I had to return. I had a view of the mountains which would have been clearer if the weather cooperated. I could have had an even closer and clearer panoramic view. Anyway, it was a tough trek and in the end I am grateful that my ankles, knees, heart and energy supported me commendably.
Here is how we finally reached our destination – London.
We were driving at a speed of 120km/hr when the stork hit our car. I saw 3 birds, a large one with two little ones, flying together above the car in front of me. In a fraction of a second, the huge bird hit the windshield, shattering it. Since the windshields are made of toughened laminated glass, the broken pieces of glass do not fall out. But in this case the impact was such that small particles of glass spread all over, inside the car. They even spilled over Nishi who was sitting in the rear seat. My spectacles saved my eyes. Fortunately, I was in a right frame of mind and ensured
that the vehicle does not go out of control. I slowly pulled the car over to the shoulder.
Though it was difficult, I managed to drive for about 100 kms to get to a safe place to park the car for a few hours. BMW agents had a 10-day wait to get a new windshield. That would have completely upset our schedule. However, my co-travelers helped to locate a garage which hoped to find a similar windshield – the next day.
We attended the grand reception 
extended by the Vilnius corporation authorities followed by another warm reception by the Indian community. We witnessed a wonderful laser and fire cracker show at the beautiful Grand Resort. But all through these, I had an uncomfortable feeling about getting the right windshield. There was a huge chance of us being held back for 10 days! My happiness was for everyone to see when I got saw the windshield replaced to perfection.
Our next stop was Warsaw, Poland. Warsaw has been rebuilt after complete destruction in the Second World War.
Modern buildings and the palace of the last Polish King are sites to see. Thereafter it was a drive to Prague, Czechoslovakia – a city with a mix of modern an d historical buildings.
We then had our longest driving distance in a day – 930km. We had breakfast in Czech, lunch in Germany and dinner in Belgium.
We were welcomed by a dinner by the Indian Ambassador and enjoyed visiting the break day at beautiful Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the European Union.
Next day again was cutting across multiple countries. Breakfast in Belgium, Lunch on the ferry in France and dinner at London.
Finally, we reached London as per schedule. Mission accomplished. Drive from Mumbai to London, over 22,000km, in 72 days passing through 19 countries. Hip Hip Huray!!
We stayed back for about 3 weeks in London where we had the privilege of sharing our experiences with family, friends and the School authorities and students of Nishi’s school in Chelmsford.
The invitation from BBC Essex to join their studio for an interview was icing on the cake.
‘Home Sweet Home’ it was in the early hours of 26 June 2017 – The Dream Came True.
We seem to attract the police a bit. This time, rightly so 😛 it was for speeding and a minor traffic offense. Then we had a bit of an event where our windshield got hit by a small pebble while driving causing a small hole. 
Worry not, we super-glued it with the help of a very friendly mechanic who went around Samara town with us till we found the right glue.
We were also hosted by the Indian embassy at Samara.
Samara is a pretty town with lots of natural and man-made beauty. This is a beach on the Volga river. Yep, a riverside beach. Amazing, isn’t it?
The local authorities of Samara have training facilities for various sports on the riverside beach. Here’s a gymnast practising her skill.
If you had heard impressive things about Russian architecture and the beauty of Moscow, you were right.
You would think that we would have grand stories about the difficult terrain we drove through. Well, we have loads of those and some more. And we will share those once we are back. But, here’s a weird surprise. One of the most difficult ones was getting out of a parking lot in Moscow.
Video of parking lot
Every time we think we have accomplished something, life presents new inspirations. Meet Mr. Ulla who is cycling from from Germany to Philippines!
And on that note, we bid adieu to Asia and are off to Europe. Latvia marks the end of the penultimate week of our trip.
Just yesterday, the windshield had another episode. A stork flew into it when we were driving at 120 kmph.
All’s well. No one is hurt but it was a bit of a scare for sure.
We had a beautiful night in Lithuania.
Yep, we are almost done, crossing one European country after another. It is as exhilarating as it is saddening. It is soon going to be done with. Till then!
In continuation of earlier blog RTL # 9 – My Brave Bachchus
Once I decided to go for this journey, I was reading through the experiences of people who had been through similar journeys, in the past.
There are a few who have driven from London to Delhi. There is also the story of three friends who started from London and got stuck in Afghanistan – they were sent back after a week’s experience in an Afghan prison. There are some who had to return halfway due to health or political problems.
Tushar Agarwal has a series of Guinness and Limca records for his driving achievements. Amongst several others, he drove from London to Delhi with his wife. He and his friend Sanjay Madan also have to their credit, a 70,000 kms self-driving trip through 51 countries in 6 continents! Whoa!
