[rameshnanda]

My first Travelogue in Team-BHP.

And my first Monsoon drive for the season. Just back from a 1500 kms. drive to Wayanad. Planning for this trip happened only two days before the travel date. My plan was to leave Chennai early in the evening on Thursday and reach Bangalore for the nights stay. Start as early as possible from Bangalore on Friday morning and reach Thirunelly by noon. After some research I decided to stay at Himagiri Homes at Thirunelly. I wanted to stay somewhere on the Brahmagiri-Thirunelly Elephant corridor and fortunately got very decent accommodation within my budget in that area.







For onward, I decided to take Chennai-Oragadam-Sriperumbuthur-krishnagiri-Hosur-Bangalore-Mysore-Hunsur-Nagarhole-Kutta-Tholpetty-Thirunelly. I was able to leave from my home only at 5.30 pm on Thursday. Beating the traffic to reach Sriperumbuthur took some time and we (me, my wife and my Daughter) took a Snack/Coffee break at Hotel Sakthi Saravana on the highway. The drive throughout the route to reach Bangalore was a torture which me and my Linea has to undergo. I didn't expect it to be bad and thought that 6 laning work might have reached the finishing stage. The sections where the 6 laning is complete, the left most lane is used by the two wheelers and Autos on both directions. There are countless diversions on the whole stretch till we reached Hosur. At that time, I made a decision that I am not going to take this route for the return journey. I booked for a budget accommodation (Online Suites) near the 'Narayana Hrudalaya'. I thank BHP'ian Kala for the recommendation.

[rameshnanda]

We got up little early on Friday and got ready to leave Bangalore by 7 am. I drove towards Mysore and it was another torturous drive with hell lot of speed breakers. We had our Breakfast at Kamath Lokaruchi and continued our drive. The road isn't nothing great to cheer about even after Mysore. The quality of the road was fantastic but spoiled by numerous Speed breakers. I was expecting speed breakers every 200 meters on the Hunsur-Kutta stretch inside Nagarhole National Park. Surprisingly, all those humps have been removed and the drive was much better than the one I did last year inside this Park. We couldn't spot any animals inside the park except for the herd of Deer.

It was 2 pm when we reached Tholpetty and decided to have lunch in a small eat-out 'Muthappan Mess House'. It isn't a great place but I liked the food they served. Finally, we reached our home stay (Himagiri Homes) at Thirunelly by 3 pm. Took some rest and we went to the Thirunelly Mahavishnu Temple in the evening and came back to the room.

Oh! How did I miss to talk about rain? It was raining heavily on and off from the time we crossed Kutta. And it rained the whole night on Friday at Thirunelly.

My drive inside the Nagarhole National Park






The road and the nature inside the Nagarhole National Park




Herd of Deer




Our stay at Thirunelly (the building which is seen on the left side is the KTDC Tamarind)


More views of our Stay






The view as seen from our room


At the Thirunelly Mahavishnu Temple (claimed to be the oldest temple in India)




More pictures of the road to Thirunelly

[rameshnanda]

The next morning (Saturday), I decided to drive around the Thirunelly forests early in the morning hoping to spot some animals. We got up early and started out for a drive at 6 am. Unfortunately, we couldn't spot any animals other than a herd of Deer.

Some snaps from the early morning drive.

[rameshnanda]

After the early morning drive, we came back to our stay, got ready, had breakfast (Puttu) at KTDC Tamarind and started to drive to the Banasura Sagar Dam. I did not have much of the plans for the day and decided to visit only the Dam, do the boating and come back.

The route I took was Thirunelly-Kattikulam-Mananthavady-Banasura Dam. We reached Banasura Dam at around 12 pm. I parked my car and decided to take the transport provided at the Dam to go up to the Boat house. As soon we started, it started to rain heavily. We enjoyed the speed boat at the Dam and came back to parking by 1.30 pm. I found a small mess house near the Dam and decided to have lunch there itself. It was indeed really awesome.

