Road Trip-Excerpts from the traveller-Part 1

A road trip was always something on the cards for the family as we had not travelled for the past one year. But nobody had bargained for what we got, a 2500 km drive across 2 huge states and more than 1000 villages, our first kannada lessons, seeing a friendship forge from bloggerspace and meeting many,many people who we’d totally forgotten about as well as discovering immaculate and unspoilt beauty!!

4th April 2010 6:15 AM
We’re finally loaded up with lots of baggage(who knows what we’ll need for a road trip) including 5 saplings (which travelled about 900 kms with us). The air is fraught with excitement for after all those weeks of planning and anticipation we were finally off. Not to mention in a swank,sleek,very Bond like-Black Honda Civic!!! 🙂
Having travelled to Panchgani before by road, I already knew th expressway and the road upto Satara so it wasn’t much of a surprise. During the drive the beauty of the hills and the ingenuity and brilliance of the people who built the expressway kept striking me. Since my dad is the only one who can drive we all had to keep him occupied with our banter.

4th April : Lunch Hotel Sai Palace International-NH-4, Kolhapur
Our second halt for the day for lunch. The temperature ws soaring outside and the landscape uniform-Very Sleep Inducing. Plus the road- straight ahead and traffic less. And us full on oily punjabi food. Time for zzz

4th April Evening: Cross over to Karnataka at Nipani
All those places we had earlier read only in textbooks were in front of us now. Belgaum,Dharwad,Satara,Nipani.
Karnataka is totally different from Maharashtra i mean the landscape in maharashtra is dry with trees having pointy leaves and typically shrub vegetaion. Uttar Kanara or North Karnatak as it is known, has red soil, vastly differing rock patterns and perpetual greenery around despite the sweltering heat.
Our night was spent at this town called Hubli now re-christened Hubbaali.

Name of Hotel: Hotel Swathi
Location: Prime. Near Main Market. Easy Accessibility
Food: Pure Ghee but delicious. The right thing for a tired road traveller.

We were so tired having driven about 600 kms that we decided to just roam about in the perimeter of the hotel. We viisted a temple where our P.P.Swamiji comes during shivratri and also met some very nice people and tasted home-made kokum sherbet for the first time. I also saw a daschund for the first time. We chatted about the Fairs that happen in the Hubbali temple. Papa discussed ecomonic conditions in Karnataka especially the Mining. We played with their dog Rosy.

The Hubbali flower market is amazing!! Beats Dadar by miles!! I’m a total flower enthusiast i go mad when i see flowers so this was ecstasy.
The town is sleepy as is the characteristic of most towns and cities in the south. Life is simple and you slowly start to unwind and relax to the tunes of the place unlike the fast paced life of the city. For a first, we all slept at 9:30 a thing we haven’t done for ages!!

A useful hint : Policemen are the best to ask for directions!!

Day 2-5th April
Morning: Lunch-Dinner-Snacks in a South Indian restaurant is essentially the same: Sada Dosa,Masala Dosa,Set Dosa (which means 3 dosas with a different curry),Kharabhat(=upma),Kesaribhat(=pineapple sheera) so you have to choose among the same everywhere

Departure time: 8:30

Destination: Ankola then Manki (all on the karnatak coast btw)
Our toy penguin-a constant companion and a very good pillow i must admit 😉