Drive to Shirdi

On 18th January 2007, I was online as usual chatting with my friends and surfing the net. Weekend was around the corner. My friend Amitesh suggested that we'll undertake a quick trip to Shirdi to seek blessings from Babaji. As always, I was ever ready and we decided to go ahead with the plan. Unlike other trips, we thought of trying out something different this time.

Why not take the car and drive the distance of 258kms (to be precise) from Mumbai to Shirdi ourselves. Not a bad idea for a quick getaway, isn't it??

Next day morning, our plan was to leave Mumbai by 1 pm. We then became conscious about the fact that we did not have a camera to capture all that was going to happen on the way. After borrowing the camera from Rahul, our friend, it was time to leave. We left Mumbai at 3pm. The 2 hour delay was mainly because of our late realization about the camera and traffic snarls.

At Rahul's place(Thanks for the camera).

The car we drove was Hyundai Getz and luckily the petrol tank was full (thanks to my Dad). I decided to get behind the wheels at the start. We reached Thane by 4 pm and then entered NH-3 on which we drove till Nashik. This Highway connects Mumbai and Agra.

Once we left Thane, I stepped on the accelerator and were cruising at good speed.
There were a few incidents during the drive which shook us up resulting in increased adrenaline levels.

First one being the speed breakers. God knows why on earth there are speed breakers on the highway. Fine, let there be speed breakers, it's not a big issue.....but what really surprised us was the fact that there were no boards which gave any kinda hint about the speed breakers ahead. Moreover the speed breakers were not even painted. We hit the speed breakers really hard and I have no doubts in my mind that our car flew for a few seconds. After covering a few kms, there was another one. This time we flew even higher :) Good God, we were safe.

The second heart trembling incident that took place was near Nashik. We were enjoying the drive and listening to songs .Suddenly from no where a truck driver started poking his nose from the side as he wanted to get on the highway. We were at reasonably good speed and it was difficult for us to stop and let him go. We gave him the indication that we will be going first. But that fellow was not bothered at all and drove in, blocking our way. Luckily, the brakes were powerful enough to halt our car.

We then continued driving. Gradually, the trees and hills gave way to buildings and traffic signals. We had entered Nashik. We took a right turn leaving NH-3 behind. The time was 7 pm and we had travelled 170 kms at a trot.
We therefore took a break in the outskirts of Nashik. We human beings just think about ourselves, what about the machine? Even the car needed rest and our 45 min break cooled down the engine to some extent.

After refilling ourselves, we got inside the car. This time Amitesh sat on the driver’s seat to cover the remaining 90 kms. The sun had set and the drive became somewhat dangerous as the headlight glare of the oncoming vehicles created a blinding effect. Amitesh drove cautiously and we reached Shirdi at 9:30 pm. We stayed at hotel Abhishek close to the Temple.

km reading after reaching Shirdi.

Next day morning, we got up at 5. We got good Darshan of Shirdi Sai Baba after waiting for an hour in queue. We also visited Dwarka mai and other temples in the Temple premises. By the time we came out it was 9:30am and we quickly gave a call to Shikha and Divya(and 2 more frds) as they too had come for Darshan. They had taken an overnight bus from Mumbai.

At Shirdi.

We decided to meet them and we had to be quick as their bus back to Mumbai was at 10 am. Luckily we got to see them. Myself and Amitesh made a note of the bus number and decided to follow the bus and take a break wherever the bus would stop for lunch. By doing so, we thought we could have lunch with our friends. It wasn’t a bad idea. So the chase began.

The bus we followed.

Amitesh resumed his drive and started following the bus. He drove well and we were just behind the bus all the time until we reached Nashik. We were caught in signals and the bus disappeared. We informed our friends that we lost track of the bus and are now heading towards Mumbai. Our plan failed :(

Quick change of drivers and the drive continued. It was 2 pm now and we stopped for lunch at Baba da Dhaba just after crossing the Kasara ghat.

After a sumptuous lunch, Amitesh again took charge of the wheel and I started clicking photographs.

After driving for an hour and a half, we again changed seats for the last time and the last leg of our drive began.

It was 4 pm and I started driving quickly as I wanted to avoid the traffic in Mumbai that slowly builds up in the evening. At the same time, I also knew that I had to hand over the key (and the car) safely to my dad :)

I dropped Amitesh at Nerul on my way to Andheri. The petrol tank was almost empty, but I knew that there was enough petrol to take me to Andheri. Reached Andheri at 5:30 pm. That was the end of our short and sweet trip.

Total distance covered- 561 kms.
Total driving time -13 hours. Mumbai-Shirdi-Mumbai
Average speed-43 kms/hour.
Total trip time-26 hours.

Don’t drink and drive :)