Day 3 (5th March)
Route
Nagpur – Amravati – Jalgaon – Dhule – Malegaon – Nashik
The day started rather early and we were on the road (pun not intended) at 05:00. Leaving early has its own advantages and the deserted roads of Nagpur ensured that we were out of the city in a jiffy. It also helped that Rituraj had repeatedly and laboriously asked the route out of the city from the night guard.
The initial 100 Kms was four lane and with minimal traffic the drive was a pleasure. The sun had barely risen when we negotiated a steep but scenic ghat and drove past Malegaon soon thereafter. Severely chastened by the experiences of the previous two days we stopped at the first decent looking dhaba. It was only 07:00 and the dhaba was in the process of being cleaned. However, they promised to give us Sambhar – Vada if we were willing to wait a little. Certainly we would wait, we told them and avidly watched the cook grind fresh chutney, cut vegetables for sambhar, and prepare fresh batter for the vada. By and by, we heard the unmistakeable sizzling sound of batter being immersed in hot oil. We were salivating by the time the piping hot sambhar – vada was served, and gorged on it without further ado. A cup of typical dhaba tea – thick, sweet, lots of milk, no flavour – completed the breakfast.
This was orange country and scores of verdant orchards dotted the landscape. Our desire to take pictures of trees laden with ripe fruits, could not, however, materialise. The fruits had either been harvested or they were still green! Confounded by this conundrum we drove on, expecting to see heaps of oranges along the highway. However, only near Akola did we see come across heaps of oranges being sold.
Gradually the orchards were replaced by large farmlands of cotton. The crop was maturing and the plants were dotted with white. While we could not see cotton being plucked, probably because of the intense heat, we did drive past mounds of cotton – in warehouses, on trucks, on tractors and on bullock carts.
From Nagpur we had taken NH 6 (Kolkata to Surat) and as the day progressed the truck traffic increased. The road was not four laned either, and often the long line of oncoming trucks forced us to reduce speed and patiently wait for a suitable break before overtaking the equally long line of trucks ahead of us. Despite this handicap, the journey remained comfortable and the progress satisfactory.
By 13:00 hrs we were approaching Jalgaon and saw a plethora of hotels as we negotiated our way out of the town. We almost stopped at one of them for lunch but the dense traffic dissuaded us and apprehensive about our lunch we slowly got out of the town. Only a few kilometres beyond Jalgaon we spotted two dhabas – Sher-e-Punjab Dhaba and Khalsa Dhaba. The dhabas looked decidedly better than what we had encountered in this journey. We parked in front of Sher-e-Punjab. It could very well have been Khalsa instead – they were practically identical. Lunch was ordered – Chicken Curry, Dal Fry and Roti. The chicken curry and Roti were reasonably OK. But no dal came – they had run out of dal!! This dhaba seemed to be in great demand – but we have had much better dhaba food.
As we drove further, the landscape turned arid and desolate. For miles upon miles we only saw a desolate sun beaten land. Hardly any trees dotted the landscape either, the only vegetation being the hardy shrubs and bushes. Our tired eyes craved for soothing green, but it would we only after Dhule that they would get some respite.
Dhule is on the intersection of NH 3 (Agra – Mumbai) and NH 6. At 15:50 hrs we bid a tired good bye to NH 6 and turned onto NH 3. And what a dramatic turn (pun intended) it was going to prove! The road as well as the landscape suddenly transformed. We were now driving on a swanky four lane and the barren, desolate landscape turned green as if by magic. The desolation of barren fields was now replaced by lush green crops and hills and hillocks dotted the skyline. Refreshed and energised by this magical change we carried on towards Nashik – the smooth four lane ensuring good speed as well.
You know that you are passing through the onion heartland when you see sacks of them along the highway. A bad crop here has often brought tears in the eyes of the average Indian and has led to the downfall of govts! This area is also famous for its wines and soon we started spotting large vineyards laden with maturing grapes. As one drives closer to Nashik, the vineyards mushroom as do roadside stalls of grapes. We dutifully stopped and bought some grapes and onions.
The long day and drive were coming to an end now, we were on the outskirts of Nashik city. The standard procedure of asking for directions began in right earnest. We were now seeking directions to the Maharashtra Police Academy. No one seemed to have a clue. No wonder, we thought, police is not the most respected of institutions in our country anyway. We started looking for policemen now. After a long wait a couple of traffic cops were spotted. They were courteous and gave us the directions as well as the locality of the Academy. Now we were better armed and asked for directions to the locality. A few more direction seeking stops helped us finding the destination. We had negotiated 703 kms in 14 hours.
And Mumbai, which had been a daunting 2100 kms when we started, was less than 200 kms now!
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