Destination is just excuse to drive. I, along with my wife just completed 10K Kms plus self drive trip to North east in my Safari Storme.
BHPian IP_Man recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Hello folks,
“Destination is just excuse to drive”. How true this statement is! I have driven to Kashmir and Ladakh. I have also my car to Bhutan and Sikkim in pre Covid era. Now, I, along with my wife just completed 10K Kms plus self drive trip to North east, Pune to Pune in my Safari Storme.
Some master shots.
View from Tawang Monastery.
Tawang Monastery
Madhuri Lake, Arunachal.
PTSO lake, Arunachal
War Memorial, Arunachal
Cella Lake, Arunachal
Doses, floating boats.
Kaziranga, Assam.
River doses, meghalaya.
Tawang Monastery
UMIAM Lake Meghalaya
A Village on the way to Kathmandu
Pokhara lake
Arial View of Pokhara city
This is a very long journey. I will try to keep this travelog as short as possible.
Destination targeted.
1. Gajanan Maharaj Temple, Shegaon, Maharashtra.
2. Kashi Vishweshwar temple, UP.
3. Bumla Pass, Tawang Arunachal Pradesh.
4. Madhuri Lake Tawang Arunachal Pradesh.
5. Handle Park Safari Assam.
6. Kamakhya Devi Temple Assam.
7. MAWlynnong Village, Meghalaya.
8. Indo-Bangla dose, meghalaya.
9. Cherpunjee, meghalaya.
10. Kathmandu, Nepal.
11. Pokhara, Nepal.
12. Lumbani (Attempted but failed)
12. Shri Ram Temple Ayodhya, UP.
13. Jhani Fort, MP.
14. Mahakaal Temple, MP.
Day-1
Pune – Sangamner – Shirdi – shegaon (525 KMs)
Nasik Highway
Started from Pune at very early morning. We took Pune to Nashik highway and taken diversion from Samgamner towards Shirdi. We reached Shirdi at noon, after taking small meal, enquired the entry point for the Samrudhi Mahamarg. It was quite misleading and took the wrong entry point that goes towards Mumbai. After taking guidance from the truck drivers, took U turn and came back. We saw several misguided car owners taking U turn. Started our journey towards Nagpur.
It was quite an experience of driving on the Samrudhi Mahamarg. It is abnormally straight and no traffic makes your driving fun but becomes quite boring after some time. We feared dreaded Highway hypnosis, so kept strict speed control to 90 KMH even though legal limit is 120 on this highway. We saw some people testing maximum speed of their cars, we just ignored them and kept our steady progress.
Review of MaMhamar:
Thumbs up:
1. Toll collection at exit point away from main highway keeps your journey uninterrupted.
2. Straight road, good tarmac keeps driving fatigue free.
Thumbs Down:
1. Straight road become boring to drive. Slows down your reaction time for any unexpected sudden manoeuvres. Better keep speed bellow hundred and enjoy fatigue free driving and get great millage too.
2. Feels entire stretch barren, hot and secluded.
3. Mobile phone coverage.
4. Less petrol pumps and eateries.
5. Less public washrooms can be troublesome esp. for ladies.
We took Mehekar Exit from Samruddhi Mahamarg. It took more than two hours against speculated one hour to reach Shegaon. Google map took us though very crowded village from narrow lanes. After reaching Shegaon at around six PM main temple, we parked our car in the temple free parking and enquired about accommodation but it was full. They advise us to try ‘Visava’ branch. After waiting in a Q for two hours we got the very clean AC accommodation for mere Rs.800/-. We left no energy after 12 hours of driving to go to temple and take Darshan so decided to go in the next morning. Visava has very good veg dining at a subsided rate.
Day-2
Local site seeing (30Kms)
We took our car to main temple early in the morning. Took Darshan and spend remaining time of the day in local site seeing. We visited Anand Sagar and Nagzari
Day-3
Shegaon – Surat Kolkata HW – Nagpur – Jabalpur (565Kms)
Started very early morning journey from Shegaon. There was no point in going back to Samrudhi so took very nice Surat – Kolkata highway and reached Nagpur at around twelve noon. There was very long overhead bridge construction going on for the exit to Jabalpur. It took almost one hour in the traffic jam due to this construction. After that it was smooth four lane highway reached Jabalpur around five PM. I advise all pl. check jain temple for the accommodation. It has very nice ambiance and huge parking place for the four wheeler. Unfortunately, we came to know about this after we took accommodation elsewhere.
Day-4
Jabalpur to Kashi Vshvanath Temple (459 Kms)
Started early morning and reached Kashi around four PM. This highway end in Kashi. We were greeted by the unruly traffic which I was not familiar with. Two wheelers and commercial vehicles were driving as if there was no tomorrow. Road to the Kashi Ghat were overflowing due to Chat Pooja. We took boat ride and saw Ganga Aarti. After that we went for Kashi Vishwanath main temple but it was already very late for the Darshan because of very long queue. Police told us to come very early next morning. Next day we started at 3AM and took the Darshan. After coming back to accommodation we started our online journey.
Day5
Varanasi to muzaffarpur (319 kms)
We started little late in the morning after Kashi Vishwanath Darshan. This part of the journey was toughest because the rout planning links I have stored in my phone did not work and we were solely at the mercy of the Gmaps. It took us from the villages and a narrow elevated road barely for the single vehicle to pass. Lots of planning was required to give way to oncoming vehicles. To add to my misery it passed though a very crowded city and there was huge traffic jam due to truck breakdown. We stuck there for more than one hour. From the morning we just covered 319 Kms. Reluctantly decided to enter in to Muzaffarpur city and take halt.
