[Arjun Reddy]

Originally Posted by laluks

Thanks guys for reading. Now that this log is completed, planning for the next trip by the weekend. You can find the links to my other logs in Team-BHP here Cheers Have a great day ahead

Excellent travelogue Laluks. Really loved the pictures. I tentatively plan to go on your trail this month. I have made my bookings at the same resort. Pls could you let me know the condition of the roads you used. Will taking the kanchipiram road make sense or shall I stick to Salem road for to and fro?
Awaiting your next.

Originally Posted by laluks

Thanks guys for reading. Now that this log is completed, planning for the next trip by the weekend. You can find the links to my other logs in Team-BHP here Cheers Have a great day ahead

sorry. Pls ignore. Somehow missed your last post on the roads.

[laluks]

Arjun Reddy, You may also add Chunnambar Beach( Paradise Beach) and also the Auroville area if this is your first trip to Pondy.

[laluks]

A drive to Pondy again. This time we had to share the joy of a new born in the family. My Sister in Law had delivered a baby and we were excited to go meet and greet them.

We were to start as usual by 02:00AM and reach Pondy for breakfast, but this time some how we slept off and we started only by 06:30AM. May be I am getting older, and need all the rest I can get!

Since it was a day drive, I thought of finding some new routes albeit slow to Pondy.

Day 1 : 27th July 2014 : Bangalore - Krishnagiri - Harur - Thiruannamalai - Tindivanam - Pondy (366KMs)
Day 2 : 28th July 2014 : Pondy
Day 3 : 29th July 2014 : Pondy - Cudallore - Panruti - Thirukoilur - - Theerthamalai - Uthangarai - Krishnagiri - Bangalore (352KMs)


Day 1 : 27th July 2014

The onward drive was quite amazing. We started by 06:30AM to Elevated toll road, and exited Bangalore by 07:00AM. At the exit of Bangalore before the toll gate a helicopter and a fighter jet caught my attention


We stopped by Kamaths for a short breakfast and continued to exit Krishnagiri and drive a bit further till Karimangalam where we took the deviation to Harur. The roads were good all the way till Harur. At Harur we took the road towards Thiruannamalai, roads were mostly good but some patches were real bad. Thiruannamalai Tinidvanam, some work is going on and mostly you are on dirt roads, but quite doable. Tindivanam Pondy is a breeze with 4 lane roads.

Finally we reached Pondy by 13:00 hours. Odo showed ~369KMs for the drive.


It was quite hot and humid at 36 degrees. Later on the temperature went up to 38 degrees or so before we got a welcome shower. We all laughed at the thought that we brought rains from Bangalore to Pondy!!

After catching up with the long stories since our last visit over a good lunch and relaxing a bit, it was time for us to chill out. Hot weather demanded a pool and we decided to travel to a resort nearby. It was called Prince Park, if I remember it right. We reached the resort by 16:00 hours.

Civvy parked at the resort


Somebody seems to have forgotten that he had to leave


Kiddies enjoying the pool




This fellow decided to have more fun


We caught up too


After spending a couple of hours in the pool we got back home by 19:00hours.

Kiddies were up to some experiments.


We had some time exclusively with the baby




By 21:30 hours we finished a great dinner together. There were other relatives too at home and due to space constraints we were booked at Club Mahindra, Pondy. We left to the resort and checked in the resort by 22:00 hours.

A total of ~404 Kms for the day. Rains have brought down the temperature to 27 degrees as well.


Dinner already done, we were tired, hence crashed on to our beds and retired for the night

[laluks]

The route from Bangalore to Pondy via Harur


Route to Prince Park


Route to Club Mahindra

[laluks]

Day 2 : 28th July 2014

Woke up early, and got ready to do a Beach Trek. I wanted to walk all the way to Cuddalore from the resort on the beach. By road that is something like 13 Kilometers.



There are a few places where river joins the sea. Pennai and Gadilam rivers joins the sea in this route. My idea was at those places request a fisher boat to take me across the river to the other bank. Since the east coast receives rains mostly only in September, I was also hoping the estuaries were dried up and you could walk across.

Sr. PPG decided to join me in the adventure, knowing fully well that it could easily be 10+Kms of walk and if some thing goes wrong we will have to walk the same distance back. But we hoped to reach Cuddalore Silver Beach and take an auto from there to the resort!

We started our trek by 07:30AM.

The beach near the resort


The trunk still stands


Typical Palm trees on the shore


As we walked on the place seemed to be deserted


Barring a few fisher boats in the sea


Soon we reached a fishing hamlet


He was trying to fish from the banks


I was amused at these figurines


We slowly continued with our walk

Continued...

[laluks]

Day 2 : 28th July 2014

A little later we reached Mullodai Lagoon


The water body was vast


These fellows were floating in the water


Sr. PPG says these are deep sea jelly fish!


Sr. PPG at the lagoon overlooking the beach






Sr. PPG relaxes for a while before continuing the trek


Continued...

[laluks]

Day 2 : 28th July 2014

We were somewhere near Pudukuppam Beach.


There was a road there, and I asked Sr. PPG should we abort or should we continue. She says let's trek more. I was thinking that if we continue ahead, chances of river crossings and no way to get a vehicle back to the resort easily and some other hindrances would come in our way. But we decided to trek on.

A twig out of nowhere!


