LAST 2 WEEKS
I got my leaves approved a month back before the trip and our preparation started with drawing a checklist from various sources on the net. It took a couple of days for us to arrive at an exhaustive list of things to be done before our trip. The list was floating around on the mails for some time until all of us had put in our piece of brain in making the list complete.
The first thing that we purchased was 3 JERRY CANS from a street hawker in PEENYA INDUSTRIAL AREA. The separate chapter on the preparation would be dealt at the end of the travelogue for new travelers. As the days passed by, the list kept getting more and more complete and we had last 3 things in our list that was not reaching any headway. We decided to raid JC Road as a last resort. We were successful in picking the TOE ROPE from Reliance AutoZone and the search in JC Road was futile for the Toeing RING. A flash in the mind….we realized that it may have come in as a component in our car maintenance kit. A deep search for the same yielded positive result. Kaiyalli beNNe iTTukonDu tuppakke huDukida hAge!! One of the surprising tick in our list was the System G (Fuel additive) that we were searching was available in a store in JC ROAD.
LAST WEEK
With 8 days to go and my excitement levels at an all time high. Our preparation calendar was in lot full swing. Rushing back from office at 4.30 to start working on purchases and fitness between 7.30 – 8.30.
The week was spent in packing food and clothes. As an unwritten agreement, we had to ensure that our luggage did not exceed the space available for packing our luggage in the Dikki of the car. As we realized on the day of travel, we indeed had excess luggage. The first one to be dropped was the Jerry can (count down to 2 from 3). Avinash was broad hearted to accommodate some of our heavy luggage in his car.
The bowl full of excitement is already spilling over. Such rigorous preparation was indeed required for an odyssey that we embarked for the first time. I think by now you've probably figured the math of the trip. So before I dwell any further and bore to death anyone else taking the effort to read this, let me explain the route. It’s a 9000 km ride down, crossing 7 states in first 7 days (Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir) (that’s what the Google map shows), over 19 nights and 20 days ending back in Bangalore, making it an average of a leisurely 1000+km/day until Punjab and a leisurely drive of 250 KNS per day in the Himalayan region. Night halts along the route were scheduled for Punjab, Himachal and Kashmir destinations.
What makes the whole journey worth it has some breathtaking scenery for company. Riding along cliffs on one side with a drop to the ocean below on the other, very few experiences come even close. The scenery is truly wrapped around you. It does make for one monumental journey. Secondarily it’s the destination itself......Kashmir. I really don't need to write about that now, do I? The ride this year involves just 2 cars. A formidable SCORPIO of Avinash and Our very own MARUTI DEZIRE (being tested for its limits). I hoped Maruti guys give us some free services (or at least discount) for the photos which we are going to share with them. With time I'm hoping the tribe increases and not the Mom's blood pressure. But we were hooked, its going to be love at first ride. I don't know how soon the next updates going to be but if you're still interested; you're definitely going to find a lot more to read in the days to come.
So here is our plan as refined by Sri HVK. HVK needs no introduction to highway enthusiasts... However, for the audience of other category, He is a phenomenon by himself. Once cannot replicate the knowledge (call it HUMAN GPS) or the dedication to help travelers who are novice to new vistas. He spends 24 hrs a day tracking his mentees on G-LAT (Google Latitude) and I don’t think he has time for sleeping! If you are more interested to get in touch with a movement called HVK, visit him on the Facebook / Net (Details at the end of the travelogue).
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