[DieselLover]

Did Ekm to Gavi trip last weekend.

Took Ekm-Muvattupuzha-Thodupuzha-Pala-Kanjirappally-Mundakkayam-Vandipperiyar route for the onward journey. Excellent roads throughout. Started at 7 30 AM and reached Gavi by 2PM with lunch/breakfast breaks in between.

Returned via Kuttikanam-Elappara-Vagamon-Thodupuzha-Muvattupuzha route. This is shorter by around 20kms but the road is steep and narrow. The stretch between Vagamon-Kanjar is not in great shape either. The scenery made up for the bad roads!

[kala]

Originally Posted by johnda

Need to travel from Thiruvalla to vellore in a week's time. What would be the best route in terms of good roads?
Options so far are
tvla - cochin - trissur - ottapalam - palghat - coimbatore - erode - salem - krishnagiri - vellore

tvla- kumliy - dindugal - salem - vellore

please give me suggestions and advice.

I'd think the route via Kumily-Theni-Dindigul would be certainly faster since you need to drive less distance through Kerala roads (and that too only on NH220 which is probably the one with the lowest traffic density among all Kerala highways). The road conditions are also reported to be pretty good almost all through (except probably some rough stretches just before Kumily)

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by johnda

Need to travel from Thiruvalla to vellore in a week's time. What would be the best route in terms of good roads?
Options so far are
tvla - cochin - trissur - ottapalam - palghat - coimbatore - erode - salem - krishnagiri - vellore

tvla- kumliy - dindugal - salem - vellore

please give me suggestions and advice.

The route via Kumily with few bad sections would be faster than crowded Palakkad route.

[johnda]

Originally Posted by kala

I'd think the route via Kumily-Theni-Dindigul would be certainly faster since you need to drive less distance through Kerala roads (and that too only on NH220 which is probably the one with the lowest traffic density among all Kerala highways). The road conditions are also reported to be pretty good almost all through (except probably some rough stretches just before Kumily)

so then its Kumily-Theni-Dindigul-Salem-vellore?
any idea of the roads from kumily down? the last time we did that route the roads down the ghat was in a miserable condition.
Anybody who has done this route recently please update the road condition.
Any idea how long it would take from dindigul to vellore?

[kala]

Originally Posted by johnda

so then its Kumily-Theni-Dindigul-Erode-Salem-vellore?
any idea of the roads from kumily down? the last time we did that route the roads down the ghat was in a miserable condition.
Anybody who has done this route recently please update the road condition.

The latest report from that route is from @vinucv who went that way just a couple of days ago. He hasn't mentioned anything about the Cumbum-Kumily ghat section being bad. The Kumily-Vandiperiyar stretch is generally the one which is broken most of the time, and his report seems to say the same.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3272834

Any idea how long it would take from dindigul to vellore

Dindigul-Salem should be doable in about 2 hours, Salem-Krishnagiri probably about 1.5 to 2 hours depending on traffic. I'm not very sure about Krishnagiri-Vellore, but since the distance is only about 120 kms it should certainly be doable under 2 hours. So a total of 5.5 to 6 hours should be a reasonable estimate I think.

[pat2kin]

Planning to drive from Bangalore to Palakkad (and back) next weekend. Last time (July end), I took the Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Salem - Perundurai - Kangeyam - Palladam - Pollachi - Palakkad route because NH47 was in shambles (between Coimbatore - Palakkad).

Read through some of the recent posts and looks like that's not the case anymore and I should stick to the regular NH47 route. Please confirm. My ride will be a Honda City, BTW.

Also, what do you think about this route that a fellow t-bhpian had suggested some time back

[Waxeloquent]

Well made it to Club Mahindra Munnar via Cumbum from Theni; fortunately I had a local driver from Cumbum as I was not too comfortable taking the hill roads with rains and failing light. From Pooppara to Chinnakanal the road was bad; it poured and visibility was next to nothing. It has been raining on and off in Munnar. The roads in and around the town are bad. Devikulam to chinnakanal roads are good (done recently) for most part.

Theni-Bodi-Bodimettu not likely to get ready for another 6 months except for the window before 8am and after 6pm.

Now for trip to Kumarakom, I was planning to do Adimali-Neriamangalam-Kothamangalam-Muvattupuzha-Tripunithura-Vaikom-Kumrakom; the resort guys says it is longer and I should take Thodupuzha route. Wonder if shorter route necessarily mean better route or just stick to my plan!

Cheers

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by pat2kin

Planning to drive from Bangalore to Palakkad (and back) next weekend. Last time (July end), I took the Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Salem - Perundurai - Kangeyam - Palladam - Pollachi - Palakkad route because NH47 was in shambles (between Coimbatore - Palakkad).

Read through some of the recent posts and looks like that's not the case anymore and I should stick to the regular NH47 route. Please confirm. My ride will be a Honda City, BTW.

