Round the Country in My Manza. 5000+ Kms in 7 Days, 9 States

anisghos · Jan 3, 2012

After a lot of preparations and drivings, i am back from my trip.
Totaling of 5039 kms in 7 days through 9 states and numerous cities, towns and villages. It was a very adventurous driving experience which included sight seeing as well. Was running against time to complete the tour as planned and without any delay. It was an aggressive tour, and we completed in time.

I would like to compliment Suvarka Roy and Soham Bhaumik for being with me all throughout. Though it was a solo drive by me they gave me good company. Special thanks to the man who needs no introduction, Kumar Sir, for encouraging me throughout the trip.

The itinerary was :

Kolkata - Choudwar (NH 6 - NH 60 - NH 5)
Choudwar - Sambalpur (NH 42)
Sambalpur - Raipur - Bhillai (NH 6)
Bhillai -Nagpur-Amravati-Akola-Bhusaval-Dhule (NH 6)
Dhule-Malegaon-Nashik-Thane-Mumbai (NH 3)
Mumbai-Vadodara-Ahmedabad-Udaipur (NH 8)
Udaipur -Chittorgarh (NH 76)
Chittorgarh -Jaipur(NH 79 - NH 79A - NH 8)
Jaipur -Bharatpur-Agra (NH 11)
Agra -Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi-Dhanbad-Kolkata (NH 2).

The places mentioned in bold are the places were we halted for the night.

The map looks like this :

The maximum i could push myself was 22 hrs at a stretch non-stop from Bhillai to Mumbai. Faced very heavy fog while driving through North India.

I have got lot to say and share. Still in the process of arranging my logs and pics. I will get back very soon and start penning down. :-)

Just wait and watch.. [cheers]

By the way, Happy New Year to all my friends..

Marun · Jan 3, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

Whoa... Nice trip there dude.
Eagerly waiting for your write up and pics. [:)]

Highway Ranger · Jan 3, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

@ anisghos

Congrats! That was really a long drive. But 22 hours.... was that necessary?

May I know the reason for this long drive?

I too like long drives and travels. But I make it a point to drive only during the day.

Tell us more about your Manza. I too have a Manza and have covered around 20000kms in 8 months.

Also waiting to see some pictures. Please do upload them

Chandranath · Jan 3, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

Yah Anis, I would just add on to Highway ranger's question - What was the hurry? I mean it is a fantastic trip and you could have enjoyed with a little bit easy pace.

Can you just add on the distance from one night halt to the other or at least from one major point to the other.

Also just wanted to know where did you meet NH 6 again after you left it at Kharagpur. Did it make better sense?

Waiting for the pics and more updates

anisghos · Jan 3, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

Guys, i did not have more time, for which i had to rush. Mumbai was the 1st milestone. If i would have been late in reaching Mumbai, the whole trip would have been delayed or had to be curtailed which i could not afford to .. I had to accommodate the places with 7 days in hand, and most of all I wanted to do this..

I am sorting out the logs and pics, i have lot of them.. Will start very soon once i get back home from office today. :-) I will mention everything in details.

@Chandranath:

We rejoined NH 6 at Sambalpur after we left it at Kharagpur. It definitely made sense because it was 120 odd kms extra but much much better roads. I went to Jamshedpur couple of months back and the Kharagpur-Baharagora-Jamsola-Kendujhar stretch was in utmost horrible state. I did not want to screw my car once again. In fact this detour took a lot lesser time, much better roads and excellent scenic beauty in NH 42 in between Choudwar and Sambalpur.
Very well mentioned by rahul4640 as quoted "Just right from a place called Jharpokaria (where NH-5 originates), the road is in complete mess, for the total stretch in Jharkhand. Sometime you do not find any trace of a road and I think I have got an idea how the roads of Berlin possibly used to look like after heavy bombardment by the Allied air forces at the end of WW II. "
Jharkhand roads are in totally messed up state.

Please find my Jamshedpur tour pictures and TL in this link : http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...ata-travelouge-will-remember-all-my-life.html

drivetech4 · Jan 3, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

Many congratulations! It must be a wonderfull experience. Awaiting the detailed travelogue.

Thetraveller · Jan 3, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

Seriously Whoa! That's a hell of a trip! It must have been a wonderful experience I am sure. Would check out the pics on the Tlog [:)]

ashikawa · Jan 3, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

@anisghos [clap]

Quite an adventure. Dude please update me on road condition between Mumbai - Akola and Akola - Nagpur. Because i may go on a trip by the end of this month. I will be visiting relatives in MP. Have a plan to go Mumbai to Shegaon (near Akola) 562kms. and then Shegaon to a place in MP 425 kms.(120 kms from Nagpur) via Nagpur. Total journey 985kms one way in two parts. I have planned to adopt the same route while coming back to Mumbai. So total trip distance will be 1970 kms.

I will be thankful if you give update of road conditions and your info. will be quite useful to me as my trip will be in this month only. [:)]

autosafari · Jan 3, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

Wow!! that was a nice long trip.

Waiting for your detailed travellogue (as you did earlier in your Jamshedpur trip) and pictures.

I too have a Manza and did a long trip - 3500 km 6 months ago.
During that trip we did a 23 hours continous drive but with a proffessional driver.
Eventhough, we enjoyed that to the fullest, due to safety concerns would like to drive only day time in future as mentioned by Highway Ranger.

