Cross Country Trip down the West Coast and Up the East Coast.

[hvkumar]

Travelling from Kumarakom to Trivandrum and Kanyakumari - if you are travelling at night, best option is to take the MC Road (Kumarakom-Kotayam-Chanaganaserry-Kottarakara-Trivandrum. Great drive, curvy mountain roads, no traffic at night. Goes into Trivandrum city but to get to NH47 and the Kanyakumari road, it is one straight road through Trivandrum cit without tyoo many complications.

Kannur may be a better place to halt overnight compared to Talaserry.

[wanderernomad]

Guys after a lot of thinking I have dropped the idea of going to KK and then coming all the way up. Also dropping off Chennai and Pondy this time. Plan to restrict travel till cochin and explore Munnar, Kodai and ooty and Bangy. Now we plan to travel down from mangalore to Cochin and then cross over via munnar towards Ooty and Kodaik and onwards towards Bangy.
What are my best options on this route-
Goa-Mangalore-Cochin, NH17
From Cochin --Coimbatore(via-Munnar-Chinnar-Pollachi)--Ooty.
From here how do I go about visiting Kodaikanal and then onwards to Bangalore?
Or Is there a route to Kodai from Cochin and then fromt here I come to Ooty and go to Mysore and onwards to Bangy?
From Coimbatore where do I head first? to Ooty and then Kodai or to Kodai and then to Ooty?
Approx distances and time taken to plan the route is also needed.
@HV: Chief do you have logs for this route?

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

Plan to restrict travel till cochin and explore Munnar, Kodai and ooty and Bangy. Now we plan to travel down from mangalore to Cochin and then cross over via munnar towards Ooty and Kodaik and onwards towards Bangy.
What are my best options on this route-
Goa-Mangalore-Cochin, NH17
From Cochin --Coimbatore(via-Munnar-Chinnar-Pollachi)--Ooty.
From here how do I go about visiting Kodaikanal and then onwards to Bangalore?
Or Is there a route to Kodai from Cochin and then fromt here I come to Ooty and go to Mysore and onwards to Bangy?
From Coimbatore where do I head first? to Ooty and then Kodai or to Kodai and then to Ooty?
Approx distances and time taken to plan the route is also needed.
@HV: Chief do you have logs for this route?

The route would be as follows:

Don't go to Kochi.
Turn off NH47 at Angamaly (around 30-40 kms before Kochi, 30 odd km after Trissur).
This means instead of taking NH17 all the way to Kochi, turn off it at Kunnamkulam and proceed via Trissur town to Angamali.
Route from Angamali is:
Angamali-Perumbavoor-Kothamangalam-Munnar

From Munnar to Kodaikanal:
Munnar (NH49)-Devikulam-Poopara-Bodi Medu-Bodinaikanaur-Theni-Vathalagundu-Perumalkulam-Kodaikanal (~5 hours)

From Kodaikanal:
Kodai-Perumalkulam-Palani-Udumalaipet-Pollachi-Coimbatore-Mettupalayam-Conoor-Ooty (~8 hours)

I do have log books on all these routes, will mail to you.

[wanderernomad]

@HV thanks mate for the detailed logs. Really appreciate the help.

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

@HV thanks mate for the detailed logs. Really appreciate the help.

Hai Wander,

Great plan.... your post covered lots of ground for me.

Looks like I'd be most probably going before you on this route, on a scorpio, from Ahmedabad to Calicut and back via Kodai, Mysore, Bangy, Pune and Ahmedabad, return route is a little fluid right now. There are 2 camps in my family, one lobbying hard to fly & another spearheaded by me prefering to drive down.

I'd drive till Belgaum and beyond as much as possible on 5th June and on day 2 reach Calicut by night fall of 6th. It would be lots of fun driving down NH17 from Mangalore to Calicut in, probably rain. We're likely to catch the full blitz of rain till Bangy from Kerala on the return leg.

Happy Driving,

--Ramky
==========

[jack33]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

@jack- have you tried this route recently? what is the condition of the road? would you suggest using a swift on this route or the ford endeavour?
I'm hoping to do a photography trip.

also, what is the traffic like?

You can do this road comfortably in a swift or any other car.

[wanderernomad]

@ramkya if you finally drive this route please do give me the latest feed back on the route. It will be highly appreciated.

[wanderernomad]

Guys the trip is finally on. The dates and route is as follows:-
10/06 - Pune - Goa
12- Goa Karwar
13- Mangalore/Calicut/Udipi/Kalanaur ( Need advise on this. Where to stay and also is it possible to drive all the way to Cochin from Karvar or Azhimala in a single day?)
14, 15- Cochin
16,17- Ooty.
18,19- mysore
20,21- Bangalore
22,23,24- Hyderabad. (how long will it take? Do I follow NH 17 all the way? Road conditions?)
25- Aurangabad
26 -back to Pune.

@alternate to staying in Cochin, from where we can explore more of Kerala.

[akroy]

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

Guys the trip is finally on. The dates and route is as follows:-
10/06 - Pune - Goa
12- Goa Karwar
13- Mangalore/Calicut/Udipi/Kalanaur ( Need advise on this. Where to stay and also is it possible to drive all the way to Cochin from Karvar or Azhimala in a single day?)
14, 15- Cochin
16,17- Ooty.
18,19- mysore
20,21- Bangalore
22,23,24- Hyderabad. (how long will it take? Do I follow NH 17 all the way? Road conditions?)
25- Aurangabad
26 -back to Pune.

