Drive to Bellary

I am yet not tired of driving, instead it's getting better every time there is a long trip.

I remember my first long drive to Mysore in April 2008. That was my first out station drive with my car. It was so patchy driving and eventually we met with an accident. And now, the drive to Bellary was much amusing, thrilling, exciting and enjoyable, especially the return drive from Bellary to Bangalore. There is so much difference between the two.

So the plan was to make a night halt at Hampi, followed by a visit to Bellary, finish off N's Nephew's naming ceremony and return Bangalore, all in 2 days.

We started late on Saturday, Chinni woke up at 3 am and didn't allow me to take a good nap, and the journey started at 11am. By the time I hit the Tumkur express highway it was 12 o'clock and the distance I had covered was only 30 kms :). This is no amusing. 

The actual journey started then. The stretch from Neelamangala to Chirtadurga is awesome. Nobody can resist it, neither could I. Have zoomed at 140 kmph on that surface couple of times.

There are lot of Wind Mill installed on the small mountains near Chirtadurga. Chinni was willing to go there. Not only go to the big fans, but also wanted to jump off it. Children's innocence, you know, can literally kill us. 

The road from Chirtadurga to Hospet to Hampi is not deserved to be a National Highway, in fact the State Highways are much much better, like the Bellary-Hiriyur State Highway. 

As we were about to reach Hospet, Chinni saw Tungabadra river bank and insisted to go there too. Recently she has a crave for playing in water. Unfortuantely I could not take her to the Tungabadra river in Hampi since sun had set for the day.

The stay at Vijayashree near Hampi was quite a night. A well maintained, spacious, lovely environment, lots of greenery and beautiful houses. Would love to go there again, in spite being little expensive. Saturday ended with a very long drive, half splendid and half tiring, and a little disappointed as I could not visit Hampi.

The next day, we drove about 70 kms and reached Bellary. All the drive was worth it after taking Arpit in my arms. He is so cute and adorable. Babies are unimaginably cute and when they grow to be 3-4 years, they are quite unmanageable.

Our return journey started at 4.30pm, was at least 2 hours 30 minutes late according to my plan. Phew, I thought how am I going to drive at night. It was a bad experience the previous time and hence had decided not to drive at night. But this time it changed my decision. The road was so smooth nothing could let me say "No, I am not going to drive". The 30-45 minutes duration, the sunset time, is what I hate to drive. It's the time to sit and watch him go down the hills. The climate gets so romantic, that I really refuse to do anything but watch the scene. But I had to still drive this time, will not next time!!!

The stretch from Bellary to Hiriyur was amazing. The curves got me jaw dropping and drooling ;) The drive was so interesting, it always kept me on my toes. It was so hard to over take a vehicle, but the road was inviting me not go below 80 kmph. It was a double road with no dividers. I could manage to maintain 80 kmph till I reached Hiriyur. There was no stopping after Hiriyur since I had joined the Bangalore - Chirtadurga stretch.

The highlights of the trip were the return journey and my car gave me a mileage of 20 kmpl. The second one astonished me quite a bit. I really have a relationship with my i10.