Today is the festival of colours and though I was going to be driving through the day, I decided to add some colour to my life too, that’s why I wore a bright blue T-Shirt. Anyway it was bye-bye Gopalpur and Kolkata here we come (not that I wanted this holiday to end) after a few stops for some more sightseeing.
So up at the crack of dawn and eager to traverse the hundreds of kilometres ahead, we finally got going at 7.40am. The drive till Bhubaneswar was scenic as ever and we did go through some passes on the Eastern Ghats. Though we tried making good speed, parts of this highway are still under construction which did pose an impediment to making good time. All the same we were in Bhubaneswar before noon and our first left off the highway was a visit to the Udaygiri & Khandigiri caves. After being marvelled by the magnificent engineering of the 15 massive caves carved into the hillsides, we headed to the next stop on our agenda of ‘Visit Orissa’. Nandankanan was about 10-12 kms outside Bhubaneswar and once there our main objective was to go on the White Tiger & Lion Safari. Well it’s not really a ‘Safari’ safari, its more like a half hour drive through a reserve in a mini bus packed with people. Anyway fortunately we did manage to spot two spectacular white tigers and four lions. The last of our sightseeing done, we went around a bit of the rest of the zoo and headed back out on our journey homewards.
It was awesome thereafter chewing mile after mile of white concrete highway at speeds of upto 150 kmph. I drove like a bat out of hell wherever I got clear concrete stretches. My wife missed quite a bit of the scenery outside during these bursts of exhilaration and speed with her eyes either fixed on the long road ahead or the speedometer. After we crossed Kharagpur, a little bit of excitement created by me led to a nail biting turn into an Indian Oil Petrol pump as we were probably running on fumes. Well we were running out of gas, and as ironical as it may seem, over a hundred kms back I had mentioned the fact that we might want to fill petrol and now when the needle was hanging dangerously over the empty indicator, we couldn’t spot a single Indian Oil Petrol Pump in sight. Yes, yes I am a little fanatic about brand loyalty and the sorts. After we pulled out of the station, my wife had a good laugh at the fact that for the last 30 odd kms I had maintained a steady economical speed of 100 kmph and she could look out at the scenery. A result of this led to spotting my name, “ROHIT” on the back of a bus.
Shortly after that, as the sun was setting behind us, I relinquished the wheel to her after having driven for over 500 kms. We were about 100 kms from Kolkata and now we could take it easy. We knew it was just another half hour or so to Kolaghat where we planned to stop to grab a bite. While we were driving we noticed truck loads of cattle being shipped to the slaughter house I was guessing. The way they were being transported was such a sad sight.
At about 5.50 pm we pulled into Kolaghat. We were now relaxed and as we parked the car outside Sher-e-Punjab; we decided we could now take it easy as Kolkata was just around the corner. ‘Take it easy’, led to the two of us spending the next three and half hours there eating awesome Tandoori chicken, mutton tikkas and chicken reshmi kebabs with butter naan. More than the food, it was the beer that kept flowing and was more like a victory celebration of our road trip. We finally pulled out of there at 9.30 pm and were back home a little short of 11 pm.
Mission "Road Trip to Orissa" completed.
So up at the crack of dawn and eager to traverse the hundreds of kilometres ahead, we finally got going at 7.40am. The drive till Bhubaneswar was scenic as ever and we did go through some passes on the Eastern Ghats. Though we tried making good speed, parts of this highway are still under construction which did pose an impediment to making good time. All the same we were in Bhubaneswar before noon and our first left off the highway was a visit to the Udaygiri & Khandigiri caves. After being marvelled by the magnificent engineering of the 15 massive caves carved into the hillsides, we headed to the next stop on our agenda of ‘Visit Orissa’. Nandankanan was about 10-12 kms outside Bhubaneswar and once there our main objective was to go on the White Tiger & Lion Safari. Well it’s not really a ‘Safari’ safari, its more like a half hour drive through a reserve in a mini bus packed with people. Anyway fortunately we did manage to spot two spectacular white tigers and four lions. The last of our sightseeing done, we went around a bit of the rest of the zoo and headed back out on our journey homewards.
It was awesome thereafter chewing mile after mile of white concrete highway at speeds of upto 150 kmph. I drove like a bat out of hell wherever I got clear concrete stretches. My wife missed quite a bit of the scenery outside during these bursts of exhilaration and speed with her eyes either fixed on the long road ahead or the speedometer. After we crossed Kharagpur, a little bit of excitement created by me led to a nail biting turn into an Indian Oil Petrol pump as we were probably running on fumes. Well we were running out of gas, and as ironical as it may seem, over a hundred kms back I had mentioned the fact that we might want to fill petrol and now when the needle was hanging dangerously over the empty indicator, we couldn’t spot a single Indian Oil Petrol Pump in sight. Yes, yes I am a little fanatic about brand loyalty and the sorts. After we pulled out of the station, my wife had a good laugh at the fact that for the last 30 odd kms I had maintained a steady economical speed of 100 kmph and she could look out at the scenery. A result of this led to spotting my name, “ROHIT” on the back of a bus.
Shortly after that, as the sun was setting behind us, I relinquished the wheel to her after having driven for over 500 kms. We were about 100 kms from Kolkata and now we could take it easy. We knew it was just another half hour or so to Kolaghat where we planned to stop to grab a bite. While we were driving we noticed truck loads of cattle being shipped to the slaughter house I was guessing. The way they were being transported was such a sad sight.
At about 5.50 pm we pulled into Kolaghat. We were now relaxed and as we parked the car outside Sher-e-Punjab; we decided we could now take it easy as Kolkata was just around the corner. ‘Take it easy’, led to the two of us spending the next three and half hours there eating awesome Tandoori chicken, mutton tikkas and chicken reshmi kebabs with butter naan. More than the food, it was the beer that kept flowing and was more like a victory celebration of our road trip. We finally pulled out of there at 9.30 pm and were back home a little short of 11 pm.
Mission "Road Trip to Orissa" completed.
Rohit..seems you had a blast...i go to orissa every month on work...and have never had the time to do more than just WORK...maybe shall take out time and do a drive thru...take care
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