I am wondering as from where to start my first attempt on writing a travelogue! Let me take it up in parts:
The Prologue:
Ever since we brought our new ride – Safari 2.2, LX (so fondly named as Black Tigress, for its looks and power) in August 2009, we were longing for a long road trip. Though we have had two trips in it: One to Home town (310 km each side), and the other one to Khajuraho (again 298 kms each side), and I have enjoyed driving the Tigress; but those trips were not exciting (beacuse were not long enough and were on traditional 2 lane highways). So, those trips did nothing to satisfy my hunger to drive this beauty. It was October and my mind (and heart too) was working on continuously to squez a real long trip involving new age 4 lane highways. By the time odo also read well over 2600 kms, so all the running in of engine was over.
This was the perfect seting for a long drive. Rajasthan was obviously the first that came to our mind. Reasons being excellent roads, likes on which I wanted to drive the Tigress, promixicity, popular touristy appeal). All that goes with planning a trip like kids school holidays, own office schedules, other engagements en-route, budget, etc, came up for discussion. I also got busy on T-BHP searching, reading travelogues, route guides, pm’d a few T-BHP members like v&v, deky, for route/ acommodation advises, etc. They all helped with their inputs. Big thanks to you all.
Tha Plan:
As usual, several trip spoilers also popped up at different times of planning, but were dealt with tactfully & firmly (thanks to my enthusiasm for taking this driving trip and cooperation of family). Several plans were made and modified, fine-tuned. We had to incoorporate a couple of other social engagements into our plan. Finally, we followed this iteneary:
Day 1.
Lucknow – Agra – Jaipur – Ajmer (Night Halt)
Day 2.
Ajmer – Mount Abu (Night halt)
Day 3.
Mount Abu sight seeing and departure for Udaipur (Halt at Udaipur)
Day 4.
Udaipur sight seeing (Halt at Udaipur)
Day 5.
Udaipur sight seeing till 11.30 am and then departure – Jaipur (Night halt)
Day 6.
Jaipur – Delhi (Brief 3 hrs halt to meet ill relatives) – Meerut (Night halt)
Day 6 & 7
Stay at Meerut: catch up with relatives, attend a wedding
Day 8.
Meerut – Aligarh – Etah – Lucknow
As you can notice, this was more of a driving trip then the sight seeing trip. We also left out Jaipur, Ajmer, Pushkar sight seeing. Its surprising as they fall enroute, but we did that because of other engagements in Delhi, Merrut; and also we want to go to those places with other family members including mother.
The Ride : Black Tigress (Tata Safari 2.2, LX, August 209), and
The Riders: Me, wife, son 12 yrs, daughter 4 yrs
I hope, I made it clear above that this was our first long driving trip, besides the two mentioned above! So you can imagine my lack of driving experience! Though my enthusiasm, self belief, confidence in my capacity & ability to drive long distance, my handling skills of the powerful Tigress; all these were on a very high level (off course, all these optimistic self beliefs were going to be tested on this trip). But, I was already enjoying driving the vehicle.
I am taking time to build up this story so that you get a fair idea of the anxiety we might have gone through, being a newbie.
We planned to pack all the luggage well in advance, but as it happens, so many things remain to be taken care of till the last moment. I also had to be at work (completing pending tasks before proceeding on leave). Finally, we went to bed tired at midnight. Alarm was set for 4.30 am, target was to leave by 5.30 am.
Let me put a few pics and wait you all 🙂 till tomorrow to tell what happened when we woke up next morning!