GT Road holds a special place in my heart. When I was about ten years old, my father first showed it to me while we were going to my aunt's house in Howrah. He said if you walked along this road you would reach Delhi, Lahore and even Kabul. I used to feel fascinated by the idea. As I grew older I took this road to go to various places. First real long distance travel on this road was when I went to Benares a few years ago in my Esteem. Next I went to Rajasthan in 2011 but I left GT Road a little ahead of Kanpur and went towards Jhansi. While coming back I took GT Road from Agra (where I came in via Jaipur). In fact the photograph of camels in the banner of this blog was taken on GT Road in Jharkhand during our 2011 Rajasthan trip.
In September-October 2014 the call of the road once again became strong, particularly after purchasing the Duster. So off we went. The final trip became something like this. Day 1 Calcutta to Benares. Day 2 Benares to Agra. Day 3 was devoted to Agra city and I showed my daughter the wonders of the Taj, Agra Fort and Sikandra. Unfortunately I couldn't manage Itmad-ud-Daula. On Day 4 we went first to Fatehpur and Sikri and then off to Bharatpur's Keoladeo National Park. Day 5 was spent in the park. Day 6 we went to Noida via Agra and stayed with my friend Dadu (Abhijit Majumdar). Day 7 and 8 were spent in company of them visiting various historical monuments like Purana Qilla, Qutab Minar, Red Fort and Humayun's Tomb. Day 9 we drove from Noida to Benares. Day 10 was Benares to Calcutta.
Bharatpur was not in my initial target list. I had wanted to go to Jarar near Chambal. But the climate being quite warm I decided against it as there would hardly be any bird around this time of the year and spending Rs 7500 for just one night in the resort there would be pointless if there was no bird. So we chose to go to Bharatpur instead. I was very happy about the decision. Saw a few lifers like Grey Nightjar, White-eyed Buzzard and Eurasian Spoonbill (funny but true I had never before seen this last bird in the wild).
I want to write down the various sectors of the road so that friends who want to take this journey can benefit. One word on fuel consumption. I had kept copious details of the journey as derived from the trip computer on a daily basis. It is mentioned here too. However, I find that my total fuel consumption is 204 liters, as per actual bills, as opposed to 180 liters as per the trip computer. It can mean two things. Either the trip computer is a little off the mark. Or the petrol pumps have doctored meters. It could be a little bit of both as well. I will check my trip computer in the city and give a better opinion on it later.
At Purana Qilla parking lot
September 28, 2014. Day One. Calcutta to Benares.
Total Distance: 699 km
Average Speed - 54 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 38.1 lit
Average FE: 18.5 kmpl
Driving Time: 5:30 am to 6:30 pm
One line sum up: Very clogged highway. Very slow average speed. Six laning is an immediate priority.
Total Distance: 699 km
Average Speed - 54 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 38.1 lit
Average FE: 18.5 kmpl
Driving Time: 5:30 am to 6:30 pm
One line sum up: Very clogged highway. Very slow average speed. Six laning is an immediate priority.
We started early from Calcutta. The highway was absolutely clogged with trucks, moving very slowly. I knew the reason. Just too many overloaded slow trucks. The agony ended in a few kilometers after we crossed the bridge near Das Nagar which is operational only on one side. The next agonising stretch was through Panagarh town where the highway goes right through the town and it is a badly damaged road there. I followed a local bus which just jumped the lane and blazed through the opposite lane.
After Panagarh you pass through Durgapur, Asansol, Kulti, Barakar. This is where you leave West Bengal and enter Jharkhand. There are many trucks parked for the entry tax formalities. But we managed to cross it without getting stuck.
The journey through Jharkhand was uneventful. But general traffic movement is very high making it impossible to pick up speed. The typical scene is on the first lane there is a slow moving auto rickshaw which is being overtaken by a slightly faster truck. So you have to wait. The important towns that you bypass on this sector are Dhanbad, Bokaro, Parasnath, Hazaribagh. The road is beautiful after Top Chanchi. Hazaribagh district is really very pretty. It is a pity that there is no tourism infrastructure here.
After Jharkhand the road goes through Bihar. The beautiful Tilaiya lake is on the right hand side. If you are keen to go to Gaya there is an exit here. But our destination is Benares. So we move on through Aurangabad and then Dehri on Sone. It is a very long bridge. My father, I remember, used to refer to Sone as the tears of Bihar.