I wanted to make a record too! But it is absolutely difficult to beat their records. But I am heads up on one factor. Being senior in age has its advantages. I beat them hollow in age. While interacting with Tushar, he realised and hinted that I would be the senior most person to take up such a long self-driving trip. That aside, Pushpa and I could be the senior most couple to achieve this. That we could attempt to establish these new records added to our excitement. Yes, if I am fit and confident enough to do it and face the problem in the process of achieving it!
That would be another record for us!
When Nishi agreed to join the expedition, I realised that it would be an another record. She would be the youngest to take such a journey. We should be celebrating her 10th birthday on the way, if all goes well, in China.
Possibilities of setting these three new records – (a) senior-most individual (b) senior-most couple and (c) youngest individual boosted our spirits even further.
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In continuation of earlier blog RTL # 6 – Family consent
All the expedition participants have to assemble at the exit point from India, Imphal, Manipur. This is where we will leave India on 17th April, 2017.
This means, before crossing the Indian border, I have to drive across India from Mumbai which is on the west coast to almost the eastern end of India – crossing 10 Indian States. A straight drive from Mumbai to Imphal is about 3,300 kilometers and can be done in about 10-12 days. Google maps showed our initial route within India as:
I haven’t travelled to the North Eastern States popularly known as “Seven Sister States of India”. Or their brother, Sikkim. I haven’t been to Bhutan either. Since I have the luxury of a car while driving to those North Eastern states, we decided as well visit some interesting places like Darjeeling, Sikkim, Bhutan, Kaziranga National Park on our way to Imphal. Some of these places need an extra stay of at least one day each. This adds to 17 days and 4,000kms drive.
As we were finalizing the itinerary, Pushpa revealed that it was her childhood dream to visit Cherrapunjee, the wettest place in India. I would like to spend the rest of my life with her! A good husband that I am, I had no option but to add Cherrapunjee to the itinerary.
A few hours from Cherrapunjee is the cleanest village in Asia – Mawlynnong. There are many other interesting places around like unusual caves, various natural earth formations, double decker bridges naturally-formed out of tree stems and multi-stage waterfalls. The world famous Shillong also falls on this route. How can you be so close and miss all of that? Another 3 days and 400 kilometers.
Just to make sure that I do not miss any interesting places on the route, I collected tourist maps and literature of each of the states I would be passing through. I noticed that there are certain other important places on this route.
Deoghar in Jharkhand drew my special attention. There are twelve religiously auspicious Jyotirling locations in India. We had visited all of them except Baba Baidyanath at Deoghar, at the extreme east end of Jharkhand. We are not sure when we will visit that area again. We added Deoghar. This takes us very close to Varanasi on the Ganges, Gaya-Bodhgaya where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment, Sarnath where Lord Buddha delivered his first sermon, Jalmahal, Pavapuri where Lord Mahavira attained salvation, Nalanda University claimed to be the first university in the world. You got it right. I could not ignore any of these places when they mean just 3-4 more days. By increasing our daily drive we should be able to squeeze in these places with 21 days to Imphal.
There are many more interesting places, but I froze it to 21 days. For now! The map at this staged looked like:
In continuation of earlier blog RTL # 11 – Driving Duration a Day…..
On such a strenuous driving expedition, our physical and mental fitness aside, it is equally important to have a right and reliable vehicle. A comfortable car surely enhances the level of satisfaction of driving. Very affectionately I named our car, “Soham”. “Soham” is a chant popularised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, of The Art of Living foundation. It means, “I am He”. I acknowledge the presence of the Almighty in the vehicle that takes me around.
The varied terrain requires a safer 4-wheel drive car with ground clearance of at least 190mm, if not more.
Anand’s “consent” to the trip was on the condition that I should take the vehicle of his choice! Smart on his part to have discovered what I was trying to hide. Both our current cars are fairly new with about 25K and 15K km on them. “Pappa, you certainly should not undertake this journey in your favourite Skoda Superb. Yes, the BMW-X1 SUV is better. But still not good enough. After all, you would be driving through some of the places where roads hardly exist.”
Anand was right. Under such situations, my Skoda Superb, with a ground clearance of only 164 mm, is far below the minimum safety need of 190 mm. Further, Chinese authorities do not give road entry permit for sedans. They demand the pictures from all sides of the car. For them, the vehicle should have SUV looks. They consider SUV more reliable. They don’t want me to have a vehicle breakdown and get stuck in their country for any reason! Fair enough.