I got to know that 'Pookote Lake' is only 16 kms or so from the Banasura. Since we didn't have anything else to do, I decided to drive down to the lake. The last few kilometers to the Lake was really hell for my Linea. It had to do
lot of off-roading stuffs. Then came the disappointment. After enjoying all those nature around Thirunelly, 'Pookote Lake' looked very ordinary to me and it is just a recreational facility.

I took the return route through Kalpetta and Mananthavady. I filled the Diesel for my car at Mananthavady. We reached back to the Home stay by 6 pm with very heavy rain around the Thirunelly area. We got some snacks and black tea that evening and ended our day.

Some pictures en route Banasura Sagar Dam








At the Dam












At Pookote Lake








On way back


At Home Stay, again

[rameshnanda]

It rained whole night on Saturday and we had no mood to start the return journey on Sunday. I had no option but to return back due to official commitments. I decided to have breakfast on the way and stopped at a small mess at Begur which is 12 kms. from Thirunelly. We had delicious Unniyappams and Idly. Impressed with the taste of Unniyappam, I got 6 more packed to have on way. We then had black tea and finally the bill amount was Rs. 85.

I already made my mind not to return thru Mysore and Bangalore and instead decided to do Sulthan Bathery-Gundlupet-Chamrajnagara-Sathyamangalam-Bhavani-Salem-Attur-Chennai. Driving on those Dimbam ghats was real fun. The return route was 1000 times better than the onward route even though it is longer by 60-70 kms. We broke at Bhavani for lunch and when we reached Chennai it was 8.30 PM and the rain invited us in Chennai too.



- The End

[Technocrat]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues section. Thanks for sharing!

[ampere]

Looks like greens have returned to Waynad. Surely Salem is a much better option than Bangalore. While going you could have taken 209 instead of Mysore to reduce the pain a bit.

Looks like Nikon is serving you well

[Mnjdnght]

Lovely pictures. Are these as-shot or have you done any post processing? The colors seem a bit over saturated. The pictures are inspiring enough to plan a long pending trip towards Thirunelli. Thanks.

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by ampere

While going you could have taken 209 instead of Mysore to reduce the pain a bit.

Looks like Nikon is serving you well

True. I took the regular route just because of better food options.

Originally Posted by Mnjdnght

Lovely pictures. Are these as-shot or have you done any post processing? The colors seem a bit over saturated. The pictures are inspiring enough to plan a long pending trip towards Thirunelli. Thanks.

Didn't do any post processing.
Yes, may be because of the Vivid picture setting on my camera.

[nkrishnap]

Lovely travelogue there. Awesome greenery and Linea does feel at home in the pics.

Thanks for sharing.

[EagleEye]

Thanks for the travelogue.
Reminds me of the days when I used to have trips to Wayanad with my gang of friends from college. We have had quite a few adventures there. Siiiigh.. Good memories...

[CliffHanger]

Wow!! Nice pics there, Ramesh! Are these clicked from a DSLR?

And would love to meet you, Sathya, Teky, Linea Lover, Harry and others. I have moved to Bangalore temporarily, so couldn't join any of the Chennai meets. Hope you all are doing well and hope to see you all soon.

[Ddrive]

Too good for a first travelogue.
Beautiful photographs with superb locations.
The homestay location is looking serene and greenish.
You took this trip in the right time... i must say.
Thanks for sharing.

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by CliffHanger

Wow!! Nice pics there, Ramesh! Are these clicked from a DSLR?

And would love to meet you, Sathya, Teky, Linea Lover, Harry and others. I have moved to Bangalore temporarily, so couldn't join any of the Chennai meets. Hope you all are doing well and hope to see you all soon.

Yes. These was taken in a DSLR.

Sure. We will meet sometime in Chennai. Do let us know when you come to Chennai.

[darklord]

Exquisite photographs.

Thirunelly is on my to-do list for a long time. Thanks for sharing.

Would you please share the tariff/amenities/room pictures of the homestay?

Also, what is the building in photo #13, post #2?