This year, only myself and Surya managed to go to our native village during Sankranti. We decided to drive to that place in our Xylo. The onward journey took more than 12 hours, including a few hours of visits to relatives en-route. The drizzle hit highway reduced our speed and we fully complied with that need.
Once we reached our village, it is a travel spree. I covered a bunch of backlog visits to relatives, visiting some of the places after about a decade or so. Most of these visits turned out to be reciprocal, keeping us busy throughout the festive season. The local visits lasted 400+km of driving within a 25km radius.
Gathering of relatives and friends in our village turned out to be a decent success. Bunch of planning sessions, makeshift tents, food courts and other arrangements kept the guests comfortable enough.
Used my Xylo to the maximum extent during the trip. Loaded it fully during some local trips, used it to transport large sized items like sugarcane and while returning, used it to carry essential items for an upcoming wedding.
Each day of the trip followed a very simple pattern – eat a lot of spicy and non-veg food; top it up with ice creams etc. to avoid acidity; drive; meet people; eat again and repeat until end of day.
During our return (which is preempted by more than a day to the last day of the festival) we found that the highway is deserted and we covered the distance in about 7 hours.
The trip made me drive more than 1300km in 6 days. Some pics from the trip are linked here.
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