@alternate to staying in Cochin, from where we can explore more of Kerala.

Blr - Hyd is NH7 not NH17 and ya it will take you 9 -12 hours depending upon your speed and time.

Abhi

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

12- Goa Karwar
13- Mangalore/Calicut/Udipi/Kalanaur ( Need advise on this. Where to stay and also is it possible to drive all the way to Cochin from Karvar or Azhimala in a single day?)
14, 15- Cochin

@alternate to staying in Cochin, from where we can explore more of Kerala.

Not sure about Karwar, but you can cover Ezhimala - Cochin in about 6 hours of day time / 5 hours night time driving. Roads (surface) are reasonable right now, but expect bad traffic (buses stopping in middle of road, shop keepers on either side of the road jumping across, etc). Ezhimala is a short distance off Payyannur on NH 17.

You will be staying at the armed forces facilities in Cochin, right?

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

Guys the trip is finally on. The dates and route is as follows:-
10/06 - Pune - Goa
12- Goa Karwar
13- Mangalore/Calicut/Udipi/Kalanaur ( Need advise on this. Where to stay and also is it possible to drive all the way to Cochin from Karvar or Azhimala in a single day?)
14, 15- Cochin
16,17- Ooty.
18,19- mysore
20,21- Bangalore
22,23,24- Hyderabad. (how long will it take? Do I follow NH 17 all the way? Road conditions?)
25- Aurangabad
26 -back to Pune.

@alternate to staying in Cochin, from where we can explore more of Kerala.

Difficult to drive from Karwar to Kochi, if you intend to stop by en route. Besides, North Kerala day raffic can be irritatingly high.

"Kalanaur" - do you mean Kundapura (KAR) or Kannur (KER)?

"Azhimala" - do you mean Ezhimala, near Payyanur in North Kerala. I thought the whole place has been taken over by tthe Navy and civilians have lost some pristine beaches here.

Places to stay - Turtle Bay (Maravanthe), Sharon (Kundapura), Kediyoor (Udupi), Valley View (Manipal), Paradise Island (Malpe), several in Mangalore depending on budget, Summer Sands (Ullal), many hotels in Kannur and Calicut.

You can stay a Alapuzha (many hotels) where you can take a backwater cruise, instead of Kochi.

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

@ramkya if you finally drive this route please do give me the latest feed back on the route. It will be highly appreciated.

My plan is more or less fixed...

June - 1st Ahmedabad - Belgaum - stay
2nd Belgaum - Kundapura - stay
3rd Kundapura - Udipi - Palakkad - stay
4th to 10th - Kerala
11th Kerala - Chittor
12th Chittor - Hyderabad
13th Hyderabad
14th - Hyderabad- Aurangabad
15th - Aurangabad
16th - Aurangabad - Ahmedabad.

Will update road conditions as I go along.

--Ramky
============

[wanderernomad]

I plan to leave Karwar early in the morning on 13 and hit Kochi. At Kochi I ahve booked with the NIO centre and not defense establishment. I ahve an alternate fall back option of staying at ezhimala witht he Indian Navy in case its not possible to hit Kochi by any chance.
It is Kochi as I am teaming up with other bhpians there for a drive. Cheers.
Yups I meant NH 7 only, regret the typo. Thanks mate for correcting.
@Ramky, keep me updated on the route conditions as I would be starting when you would have already done the route. Will keep looking this thread for updates.
@HV : chief I might pester you with a few things next week as I settle down for the final route check.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

I plan to leave Karwar early in the morning on 13 and hit Kochi. At Kochi I ahve booked with the NIO centre and not defense establishment. I ahve an alternate fall back option of staying at ezhimala witht he Indian Navy in case its not possible to hit Kochi by any chance.
It is Kochi as I am teaming up with other bhpians there for a drive. Cheers.
Yups I meant NH 7 only, regret the typo. Thanks mate for correcting.
@Ramky, keep me updated on the route conditions as I would be starting when you would have already done the route. Will keep looking this thread for updates.
@HV : chief I might pester you with a few things next week as I settle down for the final route check.

Sure, 09821045167, mobile

[wanderernomad]

Finally made the trip. Total Kms came to roughly 5700 and places visited were Pune-Kohlapur-Goa-Kochin-Thekkady-Munnar-Ooty-Mysore-Sriranga patnam-Hogenekkal-Bangalore-Hyderabad-Pune-Mumbai-Lonavla/khandala- Pune.
Special thanks to-
1. HV Kumar for the excellent help and info regarding the entire route.
2. Ripper : Thanks mate for all the extra effort you put in and helping me throughout the kerala stretch and the medical prescriptions.
3. Samurai: Thanks for the helping hand at manipal. It was a pleasure meeting you.
4. TRRK : Got no words to thank you sir for your help with the cruise.
5. It was nice meeting all the bhpians at sarovaram on the morning of the monsoon drive, especially easy123, ripper, steeroid, and Ishan (it was a surprise) and to others whom I remember by face now but cannot recollect the names. Sorry Zak, could not meet you but maybe next time.It was nice talking to you over phone.
Team bhp rocks and it was them who made this entire travel so enjoyable and less worrysome.
Ill be putting up the travellogue very soon with pics.
Cheers.