Nomadic Drives : Happy Car Stories :-)

[Nomad]

Nomad was very happy to notice this board. his legs were more happy than himself.



another trekker all of a sudden appeared out of no where and crossed Nomad and went forward. Nomad was amazed by the energy that guy still had.

Nomad was very tired by the time he reached here. He had taken about 2 and half hours to reach here from Dudhsagar railway station.



a goods train passed by.



Each wagon said to carry over 70 tons, imagine how strong the wheels must be.



compare it with the shoes (& legs) of a human.



a view of Caranzol station



spotted a cousin of tiger



Dudhsagar station is 6.84 KM from this point



Castlerock station is 7.29 KMs from here.



Clock was already beyond 3:30 PM. Nomad would need another three hours atleast to reach Castlerock. More over he was so tired, his mind was not willing to walk further. So he learnt from station master that the train will arrive at 5:30 PM to this place. Station master after noticing his condition, also advised him to rest here and board the train at 5:30 PM

Hence the solo trek ended abruptly after about 9 KMs and three and half hours from the time it started. The guy who had overtaken Nomad, smiled at this decision and started walking further.

he rested his back for some time on a small platform available in the neighbourhood. Soon three more people joined Nomad, they were enquiring about the person who overtook Nomad. Two of these three people were in similar state like Nomad, hence they decided to board the train, while the third person decided to walk further till castlerock.

so three tired people, rested at Caranzol station. At last Nomad had company to talk to.

[Nomad]

During the conversation, Nomad learnt that these four friends were from Bengaluru and were on a long weekend drive trip to Haliyal - Dandeli - Castlerock - Dudhsagar. So it was agreed that Nomad and they would do a convoy drive back to Bengaluru.

after a while everyone consumed the biscuits and water brought by them and conversation continued about everything under the Sun.

exactly at 5:30 PM, the train appears



The three people board the train by 5:40 PM. Train was jam packed with all the sunday visitors to Dudhsagar waterfalls.



reach the castlerock station in 15 minutes, the other two people were already there and were having thier cup of tea. we three joined them. After a hot cup of tea, everyone moved towards thier vehicle.


Last picture of castlerock station.



it was a well spent day with Indian Railways, Mother Nature Dudhsagar waterfalls.



Nomad reconfirmed his beliefs that Nation moves on Railways.



I was happy to welcome Nomad back, Nomad even though was bit worried, how he will drive 500 plus KMs to home with sore legs and tired body. But he was very happy to see me again.



Nomad was fully wet from rains and sweat. so he changed into fresh clothes. One of the four frineds joined him in his car. It was decided that all five will stop somewhere near Dharwad-Hubli for dinner before the home run.

Last click prior to driving out of Castle Rock, more expploration can be done when Nomads re-visit this place some time in future.



I thank Mrs. Nomad for helping me post these pictures and story while Nomad is away.

Coming up 550KMs Home Run....

[Nomad]

Started from Castlerock station at 6:20 PM. a cute Alto joined me in convoy for this 550 KM home run stretch.

During this journey, Myself and Nomad set a individual record of a sort. I will come to that later.



the above 185KM detour + Castlerock - Dudhsagar - Castlerock trip took almost 15 hours. the route followed was Belgavi - Khanapur - Ramnagar - Castlerock - Ramnagar - Dharwad.

By the time both cars reached Ramnagar clock was at 7:00 PM. Original plan was to use Khanapur - Bidi - Kittur road, but on enquiry with bystanders at Ramnagar, we learnt that the direct road to Dharward has been freshly laid, expect for initial few KMs and some inbetween underconstruction stretch, majority of this 65KM stretch is in good shape. So the two car convoy took the route SH34 to Dharwad.

It turned out exactly what was stated, first couple of KMs from Ramnagar was not good, full of pot holes, after which a wonderful and new tarmac make one accelerate to tripple digit speeds. But sudden appearance of under constuction stretches result in equally fast hard braking.

Due to dust and mud settling onto my headlamps, the beam was not visible at all. So Nomad stopped the vehicle and cleaned the same after some 10 KMs from Ramnagar. After which it was a clear path ahead for me.

the convoy reached outskirts of Dharwad by 8:30 PM. It was decided that everyone would have their dinner in Dharwad and then proceed towards Bengaluru. So the Alto took lead in taking the convoy to a known restaurant. By the time guys finished thier dinner, it was 10:00 PM as service was very slow. Soon I also got a fuel top up so that we don't have to worry till we reach home.

Eventually we reached Hubli Bypass by 10:30 PM and the Home Run re-started.

Soon Hubli bypass ended, we joined the road towards Haveri, I took a lead of about 5-7 minutes ahead of Alto. We stopped for a tea break near Davangere some time around midnight. A 15 minutes break and a fresh hot tea helped to drive the sleep away.

somewhere before Tumkur, Nomad felt sleepy, the other guy who had joined him from the tea break place was also feeling sleepy. so Nomad parked me on the highway side, put hazard lights on and went into a powernap.

After some 7-8 minutes, Alto reached the place, woke these guys. Nomad freshened up by washing his face, taking few steps stroll along the highway and restarted the journey.

