Village story teller: Road trip - Paramakudi

We took a short road trip to Rameswaram and a few other places. The invaluable help I got from others who posted their experiences, especially on TeamBHP, made me feel obligated to record my own thoughts. Day One – 650 kms – Hyderabad to Krishnagiri

We left Hyderabad on a Saturday morning in July 2018, with the objective of visiting a farm east of Paramakudi in Ramnad district of Tamil Nadu. Beyond that we didn't have much of a plan.

We left Hyderabad (Gachibowli) to get on to the outer ring road around 9 am. We had breakfast just before Jadcherla at around 9:30 am. Though we are city warriors in driving, highways was not something we had a lot of experience in. We were two of us and neither of us had driven more than 400 kms away from Hyderabad in India. Though we had driven a lot in the US and the UK, we had not really ventured on a 1000 km trip in India. We soon were doing 120-140kmph on the beautiful stretches of Kurnool and Anantapur. One thing we noticed was that not all the sign boards were accurate. At one point it said 75 kms to Kurnool and yet we did it in 30 mins. We were definitely not doing anything over 120 kmph at that time.
Lesson 1 - The first lesson we learnt was the frequent stops for toll. Wished we had thought of Fastag before we left on our trip. Actually well ahead of our trip.
It cost us over Rs 700 to reach Bangalore. I am not sure if that is too much but it would have definitely helped, if there were better signs, fewer toll booths and fewer pedestrians and animals and all kinds of beings crossing the highway! But then again 700 is not too much to pay for a good road of over 500 kms.
We had not yet hit the Bangalore airport when the second life lesson hit us. Suddenly the traffic seemed to increase with vehicles taking U turns and we slowed down considerably to maneuver ourselves out of the traffic and as we accelerated after the lights, a police team stopped us. We pulled over and the constable said we had been speeding. He said we were doing 101 while the limit was 80 kmph! I really didn't believe I could have gone that fast in the fast developing Bangalore city traffic chaos but it gave us an opportunity to chat with him about the traffic, stretch our legs and understand the ways out of Bangalore. The policeman told us that they were the Bangalore city police and they had been stationed there since 2009, to stop people from speeding, when the airport started.
Lesson 2 - Know where police are stationed! With the Rs 300 challan out of the way, we hit the road again and found the car automatically accelerated to 100 without effort. We had to consciously slow down and decided to stop for tea. It was nearing 4 pm. We started again at 4:30 and Google Maps decided to take us via Bangalore city to Hosur instead of the outer Ring Road. So we were left fuming trying to navigate the horrifying Bangalore traffic. At a traffic light, where I had to take a right around the round about, a taxi to my left cut in front of me to take the right before the round about. So I followed him, accelerating hard, when a constable pulled me over. He wanted to see all my papers including licence, registration and insurance. I had done nothing wrong but he was collecting money from all non Karnataka registered vehicles. :-) Beware of Bangalore cops!!!
We then hit the electronic city highway which though crowded was moving ahead at a good pace. I remembered the Bangalore of the 80s when it was all about Ulsoor, Indira Nagar, JP Nagar, Vidhana Soudha, Brigade Road and MG Road. Simpler times. Tougher times, Different times, in their own ways.
Lesson 3 - Do pray to the weather gods. They were especially kind to us on the first day and for the entire trip.
Weather – Cloudy with spots of rain. Tolls – Rs 700+

We stopped for the night at Krishnagiri after covering around 650kms.