Somewhere along the way the exit to Sasaram is also there. But I think I missed the road sign announcing that this time.
The next big town to go through is Mohania which is the border between Bihar and UP. Next meaningful exit is for Mughal Sarai and a little after this comes the Ganga bridge. There is an exit into the town of Benares immediately after crossing this bridge. The road goes down to the left and then winds it way into the town in the opposite direction. I do not take this route (the first time I did) as it goes through winding roads of the town. Instead I go straight down the highway and turn right through the old GT Road as it comes out of the city towards the Allahabad end.
All along the highway outside the city were parked trucks carrying sand. Hundreds of them. I wonder what kind of infrastructure is coming up in the region to require so much of sand every day. We saw the same scene while coming back too.
We were pre-booked in Meraden Grand - Mampu's most favourite hotel anywhere in the world. In the evening we went on our customary trip to Dasassamedh ghat. Ganga Arati was over. Had a total of 250 grams of malai from Pagla's shop in Biswanath Gali. Malai is Rs 400 a kilo and Rabri (which is sugar sweet) is Rs 350.
Hotel Review: On our first trip to Benares we had stayed in this hotel and Mampu fell in love with it for its bathtub. It remains her most favourite hotel anywhere. The hotel is a little expensive but they have a deal with Exide and they give us rooms at a deep discount. If you are going to Benares for Viswanath temple and ghats etc, this hotel is completely impractical. It is quite far from there. It does not have covered parking. But they organise a secure parking lot with 24-hour security. We stay here only because we love Mampu.
On our return trip we didn't get accommodation here so found out a hotel near the station just off old NH2 which is much cheaper, has a basement parking lot of its own and all the other mod-cons. Will review it later in this blog.
September 29, 2014. Day Two. Benares to Agra.
Total Distance: 608.8 km
Average Speed - 56.6 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 33.5 lit
Average FE: 18.1 kmpl
Driving Time: 8:20 am to 7:30 pm
Hotel: Bhawna Clarks Inn 0562 2650400
One line sum up: Kanpur to Ettawah being six-laned with 35 diversions. NH2 through Firozabad and Agra are really terribly jam prone.
We started relatively late on the second day after the buffet breakfast. Took the old GT Road and then turned right towards Allahabad from the new highway. The stretch from Benares to Allahabad is fairly urbanised. Full of local people, vegetable markets, auto rickshaws and small non-descript towns. Sitamarih is on the way where Sita had to take the test by fire. There are road pointers showing the way to "Sita Samadhisthal".
The Allahabad by-pass is very obvious and you can't miss it. A new development is they have put up petrol pumps there now. It took us about an hour to cross the fully concreted bypass. Till Kanpur the journey is pretty uneventful and there is nothing worth mentioning. It's relatively a little desolate here.
From Kanpur onward the road is being six-laned up to Etawah. There are some 35 diversions due to flyovers (the technical term is underpass). Average speed is therefore affected on this stretch. But once the work is completed I am sure this will be one of the fastest stretches on the journey.
The name Etawah somehow sends chills down the spine. In my school days we used to read news stories of notorious Chambal dacoits surrendering ceremoniously and the datelines of those stories always used to be Etawah or Morena or Bhind. I associate these three names with notorious dacoits of Chambal. Of course now that profession is a dead one. They and their children are all in politics now.
After Etawah I thought driving into Agra would be a breeze. But I wasn't prepared for this small town called Firozabad. It's somewhat like Panagarh in the sense the highway goes right through the town. It's chock-a-block full of traffic. Cart-loads of glass bangles were being taken around. Soon we realised it is a glassware manufacturing hub. Later we learnt it is indeed the capital for this particular industry. There are huge buildings the size of the Exide head office that are selling chandeliers and other lamp sheds - stand alone single shops. I wish there was some decent parking facility. I would have bought some lamp sheds and glasses. But I concentrated on the bumper-to-bumper traffic. I think it took us about an hour to cross the 2 km stretch through the town.
Next agonising part was the drive down NH2 through Agra town. Once again a very pathetic bumper to bumper drive. Finding our hotel Bhawna Clarks Inn was relatively easy. It is just opposite the Sikandra Gurdwara which is on your right hand side a little after the Bhagwan Talkies Flyover (a major landmark in Agra). The entry towards the hotel is via a V-turn to the left and then you get the hotel after crossing the flyover.
