We had slated a day run of 440 km today, pushing off from Cuttack at 6.30 am, after our morning cuppa.
We decided we h
uikkkj7ijj iu ijjjjjkkkkjij9uwill break for brekker after 3 hours, at Rambha. Why there, pray? Firstly because it is supposKol ed to be a pretty place, nestling on the wei8iรญj9stern bank of the Chilika lake. Secondly, I wanted to just look in on the place that was in my options for night stay (instead of Cuttack) and I wanted to see what I had missed, just because I would have been required to drive another 3 hours.
Lunch break was a roadside Andhra dhaba. I remember that in my previous travel blog, I had complained like the dickens regarding AP food, especially the chilly powder content, but I was pleasantly surprised by this thali of simple sticky rice, daal, two sabjis of cabbage and ashgourd and curd. Just a hint of chilly and very tasty (VFM for Rs 100/-).
Travel to the south involves transiting in Orissa, usually at Bhubaneswar. This time, we halted at Cuttack, just for some variety. This distance of 425 kms is done by pro drivers in 9 hours of no-break driving, but I was expecting to take longer. The usual breafast and lunch breaks add around 1.5 hours to the trip. My additional imponderable was the condition of the highways, given that Dana had spread her wings across Orissa just a couple of days earlier. A few videos of Balasore and Bhadrak bobbing up and down in the waters had not done much to boost my confidence. But I was impressed. No impact on roads up to Cuttack, a bit of flooded fields here and there, and (here I did a double take), very few speed cameras. Either the gale had blown them away, or, what is more likely, Orissa govt took them down to prevent that bunch of costly equipment bring scattered all over Jharkhand. Breakfast at Kolaghat (8.30 am) We left at 6.30 am and had breakfast at Kolaghat (H. Anand s...
