Stallion visits the Holkars & Jyotirlingas - Indore, Ujjain, Omkareshwar & more It was December month, time to consume the pending office leaves. The best option was the last week of December with two holidays of Christmas and New year. Luckily son's school was off in the last week and the itch to drive was already taking shape. But I was done with the nearby 200 kms runs, wanted to do a longer one min 6-7 hrs type. Scouting for location began about couple of months back which was within 400 kms drive. As usual looked to my son to come with some of his wishlist places and surprisingly he said he wanted to visit a shiva temple. The idea of Jyotirling stuck to me and Trimbakeshwar immediately came to my mind but that was very close. Nothing for the drive keeda. Few hours of googling and suggested Indore to wife but there was a resistance as Indore was 570 kms away and a good 9.5 hrs drive. I was super excited but there was hesitation from wife and son. This was like pushing the limits of driving. Researched, spoke to few known guys and everyone confirmed that roads to Indore are super good. The moment wife and son agreed, booked the hotel and started the preparations. Chalked out itinerary as below:
Day 1: Drive to Indore, start early reach around 2 pm. Take rest, see local sight seeing
Day 2: Drive to Omkareshwar, see Jyotirling, drive to Maheshwar and back to Indore
Day 3: Drive to Mandu and back to Indore
Day 4: Drive to Ujjain, see jyotirling and back to Indore, do shopping plus sight seeing
Day 5: Drive back to Thane
Basic preps before the start of the journey:
Fuel full - Checked
PUC - Checked
N2 in tyres - Checked
Fluids topped up - Checked.
Mapmyindia routes programmed - Checked
Basic cleaning kit - Checked.
Having done all the above, wait for the d-day (drive day) started.
Day 1: Woke up early, decided to start the journey at 5 am assuming the heavy vehicle traffic on the NH3 would be thin. Started at 5 am and indeed the traffic on NH3 was thin. Decided to keep the speed limits to 80 till day break after which I would be pushing at 100 kmph speeds. The route would be Thane-Nashik-Malegaon-Dhule-Sendhwa-Kalaghat-Pithampur-Indore. All the way on the NH3. As usual got slowed in the Igatpuri ghats due to the stupid heavy vehicles occupying both the lanes. Crossed Nashik at 7.30 (as against 7 am planned). Immediately after 10 kms from Nashik, the 4 laned road converted to 2 lane but luckily was not for more than a couple of kms. It was heartening to see the 4 laned road again. Then the most dreaded thing happened. Punto experienced the ill famed power loss issue. The accelerator pedal was touching the metal, yet the car was not moving beyond 50 kmph. There was no power in the car at all. Pulled the car to a side and halted for 15 odd minutes hoping the engine would cool down. Was getting tensed that I might not be able to keep up to the time limits. Luckily the engine purred back to life. Got back the turbo push and the car started hurtling down on the NH3. Came across 10 tolls on the way to Indore, 7 in Maharashtra and 3 in Madhya Pradesh state. Since the roads were superb, paying tolls was not met with a frown. Paid a total of Rs 681 in tolls as against Rs 912 seen on the NHAI website. Took the mandatory mins halts after every 2 hrs. Reached Indore at 2.30 pm after covering a distance of 581 kms over 9.30 hrs travel time. Few road pics and trips stats for reference. NH3 Pics Final stats Mileage achieved
Kms covered ![Stallion visits the Holkars & Jyotirlingas - Indore, Ujjain, Omkareshwar & more-img_20171223_145037.jpg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/travelogues/1711586d1689871421t-stallion-visits-holkars-jyotirlingas-indore-ujjain-omkareshwar-more-img_20171223_145037.jpg)
Last edited by ghodlur : 4th January 2018 at 08:51.
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