I had the option of taking the BMW-X1, compact SUV. It has a better ground clearance of 179mm. Though not good enough. I checked with some of my contacts who have driven on the worst of the stretches we would be passing through. I was told X-1 would be just about ok. Arguably, it is just good enough for two of us.
Neither Pushpa nor I understand much of car mechanism. A few years earlier, I was capable of attending to any minor car-related problems. But now I have become lethargic and have developed the habit to look for assistance even to change a flat tyre. Habits hardly die! I decided that at least for the first 3 weeks of my journey, till the time I drive within India, I can have an assistant with us. So I decided to have our household assistant, Shiva with us. He is like a younger brother or son to me. Once we reach Manipur, the border city of India, he can fly back home! Our count of passengers in the car increased to three.
And then, my 9 year old granddaughter Nishi decided to join us for the entire tour. We would now be four for the Indian part of journey and three for the overseas drive.
We need to carry baggage to last us three months. We would be crossing through all types of climatic conditions – normal, cold, very cold, wet, warm, hot and very hot. Therefore we need to carry all types of garments. That aside, extras like food and water, a jerrycan for spare fuel, etc were also essential for such long journeys. Anand wanted me to play safe. He proposed that I take a bigger, better and safer vehicle than BMW X1.
Anand has reasonably good knowledge about vehicles. He shortlisted a vehicle each from Mercedes, Volvo, BMW, Land Rover and Toyota. Land rover is expensive and even its 3-year used model without warranty was almost same cost as a new vehicle of other brands with warranty. Also, Land Rover has a more sophisticated mechanism. In case of a breakdown, we might not find knowledgeable mechanics or spare parts. Hence we gave up the idea of second-hand Rover. We further narrowed the selection down to either Toyota Land Cruiser or BMW X-5. We had a series of meetings with the marketing executives of these brands. Dealers of BMW offered to provide certain facilities. Trusting them, we selected to go ahead with X-5. The trailer however
Badri Pushpa with Soham
was slightly different than the movie we saw / are seeing … the post-sales service was drastically different to earlier promises, up to a point where, in one case, it had put our entire expedition at risk of cancellation. Without dwelling into the details, we decided to continue with BMW.
By coincidence, this is the type of car Anand wanted to buy for two years now. But since our current cars were not even a year old then, the decision was deferred.
One by one, items got checked on the to-do list: Itinerary, timings, hotel bookings, vehicle. Years ago when I dreamt of such an expedition, I wondered “How To Do It?”. Now, I have removed the “How To” and “?” and am left with “Do It!”
To be continued………………
In continuation of earlier blog RTL # …………………………
Having decided to make this trip, I had to plan my itinerary. Once a date is frozen, planning various aspects of the travel becomes even more energised. It inspires you to study and enjoy planning. We would cross the Indian border from Manipur to Myanmar on 16 April 2017. Keeping a buffer for unexpected events, we plan to reach there a day in advance. I back-calculated to fix a departure date from home. I laid down some basic principles:
Pushpa Getting Ready to Drive to London
That would mean a total travelling time of 10 to 11 hours a day. A 6AM start gets you to the destination by 4 or 5 pm. This is not difficult. Especially, with Pushpa taking up a couple of hours of driving, it seemed quite comfortable.
Once Nishi confirmed to join us, I revised the drive time. 8 hours in the car for two and a half months is a bit much. To maintain excitement till the end, I had to make it interesting and not tiring for the child. Till we reach the Indian border, I revised the drive time to an average of about 6 hours per day. Including breaks, it would still add up to 8 hours a day. A little delayed start every morning, say at 7 or even 8AM would take us to the revised destination by 3AM. That gives us enough time for a comfortable breakfast, have lunch on the way and reach the destination by the time we are ready for a mid-afternoon snack. It also left scope to spend about 2-3 hours to visit interesting places around the destination or on the way. Or just relax.
After considering these parameters, I booked accommodation. I had a real tough time to fix locations on certain stretches like Mumbai to Ayodhya and Varnasi to Darjeeling.
Of course, there have been many revisions in the itinerary. And every change in itinerary, even it is of a single day resulted in a series of changes in accommodation. With every change, I changed hotel bookings. I don’t want to miss out on any sites, just because I had to put in some extra effort. I did not lose my patience. Though confusing and complicated, I started enjoying and learning out of it. It is good I had ‘free cancellation’ terms in my bookings!
I have revised my itinerary almost 10 times and I had to change hotel bookings on all 10 revisions!