Day6
Muzaffarpur to alipurduar (wb) (505kms
Early morning from city we came back to bypass road and made a fast progress towards Purnia. To our pleasant surprise, we found a newly developed Purnia to Silliguidi bypass road. Excellent road. We reached Siliguri outskirt at around four PM. Again Gmap took us through the villages of West Bengal and very under constructed road. Whole day I was driving and this road made me fatigued. At around eight PM we were desperately searching hotel to rest and got one.
Day7
Alipurduar wb to Udalguri Assam 311kms.
Straight forward journey through the roads of Assam. On the way stopped my car and visited local street market. Amazing market with so may variety of items being sold from food to hand crafted things.
Day8
Uduiri, WB to Bomdila, AP (151 kms)
started from Udalgiri early morning. After this plain road end, either you are climbing or descending through the mountain roads. Roads maintained by BRO are excellent. On the way we found excellent cafe at Kalakatang.
Until now everything was Ok with my health but now severe back-pain started so we had to enter to Kalakatag city to purchase painkiller.
We reached Bomdila at around 2PM. When we enquire to hotel owner at Udalguri about the road to Tawang, he told us clearly that it is not possible to do Tawang in one day. So we decided to halt in Bomdila. We got very nice home stay adjacent to Petrol pump. We had little nap in the afternoon and then walked to local market of Bomdila. We found few Rajasthani Marvari grocessay shops here.
Day 9
Themdi To Wan (17 (177)
Road up to Dirang was good but after that we passed through very bad stretch of off road. Some area of Dhirang are landslide prone so pl. take care if you drive there. Dhirang is famous for hot water spring. We parked our car and went down there. Very little water was there so did not take bath.
We reached cella pass tunnel. Only one tunnel is open for traffic. I think second tunnel is kept in reserve.
Tagang we reached around 4PM. Whole Tawang city is situated on mountain, there are very few plain roads. Our first goal was to get permit for the Bumla and Madhuri lake. DC office is situated at the highest place of Tawang city. we had to negotiate extremely steep roads. To make matter more worst, I found that google maps are not very accurate and sometimes misleading in Tawang. After taking local guidance we reached DC office and took permit which was a straight forward process no hindrance at all.
Next challenge was to deliver permit to the war memorial for the sign. Again google map was not a help. A kind lady in Maruti car guided us up to war memorial. We submitted the permit and started searching hotels. The main challenge for driving in Tawang is narrow lanes over crowded with parked vehicles on both sides. Where you will park your car for the enquiry? because it is blocking entire road. Somehow we got hotel and car parking also.
Day 10
Twlai Tong mi, Madi and Madai came to visit and visit. (96
Started very early morning and went to War memorial to collected our permit. At the same time we visited war memorial. By taking local guidance we started our journey towards Bumla. Some of the slopes were very steep but good road made us travelling enjoyable. The most peculiar thing about Bumla is in a very short distance you gain lot of height. All the joinery is of hairpin bends.
We made a mistake at Y junction. We should have gone to Madhuri lake first. Because in the morning there was clear sky. We could have taken better photograph of lake with clear sky. In the afternoon generally sky becomes cloudy. After reaching to Bumla, we purchased some souvenirs and enjoyed excellent Jalebi and veg soup. People are sent in a group to the boarder. There was brief narration about history by the army soldier. We also purchased a printed and framed photograph of ourself at the boarder for 400 rs. We saw Chinese soldiers at the other end they were taking our photographs.
On the the way to back, we took diversion to Madhuri lake at Y junction. It was continuous descent till to the Madhuri lake. We spend some time at Madhuri lake, took food at the army canteen and started our journey to Tawang. We reached Tawang at around four PM. We went directly to Giant Buddha Statue and then went to Tawang Monastery.
Gaint Budha
Tawang Monastery Buddha
Our Target in Tawang city is now complete. It was unbearable cold esp. in the night. We became desperate to leave Tawang as soon as possible and go to warmer climate. So tomorrow our return journey will start.
Day11
Tawang to Tenga City (194 kms)
Started early morning our next target was to reach Kaziranga and Kamakhya Devi temple. We took some advice from Bengali tourist and decided to go to Kaziranga first and then Kamakhya Devi temple.
So we chose Bhalukpong road different than what we came to Tawang. Let me tell you, drive to Tawang circuit is more enjoyable than actual destination. We passed through Dhirang city again. Don’t forget to purchase Persimmons and Kivi fruit here.
After reaching cell pass we again climbed six kms to cella lake, because sky was clear and we wanted a master shot of the lake. After clicking cella lake we thought why not to go by cella pass instead of cella tunnel? And it was very scenic drive. After reaching Tega city market we call it a day.
Day12
Tenga City to Kaziangga National Park (197kms)
We reached Kaziranga National Park little late due to speed limit imposed. It was hardly an hour was remaining before the day booking for the safari ends. We are only two people so want to club with another two people for the Jeep safari. Elephant ride was out of question. I think it is reserved for the foreigners (only) requires booking in well advance. So it was clear that we won’t get booking today. So we decided to book hotel nearby and try our luck next morning.
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