Solo Drive from Thrissur, Kerala to Kolkata, West Bengal in an Old TATA Indica

 Quick stats:

Kilometers: 2400 approx.

Days: 6 days. Planned for 4 days as a solo drive but ended up as 6.

Speed avg: 60-80 in good highways.

Road conditions: Very good in general except few stretches in Orissa and the beginning of Andra.

Tolls: Around 2000 paid, without counting each receipt but an approx amount.

Diesel cost: My Indica still gives one the best MPG and it should be around 4000 rupees for the trip.

Traffic conditions: If planned well, you can go fast/low traffic till Kolkata borders it is nightmare traffic unless it is 10 pm to 6am

Best naturally beautiful place: Orissa.. Have no doubt, what a marvellous place!

Please see an update on road conditions and other details at the end of the post when I got back!

How it all Began....!

I got transferred from Kochi to Kolkata and I decided to make this journey in my Old Indica instead of my new car or flight or Train for the following reasons:

1. I love long drives. Especially solo ones. This trip allows me to experience the previously unknown terrain of chennai to kolkata coastal route!
2. I had first hand information of the gang culture/rowdism present in kolkata and so I was reluctant to take my expensive newer car for the trip.
3. Flight was an obvious alternative but, I had so many stuff to transport and that with reason(1), I decided for the car. I also do not like to travel long hours in train.
4. Having a car in Kolkata means weekend escapes to many of the treasures that lies around the state and other nearby states and even countries. I am planning to take these trips if I get sufficient time.

My dear ones insisted for a flight so it was mostly an impulsive decision to start with my car journey.

My indica which is close to 1.5 lakh kilometers is a senior citizen now and when I tried to start the car, I found that the heater coils were gone!. I had a spare with me but to install them, I needed a heated engine, as otherwise I cant get my old heater plugs out of the engine head. So, I had to jump start the car in the old fashion way by pushing it. This is one advantage of the old diesel engines! I went for a short market trip to buy fish and veggies and when it returned, the engine was very hot and I could pull the plugs away. I installed the new ones and the starting problem was solved!

I was jubilant and I packed my little car to the full. I said bye bye to dears and I started my long journey.. But with few meters itself I could feel a big loss of power. Worried if it has something to do with my self repair of heater plugs, I wearily taken it to a trusted local mechanic. He could quickly find that it has to do with a diesel pump problem and not with an issue with heater plugs.

I then took the car to a nearby diesel pump workshop. They identified it as a broken plate inside the pump and asked me to come after few hours as they need to repair the pump. I anxiously waited for it to get ready and around 2.30 pm in the afternoon I got the call from workshop that the car is ready!

I went to pump workshop, paid up and thus restarted the journey. I could reach Palakkad only in 3 hours as it was approaching peak traffic time. I went to have a nice puttu and kadala at the famous Indrapresta Hotel in Palakkad, where I usually stop when passing by.

After the hearty meal, soon I entered into the highway and I want to cover the distance as far as possible. I went past/around towns such as coimbatore,avinasi and erode and just before Salem, I took the turn for chennai highway.

The initial few kilometers were slow and then the road really widens up and traffic also becomes low. I drove heartily with few stops for hearty snacks and delicious coffees! I had booked a hotel at Villupuram and I reached the Balaji hotel around 11.30 pm. So, I retired for the first day. I had covered around 350 kms only as I started late. But, I was happy.

I slept like a log and wake up around 7and got ready. Before restarting my drive, I wanted to explore the town a bit. I walked for 1-2 kms and had a very nice treat of Puri and Curry in a treditional coffee shop. Now one review about the hotel. It is a huge hotel so, be sure of the availability almost any occasion. Also, they have good parking space.

On the second day I started around 9.45 am only. The village view of the road was very nice and it took me till noon to reach chennai. Just before entering chennai central region, we take deviation to Nellore/Vijayawada.

I had my lunch around 1pm after chennai and continued my journey towards Vijayawada.

My car having a rest in coastal andra region when I had a quck bite in a coffee shop!

My aim was to retire at vijayawada but soon I found that, I may not make it as the progress was slow. There were frequent diversions due to road work going on. It was around 7.30pm when I reached Nellore and I had my dinner there. I was feeling unusually tired. Also, I was waiting for my dinner when right in front of my restaurant, there was loud noise of an accident! We all ran towards the road and there a white Maruti Swift had collided with a National Permit lorry. The engine side of the car was completely damaged. But, luckily the occupants did not suffer major injuries. Some of us helped to push the car to the side of the road and we all helped to clear some debris. I went back to my hotel and had my dinner and restarted my journey but may be it is an after effect of witnessing an accident, called it quits around 8pm and retired into a nearby hotel.

I slept knowing nothing till 9am and was ready to start only after 10.30am. I decided to reach Visakhapatnam that day and I was speeding and not wasting much time on that day.

Roads in coastal Andra highway is superb!