We reached the place where Pennai River was supposed to meet the Sea.


The place was dry and we could walk and cross the first river crossing!!

Sea comes to meet Sr. PPG


Big boulders kept to prevent the reverse flow to the river breaking the current from the waves


It was like that for quite some distance, we could see the dried up river on the other side


We tried to walk on the rocks




Soon we walked into the island, another fishing hamlet


A tractor was trying to pull the boat from the sea!


It was quite a scene watching how it digs in to the sand and gets out of it without a sweat


We moved on, lucky that we could cross Pennai River easily by walk.

Continued...

[laluks]

Day 2 : 28th July 2014

Crossing over to Silver beach was difficult. We walked through some narrow alleys, since we saw the sea was fully barricaded by big stones in the area. We finally managed to find a place to climb over the boulders. Silver Beach, our destination seemed to be at least a kilometer away at this point.

Sr. PPG visibly tired, but enthusiastic to reach Silver Beach


In anther 10 minutes we get the first looks of Silver Beach


Silver Beach was looking good, a calm beach


Sr. PPG quite happy that we finally completed the trek


Here too the river dried up before meeting the sea


Boats on Gadilam River




Police Station - Colourful


Boat House


Some Welfare Building - Deserted now


By now we flagged down an auto and asked him to take us back to the resort. He was shocked to hear what we did, and was curious to know how we crossed the rivers!!

Our Beach Trekking statistics, not bad at all


We finally reached the resort back by 11:00AM

The trail


The Auto


Wifey was quite happy to see us back


Our tired selves were refreshed by the sights of some flowers



Reached the room, had a good shower and some snacks. Then took Jr. PPG to the pool. Played in the pool for a while and went for lunch. After lunch I took a good nap till late evening!!



Continued...

[laluks]

Day 2 : 28th July 2014

After a good nap, I woke by late evening, fully refreshed. That was a much needed rest. I believe I am getting older, though I would like not to believe that feeling, may be I need to slow down a bit!!

After a good shower we went for dinner, and as usual they had a good spread. I tend to find things boring, may be I just had too much of Club Mahindra!!

Dinner Menu for the night


Some vegetable art






Chicken Salad


Veg Salad


Wow! A surprise visitor


Crabs


Rotis


Dosas


Crabs again


Pickles and Curd Rice


Ice creams!!


Jr. PPG enjoying the ice cream


There was a DJ night going on, kiddies danced for a while. By 22:30 we reached our rooms and retired for the night.

[laluks]

Day 3 : 29th July 2014

Slept well and woke up lazily. Today we are to drive back to Bangalore. Since Bangalore was not really far, I was relaxed. Even if we start by late evening we will reach by 10ish. So I just let the day be.

By 09:00 we went for breakfast, the menu


Jr. PPG gets herself some English breakfast!


And for me, I made a mix!!


Egg White Omlette!!


Coffee, much needed one


I am caught enjoying the coffee


After breakfast we lazed around in the resort.

Berries


Another one


Jr. PPG had a book to finish, before checking out


We went to the beach to enjoy the breeze.


Continued...

[laluks]

Day 3 : 29th July 2014

We went to the beach


The beach was calm


Resort entry from the beach


Jr. PPG settles down with her book


This fellow gets curious!


We saw a pod (group of dolphins - usually 12)


It was nice watching them swim by


Jr. PPG almost at the last few pages.


Book over, and we returned back to the resort


The resort was looking green


There were many of these fellows roaming around




There were Cat Fish too




We saw a three pointed star gaadi






Jr. PPG likes the gaadi


We reached the room and packed up. We asked the front office to get the bills and we checked out of the room.

A painting from the room, still wondering the inner meaning of this!


Continued...

[laluks]

Day 3 : 29th July 2014

We started from the resort by 11:00




It was 32 degrees


Since the resort was near Cuddalore, I did not want to drive back into Pondy and exit, instead we drove towards Thirukkoilure via Panruti, and then further on to Harur. Roads were mostly narrow, but fun. Lots of humps too, since the road passes through many villages. The drive was a very slow drive due to this. But we enjoyed it.

Some where in between the drive




She was quite curious


The mountain with its ridge looked beautiful




Somewhere Civvy completes another milestone



We drove on, and once nearing Harur, I took a deviation to Uthangarai via Theerthamalai. I wanted to see how bad the roads are. Everyone was against driving on Krishnagiri Thiruannamalai road, so I decided to check atleast half of it .

Indeed the roads from Uthangarai to Krishnagiri is bad, but the good news is there seems to be some construction going on. Probably another couple of years it could be through. Even other wise, with the patches and rubble, Civvy did it without a sweat. I would not advise this route now, but if you are hell bent on taking this route, please do - it will not break your car. You need to be slow, and careful as always in this patchy road. Don't take this route after dark would be my only suggestion to avoid the surprise patches.


By 17:00 hours we reached Shoolagiri.

The route taken


Continued...

[laluks]

Day 3 : 29th July 2014

PPGs gets their mandatory McD break and me some rest .


After an hour, we were stuffed with burgers and ice creams!!


By 18:00 we left McD towards home


We drove slow and reached home through the heavy traffic by 20:00 hours.

Bangalore was 28 degrees and the entire drive stood at 755KMs


Civvy has clocked a little over 111K as on date


Cleared the luggage from the car, watched a bit of TV and we retired for the day.

The End