Day 38: Panchgani to Vadodara

Setting Out

Had breakfast, checked out, and started at around 11 AM after saying a second goodbye to the amazing host Niranjan and the chubby Tyson.

This was going to be one of the longest drives of the entire trip.

The Descent That Didn’t Feel Like One

Panchgani sits in the Western Ghats. The road down from it descends through the hills and then gradually levels out. Or appears to.

What was noticeable, much after leaving the obvious hill section, was that the car was still moving downhill. Not dramatically, not visibly, but the engine was barely working and the speed kept building without any push to the accelerator.

It took a while to understand what was happening.

The entire stretch from Panchgani down to the expressway sits on the Deccan plateau, a vast elevated landmass that slopes almost imperceptibly toward the plains. The descent is so gradual that it does not register to the eyes. The road looks flat. The car picking up speed on what appears to be level ground is the clue where any visual clue is missing .

Drive carefully on this section. The vehicle accelerates without announcing it, and the instinct to press the accelerator is unnecessary, and occasionally dangerous.

It was one of those moments where Indian geography makes itself felt. Not through scenery, but through the behaviour of the car.

The Food Mall and a thoughful room

Stopped for lunch at a food mall on the Mumbai-Pune expressway, well stocked with a good variety of options after a long morning of driving.

One beautiful and genuinely unexpected piece to notice of all the place was -The washrooms. They had an adult diaper changing station - a designated changing room for elderly visitors, equipped for the specific needs of older travellers. Not something encountered anywhere else on the trip across forty days and ten states. A small, practical, quietly thoughtful provision in a roadside food mall.

Pune-Mumbai-Thane

Covered the much known and never experienced Mumbai-Pune expressway stretch without trouble. Must be a beautiful drive in rains however, at this time it was hot and sunny. The road itself is beautiful with 4 tunnels enroute making the drive pleasantly enjoyable. The invisble slope of the decann plateau continues till here.

And then came Pune.

Traffic while entering Pune slowed everything down considerably. The kind of jam that a large city generates at its approaches, which no timing or routing fully avoids. Got through it and continued towards Mumbai.

Beyond that, crossing Mumbai via Thane turned into another challenge. Dense traffic, slow movement, and the usual unpredictability of navigating through a large city.

On the Mumbai–Vadodara Stretch

Once past Mumbai, the expectation was a faster run toward Vadodara.

But the reality was different. Tthe challenge changed in character.

The Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway is being expanded. At the time of this drive, construction work had created a stretch of continuous diversions. The road kept redirecting, speed was impossible to build, and the kilometres that should have been fast became slow and frustrating. There were iron rods left open and extending onto the newl built road.

It was not only the diversions however, these dangerous rods. that slowed the speed considerably.

Stopped for dinner at a Kathiyawadi restaurant along the way. The food was good and the stop was welcome after the Mumbai crawl and the diversion maze.

And post it was the final push to Vadodara.

Reached the hotel at 12:30 in the night. Checked in. Went straight to sleep.

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Note: I do no hold the rights for the cover and thumbnail images. They have been downloaded from internet. Credit lies with the unknown original creators.