First there is planning, then there is re-planning, later the plan gets cancelled and we land up going to Digha, yet again.
May be later I will let you guys know how the original planning to go on a solo motor cycle ride to Gurudongmar ended up being a Digha road trip, the Good Friday weekend of April 5-6,2012.
Trip-o-meter:
- Total distance travelled: 475 kms.
- Kolkata to Digha and back – 375 kms
- Digha – Udaipur – Talshari – Mandarmoni – 100 kms
- Fuel Consumed – 33 lits.
- Mileage returned – 14.3 km/lit
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| NH 6 |
The trip:
The trip for Digha was planned only a week in advance and we started on Friday morning, where the torrentials rains ensured that the 7 AM start got delayed till 8.30 AM. Tanked up fuel at Indian Oil, opposite Bhawani Bhavan, and there we go, the highway was calling.
Traffic was scanty and the overcast conditions made the journey pleasurable. We whizzed our way through the second hooghly bridge, kona expressway and onto NH 6. The road conditions are superb, as they have always been and travelling at around 100 in the Red Panda (my Maruti Swift) helped us reach Sher-e-Punjab by 10 AM, which was teeming with travellers.
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| Sher-e-Punjab |
The mood was upbeat, the sun came up, and the aloo paranthas were awesome to say the least.
We left the dhaba at around 11 and took the left turn. The roads which were under construction till 2 years back(the last time I drove on the route), were ready now. We took the right at Nandakumar circle, joined onto the State highway. The SH, though single lane was in good condition.
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| The Cottage @ Hotel Dolphin |
We were speeding past the highway when we encountered a terrible jam. We were stalled for a good 1.5 hrs and later found out the cause of the jam – which was because the Matangini Setu allowed only one way traffic, and coupled with that some vehicle going from Kolkata to Digha had “double laned” and didnot allow the ones coming from the other side which created a deadlock.Once the bridge was crossed, we reached Digha in 1.5 hrs. The road condition was excellent all through out and excepting the traffic jam, our journey was a bridge.
Excluding the customary break at Kolkaghat and Matangini setu, the journey lasted 4 hrs flat.
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| The Room At The Cottage |
