walayar from the road opp. Amrita college, Ettimadai that goes to Athicode via Velanthavalam. The road is very narrow but there aren't any buses/trucks on this route. A few cars and bikes but that's about it. We joined the NH-47 at Kootupatha. Glad we didn't take the Palladam - Pollachi route; saved some 40 km. We reached home (near Mercy College, Palakkad) around 7:30 PM.
15. Diesel prices - Rs. 65.43 (GJ), Rs. 64.22 (KA), Rs. 63.31 (TN), Rs. 62.XX (KL).
All in all, we had a fantastic trip! We will return to Surat from Palakkad on October 1st and it will be a 3-day trip since my wife would be with us this time and we may have to drive a bit sedately. That's all.
![Smile](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.png)