Kolkata2Kanyakumari: Day1 - Kolkata to Vizag

Finally the day had come. We barely slept last night in all our excitement of the epic adventure ahead. It’s 5:00am, our bags loaded in the back of our Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, ready to set out. We sat there for a couple of minutes soaking in the fact that this was it, the very reason we had bought this car, to head out on adventures across India. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach just sitting there, and then I turned on the ignition and rolled out of our parking spot. There was no turning back now. #Kolkata2Kanyakumari had just started.

While we drove down the E.M. Bypass, there were faint signs of fog, but once we crossed the Vidyasagar Setu (New Hooghly Bridge) and were on the Kona Expressway it was like a white blanket had just been thrown on us. Due to the poor visibility we missed the exit left to hit the National Highway to head south and ended up going north having to turn back after a kilometre or two. The Fog situation didn’t let up all the way till Kolaghat, a distance we should have covered in an hour and a half took us 4 grueling hours. It was 9:00 am and we were barely even 100 kms from Kolkata. We would have to make up this time. Our first stop, Vizag was nearly 900 kms from Kolkata and we’d have to step on it.

Most of the drive was known, having done this stretch of highway all the way till Gopalpur a few years ago. So it was a fairly uneventful journey till Behrampore (as it was a known road). We stopped somewhere on the way at a road side dhaba for lunch and then drove on.

The adrenaline kicked in after Behrampore as we headed into uncharted territory. But with the way the Highways are today, it was a fairly good drive all the way to Vizag. It was lovely seeing the sun go down on the horizon as we chewed up kilometres of tarmac towards our destination.

We finally reached our Hotel in Vizag around 10:00pm and this was our first stop of the journey. A quick dinner and we crashed out. It was going to be another long day of driving the next day. If we wanted to cover the next leg, we would have to get an early start again.

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Vizag Trip: Day 5

Lunch at the Park and RK Beach. Back to Kolkata.

Vizag Trip: Day 4

Yarada, light house, Chrome

Vizag Trip: Day 3 Araku Valley & The Borra Caves

Araku Valley
Araku Valley is a Hill station in Visakhapatnam district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. It is a valley in the Eastern Ghats inhabited by different tribes.

It is located 114 kilometres (71 mi) from Visakhapatnam, close to the Odisha state border. The Anantagiri and Sunkarimetta Reserved Forest which are part of Araku Valley, are rich in biodiversity and is mined for bauxite. Galikonda hill rising to a height of 5,000 feet (1,500 m) is amongst the highest peaks in Andhra Pradesh. The average rainfall is 1,700 millimetres (67 in), bulk of which is received during June–October.

Araku is connected through both rail and road to Visakhapatnam. Araku railway station is located on the Kothavalasa-Kirandul railway line of Visakhapatnam division of the East Coast Railway, on the Indian Railways network.

The Borra Caves
The Borra Caves, also called Borra Guhalu (Borra means hole in Odia language and guhalu means caves in Telugu language), are located on the East Coast of India, in the Ananthagiri hills of the Araku Valley (with hill ranges' elevation varying from 800 to 1,300 m [2,600 to 4,300 ft]) of the Visakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh. The caves, one of the largest in the country, at an elevation of about 705 m (2,313 ft), distinctly exhibit a variety of speleothems ranging in size and irregularly shaped stalactites and stalagmites. The caves are basically karstic limestone structures extending to a depth of 80 m (260 ft), and are considered the deepest caves in India.