FJ CRUZER · Jan 4, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

Awesome dude!!!! Take your time to build a nice travelogue. I am sure it will make good reading for the petrolheads. It is my dream to do such a long trip on the wheels.

Please share loads of photos and detailed write up of all the experiences you had during the trip.

TSIVipul · Jan 4, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

Mind blowing,even I too have been planning a such long trip (Meerut-Jaipur-Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Pune-Goa-Trivandrum-Hyderabad-Bangalore-Calcutta-Darjeeling-Kanpur-Lucknow-Agra-Mathura-Meerut)trip for last 2-3 years with my friends in my old and faithful Innova or my new and efficient Corolla but every time the trip simply was either cancelled or postponed due to work load but now I have again fixed a date 24th April for the trip to commence,now let's see what is to come in the near future.

Waiting for a new spicy and pictures loaded travelogue so that I can feel envious.

Surfer · Jan 4, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

Amazing , we want more snaps, and most importantly we would like to know how Manza performed. [:)]

anisghos · Jan 4, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

ashikawa said:

@ashikawa:

NH 3 i.e. Roads between Mumbai and Dhule are excellent except the Nashik stretch. The whole Nashik stretch is in a lot of mess as 4 laning is going on and flyovers inside the city as bypass. This should have been done 10 yrs back i guess. So, try to cross Nashik as early as possible, possibly at 2-4 at night, which i did. Otherwise god knows how long will it take to cross Nashik if you are unlucky. This starts of around 20 kms before Nashik and 20 kms after Nashik. You will cross couple of ghat sections as well in NH 3 which i guess you would enjoy. Kasara-Igatpuri and Malegaon are the ones.

From Dhule you take a right turn onto NH 6. 2 laned roads, no divider. Roads are in drivable condition but too much of lorry traffic. Sometime you will find 20-25 trucks at a stretch will you will have to overtake. In between you will find some patchy roads as well. You have to hold your nerves are sometimes you will find huge trailers just zooming past and you have to be very accurate while overtaking and follow highway rules. Do not honk too much. You wont find too much of facilities in between towns.

This will continue till you reach Talegaon. After crossing Amravati you would find 4 laning work in progress and that part there are diversions and narrow roads and dusty roads. Once you cross Talegaon you will find superb 4 laned roads till Nagpur. Take the Nagpur ring road towards your destination. Very bad truck traffic in that area as well.

Key is move out as early as possible to avoid truck traffic. My Bhillai to Mumbai got delayed by around 6 hrs just because of the truck traffic. Sometimes it gets very bad , so keep time in hand. Keep cash in hand as you would hardly get any pumps which accepts cards. I will update all the details soon.

Let me know in case you need more details.

mukeshus · Jan 4, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

Well good to know the trip went well with your Manza ,Anish.

But we want more pics of places you visited followed by road conditions.

anisghos · Jan 4, 2012

Re: Round the country in my manza. 5000 + kms in 7 days, 9 states

DAY 1 :

Kolkata - Choudwar - Sambalpur - Raipur - Bhillai :

Total travelled : 1028 kms
Total time taken : 16 hrs 50 mins
Halts for P stops, diesel fillup and lunch :1hr 40 min

Day 2 :

Bhillai -Nagpur - Akola - Khamgaon - Bhusaval - Jalgaon - Dhule - Malegaon - Nashik -Thane - Mumbai :

Total travelled : 1155 kms
Total time taken : 21 hrs 45 mins
Halts for P stops, diesel fillup and lunch : 2.5 hrs

Day 3 : Break

Day 4 :

Mumbai-Valsad-Ankleshwar-Bharuch-Vadodara-Ahmedabad-Ratanpur-Udaipur :

Total travelled : 781
Total time taken : 11 hrs 35 mins
Halts for P stops, diesel fillup and lunch : 1 hr 10 mins

Day 5 :

Udaipur - Chittorgarh - Bhilwara - Kishangarh - Jaipur :

Total travelled : 462
Total time taken : 5 hrs 45 mins
Halts for diesel fillup : 15 mins
Extra time for Udaipur, Chittorgarh sightseeing and lunch.

Day 6 :

Jaipur - Bharatpur - Fatehpur Sikri - Agra :

Total travelled : 244
Total time taken : 3 hrs 15 mins
Extra time for Jaipur , Fatehpur Sikri sightseeing and lunch.

Day 7 :

Agra - Etawah - Auraiya - Kanpur - Allahabad - Varanasi :

Total travelled : 660 kms
Total time taken : 10 hrs 55 mins
Halts for P stops, diesel fillup and snacks: 50 mins
Extra time for Taj Mahal and Agra Fort sightseeing.

Day 8 :

Varanasi - Sasaram - Dehri - Bahri - Dhanbad - Kolkata :

Total travelled : 719 kms
Total time taken : 11 hrs 35 mins
Halts for P stops, diesel fillup and lunch: 1 hr 20 mins
Time lost in panagarh jam : 55 mins

Round the Country in My Manza. 5000+ Kms in 7 Days, 9 States

anisghos

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Marun

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Highway Ranger

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Chandranath

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anisghos

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drivetech4

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Thetraveller

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ashikawa

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autosafari

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FJ CRUZER

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TSIVipul

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Surfer

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anisghos

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mukeshus

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anisghos

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