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It’s a real pain when driving is in your DNA and the situation is adamant that you don’t venture out. I had been out of driving long trips for few years, and finally things look settled to restart the engine!
I had plans for a long drive for quite some time. There are many route plans which I tend to complete. For the start, I planned to have the much-travelled route of Kolkata – Puri for the puja vacations. The complete trip plan was Kolkata – Puri – Tajpur – Kolkata with a visit to Konark while we are visiting Puri.
The popular beach destination for the Bengalis is coming back to its full glory after a devastating run with the cyclone Phani which had hit her 5 months back.
It was 5 days planned trip. The schedule was:
Day 1 Travel to Puri from Kolkata
Day 2 Rest at Puri
Day 3 Visit Konark
Day 4 Travel to Tajpur from Puri
Day 5 Rest at Tajpur
Day 6 Back to Kolkata from Tajpur
I filled the car’s tank to the brim the day before the journey started. This member of our family was well serviced with the next service due in more than 5000 kms.
Other few emergency items were also stocked in the car. They accompany me for each drive:
I have put the Vlog of the ride to Puri here:
Day 1 (Kolkata to Puri):
We started our journey at 5 AM in the morning. Though I planned to start by 4 AM, but the early morning laziness was hard to get rid of and finally we were able to settle in the car at around 5 AM and start for the journey.
Normally, google will suggest taking the 2nd Hooghly Bridge (Vidyasagar Setu) to exit Kolkata. But today was not a such day. Google announced there is an “accident” on the bridge and decided it will give us an impromptu tour of the Howrah City through the famous Howrah Bridge. We had to navigate chaotic traffic of Trucks and buses (even during the morning hours) before we could exit Howrah. It was almost 6:30 AM when we were able to hit the Kona Expressway.
The roads were “makkhan” beyond this point. It was easy to maintain our lane and speed. The manual speed governor a.k.a my wife ensured that I don’t cross the three figure mark on the speedo. It’s better to have someone who can check your speed and route so that the driving becomes more relaxing.
The traffic was light except Uluberia, but that was manageable. The toll plazas are all FastTag enabled and that helped us to move through the tolls a bit quickly.
It was time for breakfast, and we stopped and Food Plaza at Kolaghat. The famous Sher-e-Punjab at Kolaghat was given a skip to due the same factor, it being famous a lot of crowd was there causing hulla gulla and delays. The Food Plaza was with thin population and served the food quick. We finished our breakfast and continued the journey.
The road was getting better with traffic and my car was happily gobbling up all the roads it can. The cemented road after Kharagpur was little bit uneven at the slab joints, but nonetheless smooth. One needs to be a little careful not to slip into Kharagpur from the highway and continue towards Balasore.
Lunch time was nearing, and we started feeling hungry. I set the google aunty to add a stop for Hotel Orion in Bhadrak to have our lunch. Our GPS kindly obliged and made me to drive through the congested city roads for 10 minutes and reach the hotel. And then, voila, I see that we are actually on the other flank of the highway. Had a quick lunch and continued our journey towards Puri.
The road condition deteriorated to some extent after Bhadrak for 30 minutes or so with bad patches reducing our speed. One needs to be a little cautious here as other drivers tend to swerve left or right suddenly at a speed to avoid the pot holes and bad patches.
Good roads soon came into existence in our universe and the speedo started to feel happier. Then again, the manual speed governor started to sound little angry making the car to lose bit of wheel rpm. There was a hold up near Cuttuck on the bridge with trucks lined up and no where to go.
Thanks to a bus driver, who was in too much hurry to reach either the depot or the hospital, some space was cleared and few small cars like us followed the bus escort. Nonetheless, soon we neared the exit of NH16 to NH316. The road sign to inform us that we need to take a left turn for Puri, comes bang at the turn. You miss it and you shall reach Bhubaneshwar in stead of a sea beach. So, need to pay a little attention to the Google Aunt’s advice here.
NH316 is as good as NH16 in terms of road condition but was better in terms of traffic volume. The short fellow in my car was getting more excited as the signboards informed us Puri is nearing by.
Finally, we reached Puri and navigated through the busy crowd to reach to our hotel by the sea side, Victoria Club Hotel.
It took around 11.30 hours for us to complete our trip. It was a bit slowed down due to the two traffic congestions, one at the 2nd Hooghly Bridge and the other at Cuttuck.
This completed first part of our trip. Next was a trip to Konark, then Tajpur and back to home.
We took some rest and headed to say hello to the beach.