Hotel Review: If you are driving in from Calcutta Bhawna Clarks Inn is ideally located. It is just off the highway, albeit after you cross the city. It has a secure basement parking. However, the hotel's rooms are rather cramped and so is the bathroom. Food is very expensive. I think three fresh lime sodas in the room cost us something like Rs 400. The hotel is also located quite far from Taj or Agra Fort. Sikandra is just a kilometer away though. The hotel has its own diesel generator.
This hotel is okay if you are driving into Agra and you don't want to enter the lanes and by-lanes of the city with your car. Otherwise it is eminently avoidable. Incidentally there is another Bhavna on the other side of the highway before the Gurdwara, which is fine for a night too. But it does not have a very robust generator of its own. We had stayed there in 2011 for a night and the experience wasn't very good.
Next time I go to Agra for a few days, I am going to stay somewhere close to Taj. It's expensive though.
September 30, 2014. Day Three. Within City
We went in an auto to Sikandra in the morning. Later we went to Agra Fort and Taj by the same auto, Didn't even look at the car.
October 1, 2014. Day Four. Agra to Bharatpur via Fatehpur Sikri.
Total Distance: 64.7 km
Average Speed - 34 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 3.5 lit
Average FE: 18.5 kmpl
Driving Time: 10:25 am to 2:30 pm (includes time spent in FS)
Stay: Shanti Kutir Forest Rest House
One line sum up: Very nice and quiet road. Very well marked out with prominent road directions for drivers from out of state.
The drive from Bhawna Clarks to Fatehpur Sikri is totally uneventful. You hardly need to ask anyone for directions. Everything is very well marked out. You can take the road in front of Akbar's tomb or the road in front of the hotel itself. We took both. One while going and the other while coming back.
Finding out Shanti Kutir FRH in Bharatpur is a little tricky as we didn't know it was right inside the park (there is another ITDC hotel inside the park). There are many hotels outside the gate. The area is called Sarus Morh. We parked our car outside the park's gate and hired a rickshaw to go to Shanti Kutir for booking enquiries. It is a good one and a half kilometer inside the park. I immediately regretted not getting the camera as I saw a jackal within handshaking distance and a white-eyed buzzard (I saw them later too and photographed as well).
Luckily we got accommodation on the first floor for two nights. Went back to the gate and brought the car in. They allow you to take the car inside only if you have confirmed booking in the FRH.
The drive from Bharatpur to Noida is totally uneventful except for the Yamuna Expressway, which is quite an experience. It is a 3x2 six laned totally concreted highway with barbed wire fencing on either side and guard rails as well. It is also the country's most expensive road. Toll was Rs 320 for one way journey. There is hardly any traffic on the road though. We saw a maximum of perhaps 30 cars and two trucks. The road starts from Agra and ends in Greater Noida. I think the road was created for the F1 circuit - Budh International. There is a huge sports city that is coming up. It has a cricket stadium too. I wonder if all this is just a bubble. But the road infrastructure as it is now is fantastic. All of this is owned by the Jay Prakash group. I can smell corruption here. But who cares. Even if the company that created this underutilised road goes under, the infrastructure will remain.
October 4 and 5, 2014. Day Seven and Eight. In Noida.
In Noida we stayed at our friend Abhijit Majumdar's house at Sector 21. We also met another school mate Sarit Dutta who lives in Delhi's CR Park. We had a happy time visiting the various monuments of Delhi over the next two days. Together we covered Purana Qilla, Qutab Minar, Red Fort and Humayun's tomb.
October 6, 2014. Day Nine. Noida to Benares.
Total Distance: 787.1 km
Average Speed - 68.8 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 42.8 lit
Average FE: 18.5 kmpl
Driving Time: 6:05 am to 5:00 pm
Stay: Hotel Jahnavi
One line sum up: Roads were relatively less congested. Probably due to Eid.
The return journey from Noida to Benares was down a road that had considerably less traffic. This is probably because this was the day of Eid. We had hoped to clear Firozabad through the quiet of the morning. However, the highway was closed well before the town and we were made to go through the old state highway. I think it was a good 20 km detour and certain parts of the road was simply pathetic. If I was in a small car the bottom would have given way.
