After about 2 weeks of planning, we finally were finally packing our bags way into the night on 5th March. The excitement had kept us up till the wee hours even though we had plans to head out at 5 am the following morning. We had packed some pudina sandwiches and a dozen pints of kingfisher beer and other cold drinks in the thermacol cooling box we had got for the trip which was filled with ice.
Sure enough, sleep or no sleep we were up by 4.30 am and on the road on our Orissa adventure by 5am with my wife at the wheel. While driving over the Vidyasagar Setu, we got the firsts hints of our first obstacle in our drive towards destination number one; Puri. Once over the Setu and as we got closer to the NH-5 driving on the Kona Expressway, we encountered waves and waves of fog. The fog slowed us down considerably; add to that a near 45 minute wait at the Kolaghat Bridge added to our woes of keeping the time schedule. So once we hit clear weather and the sun was up, we did as much as we could. Another mistake cost us another 45 odd minutes when we kept on the Mumbai Highway and headed towards Kharagpur. We were supposed to stay on the Highway to Balasore, but having planned so carefully and checking that we had to reach Kharagpur, we made the mistake of actually entering the town and driving through, instead of skirting it on the National Highway.
All this led to us deciding to skip the left turn to Chandipur when we reached Balasore. We weren’t too sure whether we’d make good time to be in Puri by sunset. So on and on we went. By now we had reached places where a lot of highway work was going on. So we kept oscillating from one side of the median to the other where four-lane work of the highway was in progress. We didn’t stop for food or drinks and just made do with the sandwiches, chips, sandwiches and cold drinks we had packed; all this on the drive.
Near about Cuttack we finally changed seats I took over the driving. From there it was non-stop through Cuttak and Bhubaneswar till we came to the left turn to Puri and as we drove on, we came upon the entrance gates of the Puri District. That sure was a sight and we were really kicked with the fact that at the speed we were going, we’d be in Puri well before the time we anticipated. Sure enough we entered Puri, and found our way to our hotel and were settled in our room by 3 pm. Hotel New Sea Hawk was just the way it looked in the Brochure when we had booked it, if not better and brighter. First things first, we popped a couple of beers to celebrate reaching the first destination of our holiday and then headed straight to the beach. The weather was on our side and with not too much sun; so we decided to take a stroll on the beach and not long before we spotted a guy with a camel and so we indulged in a camel ride. We did get our feet wet after that for a bit and sat by the beach enjoying the sunset.
Later we came back to the hotel and enjoyed some dal, bhaat, aloo bhaja and Pabda maach (fish) at the restaurant for dinner. Day one was extremely fulfilling.
Sure enough, sleep or no sleep we were up by 4.30 am and on the road on our Orissa adventure by 5am with my wife at the wheel. While driving over the Vidyasagar Setu, we got the firsts hints of our first obstacle in our drive towards destination number one; Puri. Once over the Setu and as we got closer to the NH-5 driving on the Kona Expressway, we encountered waves and waves of fog. The fog slowed us down considerably; add to that a near 45 minute wait at the Kolaghat Bridge added to our woes of keeping the time schedule. So once we hit clear weather and the sun was up, we did as much as we could. Another mistake cost us another 45 odd minutes when we kept on the Mumbai Highway and headed towards Kharagpur. We were supposed to stay on the Highway to Balasore, but having planned so carefully and checking that we had to reach Kharagpur, we made the mistake of actually entering the town and driving through, instead of skirting it on the National Highway.
All this led to us deciding to skip the left turn to Chandipur when we reached Balasore. We weren’t too sure whether we’d make good time to be in Puri by sunset. So on and on we went. By now we had reached places where a lot of highway work was going on. So we kept oscillating from one side of the median to the other where four-lane work of the highway was in progress. We didn’t stop for food or drinks and just made do with the sandwiches, chips, sandwiches and cold drinks we had packed; all this on the drive.
Near about Cuttack we finally changed seats I took over the driving. From there it was non-stop through Cuttak and Bhubaneswar till we came to the left turn to Puri and as we drove on, we came upon the entrance gates of the Puri District. That sure was a sight and we were really kicked with the fact that at the speed we were going, we’d be in Puri well before the time we anticipated. Sure enough we entered Puri, and found our way to our hotel and were settled in our room by 3 pm. Hotel New Sea Hawk was just the way it looked in the Brochure when we had booked it, if not better and brighter. First things first, we popped a couple of beers to celebrate reaching the first destination of our holiday and then headed straight to the beach. The weather was on our side and with not too much sun; so we decided to take a stroll on the beach and not long before we spotted a guy with a camel and so we indulged in a camel ride. We did get our feet wet after that for a bit and sat by the beach enjoying the sunset.
Later we came back to the hotel and enjoyed some dal, bhaat, aloo bhaja and Pabda maach (fish) at the restaurant for dinner. Day one was extremely fulfilling.
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