16 hrs of packing & 20 hrs of driving

After over 16 hours of non-stop packing we left Chennai at 5:30 am.


We had to pack for the sunny parts of the journey, rainy parts and the really freezing parts. So there were different sets of bags for each zone. 


We had different bags for the food and snacks. We had sleeping bags, jackets and footwear. In all I think we finally had more than 16 pieces of luggage. 


We had some help from our maid and cook too.


I had hardly 3hrs of sleep, and Prabha had no sleep at all... but we were on a clock and we needed to get to Pune.

We got out of Chennai quite easily... the city was just waking up and as we neared Kanchipuram we got some great breakfast on the highway at Hotel Sakthi Ganapathy (Veg-A/C). The Idli, Vada Pongal with some good Vada-curry were very tasty. But when the coffee came Prabha said she could taste the flavors from her childhood... "the little little things that happend to me in my grand parents house in Madurai... all flashed in front of my eyes" she said. 


I've not heard her get so emotional about food, or anything in a long time... . maybe we were so excited about this whole drive that everything feels so good!


I don't know technically how long 'forty winks' is... it probably lasts for 40 seconds. That was how long Prabha got to sleep before it was interrupted by a most beautiful sight... A rainbow in formation... as we were watching it was getting bigger by the minute. A brilliant VIBGYOR send-off!

We crossed Bengaluru in less than 30 minutes - thanks to the NICE Ring Road (the name because it is constructed by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprices).


Then it started raining and it did not stop till we reached Pune. The next 15 hours of rainy driving was really exhausting. Thanks to some Red Bull and Chai from the road side dhaba we were able to pull it off.


Halieatus was beautiful... with the new tyres from Michelin we were able to take the large patches of water with ease and the ABS on our Xylo doubly ensured that we had no worries of aquaplaning. 


The new headlights we had fit on top were powerful but not focused right and we now have to get that fixed tomorrow in Pune. 


Today was a 'sitting-at-home-catching-up-on-emails' day... tomorrow will be another 'last minute shopping' day!