When this escapade post was first started, I was sitting facing the other side of the subcontinent. I had stopped it mid-way because of the uncertainty of the miles ahead. What started as a drive to Bengaluru to celebrate a Birthday, went on and on and seemed to be extending and I was doubtful if it would end after the Goa trip or something else would pop up suddenly and keep extending further. Fortunately, it seemed to have ended. In the first part, the first 1500Kms was documented. Let us get into the Goan expedition. Shall we?
It was 20 years ago when I had made my first and only visit to Goa. Back then, we were all middle school kids. The idea of Goa was totally confined to only playing in the water and enjoying water sports. Now, the place had transformed for good as well as bad. We had many memories fresh from our first visit and were looking forward for creating new ones. For me, it was more of pushing to the limits to beat the stress. I was so cooking up in stress that I wanted to break free and find a perfect escape plan. When they proposed this Goa plan, all I had to do was to push the ignition key and start driving. It was a huge ask yet, what is Life if there is no thrill factor in it?
We planned to start minutes past midnight so that we could reach the beach by dawn and remain fallen in the water for the remainder of the day. Since the roads were totally unknown and 20 years is a pretty long time, we approached with caution and since I am the only one who can drive, I had to prepare my diet routine and sleep schedule accordingly. Thus, we started on the 3rd of May after bringing myself to full fitness. The initial plan was to visit Goa for 2 days and 2 nights. After finding our way through the famed Bengaluru traffic snarls, we munched miles faster than expected. Yet, we were falling behind in our schedule.
The drive from 1:30 A.M to 4 A.M gave me the grip on the timesheet. It was like setting fast laps around a circuit during race weekend. We had covered the majority of the distance during those hours. We were now 400Kms clear from departure. We had found ourselves ahead of schedule now. I was taking some time to relax and drive peacefully with everyone sleeping. The darkness, the unknown roads, the sheer distance increasing from hometown and the thoughts that creep along, it was a battle that is well known to me. I have seen it before, I can handle it again.
At the crack of dawn, we were waiting for the fuel prices to be updated to refill the tank and make our journey through the 100 Kms of no man's land. It will be a journey through the ghats. With no help to come until someone spots us, it was the ultimate thrill in the entire journey. A flat tyre or anything that could go wrong would render us helpless and leave us stranded. I had to keep my eyes and ears wide open to make it through the ghats. Normally, this route is often taken only by truckers and, tourists would prefer an alternate route that is longer and tiring than this.
Before I start describing the journey through the ghats, let us take a look at the pictures that were clicked while I was sitting behind the wheel. Bubbles \(^_^)/
 |
| The hills in the distance |
 |
| The start of the ghats |
 |
| Oh, the twisties! |
 |
| Absolutely no man's land |
 |
| Ah, a trucker! |
 |
| le random forest checkpost... err... empty checkpost... |
After driving through the best of the ghat sections I have ever driven, it was Mollem, the first town into Goa. We had made it. Now, it was a matter of waiting for few more minutes before we reach the shoreline. My patience was being tested as the roads were narrow and curving and we had to drive a whole 80Kms until we reached our resort. Finally, by 10A.M. we had reached our resort, checked-in and unpacked our bags and were all set to take the dip in the waters. Oh, what a long wait it had been to be back to the other side of the coast. A whole two decades gone past, a lot has changed but the urge to play in the water remains the same. We walked slowly towards the sea and in a moment of urgency, we all ran inside and remained fallen till sunset- playing our good old floating, drowning, diving and wading games just like two decades ago. *Grins* -rPhoenix
No comments:
Post a Comment