Details: Bangalore to Hampi - Driving through overflowed tungabhadra River -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have traveled lot of interesting places. Listing a few of those here. We went to Hampi from Bangalore last August. It was the great trip. The toughest part was when we reached the resort "kishkinda heritage resort" we found that tungabhadra river was overflowing due to heavy rains that day and reching the resort was not possible since the road that lead to the resort was water clogged. It was 11:30 at night and we didn't know where to go. We were specially worried because our daughter was just 1 yrs old then and we were travelling with her. I came out of my car and examined the road. I found that the water level was not more than 2 ft. I believed my scorpio and just went into the water and dared to reach the resort safely......it was a great drive......specially that last 2 to 3 kms. It was like I was sailing in between a sea with no lights around. All the lights were switched off for safety purpose........ I have uploaded few snaps of this trip on http://picasaweb.google.co.in/suchitra.bhide/Hampi# Bangalore to Nature nirvana - Driving through a half Dried water falls --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Second such experience was when we went to a place near Chikmagalur. Its called NatureNirvana. Its a small home stay in between 2 mountains. The care taker of the place adviced us to drive upto Chikmangalur and he would arrange some transport from there to his place, but we prefered to drive on our own. We had a indica that time. On reaching the place we realised why they adviced us to park the vehicle in Chikmangalur. There were no roads to reach the place. Actually the road we had to follow was created due to a water fall that ran down the hill. It was really very dangerous not because the turns were steep but because there were lot of loose pables and more over we had tyres that had already done more than 50,000 kms. It was a greatest drive I had ever done. Coming up was more challenging ------thanks to our 50,000 kms worn tyres..... at few places the tyres were spinning fast but since there was no grip the car was actually moving backward........then we put some stones benith the tyres which helped with some extra grip......and reached back home safely........ Mumbai - Mahabaleshwar - Raigad - Mumbai in 1 day (about 750 kms) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This trip was our first long distance trip in our four wheeler. We had got a new Indica just a week ago. I had to work till 4:00 pm on that saturday evening. After coming home we thought of going on a long drive over Airoli bridge. When we crossed the bridge we decided to have some snacks on one of the road side hotel. While we were having snacks we discussed of going back home but both mine and Srushti's appetite of experienceing our new car was not over......so just casually I said to Srushti if she was ready we can go to Pune and come back. She said there's nothing worth seeing in Pune so we decided to hit Mahabaleshwar by then it was already 6:00 pm. so we started without any luggage just purchased one tyre tube and moved ahead. We reached Mahabaleshwar at about 11:30 rented a hotel and went to sleep.... Next day morning we went on the boating plan was to spend some time in Mahabaleshwar and return back home....... But while we were in Mahabaleshwar we came to know that Raigad was just 100 kms. so we decided to head towards Raigad. It was our first car and first long drive so we decided to get blessed from the Great maratha Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. We reached Raigad at about 2:00 had some light lunch and took the rope way to the top spend some time thre and started on our way back to Mumbai at around 5:00 reached Mumbai at about 3:00 am.........fully charged for the next week...........this trip was more enthusiastic since we were driving our own car for the first time on a long drive............ will never forget this one our car Indica was also great used it for 70,000 kms without any problems...it never gave any trouble in any of the journeys.....and now the scorpio is also the same.....only it needs lot of diesel........but its worh it.......