[PatchyBoy]

Guys,

I took the liberty of copying and creating a new thread from Shekaran's post in the Pondi meet thread.


Here are the details:

After hearing about a proposed yercaud tbhp meet of 3 cities, my hands began to itch, and sorry folks, if i am too fast, or too interuptive, but the excitement got over me to write a long post -

chennai to yercaud - 2 routes :
route 1 : chennai - tindivanam - villupuram - ulundurpet - kallakurichi - aathur - salem - yercaud = approx 355 kms = (from Tambaram) 7 hours drive (including a 30 mins stop for Breakfast or lunch or tea)
route 2 : chennai - kanchipuram - vellore - krishnagiri - darmapuri - omalur - salem - yercaud = approx 375 kms (from Poonamalee) same 7 hours drive.

bangalore to yercaud : bengaluru - hosur - krishnagiri - darmapuri - omalur - salem - yercaud = approx 250 kms = (from Madiwala) 5 hours drive.

cochin/ernakulam to yercaud : cochin - ernakulam - thrissur - palakkad - coimbatore - perundurai - bhavaani - sangagiri - salem - yercaud = approx 390 kms - 7 hours drive.

all kms and travel times estimated on present road conditions, weather, and lastly at an average speed of 80-100 kmph only.

the ideal plan would be : 2 nights & 2 days
starting on friday - after lunch - latest by 1 pm, so we can get to yercaud mostly latest by 8 pm, for night dinner,rest.
saturday would be the full day exploration of yercaud. night we can have a campfire in the resort, making a great party.
sunday - either depart after breakfast, or latest after lunch - get back home for evening/dinner.

the budget plan would be : 1 night & 1 day
starting on saturday morning - max by 6 am - have breakfast enroute - reach yercaud around 1 pm - latest by 2 pm, for lunch in yercaud.
from saturday 4 pm to sunday noon, we can have the tbhp meet.
sunday - depart after lunch, latest by 1 pm, so as all reach home by 8 pm, for dinner.

but considering approx 800 kms of driving, i request you guys to drop the budget plan, as most of the time, would have been spent on travel only. the 2 days,2 nights plan would be the best, and also satisfactory, in my humble opinion. (i took some pics and details from the grange resort website - to make this post a little spicy also)

Places to look around Yercaud

Yercaud Lake

The first thing that attracts a visitor is the Yercaud lake. It is a picturesque pool surrounded by gardens and well wooded trees. Boating in cold water of the lake is enhancing as well as refreshing.


Anna Park

Anna Park is a lovely garden near the lake. Lake Park, Gandhi Park, Children Park are the other parks to be visited in Yercaud.

Lady's Seat

Lady's Seat links the winding Ghat Road and provides a breath-taking view. This view is spectacular at night with the twinkling lights of Salem town in sight. Tourists can have a panoramic view of the plains below with the help of the telescope mounted at the Lady's Seat

Pakoda Point

Pakoda Point is one of the most important places in yercaud is the Pagoda point. The Pagoda Point, is so known because a number of pyramid-like structures abound here. One can get a full view of Salem from here.

Killiyur Falls

Feel the real shower of Killiyur falls at yercaud. A wonderful place to enjoy.

Grange

GRANGE: The Castle - like building was built by the then Collector of Salem, Mr.M.D. Cockburn who first introduced Coffee from Arabia, Apples and other fruits from South Africa between 1820 and 1829 A.D.

Bear's Cave

Bear's Cave is situated near the Norton Bungalow on the way to Servaroyan Temple. It is an important tourist spot.

The Servaroyan Temple

The Servaroyan Temple is situated in the Servaroyan Hills. The tribals here celebrate their Annual Festival in May every year.
The picture shown below is a view from Temple.

Other Places of Interest

Ornamental plants at Green House, Orchard cum Nursery of Rose plants, Silk farm, Arthur Seat, Horticulture Research Station, Orchiderium, Mettur View (on Nagalur Road), Cauvery Peak, Salem View (between 16th and 17th bends) are other places of interest in yercaud.

