Feb 2023 had an interesting adventure in store for me. I started off on a self-driving road trip from Ahmedabad to Coimbatore on 28th January. This what my route looked like, pretty straight forward highway route.

Ahmedabad – Surat – Mumbai – Pune – Kolhapur – Belgaum – Bengaluru – Salem – Coimbatore

I have family homes in Surat, Mumbai and Bengaluru so halted there for few days. Other stops I took was in Pune and Belgaum. There is of course a lot of exploration opportunities on the route, with short and long detours. How much we can explore depends on time availability. I explored a few temples on the way, I didn’t have time for any major detours,

Morya Gosami Ganpati Temple: “Ganpati Bappa Morya” is such a famous line, and yet I found out about this devotee Morya Gosami only a year back. Since then, this samadhi temple in Pimpri-Chinchwad on outskirts of Pune was on my bucket list. Glad to visit now.

Belgaum temples: Love Belgaum as a city. It’s currently quite small and laidback but with all amenities like swanky five stars, fine dining restaurants and malls. It’s also only 2 hrs from Goa and I can almost sense a touch of the Susegaad feeling here. Checked a few temples on my rest day here.

Bhavani Temple on Kaveri River: A picturesque place as we pass by on the Salem – Coimbatore highway. Took a quick detour to explore this temple. It was closed when I arrived, but I looked around the kshetra (area).

This entire route till Bengaluru is part of the Government’s Golden Quadrilateral project which aims at connecting major metro cities of India with fantastic expressways. And I was thrilled to find that almost 70 to 80% of the route is in very good shape! Indian roads weren’t always great. Potholes and security both were an issue in the past… so, with those expectations now seeing 3 or 4 lane highways, rare potholes for long stretches is really nice.

The best highway stretch in terms of road quality was after Hubli to Bengaluru. This is a long stretch of 3 to 4 lane express way. Moreover, it has been made such that the major cities enroute are about 5 kms away. This means that the highway is fairly isolated with open country all around and no interferences. Eateries and shops will probably be added in … but purely from driving perspective this was a really good stretch.

Special mention for the stretch between Kolhapur and Belgaum. It’s 2 lanes mostly, but it was specially scenic. And I got most of it empty, so I could go fast despite there being only 2 lanes.

The stretch from Bengaluru to Coimbatore via Salem was the first place where I got traffic jams, literally congested traffic jam, for 15-20 mins. Moreover, in over 12 places there are unmanned barricades on highways which makes the 3 lane highway into 1 lane highway. Probably done to reduce speed, but seriously, what a contrast compared to all my previous drives. So, I would say better to stick to the Bengaluru to Coimbatore via Mysore route rather than the TN section.

Overall, great experience. Getting used to driving life 🙂

Solo Woman Safety, Driving on Highways:

I would avoid night time driving – anyway because it is unsafe driving itself, but especially if I am solo. Apart from that these highways are quite populated… plus, they have police numbers and other emergency numbers available. Though I hadn’t made note of any of them… but I feel we should make note of those, that should be enough in case of any untoward incidents.

Walking into the highway restaurants for food, did raise a few eyebrows when they realized I am solo. But nothing more than that. I am anyway used to this on my other adventures too. Considering, that I have cycled on such highway stretches in foreign countries, I don’t feel at all daunted by being solo – in fact having a car is quite a bit more re-assuring!

Let’s see what more driving adventures are in store for me.