Our drive on the NH4 was really superb. We bypassed Belgaum in a short while, after the sunset and continued our drive without any breaks. We reached the Kognoli toll booth at 8.25 pm and paid a toll of Rs. 25. That was the last toll booth in the state of Karnataka.
We entered Maharashtra state at 8.28pm. Our odometer read 89,500 kms. We had covered 340 kilometres from Davangere. We were very happy with our progress and our aim of reaching Pune after midnight appeared realistic. We decided to take a break and have our dinner in a restaurant near Kolhapur bypass.
We reached the famous Mc Donald’s Restaurant at Kolhapur at 8.45 pm.
There was spacious car parking facility inside the premises and the fresh rooms in the restaurant were also top class. We quickly ordered two value meals and satiated our hunger. That was our first stop after over 5 hours of intricate driving. We relaxed a bit over our dinner, but the hordes of boisterous children running around and fighting for their ‘Shrek’ caps made our dinner stop very interesting!
We restarted our journey by 9.30 pm. We stopped at an HP pump nearby and quickly filled up Diesel for Rs. 1000. Diesel costs less in MH state and its price was Rs. 38.92 in Kolhapur that day.
We started our drive by 9.50 pm and had a super smooth drive from Kolhapur. There were some transport buses and trucks giving us company. But overall, the highway was quite deserted most of the time. We were able to maintain 110 – 120 kmph consistently.
We reached Taswade toll booth by 11 pm after covering 101 kilometres from the Maharashtra border. The road condition was excellent throughout. There were no two wheelers on the highway and we faced no hindrances whatsoever!
We reached Shivapur toll booth at 12.44 am. That was the last toll booth of our entire trip. And we were very happy that we had finally finished paying tolls and soon we would be home after a fantastic journey!
We entered Pune city at 1 am sharp. Our odometer read 89,746 kms. We had covered 586 kilometres from Davangere in just over 9 hours of driving. We reached our home in another 15 minutes.
We finally switched off our dear Chevy’s engine at 1.17 am. Our odometer read 89,756 kms. We had travelled an incredible
3673 kilometres during our trip.
We thanked
God from the bottom our hearts for giving us such a wonderful journey
![Clapping](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/Clapping.gif)
. There was not even a single glitch during our entire journey. Thanks to our Goodyear Assurance tyres, we felt totally safe during our occasional sprints of 140+ kmph.
And finally, a word of gratitude to my dear wife, who supported me enthusiastically during our journey. She is the most brilliant navigator I could have ever wished for!!! She did not sleep even a wink when I was at the wheel!
And last but not the least, a sincere word of thanks to my dear
Team Bhpians, who read my travelogue with such keen interest and whose constant words of appreciation and encouragement, helped me post all those pics and made me put in that extra effort in making this travelogue exciting. Thanks to each one of our readers!
This is Chevy Lover signing off! I hope to take all of you on another interesting journey soon!