Thursday, December 16, 2010

Thane - Nagpur - Thane

It may be a very common or a short travelling distance for some, but it was the longest so far for me. Thane to Nagpur and back. Around 860 kms one way that we planned to cover. On the way to Nagpur, we planned to halt at Shegaon and continue the journey next day.

After referring to some opinions on the internet, the routes we chose to take were Mumbai - Pune - A'Nagar - Aurangabad - Khamgaon - Shegaon - Amravati - Nagpur. AND Nagpur - Wardha - Aurangabad - A'Nagar - Pune - Mumbai.


It was a very enjoyable journey after Belapur till Pune through Express Way where I got to really enjoy, explore and test the car at its best. Dzire touched 150 and felt extremely stable. Though I brought it back to normal immediately. I have been driving M800 for the past 7 years and my opinions about Dzire are obviously arrived at after an unavoidable comparison with M800. With M800, what I knew was 'touching' the 120 mark; but Dzire 'hugs' the 120 mark like its never gonna let it go.


After leaving the Express Way, the road till Shikrapur is two way and it causes a drop in the average speed. After Shikrapur till A'Nagar and then Aurangabad, the roads are really good and the drive gets extremely pleasant.

Turtle Wax Sunset




A little off topic - We took lunch at Aurangabad in Hotel Udayanraje Palace. The waitors had this electronic device for accepting orders. It sent one copy of the order directly to the kitchen using WiFi. Never saw such technology even in Mumbai.
  

Tempting Roads; from Shikrapur to Aurangabad.

While going to Shegaon, we took the road that goes through Deulgao Raja and Chikhli. It turned out to be a hell of a wrong decision as the whole road is dug out from both sides for construction and extremely rough. We were advised NOT to take this road and go through Sindkhed Raja but we somehow got confused. Driving on that road after 6 when it got totally dark out there was challenging, frustrating and a bit risky. The road is two way and trucks keep intimidating you every minute.

We visited the Gajanan Maharaj Temple early morning and left for Nagpur at about 7:40. NH 6 is fairly good and we could comfortably cruise at 90-100. Reached Nagpur in 6 hours from there.

At the destination

On the way back; the road that goes through Wardha - Pulgao - Mehekar - Aurangabad - A'Nagar is cool and enjoyable. Again; from Shikrapur till the point you join the Express Way, the road was so frustrating that it spoilt all the fun we had till then. It took us almost 2 hrs from Shikrapur to reach Express Way.




A ridiculously overloaded truck that we saw on the highway. It could barely make it through the toll booth.

We made up some lost time on the 130 Kms lap through the Express Way but again met heavy truck traffic near Airoli and Mulund-Airoli bridge. Finally after 18 hrs and 7 minutes we reached Thane.

I and my wife shared the driving seat. The rest of the family members in the car were obviously tired. :) My wife too, was tired as it was her first experience of long haul driving. But I enjoyed the journey a lot.

Last but not the least; about the car.

Swift DZire LXi
Brilliant engine; superb performance. The car is extremely smooth even at high speeds.
Amazing brakes. Felt safe even when I saw a cow in the middle of the road and the speedo showed 120.
AC is supercool. "Thoda AC kam karo" was the request of rear seat passengers at 2 pm under the hot sun.
Boot is huge. 4 full sized bags and several other bags could fit 'aaraam se'.
Fuel economy is great too. about 17 on highway and 14-16 in the city; both with AC on.

I Loved this new car which joined her elder but smaller sister M800 recently. Cruising is what you can REALLY enjoy with DZire.

Some stats to conclude.

Average speed - 44.22 (Mum - Ngp) and 47.54 (Ngp - Mum) [Including all breaks]

Fuel Economy - I couldn't measure it exactly but it roughly works out to 16.70 which I guess is fine considering the fact that we cruised at 100-120 kmph on most of the good portions of the road with the AC on.

I haven't written a very elaborate experience here but tried to keep it compact.