The diversions were creating traffic pileup, the toll booths were also getting clogged by trucks everywhere. Tumkur Tool Plaza took maximum time of over 10-15 minutes.

The convoy stopped after the elevated flyover near Yeshwantpur so that the other guy could move back into the Alto. Nomad thanked all four of them for giving him the company through this drive. Infact they were changing places to ensure that one of them was with Nomad and kept him compnay. All five agreed to meet for a lunch/dinner/coffee in near future and went on thier respective way.

By the time Nomad parked me at my regular parking slot at home, clock showed 3:15 AM.

It was a marathon drive of over 25.5 hours and about 1000 KMs. Previous best was 22 continuous hours on road.

[Nomad]

Last weekend, when we were traveling in Karavali region, Nomad's daughter after browsing through the pictures from D90, asked this question while sitting on the back seat.

"Pappa, why did you go to Pune so many times ?"

Nomad took some time to answer it. I think, he was thinking how to answer this innocent question !. He was probably also thinking what he gained by these six hectic trips. After some time he replied

"I was trying to become a teacher while trying to learn new things !. "

I don't know how much kid understood.

I think what Nomad meant was ..

* Being a student is easy, but being a good or excellent student is difficult. Similarly being a real good teacher is most difficult thing.

* These six trips helped Nomad to go back to school, refresh old learnings, learn new things

* He could interact with several young minds. Youth means energy, enthusiasm, creativity, different thought process, go-getter attitude etc etc.
Certainly Nomad got benefitted by these interactions. This is another way of staying in touch with Gen Next and understand what and
how they think.

* These trips helped him to further build his network in both professional and personal domain

* ofcourse, he could experience some wonderful sights in the process.

She continued to be engrossed with all the pictures of forts, temples, statues, paintings, museums, hills, dams, reserviors, back waters, plateaus, forest, flowers, clouds, rains, agri fields, farms, farmers, roads, ghats, waterfalls, train tracks, trains, and ofcourse, some wonderful people.

after a while she asked "When are you taking us to all these places ?"

"Soon" replied Nomad.

[Nomad]

When ?,

continued his daughter, "can we go to these places when we go to Aajji's place in Pune next time ?, anyway we go via NH4 !"

We can dear, but next time we may not go by NH4 !

why ? she asked.

You know, NH4 is being renamed as Asian Highway 47 ?

Later on Nomad explained to his wife and daughter how Indian highways are getting integrated with Asian Highways

the two below links explain it much better than i can do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Highway_Network

http://allaboutbelgaum.com/infrastru...rough-belgaum/

A picture showing the Asian Highway Network (courtesy Wikipedia link attached above)



This is me on AH 47



It means all future trips to Maharastra would be through AH47 and not NH4, explained Nomad.

Anyway, old NH4 is long dead, gone is the charm of driving through beautiful, winding roads with green canopy which will bloom with different coloured flowers. But new AH47 is fast, safe and enables even people like Nomad to drive to exciting places.

It can also mean, someday, I can be driven from India to rest of the Asian countires, cities, exciting sights.

Rest In Peace old NH4, Long Live AH 47

[Nomad]

I never knew, my story would be read in first place.

I am greatful to all of you for reading my story, liking it, leaving your comments. All of you have made me a very happy car.

I also gained some new virtual friends, a figo (from Pune), a chikka-putta M800 caru (from Coorg), a muscular Tata Safari aka Iron Hide (from Delhi) and a cute Alto who accompanied me from Castlerock to Bengaluru in convoy to name a few and ofcourse, i know there are many more out there.

I am thankful to Nomad for giving me a voice in the virtual world. I also thank Mrs Nomad for her help to post the last parts of my story. I feel great when Ms. Nomad sleep on rear seat without a worry to what is happening outside. I love Nomads !

Ofcourse, i keep going places, i have plenty to see, plenty to experience.



Till some other opportunity enables me to come back and share more of my experience..

wish you all happy miles, Drive Safe

[raama]

a chikka-putta caru (from Coorg)

Which car is that?

a muscular Iron Hide (from Delhi)

???? Name it please

[Guru]

Which car is that?

Yours, of course! Right, Happy Car?

???? Name it please

anubhavt's truck.

Happy car is yet to make friends with my Bella Ragazza, but that can be arranged during one of Nomad's Pune trip.

[raama]

Yours, of course! Right,

Wow. My Maruti 800's first friend is a Happy Car aka Honda City. I am glad and my car is very happy too Eagerly waiting to go on a drive along with you happy car

[Nomad]

I was shocked to read this story on the first page of Bangalore Mirror





My request to all visitors to Dudhsagar is

Do not put your and other people's life in danger, No adventure is more worth than the Life itself. If really one feels for the need to put life on the line, then join armed forces and get posted on the borders of the country or fight the crime by joining the police.

Also note that Dudhsagar is along the Railway track and in the middle of the forest. It is not a picnic spot. It is also not a casual walking place.
Only two ways to go there.

1. by treking using experienced guides.
2. by train from Castle rock station @ 10:15 AM to DudhSagar and return by 5:00 PM train back from Dudhsagar.

Please do not use any other means as it is against the law of the land and can result putting your life in danger.