Bangalore-Palani-Guruvayoor in Swift Diesel

[blackstallion76]

Hi,

First of all, thanks for all t-bhpians for helping me on routing queries.

My family and my brother's family planned to do the trip to Palani & Guruvayoor on Sept 19, 20, 21.

Sept 19:
As planned, we left at 7am (Sept 19) morning.

Route from Bangalore to Palani:
Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Salem-Bhavani-Kangeyam-Dharapuram-Palani - 420kms

We reached Palani by 2.30pm in the afternoon. We missed the route to hotel in heavy rains. And, my swift was inside a 2 feet deep in water due to heavy rain. Within, 15mins the road was filled with 2-3 feet water.
Somehow managed to move out of it and reached the hotel.

Checked into Hotel Ganpat. Pretty decent place and near to the temple as well.

Took complete rest till 6pm and next visited the shops around the temple.
Bought some toys/dolls for kids and for dasara festival. Good bargining though.

For food, we visited Arya Bhavan and Balaji Bhavan for pure veg food.

We were very much impressed with the quality of road even in small towns in TN.

Sept 20:
Got up at 4.30am. All were ready by 6am. All of us climbed the ramp+steps to the temple. It was a good 1/2hr climb for ourselves and kids. Also, good view of Kodai hills.

Took abhishekham tickets and stood in queue. There is a special entrance ticket of Rs.10/- worth nothing but looting people. Also, the entrance of the queue outside the temple is full of monkeys doing nonsense acts to plucking plastic bags for bananas. It was fear and fun.
Atlast, after 1hr we had a good darshan of Lord Murugan. We were out by 8.30 am in the morning. We spent sometime outside and enjoyed the view of the sorrounding hills. It is really wonderful place to visit.

While coming, we took the L & T ropeway. In just 10mins, we were down and we enjoyed every moment.

Had a good breakfast and planned to next trip to Guruvayoor.

Route from Palani to Guruvayoor:
Palani - Udulampatai - Pollachi - Vadakenchery - Thrissur - Kunnamkulam - Guruvayoor - 210kms

Started at 10.30am from Palani. Took the normal statehighways inside Kerala. Road conditions were better but for some stretches it was bad though. But, 80% the road conditions were driveable.
I enjoyed the drive from Vadakenchery to Guruvayoor on NH47. It was race all along with Scorpio/Getz and Innova.

We reached Guruvayoor by 2.30pm. We checked into Poornima Tourist Home very near to the temple in East Nada. Got freshened up and tried for lunch. Most of the restaurants were closed. Only open at 5pm.
Only Indian Coffee House was open with lot of crowd. Managed to get some food and did some shopping all the evening and rest for the day.

Sept 21:
Got up at 4.30am. All of us were ready by 5.45am. Visited the temple at 6am. To our shock, there was already a long queue to darshan outside the temple. It took us 3hrs waiting to enter the temple. No special darshan at all. Atlast, at 9.15am we had our darshan of Lord Krishna. All of us were tired including the kids.
Went to Saravana Bhavan and had good breakfast. Took some rest and were preparing for drive back to Bangalore.

Route from Guruvayoor to Bangalore:
Guruvayoor - Manjeri - Nilambur - Gudalur - Gundlupet - Mysore - Bangalore - 415kms

Left Guruvayoor at 11.30am. We took the Manjeri and Nilambur route. Due to small roads the drive was tiring. From Nilambur, we took the road to Gudalur. This goes into the ghat section. I loved this route which touches some part of Ooty as well. There was no good hotel for us to lunch. I planned for lunch for Bandipur.

We reached Gudalur aorund 4pm. Till now there was no signal. At one point in Gudalur, there was a signal and stopped the car.
To my horror, one of the drunken bike rider hit from behind. The kids and our behalfs wokeup with the thud. There was a dent on the rear bumper and broken tail lamp. Policemen was the witness for the whole incident.
I started blasting the guy and asked for settlement. In his state of mind, he was refusing. Huge crowd gathered.
Police folks took us to station for settlement. Policeman said, not to register FIR and settle with some money. Otherwise, my car would be held till court clears the case. With family, I did not want to take that trouble and settled for some amount whatever bike guy had.

Till this time, the whole trip was like a dream crossing TN and Kerala with beautiful locations around.

With an upset mind, I drove very carefully till Bangalore and reached at 11.15pm.

