Day 3 Orissa stretch
15.45 we started from the Bishop's house at BALASORE and reached CUTTACK at 20.00. Our policy was to avoid driving in the night and therefore we stayed in a hotel there.
However as we were about one hour through the drive we felt that Orissa was much better than Bihar. The roads were wider and there were few vehicles on the road. Soon it appeared that something was wrong and suddenly there he was hailing us to stop. There were a few of them and one of them had a rather big stone, a boulder in his hand. I came out of the car to prevent him hitting a head lamp because it was getting dark.
He did not hit and it was time for a little diplomacy. We spoke to him and he said there was a bandh in the town nearby. We said this was the bye pass to the town and so let us pass. He did not budge. He was drunk but not too bad. So we asked him what was the issue. He said in broken Hindi. The gist of it was that when there was an attack on the Christians or the Muslims there was a bandh and here he was to protest that. We felt the cause was just and changed our tactics.
We said we are to go far and therefore let us pass. I knew that probably money would relax him and the he said 400 Rs. I said not more than 100 and he settled for 200. Then I said since we are paying he has to see us through the troubled area and invited him into the car. He came in and two of his friends followed in a bike and when the troubled areas were through we bade good bye. We gave 30 Rs more for the friends' trouble and they were happy as we were. Democracy works in India but sure has its costs.
Day 4 - Orissa stretch
From Cuttack we started earlier than usual. The cumulative km reading was 874. We started at 03.45. CUTTACK and BHUBANESWAR are twin towns by the two banks of a river and it was near deserted at that hour and we saved a lot of time in passing through the otherwise busy stretch. reached BERHAMPORE at 07.35, KANCHILI at 09.10, LANDMARK hotel at 13.00 and had lunch. Left at 13.25 reached the VISAKHAPATANAM byepass called ANAKAPALLI at 14.20 reached TUNI at 16.10 , RAJAHMUNDRI at 18.00.
Logic would have been to let father drive during day but by 19.00 I was too tired and let him drive and promptly fell asleep snoring. Passed ELURU at 22.30 and reached VIJAYAWADA at 24.00. There we stayed with Suman Bobby a family friend and neighbour back home who runs a business at Vijayawada. The km reading was 1709
Day 5 - Andhra stretch
From VISAKHAPATANAM on it was Andhra and we started again early by 05.15 from Vijayawada. A few kms on there was a bridge collapse on the high way and we had to divert left and go through a full fledged village with strectches of fields and buffallows in most of the places. We rejoined the highway at 10.25 reached NELLORE at 13.25, NAIDUPETTA at 15.55, RENIGUNTA at 16.15, TIRUPATHY at 16.30, and CHITTOOR BP Road at 18.10, VELLOORE at 20.00. There we stayed in a hotel. The cumulative km was 2251 and the total time was 53.25 hours.
Tirupathi was an extremely neat town which was contrary to our expectation.
Day 6 - Tamilnadu and Kerala stretch
As we came down south it was almost home. Tamilnadu otherwise is alien but given the long journey it was getting nearer home.
VELLORE from 03.15 and reached KRISHNAGIRI at 05.45, DHARMAPURI at 06.55, SALEM at 08.30 Had breakfast at SALEM and left at 08-45, reached COIMBATORE at 12.15 had lunch left 12.45, PALAKKAD at 13.40 MANNUTHI at 14.50, CHALAKUDI at 15.50 PERUMBAVOOR at 16.25 , MUVATTUPUZHA 16.50 and HOME 17.05.
The total kms was 2813 and the total time taken was 66.05.
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