Also, what do you think about this route that a fellow t-bhpian had suggested some time back

The NH-7 & NH-47 route is alright now. You don't have to go via Velanthavalam anymore. Depending on what time you leave, it takes about 6-8 hours including breaks for the NH route. There aren't any major 'craters' that a crawl cannot take you through.

I'd posted an update here

Slightly OT: I might drive to Palakkad as well, on the weekend. Final timings are yet to be fixed.

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

When are you planning your return? How about a drive to Kava, rains permitting on Sunday?

Sounds good. Will call you once I land

[mallumowgli]

Originally Posted by silversteed

Slightly OT: I might drive to Palakkad as well, on the weekend. Final timings are yet to be fixed.

When are you planning your return? How about a drive to Kava, rains permitting on Sunday?

[pat2kin]

Originally Posted by silversteed

Slightly OT: I might drive to Palakkad as well, on the weekend. Final timings are yet to be fixed.

Thanks silversteed. I am planning to drive down Friday morning (3-4 am start) and return Monday / Tuesday.

[meisnutz]

Originally Posted by DieselLover

Did Ekm to Gavi trip last weekend.

Took Ekm-Muvattupuzha-Thodupuzha-Pala-Kanjirappally-Mundakkayam-Vandipperiyar route for the onward journey. Excellent roads throughout. Started at 7 30 AM and reached Gavi by 2PM with lunch/breakfast breaks in between.

Returned via Kuttikanam-Elappara-Vagamon-Thodupuzha-Muvattupuzha route. This is shorter by around 20kms but the road is steep and narrow. The stretch between Vagamon-Kanjar is not in great shape either. The scenery made up for the bad roads!

Hi diesellover,

I know this is here but can you tell me about your trip to gavi. It is the part after you reached there that iam interested in.Also is it worth a nights stay?

[nfsfreak]

Did Bangalore-Sabarimala-Bangalore trip last weekend.

Route taken: Bangalore-Salem-Dindigul-Kumily-Pamba (same for return)
Route Link in GoogleMaps: http://goo.gl/maps/91ezV
Car: Fiesta Classic.

Updates:
Bangalore-Dindigul:
Till Krishnagiri, there are few diversions but the road is mostly done. After Krishnagiri till Dindigul roads are good as always.
We did this stretch in very good time (around 5 hours)

Dindigul-Kumily:
Roads are generally OK (many newly laid stretches till Theni) but there are few bad stretches as well.
When crossing towns like Batlagundu, Periyakulam, Theni, Cumbum the roads are real bad.
Take extra care when you are driving at night, as some potholes can do serious damage as they are deep.
We did this stretch in around 3.5 hours in the night (onward) and around 3 hours during day (return).

Kumily-Pamba:
This stretch is completely on ghats. There are potholes at most of the turns that too in such a way that you cannot avoid it and you have to pass through them.
This slowed us down considerably.
We took around 3.5 hours during day (onward) and 4 hours in the night (return).

[Waxeloquent]

Route of Chinnakanal-admimali-Neiramangalam-Kothamangalam-Muvattupuzha-Trithunipura-Vaikom-CM, Kumarakom turned out to be perfect; as my Duster fuse for USB failed, I could not use the GPS; iPAD coverage thro' Cell One was spotty. As a result, lost my way out of Tripunithura; there were a few in-town diversions as well :( All the same
made it in 5 1/2 hours. The Vaikom road is in pretty good condition except for a few stretches closer to Kumarakom. Of course if you locate Club Mahindra without a Treasurehunt, you are a genius!!

Cheers

[silversteed]

Has anyone got updates on Mettur-Bhavani stretch? I'm considering that option to bypass Salem. Leaving Bangalore at 3 o'clock in the afternoon would mean I will delve into peak Friday evening traffic at Salem.

Had the roads been good, I would've taken Attibele-Rayakottai-Palacode route to avoid Hosur too, but my experience last week wasn't great.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Waxeloquent

Route of Chinnakanal-admimali-Neiramangalam-Kothamangalam-Muvattupuzha-Trithunipura-Vaikom-CM, Kumarakom turned out to be perfect; as my Duster fuse for USB failed, I could not use the GPS; iPAD coverage thro' Cell One was spotty. As a result, lost my way out of Tripunithura; there were a few in-town diversions as well :( All the same
made it in 5 1/2 hours. The Vaikom road is in pretty good condition except for a few stretches closer to Kumarakom. Of course if you locate Club Mahindra without a Treasurehunt, you are a genius!!

What happened with the Fuse?

And the route you mentioned was one of my first long distance drives. I remember @deepclutch and @coolclouds helping me out some 3-4 years back!

Here is the exact post on how to go past Tripunithura.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post1573268


That was in some page # 60. Can't believe we have gone 300 more pages !


And I dont even know, if the same status holds !