All geared up in my mind - reached TGDC Top 100

Dad and I recently decided to take part in the The Great Driving Challenge, a friendly competition that will have the driving and navigating skills of ten finalists put to the test. So far we have made it in the top 100 list and this news has brought back memories of a road trip in April 2007 that took us from Mumbai to Ooty and back. It was a special trip because we were going to visit my youngest sibling, Vivek, and see him participate in a theatrical play as well as a parade at the Lawrence School’s 149th Founder’s Day event. The journey started at around 10 a.m. when the whole family (minus my younger sister who was busy with college) along with my aunt and uncle got inside our roomy Ford Endeavour and we pulled out of the gates of our apartment building listening to the sweet melodies of golden oldies.

Dad, entertaining us with his singing, floored the Endeavour once we got on the highway. We were in and out of the Bhatan Tunnel in no time and reached the immaculate toll plaza for the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Some portraits were clicked inside the car by my uncle while much of the scenery outside was also the subject of sporadic shooting by me. The Mumbai-Pune Expressway gave way to the Pune-Satara Expressway as our SUV whizzed past tunnels carved in hill sides and rugged landscapes that were canopied by an overcast sky. Lush vegetation and crops would signal a town or village up ahead and we passed through many of these throughout our trip such as Majgaon, Korti, Ozarde, Hitni, Kanagala, and Aralagundi to name a few. In four hours we had reached the Satara-Kolhapur Expressway and Bangalore was 712 kilometers away.
The Taswade Toll Plaza came in to sight soon after and we breezed through it. Our plan was to stopover for the night at Belgaum (sometimes written as Belgaon on expressway signs) which was at a distance of approx. 90 kilometers, but before that we needed to grab some lunch. Noticing a sign post for the Hotel Sai International, Dad meandered from the expressway to enter the parking lot of the place. The hotel looked great from the outside, a colonial style building lined with palm trees. Sadly, the hotel’s exterior was the only pleasant thing about it. The restaurant had slow service and the food that reached our table! Let’s just say we were really hungry so chowed it down anyway. By 4 p.m. we were on the road again, next stop being Belgaum. I’ll have to break this post in to segments, so my fellow readers you’ll have to wait for my next entry that will take you down the Golden Quadrilateral!