Rallies & Remarkable Road Trips

If Charles Lamb were to live in modern times, he would amend his famous quote to say, “the automobile has entered my soul”. It clogs up our cities, sprays carbon into our lungs, turns our environs into a dreadful cacophony of blaring horns, screeching tyres and roaring engines. Yet, few modern inventions have shrunk the planet as the motor car has. Its seductive allure is difficult to resist.

Come with me as I take you on a pleasure drive across 24 countries.

Four international motor rallies covering 14 countries, a desert rally through the Thar desert in Rajasthan, a cross-country drive from Delhi to Bangalore, transnational drives from Singapore to Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, Bangkok to Chiangmai in Thailand, a road trip along the southeastern coast of Australia from Sydney all the way to the Great Ocean Road, a wonder drive through the scenic landscape of South Island in New Zealand, a coastal drive in Ireland, the motorcar has given me many weeks of pure pleasure. Hop in and enjoy the drive..

Awesome Avenue of Volcanoes (2013) - Day Trip From Quito They line up the Pan-American Highway leading from Ecuador further south, like fierce sentinels watching over every traveller.  Their names roll of your tongue with awe, Sangay, Tunghurahua, Quilotoa, Cotopaxi, Illiniza, Antisana, Pichincha, Reventedor. Some wear a gossamer scarf so as…

Bangalore to Goa During Covid 19 - Suddenly we decided to check out Dandeli for birding. But first we must go to Goa, pick up a friend and then drive to Dandeli. These being Covid times, we decided to just drive. We set out at 4 am from Bengaluru and reached Goa…

Bangkok-Sukothai- Chiangmai (2012-13) - 2200 kms, 8 days Finding our way out of Bangkok on a Christmas-eve weekend, without a GPS was an ordeal we had not bargained for. The rental car attendant shrugged his shoulders and said the GPS we had booked and paid for, was unavailable and…

Central Asian Silk Route Expedition (2014) - 6000 kms 3 Weeks :Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan Landlocked Central Asia, rugged, remote and relatively inaccessible, has straddled the Silk Route between Asia and Europe for several centuries. The region is home to some of the loftiest mountain ranges on our planet—Hindukush, Karakoram, Altai, Tien…

Christchurch to Doubtful Sound On The Tasman Sea, New Zealand (2016) - 1200 kms 10 days return trip Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city, seems reluctant to emerge from the burrows it had buried itself into after the devastating earthquake of 2011. The 6.3-magnitude quake laid waste large parts of the city and left it in a…

Cliffs & Curves of the Amalfi Coast (2009) - 140 kms return, 3 days Smugness comes naturally to Indian travellers. We know we have everything in our vast and varied landscape — from drop-dead gorgeous gorges and lofty peaks crowned by glaciers to pearly white sand beaches studded with exquisite temples and churches. So,…

Coastal Drive From Sydney to Great Ocean Road (2007, 2015) - 3000 km, One Week: Sydney-Narooma-Gyppsland-Melbourne-Torquay – Lorne -Apollo Bay-Port Campbell- Warrnambool -Geelong-Melbourne-Sydney We hover over sheer cliffs that drop vertically down to the blue expanse fringed by frothy waves. On one side, the undulating coastline stretches as far as the eye can see while on…

Delhi-Bangalore Road Trip (2015) - 3000 kms, 4 days, One-Way Delhi-Jaipur-Udaipur-Ahmedabad-Baroda-Surat-Mumbai-Pune-Goa-Karwar-Darwar-Bengaluru What do you do when you are left with an embarrassment of cars? Our son left his car with us when he moved to Singapore and I did not want to be saddled with another vehicle in Delhi. So…

Gondwanaland – Namibia (2022) - 2000 kms, 14 days, 4×4 Self-drive The Namib desert is the oldest desert on the planet. It takes its name from the Nama people who originally inhabited this land. Three or four major ethnic groups and many minor ones are native to Namibia – Ovambo,…

Nikitin Expedition From St. Petersburg to Shiraz Through Six Countries (2006) - 10,000 kms, 6 Weeks Russia, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Baharain The Russian Leg – St.Petersburg, Tver, Moscow, Nizhny, Kazan, Samara, Saratov, Volgograd, Kalmykia, Kropotkin, Astrakhan, Sochi   Turkey The Caucuses – Georgia, Azerbaijan Iran Tracing Nikitin’s Footsteps More than five centuries ago, in an era…

Osian Desert Safari, Rajasthan (2007) - It was an invitation too tempting to resist, especially because it came with no obligations except to steer a Mahindra vehicle up and down the dunes and shrubs, kicking up dust in the desert is not something you do everyday. The invitation came from Pawan…

Rallying for Friendship – Kolkata to Kunming (2013) - 3000 kms, 2 Weeks: Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar (Kolkata, Benapole, Jessore, Sylhet, Dhaka, Karimganj, Silchar, Imphal, Moreh, Tamu, Kaleva, Mandalay, Ruily, Tengchong, Dali, Kunming) 3000 kms, Feb 22, 2013 – March 5, 2013 A tentative but spectacular initiative was launched last year when 20 cars,…

Singapore to The Tea Estates of Cameron Highlands, Malaysia (2014) - 1200 km Return – 5 Days What do you do when you’re stuck in Singapore during a long weekend? Why, what most Singaporeans do – drive to Malaysia. This was a family trip with husband, two sons and daughter-in-law. We left Singapore early in the…

The Causeway Coastal Drive, Ireland (2012) -   120 kms, 2 days Travelling in Northern Ireland can have a strange effect on your mind. Else why would this Victorian country-house in an isolated, wind-swept, rain-lashed corner of the Atlantic coast sport an Indian flag atop its roof? I examine the flag closely.…