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-   -   Bangalore - Kochi : Route Queries (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/17333-bangalore-kochi-route-queries-3.html)

Thank you @jk. I was waiting for that

so we start the ride from varkala; odo 15344

the road from trivandrum to cochin is good thanks to a visit to kayamkulam by the President.

a small meet @ cochin; sankar checking nikkis moded pulsar; with nikki;




a few more kms to palghat; small road but neat.




Palghat - Kovai stretch may have few potholes but it can be neglected if you drive a car.

kovai- swagath ibp pump...57kms (odo 15766) . It was a neat pump with all amenities like rest rooms, hotel/motel etc.



kovai - avinashi 33kms

avinashi - mettur



road was a bit bad when you reach mettur. also watchout for small potholes on the way. Take a right when you reach a junction to mettur. If you take straight you have to ride you 2-3 hair pins, but you get the following views.


the bridge you will take on the way.

watch out for speeding buses


a bakery on the way 2 mettur; recommended.




The road from mettur to thoppur is good. Kindof narow roads but good.



Thoppur is the place where you decide if you wanna take the road to salem or bangalore

The road to dharmapuri.4 way's speed ways!



you get tender coconuts for cheap on you way to dharmapuri (5/coco)

gottigere ; odo 15953


total 703kms; 33kmpl;2 guys; 2 days

Wonderful photos. Photo of mettur dam view is good. frankly, I've never got a chance to see it in day light. so sad that all my trips were at night.

JK took this route of your post "Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Dharmapuri - Thoppur - Salem/Mettur - Bhavani - Avinashi - Coimbatore - Walayar - Palakkad - Trichur - Cochin "

Gonna be travelling with my folks on this saturday (13th) . Any advise on the state of the roads on this route?

Road till thoppur is good and proper highway, after thoppur you have to take a right to go via mettur (and skip salem). This road is a bit narrower than the highway but surfacing is very good, there are ditches only a few kms before you reach mettur and after mettur dam. You don't have to go all the way to mettur dam, take a left some distance after the aluminum factory (this road goes in front of the thermal powerplant), this road will lead you to a junction (circle) from this place you have to take left and continue towards bhavani-avinashi-kovai. There are couple of broken patches but not much of a problem for a car.

Sankar thanks a ton mate. Well the idea is to stop over @ the Mettur dam and get some pics.

Good idea, it's a nice place. Btw if you want to go to the dam - when on the first dam just be make sure that no other big vehicles (bus/truck) are already on the dam coming from the other side as the road is a bit narrow over the dam.

And when on the 2nd bridge be careful because it's also a bit narrow and the metal rails on the side of the bridge were missing at some places and a two-wheeler/a small 4 wheeler can easily go through the gap and end up in the water.

Great pics, JK. Now I can see why you wanted to bike it to Bangy. I thought you were half nuts. You sure aren't. Looks like you had a lot of fun. I wish I could do something like this too :-(

jk miya and shankar miya... Wherez that ICE'd palio?!! you guys missed it to snap:p !!!!

Hi,

This is my first post in Team-BHP. Nice pics of Mettur dam and the roads.

My wife and myself did a Bangalore trip during Xmas 2006 in my Accent. We setout from Trivandrum via Nagarcoil-Madurai-Salem-Bangalore. It was a very dry drive. We started from TVM at 8.00 AM and reached BLR by 10.00 PM with stops for breakfast, lunch and tea with one stop for refuelling.

We came back via Thoppur-mettur-Bhavani-Avinashi-Coimbatore-Palghat-Trichur-Ernakulam-Allepey-Pathanamthitta. The Thoppur-Bhavani road was good except for few potholes. We started from Bangalore at 10.00 AM and reached Pathanmathitta by 10.00 PM with stop for lunch and dinner with one refuelling.

We were so engrossed in the drive that we didnt take any pics. We should go for a more relaxed drive and take few snaps on the way.

I too bored with salem hightway, thought I will take mysore-Bandipur-Gudaloor- ilambur-TCR route suggested by "Steeroid". I would like to know if anyone has experience in driving in night through Bandipur Forest... how safe..... precautions..

I am only planning to leave bangalore by 5:00PM

I've done this route couple of times but not at night, so i can't comment on the safety/precautions. But i've heard stories from my friends who had come across elephants on this route (nothing happened to them) but it could be quite scary. And also you wouldn't find tyreshops/workshops on this route, the frequency is less. And the traffic is less and you should be waryabout anti-social elements. If you want to enjoy the landscape it's better to do it on the daytime :)

Not adviceable - cross Bandipur by day. The forest doesnt end with Bandipur - Gudalur to Nilambur is about 40 kms of forested roads as well.

If you're 'bored with the Salem highway', why would you want to take this route at night? I dont think you'll see anything more "exciting" than the Salem route at that time.

DAMMIT!!! Atleast three drives along this route, and I missed this place?!

There are two other reasons

1. Thought I will drive peacefuly, avioding too much truck traffic.
2. Wanted to enjoy my newly fitted "Rallye 2000"'s. can not use everytime in salem highway, cause I may be a nuisance to oncoming traffic.