Some snaps from the drive:
I had plans for a long drive for quite some time. There are many route plans which I tend to complete. For the start, I planned to have the much-travelled route of Kolkata – Puri for the puja vacations. The complete trip plan was Kolkata – Puri – Tajpur – Kolkata with a visit to Konark while we are visiting Puri.
The popular beach destination for the Bengalis is coming back to its full glory after a devastating run with the cyclone Phani which had hit her 5 months back.
It was 5 days planned trip. The schedule was:
Day 1 Travel to Puri from Kolkata
Day 2 Rest at Puri
Day 3 Visit Konark
Day 4 Travel to Tajpur from Puri
Day 5 Rest at Tajpur
Day 6 Back to Kolkata from Tajpur
I filled the car’s tank to the brim the day before the journey started. This member of our family was well serviced with the next service due in more than 5000 kms.
Other few emergency items were also stocked in the car. They accompany me for each drive:
- The jumper cable
- Tire inflator
- Puncture repair kit
- Windshield washer
- Soap water spray
- First Aid Kit
I have put the Vlog of the ride to Puri here:
Day 1 (Kolkata to Puri):
We started our journey at 5 AM in the morning. Though I planned to start by 4 AM, but the early morning laziness was hard to get rid of and finally we were able to settle in the car at around 5 AM and start for the journey.
Normally, google will suggest taking the 2nd Hooghly Bridge (Vidyasagar Setu) to exit Kolkata. But today was not a such day. Google announced there is an “accident” on the bridge and decided it will give us an impromptu tour of the Howrah City through the famous Howrah Bridge. We had to navigate chaotic traffic of Trucks and buses (even during the morning hours) before we could exit Howrah. It was almost 6:30 AM when we were able to hit the Kona Expressway.
The roads were “makkhan” beyond this point. It was easy to maintain our lane and speed. The manual speed governor a.k.a my wife ensured that I don’t cross the three figure mark on the speedo. It’s better to have someone who can check your speed and route so that the driving becomes more relaxing.
The traffic was light except Uluberia, but that was manageable. The toll plazas are all FastTag enabled and that helped us to move through the tolls a bit quickly.
It was time for breakfast, and we stopped and Food Plaza at Kolaghat. The famous Sher-e-Punjab at Kolaghat was given a skip to due the same factor, it being famous a lot of crowd was there causing hulla gulla and delays. The Food Plaza was with thin population and served the food quick. We finished our breakfast and continued the journey.
The road was getting better with traffic and my car was happily gobbling up all the roads it can. The cemented road after Kharagpur was little bit uneven at the slab joints, but nonetheless smooth. One needs to be a little careful not to slip into Kharagpur from the highway and continue towards Balasore.
Lunch time was nearing, and we started feeling hungry. I set the google aunty to add a stop for Hotel Orion in Bhadrak to have our lunch. Our GPS kindly obliged and made me to drive through the congested city roads for 10 minutes and reach the hotel. And then, voila, I see that we are actually on the other flank of the highway. Had a quick lunch and continued our journey towards Puri.
The road condition deteriorated to some extent after Bhadrak for 30 minutes or so with bad patches reducing our speed. One needs to be a little cautious here as other drivers tend to swerve left or right suddenly at a speed to avoid the pot holes and bad patches.
Good roads soon came into existence in our universe and the speedo started to feel happier. Then again, the manual speed governor started to sound little angry making the car to lose bit of wheel rpm. There was a hold up near Cuttuck on the bridge with trucks lined up and no where to go.
Thanks to a bus driver, who was in too much hurry to reach either the depot or the hospital, some space was cleared and few small cars like us followed the bus escort. Nonetheless, soon we neared the exit of NH16 to NH316. The road sign to inform us that we need to take a left turn for Puri, comes bang at the turn. You miss it and you shall reach Bhubaneshwar in stead of a sea beach. So, need to pay a little attention to the Google Aunt’s advice here.
NH316 is as good as NH16 in terms of road condition but was better in terms of traffic volume. The short fellow in my car was getting more excited as the signboards informed us Puri is nearing by.
Finally, we reached Puri and navigated through the busy crowd to reach to our hotel by the sea side, Victoria Club Hotel.
It took around 11.30 hours for us to complete our trip. It was a bit slowed down due to the two traffic congestions, one at the 2nd Hooghly Bridge and the other at Cuttuck.
This completed first part of our trip. Next was a trip to Konark, then Tajpur and back to home.
We took some rest and headed to say hello to the beach.
Some snaps from the drive: