Drive from Lucknow to Agra

Lucknow to Agra and back 

Total: 800 KM


Stationed in lucknow for quite some time now and relatives were supposed to come to lucknow during durga puja. We had 2 cars, so decided to go for a long drive. And nobody except my dad has seen Taj Mahal before, so Agra was the destination. 


Now comes the question, who will take a ride in my car and who all will ride in dad’s car? We were 4 people of elder generation and 5 of mine (including 3 kids). So we fought for our rights for all kids to sit in the same car which I was driving. And mom, dad, uncle, aunty in dad’s car which dad was driving. 


We left lucknow and took the route to Kanpur from where we got the NH2. So road condition was again too good without any hassles. Only the city traffic of agra was the one to bother about. We reached around lunch time at agra and then went for local shopping. Next morning was the scheduled visit to taj mahal and fatehpur sikri. Next day was the return and it was as smooth as the onward journey. 


The highway was good, I was very cautious while driving although touched 170 kmph at one stretch when the road was looking good enough. 

Drive from Lucknow to Dudhwa

Here is the link to my second trip to Dudhwa (03-July-2015) 
http://highwayodyssey.blogspot.in/2015/07/bird-photography-at-dudhwa-national-park.html 


Lucknow to Dudhwa and back
Total 500 KM

My brother was coming down to lucknow for a vacation. Since my car was also there, so this time we decided to go to dudhwa national park. The mistake that we did was lack of research. We just decided one fine day to go and we went. Unfortunately the park was closed for tiger census. So had to just drive and come back the same day. Although I enjoyed the drive but the happiness was lacking, probably because of my tough phase of life that time.

Anyway, coming back to the drive, the roads are too good, we even went to border of Nepal. One can even take a temporary vehicle registration and go into Nepal from there. Or else one can even park the car in india and go across the border.

Finally since the park wasn’t open so we just came back to lucknow driving all the way back. Roads are decent and its worth a weekend getaway from lucknow.

Drive from Cuttack to Lucknow

Cuttack to Lucknow
Total: 1350 KM

The final chapter was over in Orissa and time had come to pack the bags. It did hurt to leave that job but the pain was too much to bear. Anyway, so amongst all despair one beautiful ray of happiness was shining. And it was my second long drive after the failure of the first. This time it was even bigger, I was driving from cuttack to lucknow. Fortunately I was taking a night halt in ranchi and dad was also with me in this journey just to support me when and if I get tired. 


Day 1: left cuttack early morning reached ranchi by lunch time. Took rest and stayed at uncles place for the night. 


Day 2: Left ranchi and continued through hazaribagh forest and ghats to catch NH2. NH2 was superb till varanasi where we had to branch out into State highway. Varanasi to lucknow was decent but only 2 lane. Reached lucknow by evening and was very happy to successfully complete this long journey. Don’t know how long will I be staying in lucknow now.