Team-BHP > Travelogues


Reply
  Search this Thread
11,960 views
Old 19th October 2011, 19:36   #1
BHPian
 
dezrskb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Udupi
Posts: 232
Thanked: 139 Times
Two Days in Heaven - Mangalore - Kasaragod – Kannur – Calicut – Vythiri

TWO DAYS /NIGHTS IN HEAVEN

Date: 05/10/2011 to 08/10/2011

Tour plan was conceived 2 months back. Reviews on the various resorts were read online and a selection was made, booking done and amount paid one month in advance. Little did we know about the road conditions. This was my first tour to this particular district.

Members: 4 adults – myself, wife, my parents and 2 kids – son 5yrs and daughter 8mths old.

Vehicle: Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire Vdi – 24K kms old and serviced a week back.

Route: Udupi – Mangalore- Kasaragod – Kannur (overnight stay) – Calicut – Vythiri. Return – same way but without stay.

Road conditions – Udupi-Mangalore : 4 lane under construction but mostly smooth. Have to switch from left to right many times. No issues in daytime. Took 1 hour.

Mangalore- kasaragod: Virtually no road. To call it a national Highway would be shame. Be prepared to drive in I/II gear for long periods and on pebbles and pot holes, dust all around. Avoid at night if possible. Took 11/2 hours which should have been less than an hour when road is good.

Kasaragod-Kanhangad: Took 45min, NH 17 (not the state highway which is few kms short) was in excellent condition save few short bad patches. Stopped at Nalanda Resorts at Neeleshwar for lunch.

Neeleshwar to Kannur – 11/2 hours. Highway for most of its length is in good condition.
Checked into Hotel Blue Nile at Kannur at 5pm. (They have a website, just google it if you need details. – stay was comofortable, can recommend it)
Started at 8.15am on 06/10/2011 from hotel.

Kannur-Calicut: Pure nightmare. Once you enter NH17 in Kerala, be prepared to get frustrated as it is narrow, congested, enters into Talissery and Mahe. NH 17 at Talissery was in same condition as it was between Mlr and Kasaragod -non existent and small signboards. Ask directions frequently as once you miss the correct road, to get back again on track takes long time and is very frustrating. Particularly at Talissery.

Most important lesson: avoid journey to this part in October as bad roads after heavy rains are probably repaired around this time and multiple diversions, missing roads and finding it again will make your journey 2 hours longer and frustrating if you are used to driving at good speed on 4 lane highways. Starting well in advance would be much better.

Calicut to Vythiri (Wyanad): Hill roads- steep and 9 hairpin curves and no road at most hairpins.

Road from NH 212 (mysore – Calicut) to vythiri resorts: non existent. Same as non existent roads mentioned earlier.

Checked into Vythiri resorts at 1.30pm on 06/10/11. our good time started now.

Resort Stay: Chose 2nights plan/ wooden haven. 2 additional single cots+bed+food, total cost including all food- 34K. spacious cottage with balcony overlooking a stream and dense forest all around. You have 24 hours non stop music by birds, cicada, water and multiple other creatures. Ambience is purely heavenly. Walk from reception to our cottage is bit difficult for elderly with knee pains. However battery operated “Buggy” vehicles available on request. I had to avail the facility as my mom had knee pains. No issues for physically fit ones.
Veg food at restaurant was among the best I have tasted in any resorts. Multiple choices too.
No A/C needed as such. Its quite cool and mornings are quite cold at this time of year. Swimming pool was so-so.
You will be amazed to see the amount of wood used in this resort.
Also something new to me was lemongrass oil diluted in water to clean the toilets gives such a beautiful fragrance and also is supposed to be an insect repellant. Bought some on way back to try.
Plenty of friendly Malabar giant squirrels and monkeys here.
In a nutshell, our time flew and suddenly we realized it was time to leave.
We completed the return journey in a single day.

Started from Resorts at 8.45 am and reached Kannur by 1.30pm and took lunch break at 2pm. Started again at 2.45pm and by 6pm reached Mangalore and another break for coffee. At 7.30pm we were in Udupi.
Mileage was apprx 18kms (TF to TF) with AC on all the time.

Last edited by Technocrat : 22nd October 2011 at 01:59. Reason: Edited formatting for better readability, thanks
dezrskb is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 21st October 2011, 04:57   #2
BHPian
 
kraft.wagen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Cbe <- >Ams
Posts: 978
Thanked: 329 Times
re: Two Days in Heaven - Mangalore - Kasaragod – Kannur – Calicut – Vythiri

Mangalore - Kasargod road is always a nightmare

Post some pics of the trip dezrskb
kraft.wagen is offline  
Old 21st October 2011, 23:33   #3
BHPian
 
dezrskb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Udupi
Posts: 232
Thanked: 139 Times
re: Two Days in Heaven - Mangalore - Kasaragod – Kannur – Calicut – Vythiri

Will load the pics shortly. This being one of my first travelogue on this forum, I'm trying to resize and load the photos correctly.
There are times when Mangalore - Kasaragod NH17 is a pleasure to drive on. But end of the rainy season is to be avoided every year.
dezrskb is offline  
Old 22nd October 2011, 08:58   #4
Team-BHP Support
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: All over!
Posts: 7,591
Thanked: 18,197 Times
Re: Two Days in Heaven - Mangalore - Kasaragod – Kannur – Calicut – Vythiri

Pictures please!

Being from Udupi, I assume you'd have already been to Bekal Fort.

I remember my Manipal - Kasargod ride in '08; the roads were horrible from Manipal to the Karnataka - Kerala border and then all of a sudden, they turned amazing!

What all did you do in Kannur and Vythiri? Wayanad?
libranof1987 is offline  
Reply

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks