Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Travelogues (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/)

-   -   Our Incredible India Drive - 13 days on the GQ ! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/93724-our-incredible-india-drive-13-days-gq.html)

Hi,

Even after 60 days, I stare at the map of India at home and wonder, My God ! What have we done !!

Yes ! We drove on the Golden Quadrilateral ( excepting two additional stretches ) on a 13 day, 13 state trip visiting 13 major temples from October 8th to October 20th 2010. Today, we are yet to come out of the trip of our lifetime !

Begining today, let me share the kind of roads we drove on, places we visited and the experiences we had.



Route : Bangalore - Satara - Kaas valley - Pune - Shri Shani Shinganapur - Shirdi - Nashik - Mumbai - Udaipur - Chittorgarh - Jaipur - New Delhi - Mathura - Agra - Allahabad - Varanasi - Kolkata - Konark - Puri - Vishakapatnam - Vijayawada - Bapatla - Ongole - Chennai - Bangalore.

Pune to Mumbai ( 150 kms ) and Guntur byepass to Chilakaluripet ( 40 kms ) stretches of the GQ were not covered.

We : Myself, my wife and two daughters, age 13 and 11.
When : 8th to 20th October 2010
Our drive : Scorpio
Our constant companion : No prizes for guessing !!!


some statistics :

• Four metro cities, 18 cities and countless towns and villages
• 7215 kms of roads - One National Expressway, 15 National Highways, 7 State Highways, 4 MDRs / village roads and innumerable city roads
• 92 toll booths and 13 diesel fillings
• 13 major temples / pilgrimage centres
• 3 palaces, 3 forts, 6 national heritage centres, and one wonder of the modern world.
• 11 hotels ( for stay ), 28 restaurants, 6 wayside dhabas and two beach resorts.
• crossed 7 major / national rivers.

Quiz - Apart from the multiple crossing of the ganga, which is the only river we crossed twice ?

• The longest railway platform in the world, the largest saline lake in India, the largest fort in India, the second longest railway bridge in India, Kanpur byepass - the longest flyover in india ?
• Two boats rides, one metro train ride.........all in one big long ride !

Last but not the least - no hardships, no health / tummy upsets, not a cry from the car - not even a puncture !

Next post - planning and preparation

Roaming Rao,
Fantastic start, at the apt time!!
Perfect way to carry the story forward after Unni's GQ drive.
Your stats in the post are mindboggling. Amazing that you kept the count of all these trivia's.
Looking forward for more details.

Mind boggling stuff. Just finished reading the 7 day travelogue and now this. Wonderful bring it on!!! Bookmarked and subscribed to this thread.

PS: And doing this with family. Great clap:

Man oh man! Looks like its gonna be an awesome log! :)

Might I add, excellent alloy choice for the Scorpio - really complements the butch looks!

Ah!! I just read unni's travelouge and was wondering if or not should I take my wife along and now you come up with this!! Fantastic sir, will be all glued to this thread! And CONGRATULATIONS for the terrific feat!

Bring it on!! Was waiting for this. Happy to see that you have started the thread. And, I'm sure you will have more info on the whole route than we do. We were kind of lazy with the log.

Beautiful. I appreciate your patience in stopping in each of the important spots of the city to take pics.

HVK - this is for you.:D

Hats off to you Sir, simply outstanding way to see India.
your daughters are of the right age to remember everything they saw.

The title of your thread should have read "Our Incredible Drive of India in 13 days"

you are really setting benchmarks here after Unni & JK, your this travelogue with your family on board would motivate several people to emulate you.

Thanks very much for sharing, I just rated this 5 star because this is not just a simple drive, but a fantastic achievement.


clap:clap:

I am waiting to read more

I can only dream of taking such a long non stop journey. The experiences must have been overwhelming. Looking forward to read the whole story.

And 5 stars from my side for the journey of a lifetime.

Incredible journey man..!! that too with a family ... just wow..!!
Could you please let me know how the ladies were scorpio during the long drives..

Cheers,
rajesh

Sir, that was a fabulous drive, and a great achievement with your wife and 2 young daughters. Surely very inspiring for all those young people here who keep grumbling about how "lucky" some people are to take time off to see Incredible India. Nothing to envy, each has to take time off busy work and personal schedules to indulge in one's passion. For those not in the know, roamingrao runs his own business and yet managed to take so many days off during the Dussehra holidays.

roamingrao, the photos are a great introduction to the TL.

Just to answer the Q about the only (not Ganga) river that you crossed twice - that surely is the River Krishna, which you would have crossed in West Maharashtra between Kolhapur and Satara, and again in AP at Vijaywada.

But you crossed one more, sir, and that is the River Godavari too. Guess how!

Awesome stuff. The stuff dreams are made of

Its double the admiration to see a 'Karnataka - Bangalore(Gangavati)' car (Scorpio) accomplish this.

Even I love travelling with family, but the family hates travelling:deadhorse

The photographs are awesome, just looking at the picture one can guess which place in India you were at:thumbs up

Time to put your legs up and rest on the laurels - before you plan the Kanyakumari Kashmir trip.

Eagerly awaiting your inputs on the drive, hope to follow in your footsteps one day

Wow! its raining GQ here in tbhp. Bring it on sir, loved the hawa mahal & parliament street wide angle, what was the photo gear?

HVK Sir,

If I am not wrong he would have crossed river Godavari before and after Ravulapalem Town.

Godavari splits in to two near Ravulapalem Town. First stream is called Vasishta Godavari and the second stream is called Siddhantam Godavari.

Regards,

Vikram

Sir, I am speechless after reading this travelogue. I am just wondering how could you make such a long trip with your family. I have read several long trips with friends but this is the first one with family. Excellent temperament you have , Hats off!!! Please congratulate your family on my behalf for making this happen, since without them you would not be able to complete this one. Team work works here sorry its family work worked.

And your statistics is really amazing! but one important thing you missed out(now my turn for Quiz), you might add in the coming posts. May be.

Awaiting eagerly for your further posts, please keep them coming.