In continuation of earlier blog RTL # 8 – The Influential Hidden Character
The route I planned for my route within India, from Mumbai to Imphal would pass through places of historical and religious importance, national parks and sanctuaries, entertainment centers and caves, toy trains and ropeways etc. These are the places which would be of special interest to children. We would also be embracing through some of the most beautiful places in the world. Any one passing through these would develop a special relation with nature.
Generally the inbuilt dangers of adventure travel are hyped. They are projected as much more dangerous than they actually are. This discourages youngsters to take such trips.
One of my grandchildren Nishi was with us in the 9-day Iceland driving trip. Inspite of
all the known fears, Nishi joined us for Iceland. During problematic situations there, Nishi proved to be the calmest and bravest amongst the three of us. Any problem we had, whether it was on top of a lava or an ice mountain, mobiling on glacier, running around huge waterfalls, she smilingly enjoyed facing them, as if she was playing a new game. I realised during that trip that kids are in fact, more mature in handling problems! I was wondering if I could create some interest in such travels in the youngsters of our family.
I have four grandchildren. One is just 3 years old and the other three are in the 9-14 age range. I thought it would be great if the children joined the journey. It would be a life-time experience for them at such a young age.
I sent a message to my children, inviting any one grandchild to join us.
Yes, “any one” was for a good reason. The travel is scheduled at exam season. Naturally they hesitated. We got “no” as an answer from all of them. Never mind!
After a week or so, Nishi and her parents, Nilesh and Seema, probably re-thought about 
the opportunity. They asked if it was too late to for Nishi to join us, subject to her permissions from her school.
Nishi lives in Chelmsford, Essex, UK. Her school authorities were extremely excited about the experience she would get in this trip! They were thrilled in an instant and granted her special permission. The Head of Academics wrote, “What a fantastic experience (it would be)! Nishi’s teachers are aware that she will be absent and nearer the time I will liaise with them in order to ensure work is provided for Nishi whilst she is away…..We very much look forward to hearing all about Nishi’s travels when she returns!”. Fantastic! What a positive approach and support from the school! Nishi confirmed to take the journey with us.
Once I had the confirmation from Nishi, I added a few places en-route which would be of special interest to her. But I did not extend beyond 21 days. I deleted some of the places of lesser importance. I revised my itinerary. Probably, by now it has had 10+ revisions. I back-calculated and provisionally fixed 26th March 2017 as the day for departure from Mumbai.
Thereafter my other grand daughter Ruhi, settled in Pune, also expressed her interest to
join us. We reconsidered, if we could accommodate her too. But, then we had to be practical. It was a long journey. We weren’t comfortable with the idea of more than three persons + luggage to survive for that duration, in one car! Pushpa and I are in our 60s and 70s. Managing ourselves and our health itself is a good enough challenge! We could manage one child. Managing two children and their health could potentially become difficult on a long journey. Against our own wishes, we had to restrict to one child only.
A week after, I sought the blessings of our Guruji, Jagathguru Sri Sridharacharyaji of Ayodhya. I explained our plans. He called back to say that I should change the date of departure. I could not have shortened the number of days as it was already hectic. Nor did I want to miss any of the selected places. Undoubtedly, leaving a day or two earlier would provide a slight relief to the itinerary. Guruji therefore, fixed the flag off time as 10 am on Friday, 24th March 2017 as auspicious!
So it is now 23 days of travel from West to East of India, before we cross Indian borders.
That is not all,,,,,, abhi picture baaki hai!
Continued from Road to London # 12 – “Soham”, the Companion….
Right from the beginning, we knew that driving to London through the Western borders would mean going through Pakistan and Afghanistan, which might not be the safest route. The Himalayan mountain range on the North and oceans on the South rule out those routes. That left only the Eastern route through China. There are roads linking from Nepal and North-Eastern parts of the Indian border, but entry is restricted only for the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage. Thus we had to cross China, some parts of the old USSR, now countries like Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, certain European countries before we reach United Kingdom. This is a drive of about 45 days from the time we cross the Indian border. This itinerary was considered as almost final for the tour.
Pushpa & Badri Baldawa with Soham
Myanmar is a country I have been wanting to visit for long. I heard of it as Burmah where Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose founded the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) to fight for independence. The ruling military junta changed its name from Burma to Myanmar in 1989.
However there was an update that though the entry point in Myanmar is safe, the exit point, Muse was not very peaceful. Therefore the route to China had to be changed. The best practical alternative was to drive to Thailand, cut across Laos and then enter China. This added two countries to the itinerary and increased the overseas travel from 45 to 47 days and the number of countries from 14 to 16.
