I had requested for a plant visit on CEO comment/feedback. I got a reply from them to pick a day for the visit. I was overwhelmed with a positive response from Fiat. Scheduled the visit for the 5th of September 2009. Planned to leave by 6 pm on 3rd September 2009, visit Jog falls, Unchalli Falls and then drive down to Pune via Hubli.
Day 1: 3rd September 2009: Started about a couple of hours late from the scheduled start and drove down via the Nice Road to Nelamangala from RR Nagar. Reached Shimoga at 1 am. Took a room to doze off for the day.
Day 2: 4th September 2009: Started at 7 am from Shimoga and drove down to Sagar. We had breakfast at Sagar and proceeded towards Jog. Reached by 9:15 am, initially very excited with the mist, but disappointed a little later as this hid the falls completely. It started raining, so was waiting around the place for the rain to stop. But a brisk breeze cleared up the mist which ensured I got busy with clicking pics.
Day 1: 3rd September 2009: Started about a couple of hours late from the scheduled start and drove down via the Nice Road to Nelamangala from RR Nagar. Reached Shimoga at 1 am. Took a room to doze off for the day.
Day 2: 4th September 2009: Started at 7 am from Shimoga and drove down to Sagar. We had breakfast at Sagar and proceeded towards Jog. Reached by 9:15 am, initially very excited with the mist, but disappointed a little later as this hid the falls completely. It started raining, so was waiting around the place for the rain to stop. But a brisk breeze cleared up the mist which ensured I got busy with clicking pics.
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| From Pune - Shirdi |
Then my companions decided to trek to the bottom of the falls. I was ok with myself waiting inside the car half asleep. After a couple hours they return completely drenched in rain. After they got back to normal dresses, we left for Unchalli Falls. This is one splendid falls. We reached Unchalli falls by 12.30 pm.
It was raining pretty heavy. Decided to give the umbrellas a bit of a workout. Reached the view point again completely misty, there was no letting from the mist. All along the leeches gave us company at the falls. The noise at the falls was deafening but we could not see the waterfalls due to the mist. We waited for about 45 mins for the mist to clear, but to no avail, we decided to move on. Drove till Sirsi and stopped over for lunch. Then drove through Yellapur to Dharwad to reach the Bangalore – Pune highway. After hitting the Bangalore – Pune highway at 7 pm and with about 430 odd kms still to go for Pune, started upping the speed, but the situation got only worse as it started to pour. The average speed being low due to rain, reached Pune by 1:30 am. Was tired and hit the sack for a sound sleep. But invariably I could not sleep, thinking about the next day’s program.
Day 3: 5th September 2009: Got up early, the executive from Fiat was ready to meet up with me. We headed off to the factory. The factory is about 57 kms from Pune. Reached the factory by 11 am. Delay as we visited a Ganapati Temple on the way. The findings from the visit will be put in a new thread.
After the visit around the plant, decided to visit Shirdi which is about 150 kms from the factory and about 200 kms from Pune. The roads till Ahmednagar were good and then from there on it was a night mare till about 20 odd kms to Shirdi.
A routine temple visit and dinner, hit the sack for a sound sleep after 2 days.
Day 4: 6th September 2009: Got up a little late, and finished the pending visits to numerous spots in Shirdi. Started from Shirdi via the same route I came from. Drove till Pune outskirts on the Bangalore – Pune highway.
Stopped at a fuel pump and also a dhaba was located there. Finished lunch and chilled out for about an hour. And started driving back. It was very leisurely drive cruising all along. Then unfortunately had a puncture so wasted another hour and half. Then after the puncture was fixed, drove on till Belgaum for a coffee break. Another delay here, because the milk was still on its way. In the meanwhile was playing with the Labrador dog that the hotel owner had. Then after the milk arrived, another 40 mins gone. Then drove up to Dharwad to stop for dinner. An hour gone. Stopped at Dharwad to withdraw money and refuel. Required quite bit of money due to the toll that one pays all along the highway.
From Haveri toll to Hiriyur toll the road is in very poor condition. Seriously pissed off with the road condition as I could not maintain even a decent average speed. Took about 3.5 hours to cross this stretch. Then from there on, the traffic was high in the night all along the highway till The NICE Road. Finally reached home by 6:15 am on Monday.