On the Expressway I had kept a steady pace of between 90 to 110. I got a fuel efficiency of 22 kmpl. However, overall FE was 18.5, which is fine.
We reached Benares in good day light. Much to Mampu's disappointment Hotel Meraden Grand was full. We found a decent hotel in Jahnavi near the Cantt station for 2k. Just as you turn right towards Ratha Yatra from the old GT Road, this hotel is on your left hand side.
The hotel has its own basement parking lot, albeit small and an instant diesel generator. The food is also decent. Godaulia is Rs 50 by rickshaw. I went alone for my customary Malai fill.
October 7, 2014. Day Ten. Benares to Calcutta.
Total Distance: 699 km
Average Speed - 63 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 35.9 lit
Average FE: 19.6 kmpl
Driving Time: 9:30 am to 8:30 pm
One line sum up: Terrible truck traffic in the Burdwan-Calcutta sector
We took it a little casually on this last day's home stretch. Left the hotel at 9.30 am, which was a stupid thing to do. It got dark after crossing Barakar/Kulti. My speed dropped considerably in the dark due to constant light of oncoming trucks. I hate driving on this stretch in the dark.
Anyway, reached home without any fuss.
One funny thing about these long journeys is that once it is over without any remarkable incident there is nothing worth mentioning :-) Prior to the journey your mind is always filled with an unstated, quiet tension. After it gets over you are personally relieved but it doesn't make for any spectacular story. It is just another journey that was completed without anything going wrong anywhere.
All along the highway outside the city were parked trucks carrying sand. Hundreds of them. I wonder what kind of infrastructure is coming up in the region to require so much of sand every day. We saw the same scene while coming back too.
We were pre-booked in Meraden Grand - Mampu's most favourite hotel anywhere in the world. In the evening we went on our customary trip to Dasassamedh ghat. Ganga Arati was over. Had a total of 250 grams of malai from Pagla's shop in Biswanath Gali. Malai is Rs 400 a kilo and Rabri (which is sugar sweet) is Rs 350.
Hotel Review: On our first trip to Benares we had stayed in this hotel and Mampu fell in love with it for its bathtub. It remains her most favourite hotel anywhere. The hotel is a little expensive but they have a deal with Exide and they give us rooms at a deep discount. If you are going to Benares for Viswanath temple and ghats etc, this hotel is completely impractical. It is quite far from there. It does not have covered parking. But they organise a secure parking lot with 24-hour security. We stay here only because we love Mampu.
On our return trip we didn't get accommodation here so found out a hotel near the station just off old NH2 which is much cheaper, has a basement parking lot of its own and all the other mod-cons. Will review it later in this blog.
September 29, 2014. Day Two. Benares to Agra.
Total Distance: 608.8 km
Average Speed - 56.6 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 33.5 lit
Average FE: 18.1 kmpl
Driving Time: 8:20 am to 7:30 pm
Hotel: Bhawna Clarks Inn 0562 2650400
One line sum up: Kanpur to Ettawah being six-laned with 35 diversions. NH2 through Firozabad and Agra are really terribly jam prone.
We started relatively late on the second day after the buffet breakfast. Took the old GT Road and then turned right towards Allahabad from the new highway. The stretch from Benares to Allahabad is fairly urbanised. Full of local people, vegetable markets, auto rickshaws and small non-descript towns. Sitamarih is on the way where Sita had to take the test by fire. There are road pointers showing the way to "Sita Samadhisthal".
The Allahabad by-pass is very obvious and you can't miss it. A new development is they have put up petrol pumps there now. It took us about an hour to cross the fully concreted bypass. Till Kanpur the journey is pretty uneventful and there is nothing worth mentioning. It's relatively a little desolate here.
From Kanpur onward the road is being six-laned up to Etawah. There are some 35 diversions due to flyovers (the technical term is underpass). Average speed is therefore affected on this stretch. But once the work is completed I am sure this will be one of the fastest stretches on the journey.
The name Etawah somehow sends chills down the spine. In my school days we used to read news stories of notorious Chambal dacoits surrendering ceremoniously and the datelines of those stories always used to be Etawah or Morena or Bhind. I associate these three names with notorious dacoits of Chambal. Of course now that profession is a dead one. They and their children are all in politics now.