Overall it was a nice trip except the unfortunate accident in Gudalur.
Now, planning to claim insurance for fixing them up. Rear bumper replace and tail lamp replace.

Will post pictures by Sat.

[kannan666]

Nice narration blackstallion76, now waiting for the pics to show up ! Sorry to hear that it did'nt end well, consolation is that it could have been worse,cannot do anything much about these morons who drink and ride !

[blackstallion76]

Image Names:

1. Bangalore - Hosur Road
2. Dharmapuri Ghat Road
3. Interesting Temple near Salem
4. NH47 - Perundurai Link
5. State Highway - Deviation from Perundurai
6. View from Palani Hill
7. Fantastic View from Rope Way - Palani
8. Garden in the Ropeway Exit - Palani
9. Palani Final Visit
10. Two Ropeways Crossing

[blackstallion76]

Images Names:

1. Pollachi to Vadakencherry Road - Kodai Hills
2. Swift D in a beautiful Kodai locale
3. Swift D in a beautiful Kodai Background
4. Spectacular View of Kodai Hill Range

No pictures taken in Guruvayoor.

[dadu]

Nice travelogue, How's the road condition till Palani, are they still working on four laning the NH with deviations inbetween or is it completed.

Too bad the biker incident happenned, it spoils the mood, but put it behind you and carry on driving.

[blackstallion76]

NH 7 to NH 47 deviation is in full progress with lot of disturbances in between.

From Bhavani - Perundurai - Kangeyam - Dharapuram - Palani road condition is good. No issues at all.

BTW, the overall average was 21 kmpl with 80% AC. I have already forgotten the bike incident. My baby is back as good as ever.

[rajswiftvdi]

How about the car performance and your experience through out the journey?

[ampere]

Nice journey. Also good to hear that the: "Salem-Bhavani-Kangeyam-Dharapuram" has no issues. I was planning to take this stretch to Munnar.

Others suggested to bypass Salem via Mettur. Since I plan to break at Salem this section is inevitable. Happy to hear this update.

[pjay_in]

Nice writeup and good pics, blackstallion. Good to know that the roads you took in Kerala are still driveable after the rainy season.

Originally Posted by blackstallion76

Route from Guruvayoor to Bangalore:
Guruvayoor - Manjeri - Nilambur - Gudalur - Gundlupet - Mysore - Bangalore - 415kms

Left Guruvayoor at 11.30am. We took the Manjeri and Nilambur route. Due to small roads the drive was tiring. From Nilambur, we took the road to Gudalur. This goes into the ghat section. I loved this route which touches some part of Ooty as well. There was no good hotel for us to lunch. I planned for lunch for Bandipur.

How did you reach Manjeri from Guruvayur? Via Perintalmanna I suppose. If you ask me you could have avoided Manjeri altogether, traveling from Perintalmanna to Nilambur directly. But I have no clue about the condition of roads nowadays.

The Nilambur-Gudalur route does not touch any part of Ooty, but partially skirts the elevated horst on which Ooty is situated. However this road passess through a most delightful stretch of tropical evergreen forest.

[blackstallion76]

Originally Posted by rajswiftvdi

How about the car performance and your experience through out the journey?

@Raj:
Car performance was really good in highways and cornering.
I love the response and overall handling of this beauty.
"Swift Diesel Rocks" as said earlier.

However, with stock tyres on harsh roads it is little harsh.
Planning for upgrade to 195/60/R15. Saving some Vitamin M.

@pjay:
Yes.

[undead]

good travelogue and thanks for visiting my town (Bhavani ).

Bypassing Salem via Mettur was good during early days. But due to lots of truck traffic in that area and due to the rains , roads are damaged. In fact you can take this route Thoppur Ghat Section --> Omalur (till this place its 4 Lane) , then get into State Highways through the town to reach Sankagiri and join the 4 Lane and then you can reach Bhavani (outer ) and Perundurai , Kangeyam etc ..

[rajswiftvdi]

[quote=blackstallion76;1520532]@Raj:
Car performance was really good in highways and cornering.
I love the response and overall handling of this beauty.
"Swift Diesel Rocks" as said earlier.

Happy to know that, you are enjoying the ride with the beauty.

Nice travelogue, cleanly written, keep up.

I like the the route, blore->mettur->bhavani, then to coimbatore and then Kottayam. Have many journeying thru this route in Maruti800.

[nairrk]

Very colorful,lively photographs.
Keep Driving.!