Did a BLR-GOA-BLR drive last week and returned back on Tuesday. Here are the road and journey details
Onward Journey Thursday, 28th April: We had planned to start the drive after finishing office around 5 PM and reach Davengere for the night break, however, I could finish my work by 2 PM and start the drive by 3 PM and reached Davengere at 7 PM staying at Southern Star Davengere hotel.
Start Time: 3:10 PM
End Time: 7:00 PM
Total distance covered: 296 KMS
Breaks: None
Route: Electronic City --> Nice Ring Road --> Tumkur --> Chitradurga --> Davengere.
Road and Traffic: Heavy traffic till Tumkur with multiple trucks occupying all lanes and cars moving among them to find their way. Post Tumkur it is a bliss to drive on open 6 lane roads.
We had packed dinner from home and enjoyed that after checking in. Watched some IPL match and retired for the day.
Friday, 29th April: We got up at a leisurely time of 6:30 AM, got ready and were at the buffet breakfast at 7:30 AM. The breakfast was nothing much to write about, but had a basic spread of pooris, dosas, idly, fruits and juices. One downside was absence of famous Davengere Benne Dosa in the breakfast spread. On our way to Goa we took two stops:
1. Tea break at
Doodhsagar Jungle Resort Restaurant. The whole resort was empty and we met with the owner who mentioned that he only does limited business hosting corporate employee groups. We had ginger tea and biscuits. The owner advised us to be careful on maintaining the speed limit of 60 kmph after crossing Goa border as there will definitely be some interceptor watching the outstation cars.
2. Lunch break at
Hotel Amigos. Decent food quality and reasonable food prices, good ambience and clean restrooms. We had rice + dal + chicken cafreal + butter roti.
After crossing Goa border, we considerably reduced the speed and drove at a leisurely pace. The roads were of brilliant quality in Goa and that made the drive very enjoyable. As a result, we bypassed the interceptor with the speed gun without any problems. We drove at the restricted speed all the way till our destination.
Reached our hotel destination in Dona Paula, Panaji at around 3 PM.
Start Time: 08:10 AM
End Time: 03:15 PM
Total distance covered: 335 Kms
Breaks: 2 (~1 hr)
Route: Davengere --> Hubli --> Dharwad --> Ramnagar --> Anmod --> Ponda --> Dona Paula, Panaji
Road and traffic: Again a blissful drive till Dharwad with hardly any traffic, and then open highways gives way to a single concrete lane which is randomly broken at different places where one needs to completely slow down and then again the good concrete road continues. The good thing was that we hardly encountered any traffic on this stretch, and were able to maintain decent speeds. We gave 55 INR CASH as toll fee on this road. Post crossing the Goa border we got excellent quality tar road all the way till Panaji. There was no checking at KA-GOA border and we passed fuss free.
Spent good 4 days in Goa roaming around North and South Goa areas, explored the South Goa beaches and shacks and the hotel property.
Return Journey Tuesday, 3rd May We had a relaxed morning on the day of the checkout, and started our drive at 10:40 AM after having breakfast and finishing checkout formalities. We made very good progress thanks to excellent roads and overall less traffic. Crossed Goa-KA border and although there were some cars which were stopped by the police personnel to check the liquor being transported, we were not stopped possibly due to family being present. Anyhow, we were carrying only limited quantity of bottles along with permit from Goa.
With heavy breakfast in our tummies, we were not feeling the need to stop early, and hence we made continuous progress without breaking and ultimately took just one lunch break at Apoorva Resort, near Davengere after 5 hrs of continuous driving. Had a very average lunch at the restaurant and then started again towards BLR.
Start Time: 10:40 AM
End Time: 08:40 PM
Total distance covered: 630 Kms
Break: 1 (Apoorva Resort ~1 hr)
Total driving time: ~9 hrs
Route: same as onward journey.
Road and traffic: Very less traffic till Tumkur and heavy traffic encountered after that. A little bit of rain near Tumkur also caused some delay, but still we were able to maintain steady speeds along with traffic and reached home at 8:40 PM.
Overall, a very good drive experience.
The car: Honda Amaze SX diesel, returned an overall mileage of 20+ kmpl and was able to complete each leg of the journey in a single tankful itself.