[Viper21]

Hello All,
We will be travelling to Kochi (Near to Cherai beach) and while coming back , i was thinking of taking the Athirapalli road via Chalakudi to Valparai and back to Coimbatore (Will be staying a night at my uncle's place)

Next day, Start back to bangalore.

Any experience on road conditions between Chalakudi and Valparai?

Thanks in Advance

[cs_rajesh]

Originally Posted by Viper21

Hello All,
We will be travelling to Kochi (Near to Cherai beach) and while coming back , i was thinking of taking the Athirapalli road via Chalakudi to Valparai and back to Coimbatore (Will be staying a night at my uncle's place)

Next day, Start back to bangalore.

Any experience on road conditions between Chalakudi and Valparai?

Thanks in Advance

You should post your query on All Roads to Kerala Thread (All Roads to Kerala) instead of creating a new thread for one route amongst many.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Viper21

Any experience on road conditions between Chalakudi and Valparai?

Have not heard much about the Valparai-Chalakudy side of things. Most updates are towards Pollachi and mostly positive.

You may ask for details here:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...r-info-26.html (Valparai - Stay and other info)

[aargee]

Originally Posted by Viper21

Any experience on road conditions between Chalakudi and Valparai?

Having taken this route long back, I believe it should still be good because the route is maintained by RF dept. However on TN's side, you could expect some bad patches, but then on overall scale 10% of bad roads should not matter is my humble opinion.

That said, it's one of the route I'm always eager to take for the beautiful roads at Valparai & Pollachi sector. I think you MUST do it.

[hserus]

I took it two or three years back. The forest road has some large potholes but is motorable even in hatchbacks (with some pothole avoiding skill for sure). Don't stop for any reason or you will have forest officers coming after you warning of a fine, and drive it during the daytime.

Originally Posted by Viper21

Hello All,
We will be travelling to Kochi (Near to Cherai beach) and while coming back , i was thinking of taking the Athirapalli road via Chalakudi to Valparai and back to Coimbatore (Will be staying a night at my uncle's place)

Next day, Start back to bangalore.

Any experience on road conditions between Chalakudi and Valparai?

Thanks in Advance

[windrider]

I had done that route during Easter holidays in April and some sections of the road were in horrific condition. On the Tamil nadu side, the roads were beautiful but on Kerala side the roads were basically non existent in some sections especially the section between Sholayar Dam and Malakapara checkpost. For almost 3-4 kms there was no visible tarring and it was covered with deep ruts. I don't know how I managed to cover that route without scraping my car or overheating the clutch . I was driving in 1st and 2nd gear for almost 30-40 mins. My relatives did the same route last month and they said the ruts and most off the deep potholes had been filled in with sand and quarry waste but some sections were still not properly tarred, only patchwork was done. Unless you have a vehicle with good ground clearance, I wouldn't suggest doing it. You could also phone the local resorts or hotels there in that route and ask about the present conditions

[Viper21]

Thanks for all your responses. We are taking the Innova Crysta so i feel i should be able to navigate out of the bad patches in some areas. We plan to do it in the day time itself so that we are at Coimbatore by Evening. Again, thanks everyone for your responses.

[rt363]

Hey Viper21

I had travelled through the route last weekend through the athirapally - valparai route.
The road condition is good after athirapally for around 1 hour of driving. After that you might cover some 15-20 odd kms in the next one hour. Work is on-going in some stretches wherein its bad but innova will glide.

once you reach malakaparra, then again the road is in bad condition till sholayar for some 30 mins.. then its heaven. Valparai road is really good and the view is breathtaking.

Be mindful of the entry and exit time (6a.m to 6p.m) at vaazhachal checkpost and if you are lucky (or unlucky depending on the situation) you might spot a wide variety of animals. We could spot 1 single elephant and another herd of 5 elephants, raindeer, black monkeys, python etc..

[Viper21]

Originally Posted by rt363

Hey Viper21

I had travelled through the route last weekend through the athirapally - valparai route.
The road condition is good after athirapally for around 1 hour of driving. After that you might cover some 15-20 odd kms in the next one hour. Work is on-going in some stretches wherein its bad but innova will glide.

once you reach malakaparra, then again the road is in bad condition till sholayar for some 30 mins.. then its heaven. Valparai road is really good and the view is breathtaking.

Be mindful of the entry and exit time (6a.m to 6p.m) at vaazhachal checkpost and if you are lucky (or unlucky depending on the situation) you might spot a wide variety of animals. We could spot 1 single elephant and another herd of 5 elephants, raindeer, black monkeys, python etc..

Wow. Cool. Thanks for telling me about the timings.

[Viper21]

Update and closure of this thread.

Firstly, Thanks everyone for your responses. Helped me prepare myself for the road conditions.

As you all said, till Athirapalli the roads are good and then they slowly deteriorate. The bad stretches has been filled up by small rocks and mud / sand, and in some stretches they were leveling the road due to which they made us wait for sometime. Sholayar dam is breathtaking !!

When you enter TN, the roads are beautiful.

Cheers !!