But, by afternoon with high traffic and road conditions not so good, it was clear that I am not going to be anywhere near Vishakhapatnam on that day! But worried about the rate at which I am slipping my original 4 day plan, I pushed on, went past Vijayawada, crossed two mighty rivers/basins and finally entered Rajahmundry around 9pm. I wanted to retire for the day and a faulty google map led me to local roads in a seemingly endless loops and finally decided to take the help of a lorry driver. He told me the correct way and gave me heavenly advice in Hindi that “ The google map is Absurd!.. Never leave the highway in long journey else all things can go wrong”!! How correct he was! In the rest of the journey I adhered to his advice.

I went on and though I saw many hotel boards did not stop as i felt they are not in a seemingly safe area. Finally around 10.30pm, I got a hotel at Jaggampetta after reading reviews from Google.

A Glimpse of villages life behind the hotel from the 2nd floor window

The water comes to the fields from the Godavari river which flows few kms away at Rajahmundry

A beautiful village and few lodges with nice fields fertilized with Godavari waters.

I restarted again around 9.30 am, even though I was a bit tired. But, with the little time, I had sound/deep sleep and the naturally rich environment had a positive effect on me. I wished, I stayed there at least for a day, but there were “miles to go before I sleep” situation, so I started earlier than I wished for! I drove all the day and round 5pm I passed Vizag and went on till 9pm when I reached Ichchapuram. One of the last towns before the Orissa border. It was a nice stay there also.

I started early from Ichchapuram around 6 am and the roads were nice till the Orissa border. Once I crossed the border however, the road surface started to suffer. I had to reduce speeds around 50km/h range or lower but there was no major blocks etc. In between I was getting some nice strech of roads too. And the scenary become so beautiful and I have to say some of the best naturally beautiful places I have seen except some of my experiences in Africa!. But, there is something unique to Orissa's beauty that you need to experience yourself. The road was not far away of pristine beaches and almost every junction have boards pointing some “xxx” beach is 20 plus or less kilometers away. But, since I did not have enough time, I could not go to many beaches which was a pity!

When I searched online, I had previously decided to visit Puri beach and even though I was running late to rejoin my office for my deputation, I decided to visit it. So few kilometers before Bhuvaneswar, around 12 noon, I started taking the deviation to reach Puri.

I cannot describe enough of the beauty of the villages en route to Puri. My mobile's primary camera was not working and I had to struggle with my front camera to take the photos. What a pity! As the scenarios were right out of 18^th Century!. You need to see to believe such places exist anywhere in India in these modern times!

I reached Puri beach around 2pm. Puri has such a wide and long beach and even at noon, so many couples and others were making merry at them. There were ample shops nearby for a quick bite but because of the short time I had, I could not enjoy it more than 20 minutes!. But, I was not feeling bad, as the real beauty of Puri is its surrounding villages and they really gave me a forgotten era experience.

I highly recommend you take the mentioned route(Radhakrishnapur, Jharada etc) and you will come to know what I really meant!.

I bypassed Bhuvaneswar and reached cuttack around 4pm. My dear Manager at office, since he finds that I am absent for few days more than expected called me. When I explained him, I am driving down to Kolkata from cochin, he was so anxious but finally he told me dont try to drive all the way from Bhuvaneswar to Kolkata in one day and even if it takes two days he is fine, as long as I can commit about my work waiting for me in Office!. I assured him and thanked him for his support and what a relief! I was already feeling tired but want to push on as I need to be in Kolkata on the next day no matter what!. By 9 pm I decided to call it a day and it was in Ratnagiri and in a lodge named Ratnagiri Guest house. It was very cold in the night and the good host offered me a very nice room at a discount price of 400rs!. The hotel had ample parking too. I had a good night's rest.

Next day I started around 5.45 am the early morning ride was easy went past many towns and villages beside the highway in seemingly short time. Around 8pm I went to a local Dhaba for breakfast. And, what a lovely, tasty Poories and curry they gave me! 4 nice poories and subji plus Chai cost me only less than 40 rupees. One of the lowest price for such a meal anywhere I had!. Also I could see Diesel prices are lowest in Orissa in all of my journey. It was little more than 64 rupee per litre. A significantly less amount compared to other states. Please make sure you fill up to the brim from this state!

I was driving very fast and till noon the progress was good but then increasing traffic slowed me down. This get better after bypassing Kharagpur and when you reach Kolaghatt, you enter the 6 lane road. But it was past 6 pm and I was approaching the evening Kolkata traffic. To my astonishment, I reached Koltata city in one of its peak traffic times, and it took me around 3 hours to reach my hotel in Salt Lake city around 8.45pm. I was very tired but was thanking God that, my little, dear, mostly self repaired diesel car safely took me all those grueling kilometers!.

On April 26th, 2019 The Return:

This time I made it in 5 days, instead of six!. The primary reason is, road conditions were better and since I had spent time seeing/photoing places in my previous journey, I did not waste much time.

The good thing about the journey was that most of the places looked much greener now, after the rains.

I had only a tire burst near the kerala border in tamilnadu highway, except that, everything was smooth.

I thing I noticed that, you may need to plan your stays in Orissa  and in Andra(before Vijayawada) in advance. It is because, when I missed few good lodges around 4pm, the next decent ones near the highway was around 10.30pm, which made me really tired before I took break.