Delhi to Gorakhpur via Etawah-Kanpur-Lucknow

Road Trip: Ghaziabad to Lucknow to Gorakhpur (UP East)

As an obsessed driving enthusiast, I am always in the hope of catching any opportunity to drive long and refresh myself.
I had been yearning for long to take a really long drive to take me away from the monotonous city routine and to let me explore diversity/livings en route. The summer of 2015 gave me just the right steam to execute my wicked plan.

This post is to share my experience of the 815 kms drive that I undertook this summer. Hope that my experience can useful for all my readers. So, here it goes..

Specifics:

• Journey        : Ghaziabad (GZB), UP (India) TO Gorakhpur (GKP), UP (India)
• Duration      : 13 hours
• Start Time   : 4am
• End Time    : 5pm
• Tripometer  : 815 kms
• Route          : Ghaziabad - Greater Noida - Agra - Firozabad - Etawah - Kanpur - Lucknow - Faizabad - Gorakhpur
• Highway     : Taj Expressway - NH2 - NH28
• Vehicle       : Hatchback
• Tolls           : Yes (10 Toll plazas)

Travelogue

I had planned for the drive on a Saturday morning after a hectic week at work. Since my spouse is also a travel enthusiast, we did some detailed planning for the journey with finding small issues that could crop up in the long drive. Once we had addressed them, we were all set ! :-)

Planning the Route:

Our first step was to decide the route. There are basically couple of routes from Ghaziabad to Lucknow and then ahead.

1. GZB-Gr. Noida-Taj Expressway - Agra - Firozabad - Etawah - Kanpur - Lucknow
2. GZB - Delhi - Faridabad - Mathura - Agra - Firozabad - Etawah - Kanpur - Lucknow
3. GZB - Moradabad - Bareilly - Sitapur - Lucknow
4. GZB - Bulandshahar - Kanpur - Lucknow

Route 2 is shorter but considering traffic, we didn't chose it.
Route 3 has section with work in progress and long jams usually happen after Bareilly.
Route 4 has highway passing through dense population and all stretch is smooth.
So, route 1 it was.

Vehicle Check:

Advisable to have the car serviced before the long journey. If not possible, check the basics before you start.
Bare minimum basic checks:
Gear Oil, Engine Oil, Coolant, Wiper blades, Wiper water, Brakes, All lights, AC and the most important Tyres ! Please ensure that your Tyres have good tread and right air pressure. On such long drives, the friction heats the tyres enormously and the air pressure fluctuates. So, a good tyre is imperative as it would be directly responsible for your life.
I got an entire new set of Bridgestone Turanza beforehand. Going a step ahead, we bought a self-help Tyre kit with a small Tyre inflator and puncture-fixing kit. :-)

Journey needs:

The Journey can be broken down into following sections;
GZB - Agra, Agra - Kanpur, Kanpur - Lucknow and Lucknow - Gorakhpur.

Off the GZB - Agra section, the Taj expressway is definitely the best drive and has refreshment facility available almost every 40 kms, if one wants a break to stretch, eat or to get fresh.

The Agra-Kanpur section does not have too many good Dhabas en-route unfortunately and it can be difficult to find one that suits all family needs.

The Kanpur - Lucknow section is almost local and offers plenty of small kiosks/ set-ups, but watch out for the ones with Utilities.Washrooms. Advice is to stop at the first where you find good utilities.

The Lucknow - Gorakhpur section also does not offer Dhaba choices, but the most popular here is at Vikramjot once you cross Faizabad. Decent enough and rustic in appeal, this is the most sought after point for break.

So, the advice is to carry good amount of drinking water, Snacks and chewables along.

Description:

We started at sharp 4am from Ghaziabad (NH-24), climbed Taj expressway 30 mins/30 kms later.
It was amazing to witness the beautiful sunrise during the drive. The expressway had only sporadic vehicles. Since, we were enjoying drive, we did not need a break and left the X-way at Agra at 6:20 am at a decent speed. The small towns till Etawah were still waking up, so we managed to sail through easily through Firozabad, Shikohabad, etc. Just before 8 kms to Etawah, there is a popular Vaishnav dhaba on the right. We decided to take a break here, freshen up and then continue.
We took a fuel refill (though not needed for the hatchback, but to be safe for the traffic waking up ahead) and continued.
It was 10:20am, when reached the end of the Kanpur bypass bridge. Please note that for Lucknow, one has to take the big left (often hidden by advts. etc.) as the bridge veers for Allahabad route else.
As of Jun-Jul 2015, the section at Ramadevi crossing was under construction, so huge jams happened here. We anticipated it here but luckily managed to cross 4 kms of jam in 30 minutes. The Kanpur - LKO section was ok too and we reached the Amausi airport in LKO by 12:30 pm.

We had originally planned a break at LKO at our relatives and then continue but we reviewed our decision over a quick tea there that since I did not feel strained enough, we could continue. So, we took the right turn after Amausi airport and the new 20+ kms bypass through Gomtinagar was a surprise. We crossed LKO very easily which we had thought of taking good time to cross the city !

From hereon, the drive was quite picturesque with lush green trees and the fields at their best. We could not resist taking a break at a shack (?) / temporary shelter and felt heaven as we sprinkled the cold water on us from the handpump. A nice Tea and Bun-Makkhan made it all the more good. We continued again with new vigor.
At Vikramjot, my wife reminded me of their famous Aam ka achaar as a must have. We took a short break and while she got the achaar, I got the tank filled again, as I anticipated that it might not be enough as we enter the traffic at Gorakhpur). We continued again and reached GKP, at around 4:45/5pm. We stopped a few places once in GKP before we reached our destination past GKP railway station.

Now that I woke up the next day all refreshed, I thought of writing this travelogue, which might be useful to other readers before they embark on a similar journey on this route.

Hope you enjoyed reading !
Leave me a comment here if you need any assistance.