After Etawah I thought driving into Agra would be a breeze. But I wasn't prepared for this small town called Firozabad. It's somewhat like Panagarh in the sense the highway goes right through the town. It's chock-a-block full of traffic. Cart-loads of glass bangles were being taken around. Soon we realised it is a glassware manufacturing hub. Later we learnt it is indeed the capital for this particular industry. There are huge buildings the size of the Exide head office that are selling chandeliers and other lamp sheds - stand alone single shops. I wish there was some decent parking facility. I would have bought some lamp sheds and glasses. But I concentrated on the bumper-to-bumper traffic. I think it took us about an hour to cross the 2 km stretch through the town.
Next agonising part was the drive down NH2 through Agra town. Once again a very pathetic bumper to bumper drive. Finding our hotel Bhawna Clarks Inn was relatively easy. It is just opposite the Sikandra Gurdwara which is on your right hand side a little after the Bhagwan Talkies Flyover (a major landmark in Agra). The entry towards the hotel is via a V-turn to the left and then you get the hotel after crossing the flyover.
Hotel Review: If you are driving in from Calcutta Bhawna Clarks Inn is ideally located. It is just off the highway, albeit after you cross the city. It has a secure basement parking. However, the hotel's rooms are rather cramped and so is the bathroom. Food is very expensive. I think three fresh lime sodas in the room cost us something like Rs 400. The hotel is also located quite far from Taj or Agra Fort. Sikandra is just a kilometer away though. The hotel has its own diesel generator.
This hotel is okay if you are driving into Agra and you don't want to enter the lanes and by-lanes of the city with your car. Otherwise it is eminently avoidable. Incidentally there is another Bhavna on the other side of the highway before the Gurdwara, which is fine for a night too. But it does not have a very robust generator of its own. We had stayed there in 2011 for a night and the experience wasn't very good.
Next time I go to Agra for a few days, I am going to stay somewhere close to Taj. It's expensive though.
September 30, 2014. Day Three. Within City
We went in an auto to Sikandra in the morning. Later we went to Agra Fort and Taj by the same auto, Didn't even look at the car.
October 1, 2014. Day Four. Agra to Bharatpur via Fatehpur Sikri.
Total Distance: 64.7 km
Average Speed - 34 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 3.5 lit
Average FE: 18.5 kmpl
Driving Time: 10:25 am to 2:30 pm (includes time spent in FS)
Stay: Shanti Kutir Forest Rest House
One line sum up: Very nice and quiet road. Very well marked out with prominent road directions for drivers from out of state.
The drive from Bhawna Clarks to Fatehpur Sikri is totally uneventful. You hardly need to ask anyone for directions. Everything is very well marked out. You can take the road in front of Akbar's tomb or the road in front of the hotel itself. We took both. One while going and the other while coming back.
Finding out Shanti Kutir FRH in Bharatpur is a little tricky as we didn't know it was right inside the park (there is another ITDC hotel inside the park). There are many hotels outside the gate. The area is called Sarus Morh. We parked our car outside the park's gate and hired a rickshaw to go to Shanti Kutir for booking enquiries. It is a good one and a half kilometer inside the park. I immediately regretted not getting the camera as I saw a jackal within handshaking distance and a white-eyed buzzard (I saw them later too and photographed as well).
Luckily we got accommodation on the first floor for two nights. Went back to the gate and brought the car in. They allow you to take the car inside only if you have confirmed booking in the FRH.
Hotel Review: Shanti Kutir is not a hotel. It is a forest rest house. Basically a government office with facilities for some people to stay. The room is huge (has a two tonne AC and two electric fans) and so is the bathroom, which has a working geyser. It has a basic generator that will light up one tube light and a fan only if there is a power cut. The bathroom light does not work on generator. So it is advisable to keep a candle ready.
Food is extremely basic. Just "daal-chawal-sabzi". Eggs are fine in breakfast but not the meat of the bird that lays the eggs or any other form of non-veg food. If there are VIP visitors there during your stay (and Bharatpur is very VIP prone with at least two vehicles with beacon lights always parked there at any given point of time) the cooks and waiters - who are all employees of the forest department - will not even look at you. It happened with me too and I had to lose my temper in a controlled way to get my food at 3 pm (they wouldn't serve me till the VIPs finished their lunch and left).
But all said and done - Shanti Kutir is true to its name. Very peaceful. You can often hear the trucks on the highway a kilometer or so away but birds and insects can often drown that out.