We need to drive for a fortnight to cross the Chinese territory and reach Kyrgyzstan. I was very happy when I realised our next destination country was Uzbekistan. It would give us an opportunity to visit Tashkent where our former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri breathed his last. From there on to Kazhakstan before we touch the border of Russia.
As per the original plans we planned to enter Belarus through the Kurgan border from Moscow. It
From Mumbai – Road to London
was not possible to get vehicle permits for Belarus from Russia. In October 2016, the Belarus–Russia border was closed to foreigners. Therefore, the itinerary had to be re-routed again. Instead of entering through Belarus, we would now drive further north and enter European Union through Latvia and Lithuania. The onward drive thereafter is easy through Czechoslovakia, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France and finally to The United Kingdom. Once we enter UK at its South East, we would drive to London. This revision added two more days to the itinerary.
However this creat
ed another technical problem. If we left the Indian border as per original schedule on 16 April 2017, we reach the China border on a Sunday. The border is closed on Sundays. Hence the departure from India was postponed to 17 April 2017.
All these changes made the total countries visited from the original 15 to 18 (excluding Bhutan). The total number of overseas driving days increased from 45 to 49. Add to that the 23 days drive to reach the Indian border. The total duration of the tour now is at a total of 72 days!
The action begins in less than 10 days on 24th March 2017. We would love to see you all cheer us when we leave at a small flag-off event. Please do come!
To Be Continued ………….
In continuation of earlier blog DTI 7: Tough Day Ahead……
Day 3 and we made an early start at 7 AM. We reached the garage at 8.25 AM where the technician was fixing another tyre. He was up and working at 7AM, on an Sunday morning! He took us up next and we were all set in 25 minutes. He had to leave to attend to another car stuck in a river stream about 30 kilometers away. Thank God, the tyre hadn’t torn or split. Else, it would have meant another 300 kilometers to find a new tyre.
Hekla Volcano
On the way, we passed by Hekla again, a beautiful, curvy, snow-clad lava mountain. It looked like a large ship turned upside down. It stretched for about 25 kilometers and was high enough to be noticed from a distance of 50 kilometers.
Hekla erupts every 10 years and last erupted in January 2010. The Icelandik Government allows visitors to climb to the top. But they also warn travellers of an imminent eruption. After a point where an extremely rough F road ends, Hekla volcano top can be trekked – an 18 kilometer trek over the mountain and glacier, to get to the top.
At the beginning of the day, with one flat wheel, I could not have risked driving on that road. We had to skip this trek and had to satisfy ourselves by watching it from the base.
We got to Seljalandsfoss in time to catch the mountain bus for Thorsmork, one of the most popular visitor site in the interiors. This place could be reached either by a full fledge powerful 4wd like a Landcruiser or by special mountain bus. The mountain bus has tyres that are as tall as me – certainly more than 5.5 feet and has a ground clearance of over 2.5 feet.
Lagoon 5-6 years back – Now lava land as in pic
On the way, we could see the place that was popular, about 5-6 years ago for its lagoons surrounded by snow. The volcanic eruptions had thrown out huge burning stones, which formed large mountains. The lava exposed to the cold temperature on the top formed ice glaciers. The water at the base of the mountain, now has lava sand and stones.
It was a wise decision to have taken the mountain bus to Thorsmork as there were quite a few unbridged deep river crossings on the way.
Two kilometer climb to the top of the mountain at Thormork led us to a beautiful view of multiple glaciers around us. It was like a mini Kala Pathar, located near Mt Everest base camp, where one could see snow-clad mountains all around you. We could see 3 ice glaciers, next to each other, making for a panorama of about 180 degrees.
After the visit to Thormork, it was time for Seljalandsfoss waterfall, a giant fall that drops at least 250 feet, from the top of a cave. The cave can be reached at about half the height of the waterfall. A climb to the cave took us behind the waterfall. We repeatedly circled around the waterfall and the point at which the water hits the floor with great force. As you can imagine, the circles were superb fun.
This waterfall became Nishi’s favorite. On our way back, we had to pass by this waterfall again. Nishi made sure that we trekked around the waterfall a couple more times.
140 kilometers later, we reached our night halt. We slept with the excitement of a glacier walk that lay ahead the next day.
As expected, I sorted out the travel insurance issues and found a Sherpa guide in time to leave for the much-awaited trek. The insurance company ultimately agreed to waive the age limit requirement for an extra premium. And I found a well-recommended sherpa to guide me through the ranges for a spectacular view of Annapurna range(ABC), Machhapuchhre (MBC), Hiunchuli, and the Dhaulagiri mountains on the Nepalese side of the Himalayas
. I was on my way to Annapurna early in the morning on 16 November.