News

2400 km road trip: Mumbai to Darjeeling in a Maruti Suzuki S-Cross

11th March 2022, 16:10 by Dev Shah

What prompted us to buy this car was to get this car to our native places in Bihar, by covering some of the most interesting places along the route.

BHPian Vivek Kumar recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Why would anyone come up with this crazy idea of traveling from Mumbai to Darjeeling by car, when a flight is an easier option? I would do it, just for the thrill and experience of covering more than 2400 km (my first ever) in a car. Good, bad or average, whatever it may be, I knew, it will be a lifetime experience to count on and tell stories about. So here I am sharing my story with fellow Team BHPians.

Our first car:

We bought our first ever car, a Maruti Suzuki S-Cross in November 2021 in Mumbai, where we work. What prompted us to buy this car was to get this car to our native places in Bihar, by covering some of the most interesting places along the route. As expected, everyone advised us not to do this since it meant paying much more than a flight ticket to Patna and spending at least four days in a compact car. I think, the difficulty level, made this idea even more appealing and we decided to go for it, despite the resistance.

Route selection:

We considered two possible routes, one going through Indore-Orchha-Varanasi and another through Mandu-Jabalpur-Varanasi. We found the latter route more interesting, as it not only covered the historical counterpart of Orchha (Mandu) but also had the touchpoint of Bhedaghat (near Jabalpur) where we could witness the mystique waterfall of Dhuandhar and the river Narmada meandering through famed marble rocks seen in the Bollywood movies Asoka (the song, Raat ka Nasha Abhi) and Mohenjo Daro (crocodile fight scenes).

Day 1: Mumbai to Mandu.

Distance covered: 532 Km.
Route taken: Via Nashik – Dhule.
Why this route: Shortest and fastest.
Where to eat: The Orchid, Malegaon Road, Dhule, Maharashtra.
Where to stay: MPT Malwa Retreat, Mandu, M.P.
Why stay at Mandu: Jahaz Mahal, Jami Masjid, Rani Roopmati Pavillion and Palace.

Day 1 Journey: Thanks to the excellent roads in Maharashtra, this was the smoothest part of our journey which gave us the much-needed confidence to take on a 606 km journey the very next day. The only small hiccup was a shorter route suggested by Google Map, going through uneven roads of a small village in Madhya Pradesh towards the last 40 Km of our journey. We actually felt ‘lost’ for some time, while traveling through the narrow broken roads of this village in the dark. The key takeaway was – never trust Google to tell you the best route. It always suggests the shorter route, no matter what the condition of the roads may be.

The next day we spent around 1.5 hours visiting Jami Masjid and Jahaj Mahal which were nearby before we headed for Jabalpur.

Day 2: Mandu to Jabalpur.

Distance covered: 606 Km.
Route taken: Via Dewas – Vidisha – Sagar.
Why NOT this route: Longer and slower due to a busy town (Sagar) and a reserve forest with a speed limit of 20 Km/hour.
Where to stay: MPT Marble Rocks, Bhedaghat.
Why Jabalpur: Dhuandhar waterfall, Marble rocks. A video I took of the waterfall is here.

Our journey:

This was the toughest part of our journey for three reasons. Firstly, given the distance, we started a bit late (11:00 am) from Mandu. Secondly, we chose a longer route to avoid the busy traffic of Bhopal, which was a wrong call. Lastly, a considerable part of the road towards the end goes through a reserve forest with countless speed breakers limiting your speed to 20 km/hour for the entire stretch. By the time, we reached Jabalpur, it was already 11:50 in the night. We spent the rest of the night in a Railway guest house and headed for Bhedaghat by 7:00 AM.

As I have already been to Bhedaghat once (see the earlier post below), the idea was to take my wife and her family to this beautiful place. This was indeed the best part of the entire journey in terms of natural beauty and tourist attractions.

Day 3: Jabalpur to Varanasi.

Distance covered: 491 Km.
Route taken: Via Katni – Mirzapur.
Why this route: Surprisingly much better than the roads in Madhya Pradesh.
Where to stay: Any hotel with private parking.
Why Varanasi: Ganga Ghats, street food, pilgrimage.

Our Journey:

Our journey to Varanasi was again smooth, though we started quite late around 12:00 in the noon. We were utterly surprised to see the roads in Uttar Pradesh so good and maintained until the last 25 Km from Varanasi where the roads were broken and under construction.

What we did:

Unfortunately, we could not explore Varanasi much except for giving its lip-smacking Kachodi-Sabji a try, along with hot Jalebi. While I wanted to experience the boat ride along the ghats of Varanasi, my other family members were keen on visiting the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. With the limited time we had, we could only make a failed attempt to get inside the temple. Failed, because none of us was willing to wait for two hours in a long queue where social distancing was just a mockery.

Day 4: Varanasi to Patna.

Distance covered: 252 Km.
Route taken: Via Chandauli – Mohania – Arrah.
Why this route: Shorter and faster (with tolls).
Why Patna: Ganga Ghat, local food.

Our Journey:

Although it was the shortest distance of our four days’ long road trip, it did take a considerable time for us to reach Patna. Needless to say, the roads did not support our high expectations set from the past three days.

Day 5, 6 and 7: Patna:

I did not travel for three days as the initial idea was only to reach Patna. If you are in Patna for a few days, you can do a lot of things here which I have posted earlier on my travel blog here. In case you wish to see more pictures from the first leg (Mumbai-Patna) of our road trip, it is available here.

In these three days in Patna, I also made an impromptu plan to take my parents to Darjeeling from my hometown, Katihar and thus extend this road trip by another three days. I will share the story of the second leg (Patna-Darjeeling) in the next part.