Day 39: Vadodara to Udaipur

Setting out

Had breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and started.

After the previous day's thirteen-hour marathon from Panchgani, this was a different kind of day entirely. One of the shortest drives of the entire tour, and as it turned out, one of the most beautiful.

The Vadodara-Ahmedabad Expressway

The first stretch was the Vadodara-Ahmedabad Expressway, India's first modern expressway (NE 1) at the time of its construction. A hundred-odd kilometers between the two cities, and for most of that distance, dense greenery lined both sides of the road.

Not the dry, scrubby green of a median strip. Dense, continuous, deliberate planting that creates a corridor of shade and colour through what would otherwise be open Gujarat plains. The contrast after days of highway driving through varying landscapes was immediate and noticeable. Not a single eyesore on the route.

A short drive, a good road, and the kind of scenery that makes the kilometers feel shorter than they are.

Past Ahmedabad

Anand, the home of Amul, lay just a few kilometers off the route away as it approached Ahemdabad. Did not enter Ahmedabad city as the road to Udaipur brances out of the city boundary.

The road from there carried a quiet character. The landscape, moving through the western edge of Rajasthan, shifted from the plains of Gujarat into the rocky, drier terrain, to the ghats of Aravalli's, gradually announcing the approach to Udaipur.

Udaipur

Reached Udaipur in the afternoon. Checked into the hotel and rested.

The hotel had organised a cultural programme in the evening. Went to see it. The kind of Rajasthani performance that a good Udaipur hotel puts together for its guests - folk music and dance in a courtyard setting.

Had dinner and retired early.

There was a quiet clarity to the day.

Tomorrow would be the last of the trip.

Forty days since Delhi. Roughly 7,500 kilometers. Ten states. A route that had reached the southern most tip of mainland India and was now one day from home.

The Duster had one more drive left in it.

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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.