October 2, 2014. Day Five. In Bharatpur
The day was spent exploring the park. Got lucky with a Sarus Crane's mating call which I managed to record with my new recording gear Marantz PMD661 Mk II and Sennheiser K6/ME66. Migratory birds had still not arrived. But Eurasian Spoonbills, Black-headed Ibises and Painted Storks or Asian Openbills were found nesting.
October 3, 2014. Day Six. Bharatpur to Noida.
Total Distance: 268.2 km
Average Speed - 66.9 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 14.3 lit
Average FE: 18.8 kmpl
Driving Time: 9:35 am to 2:00 pm
Stay: Friend's House in Noida Sect 21
One line sum up: Yamuna Expressway is quite an experience.
Total Distance: 268.2 km
Average Speed - 66.9 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 14.3 lit
Average FE: 18.8 kmpl
Driving Time: 9:35 am to 2:00 pm
Stay: Friend's House in Noida Sect 21
One line sum up: Yamuna Expressway is quite an experience.
The drive from Bharatpur to Noida is totally uneventful except for the Yamuna Expressway, which is quite an experience. It is a 3x2 six laned totally concreted highway with barbed wire fencing on either side and guard rails as well. It is also the country's most expensive road. Toll was Rs 320 for one way journey. There is hardly any traffic on the road though. We saw a maximum of perhaps 30 cars and two trucks. The road starts from Agra and ends in Greater Noida. I think the road was created for the F1 circuit - Budh International. There is a huge sports city that is coming up. It has a cricket stadium too. I wonder if all this is just a bubble. But the road infrastructure as it is now is fantastic. All of this is owned by the Jay Prakash group. I can smell corruption here. But who cares. Even if the company that created this underutilised road goes under, the infrastructure will remain.
October 4 and 5, 2014. Day Seven and Eight. In Noida.
In Noida we stayed at our friend Abhijit Majumdar's house at Sector 21. We also met another school mate Sarit Dutta who lives in Delhi's CR Park. We had a happy time visiting the various monuments of Delhi over the next two days. Together we covered Purana Qilla, Qutab Minar, Red Fort and Humayun's tomb.
October 6, 2014. Day Nine. Noida to Benares.
Total Distance: 787.1 km
Average Speed - 68.8 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 42.8 lit
Average FE: 18.5 kmpl
Driving Time: 6:05 am to 5:00 pm
Stay: Hotel Jahnavi
One line sum up: Roads were relatively less congested. Probably due to Eid.
The return journey from Noida to Benares was down a road that had considerably less traffic. This is probably because this was the day of Eid. We had hoped to clear Firozabad through the quiet of the morning. However, the highway was closed well before the town and we were made to go through the old state highway. I think it was a good 20 km detour and certain parts of the road was simply pathetic. If I was in a small car the bottom would have given way.
On the Expressway I had kept a steady pace of between 90 to 110. I got a fuel efficiency of 22 kmpl. However, overall FE was 18.5, which is fine.
We reached Benares in good day light. Much to Mampu's disappointment Hotel Meraden Grand was full. We found a decent hotel in Jahnavi near the Cantt station for 2k. Just as you turn right towards Ratha Yatra from the old GT Road, this hotel is on your left hand side.
The hotel has its own basement parking lot, albeit small and an instant diesel generator. The food is also decent. Godaulia is Rs 50 by rickshaw. I went alone for my customary Malai fill.
October 7, 2014. Day Ten. Benares to Calcutta.
Total Distance: 699 km
Average Speed - 63 kmph
Fuel Consumption: 35.9 lit
Average FE: 19.6 kmpl
Driving Time: 9:30 am to 8:30 pm
One line sum up: Terrible truck traffic in the Burdwan-Calcutta sector
We took it a little casually on this last day's home stretch. Left the hotel at 9.30 am, which was a stupid thing to do. It got dark after crossing Barakar/Kulti. My speed dropped considerably in the dark due to constant light of oncoming trucks. I hate driving on this stretch in the dark.
Anyway, reached home without any fuss.
One funny thing about these long journeys is that once it is over without any remarkable incident there is nothing worth mentioning :-) Prior to the journey your mind is always filled with an unstated, quiet tension. After it gets over you are personally relieved but it doesn't make for any spectacular story. It is just another journey that was completed without anything going wrong anywhere.