The room tariffs in yercaud range from 1000 to 3000 for a double room. in weekends - the checkout time (most hotels maintain this) would be 10 am, to make a 2 day rental in billing.

from my experiences, friends opinions, the sterling resort, hotel shevaroys, the grange resort, hotel grand palace, would be the places fit for considering - the sterling resort being the cheapest, the shevaroys being the posh, the grange being the country type cottages, the grand palace being the finest opp the lake.

and lastly, moderators, please conduct a poll on what would be the favourable days ?

1. september 13th,14th
2. september 20th,21st
3. september 27th,28th
4. october 4th,5th
5. october 11th,12th
6. october 18th,19th

in my guess - maybe the weekend of october 4th,5th would be the best and also free for all - to attend.

Hope the next team bhp meet would attract as much as 50 members, with families ... cheers ...

Cheers,

Rajan

@Shekaran: Hope you dont mind.

@MODS: Hope this is ok. Can you please delete the post by Shekaran in the Pondicherry meet thread.

[mjothi]

So, its been pouring meets in here
I think Sep last 2 weekends is already been discussed for OTR. Also thats the time for the exam fever between kids. So, I prefer Oct 1st or 2nd weekend.
I missed the last meet in Yercaud. Don't want to repeat the same mistake.

@MODS: Can we have a poll on this thread?

[supremeBaleno]

Nice initiative, Rajan.

BTW, it would be good if we could have the mods remove all the Yercaud related posts from the Pondy thread and add them here.

And we would need to decide on 2 things :
1. The dates acceptable to the majority.

2. Plan - Leave TN/KL/KA on a Friday noon & return home on Sunday night OR
Leave TN/KL/KA on Saturday early morning & return home on Sunday night.

Maybe we could have a poll to decide members preference for Item-2 and choice of dates can be posted on the thread itself.

[headers]

Wow, the yercaud hill section is 30kms or so and it would be a great place to DRAG!!

SB, Nitrous, theres no contest here I believe, unless you suzuki boys bring in the Bigger 1.6 one and try HARD

And Khan_sultan, maybe we could get our gypsies for a little bit of OTR adventure!

[supremeBaleno]

The bigger 1.6 will surely be coming for this meet because I am tired of the 1.3 losing to Korean diesels.

But no dragging on the ghat sections. We will have that on the Tambaram-Pondy NH45. Be ready.

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Oct 4th and 5th is a good option and my Organization's Bangy Office has 1st and 2nd Oct too as holidays. Anyways based on consensus can decide the dates and as of now am in.

[headers]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

The bigger 1.6 will surely be coming for this meet because I am tired of the 1.3 losing to Korean diesels.

But no dragging on the ghat sections. We will have that on the Tambaram-Pondy NH45. Be ready.

LOL biju, you have finally ACCEPTED that you lost to a Korean Diesel, instead of resorting to some other excuse!

BTW, whats your top whack? 160 or 180?

The ghats are damn good and i have my personal record of 60kms in 60 minutes in 1998 in a Lancer Diesel!

[condor]

headers : Wow, the yercaud hill section is 30kms or so and it would be a great place to DRAG!!

And Khan_sultan, maybe we could get our gypsies for a little bit of OTR adventure!

Watch out for Khan Sultan, guys. While you do the drag, Khan Sultan will go OTR, take a cross-country OTR straight path and beat you all !

[headers]

Originally Posted by condor

Watch out for Khan Sultan, guys. While you do the drag, Khan Sultan will go OTR, take a cross-country OTR straight path and beat you all !

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by headers

LOL biju, you have finally ACCEPTED that you lost to a Korean Diesel, instead of resorting to some other excuse!

Naah. There is no question of losing because there was no race in the first place. Mainly because the 2 cars did not start off at the same time. Also, with our driver limiting himself to 120kmph, it won't be fair to say he lost against guys doing 160.

But to be fair to nitrous, he did the ECR stretch like someone would do the MMST track, taking the sharp curves like one would do on track (ofcourse only on the sections where there was no traffic).

