The eagerly awaited D-Day had arrived, and at 4:00 am, we were already up and buzzing with excitement for our next epic road adventure, #Kolkata2Kutch – a journey spanning India from the east to the west. Although our usual practice is to secure a good night's sleep before embarking on such journeys, the sheer thrill and excitement, coupled with last-minute packing, kept us awake until the early hours.
By 5:30 am, we were all set and loaded into the car, albeit running roughly half an hour behind our planned departure time. I reckoned I could make up for lost time once we hit the highway.
Soon after we embarked, a light drizzle began to fall, and as we reached the Vidyasagar Setu, it intensified. It was almost as if Kolkata was bidding us a teary farewell.
Having driven on this highway on numerous occasions, the farthest we had ventured in one day along this route was Varanasi during our Bandavgarh Road Trip. Today, we intended to push on past Varanasi and reach Allahabad, but the rain showed no signs of relenting, and we continued past Dhanbad as well, with intermittent waves of rain.
By noon, as we crossed into Bihar, the rain finally subsided, and we decided to stop for lunch at a roadside dhaba. Here, I had a delightful conversation with some truck drivers from Punjab who had just delivered apples from Kashmir to a nearby city and were en route back to the valley.
The drive for the day, apart from the rain, was relatively uneventful, although our trusty Ertiga took on a new shade of black and grime, courtesy of our journey through the coal belt.
Another factor slowing our progress was the massive highway expansion project, transforming the road into a 6-lane carriageway. Consequently, we encountered frequent diversions and muddy roads along the way. However, it promised to be a splendid road in a year's time.
Moreover, the toll plazas added to our delays, with long queues at each one – a characteristic feature of the Delhi-Kolkata route.
We eventually reached our hotel in Allahabad around 10:30 pm, after an arduous 17-hour drive covering 827 kilometers. Following a room service dinner, Day 1 of our #Kolkata2Kutch #Roadtrip came to a close.
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