This is one drive which you will enjoy. We wake up early to beat the heavy traffic from Pune to Mumbai. Its 5am and we leave eventually at 5.45am

It is quite dark and the street lamps not bright enough for the broad roads. We have just finished a quiet retreat at Pashan Retreat Centre. We had to manually open the gates while leaving the premises, thanks to the missing watchman.

The slow drive to the Highway took about 20 minutes. The mist was not too heavy as we picked up speed once on the highway . Headlights and highbeam on.

The cool breeze was so invigorating . As we sped along we came to the toll booths. Once past the first one we drove at a good pace. However as we neared Lonavala, we were totally immersed in heavy fog. I was thankful for installing fog lights. It helped me to see at least about 10 feet away.

Obviously we slowed down to avoid any collision.

Surprisingly, one car zoomed past without much ado, and I wondered about his safety as well as that of other fellow drivers. He disappeared in the gloom of the fog and we drove forward carefully all eyes to see the next vehicles ahead , following their tail lights.

This was the best part of the drive. As we entered the tunnel , it swallowed us up in a thrice and we were once again out on a steep slope. We were immersed in a wet blanket of fog  over the valley below  and it  was such  a beauty to behold. A pity we could not stop or slow down to enjoy it more.

Breakfast was still an option. However my friend decided that we continue to drive to enjoy a good hearty one at home.

And so we drove as fast as possible, at times touching 120kms per hour, ( not really fast for speed demons) The benefit of skipping the breakfast stop, was that we reached Mumbai very early and beat the rush hour traffic. It was a very smooth drive, and we made it in just a little over 2 hours.

A surprise indeed, because when you travel in the evening peak hour traffic from Mumbai, you will be grateful to touch even the outskirts of Mumbai in one hour.

So always start early, drive safely and arrive home in one piece; as some hoardings displayed in the past mention “ Start early, drive safely to enjoy safe tea with your family”;  and “You have someone waiting for you at home.”