Originally Posted by headers

BTW, whats your top whack? 160 or 180?

My personal best is 165, but I guess the car's top whack is rated at 175 or 180.

Originally Posted by condor

Watch out for Khan Sultan, guys. While you do the drag, Khan Sultan will go OTR, take a cross-country OTR straight path and beat you all !

Yeah, I won't be surprised to see a Gypsy clawing the sides of the hill and land in front of the cars dragging on road.

P.S. : BTW, I think I should modify my usage from "Korean diesel" to "Accent CRDi", lest some guy having a Verna-D or Getz-D takes umbrage and challenges me to a duel. Sorry, am not taking that one up.

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

2. Plan - Leave TN/KL/KA on a Friday noon & return home on Sunday night OR
Leave TN/KL/KA on Saturday early morning & return home on Sunday night.

My take would be to leave on sat & be back on Sun. Unless there is a long weekend

[supremeBaleno]

@mjothi, I am sure most of the guys would also prefer this option only, because otherwise you would need to take a half-day off (or more) on Friday. Leaving on Sat early morning also means that we can beat the city traffic and it would be fun driving on the highways. Ofcourse the downside is that you feel like you drove in and drove out fast.

Being off-season, we should get good rates on rooms. TTDC is the closest to the lake and their off-season rates are half the season rates. However, the rooms are crappy, service is bad. Hotel Shevaroy is really good and some 2 years ago, rooms used to be in the range Rs625 - Rs1825.

Waiting to see what direction the poll takes.

EDIT : Copying some of the Yercaud-related posts from the Pondy thread.

Originally Posted by neoranjit

Lets do this again. This time probably the equivalent of pondy near bangalore.

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

ranjit, I was thinking of an yercaud meet - Bangy + Chennai guys. For us it is like 330kms, but am not sure how far it is for Bangy guys.
Maybe Cochin boys can also join - must be like 350kms from Cochin.

Something on the lines of either of these 2 options :

1) 2-nights + 1 day : Leave Chennai/Bangy on Friday post-lunch, reach yercaud by 9PM or so. Stay there for Sat and Sunday. Checkout Sunday noon and drive back to Bangy/Chennai.

2) 1 night + 1 day : Leave Saturday early morning, reach Yercaud by noon. Stay there till Sunday noon and drive back to Bangy/Chennai.

We have some nice and economical options for stay in Yercaud. Hotel Shevaroys is one such hotel. Am sure you would come just for the 6-7 hour drive.

Originally Posted by PatchyBoy

Bangalore to Yercaud - 215 kms
Cochin - Yercaud - 365 kms
Chennai - Yercaud - 325 kms

Sounds good to me. I am in

Originally Posted by condor

let's make the Yercaud a friday-sunday program.

[khan_sultan]

Count me in.

Weekend of Oct 11th/12th work the best for me. Would prefer a longer stay 2D/N, as otherwise lots of time is just spent in driving.

I have of on Oct 9/10th also, so it would work like a charm for me.

Originally Posted by headers

... And Khan_sultan, maybe we could get our gypsies for a little bit of OTR adventure!

Vikram, consider this a done deal. I will bring in my Gypsy if you agree to bring yours.


Cheers,

[headers]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

P.S. : BTW, I think I should modify my usage from "Korean diesel" to "Accent CRDi", lest some guy having a Verna-D or Getz-D takes umbrage and challenges me to a duel. Sorry, am not taking that one up.

And you loose to either of them: LOL

The Getz D and Verna D are supposedly more powerful than the Accent CRDi.

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

Vikram, consider this a done deal. I will bring in my Gypsy if you agree to bring yours.

Cheers,

We shall discuss that before the drive! Now its too early. I would love too if there are atleast 4 vehicles or so, so we could plan a mini OTR there!

[Mission_Safari]

Oct 2nd being a holiday, if we manage to take Oct 3rd off we would get 4 days to explore things leisurely at Yercaud. But the problem is except for the lake and the temple there is nothing much to see in yercaud. Which in a way is good as we get more time to socialize with the fellow bhpians.