How a road trip covering 2120 km gave me the courage to quit a job I hated- Part 2

Day 1 of the road trip: Pune to Mysuru: Part 2

Finally, the day arrived. Eight days on the road! We were definitely excited. We left around 7 am from Pune. Not as early as we had hoped, but still it wasn't too much of a deviation from our original plan.

NH4 is a pleasure to drive on,especially after crossing the Maharashtra border. The bit till Nipani has multiple diversions and unfinished fly-overs. During peak traffic hours, it gets really irritating, mostly because it cuts the speed and unnecessarily increases travel time. To add insult to injury, this bit of road also has multiple toll collection booths. It is nothing short of a sacrilege to pay toll for a such rubbish stretch of road. What is really sad, is the fact that this scene has remain more or less unchanged over the last decade. The concept of a service road is non-existent on this stretch, so all the commuters, especially those on two-wheels are forced to use the highway. This is not just irritating, but also extremely dangerous, especially at night.

NH4 after crossing over to Karnataka

However, on crossing over to Karnataka, the NH4 highway gets really beautiful! The road is well maintained and the landscaping has been beautifully done. The scenery also changes for the better . One of the biggest mysteries while traveling on NH4 has been how the traffic magically decreases on entering Karnataka. The new Suvarna Vidhana Soudha that has been constructed in Belgavi appears over the horizon as the road curves gently and is a beautiful sight indeed! Flowering shrubs are planted on the dividers. These colourful and well-maintained gardens are a sight for sore eyes. In the night, these shrubs also serve as an obstacle for the headlights on the opposite side of the road; so that the driver is not blinded by the morons who use high beam.

Note how well-maintained the shrubs are that are planted on the dividers

 

The new Suvarna Vidhana Soudha reminds of a palace!

We were sure we would reach Mysuru by 7 pm. Though the excitement was high, I found that I was unable to relax. I put my phone alternatively on and off airplane mode, as I couldn't decide what would be worse- answering a call from work or not answering it. I was sure this feeling of unease would pass once we were well into the holiday. But sadly, this was not to be!

The drive till Davangere went on smoothly as anticipated. We stopped for a re-fuelling stop, just after Davangere. It was around 4 pm and this was our third stop for the day, after the breakfast and lunch stops. From this point, we had two different options to reach Mysuru- either drive further on NH4 and take a diversion just before Tumkur, or take a diversion at this point itself and go via the state highway 47. The friends with whom we would be staying had advised us to drive all the way to Tumkur, as this route would be easier to figure out. We decided however, to take the SH47, as this was a shorter route. Little did we know what horrors lay ahead! 

Our unfortunate mistake! We should have taken the route on the extreme right

The road was in a terrible shape with multiple potholes (perhaps calling them craters is more apt!) and this decreased our speed drastically. We were forced to drive at approx 30 kmph. To make matters worse, it started pouring like it was the end of the world! The visibility was extremely poor, with only about 5m of the road ahead being visible. The presence of those craters made the situation even more difficult, as they quickly got filled up with water, and we were left guessing where the next pothole would be! This forced us to slow down even further. It took us approximately 3 hours to cover a distance of 100 km. By this time, it was dark and the GPS on our phones was not functioning. The lack of signposts had made matters worse. Finally, it stopped raining, and we reached a small town. We tried asking for directions here, but the townsfolk either didn't comprehend what we were saying, or had no clue themselves! After a couple of wrong turns, we managed to find a Good Samaritan, who was impressed by my fluent Kannada, even though our number-plate clearly indicated that we were outsiders (little did he know I belonged to Karnataka!). 

At last, we were close enough to celebrate the end of the first day of our road trip! We were full two hours later than anticipated. When we finally reached our friends' place, there was another surprise waiting for us.. they were not at home! They had stepped out to get food and drink for us. After a wait of another 10-15 minutes during which we stretched our stiff legs, our friends arrived. Stepping into the comfort of their home was one of the best feelings ever! A nice hot bath made us feel human again. Since we had reached quite a bit later than anticipated, exploring Mysuru was out of question. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves, eating delicious food and talking quite late into the night. Eventually, we were overcome by fatigue and couldn't ignore the calls of the warm bed. We culled our original plan of leaving early in the morning for Wayanad, and decided getting a good night's sleep was more important. The husband was an absolute star, driving for fourteen and half hours, without getting irritated even on the bad stretch of road. Would our second day of travel be any better? Only time would tell...
(For the next part, click on the link below
 http://experiencelifeontheroad.blogspot.in/2016/08/part-3-journey-from-mysuru-to-wayanad.html)
(For the previous part, click on the link below
 http://experiencelifeontheroad.blogspot.in/2016/08/how-road-trip-covering-2120-km-gave-me.html)