The Westside story – XIV

We were an excited lot when we bid our goodbye’s to the land of dhoklas. Even though JJ was feeling feverish, she too was looking forward to Udaipur like the rest of us. All of us had heard about the opulence of the Udaipuri palaces. Now, we would get to experience it first hand. We left around 1445 hrs, after allowing JJ and Sam to rest!

The directions were easy – just catch the NH 8 and head towards Himmatnagar!

Before crossing Himatnagar, we crossed the Tropic of Cancer (in line with Gandhinagar) at 1515 hrs and 2768.6 total km reading from Bangalore. :D Quite the historic moment – even though we can never be sure of the accuracy of our recording, considering the ToC is an imaginary line and all, but we have used as much logic and thought as anyone can, so safely assume that we are right!

We came across one toll gate before reaching Himatnagar at 1553 hrs at 71.7 km reading. We stopped over at a roadside pseudo Dhaba, where we had masala “dhosa” :D and other stuff to eat and drink, after which I took over driving!

Another toll plaza later, you enter Rajasthan at 122.4 kms, 1720 hrs.

The moment you crosss over to Rajasthan from the Gujarat border a welcome sign which is modeled on a fort almost immediately catches your eye. This was only to be the start of what lay ahead for us in Rajasthan.

The roads are so good and there’s hardly any traffic, although the roads do start winding up as you enter the Aravali Hills, there is not much of a challenge. Without good music and fun co-passengers, this road is bound to get boring! You literally drive with one foot pressed on the accelerator and…that’s all there is to it!! :D It’s fun to zip around but after a while you begin to wish you had some obstacles like in a video game ;D!!

We crossed Kherwada at 1800 hrs and 164.8 km reading. I stopped driving at 185 kms and 1825 hrs because according to Danish, “his back was beginning to ache sitting in the passenger seat” when the truth was I knew he had noticed that it was getting dark and there was some truck traffic beginning to show signs of life, and he didn’t want me to drive through those treacherous conditions ;D!!

By the time we reached the cantonment dusk had set in completely and we decided to call it a day after dinner since we needed to recharge ourselves with a good night’s sleep. Before hitting the sack however, we listed out the places to visit, come tomorrow.