[Itty]

So finally , I am that stage in my life where I get to do things what I like or what I have been dreaming of for many years. Where you are free as a bird on a discovery of exciting things to come.
This 15th June will mark the beginning of a journey, of which I plan and hope to do many more. This ones going to be short and sweet.

The plan.

Drive to Mangalore, onwards to Goa, Pune, Hampi, Coorg and back to Kochi.
Vehicle - Nissan terrano 110 xv, fitted with Gps tracker capable of photos.
Car done 4000 kms.
Car bought in March 22nd 2014.
Purpose of the journey - The trip.
Weather expected - rains through and through.
Crew - 2 best buddies.
Accommodations - value for money great ambience places and homestays.
Food - on the coast seafood.

So will update as soon as we are on the way.
If any of my team-bhpians friends have suggestion on must see places en-route and also must eat places, please suggest.

Cheers and till the 15th. ciao

Updates dated 11/06/2014

Car check up done at Nissan authorised service. New aquapel coating from Asian paints done for front and back windshields. Will see how it lasts, or proves useful.

GPS tracker fitted on the car. System installed by a Cochin based team Vagtune. System capable of giving exact position of car along with speed, distance covered. Photo enabled. First test photos attached.

We are almost there to say get set ready go.

Update dates 14/06/2014

The excitement wants to make you leave a day earlier. Can't wait for it to be tomorrow.

Updates dates 15/06/2014

Rise and shine at 4.00 am.
Destination - Mangalore.
Odo reading says - 4205
At odo reading 4334kms , 44.27 litres diesel filled.

What a brilliant drive. Was able to cover Trichur before the traffic.
Rains on and off. Cool day for driving. Now it makes sense of our decision to have started on a Sunday. Would have saved 2 hours of getting stuck in traffic in towns en-route. The rains are when Kerala at her best. Everything so green, rivers so full. Heaven! For the eyes. The roads looks slippery, but the terrano is holding very good grip.
Reached Mangalore at 3.55 pm with a stoppage for breakfast at Calicut and lunch at Kasargod.

Quick nap and will go out to discover the scene at Mangalore.

Found London street at city centre. Nice place for a drink and a bite to eat.
Back to the hotel room to keep our weary eyes open to watch the world cup foot ball match.

16/06/2014
Loaded breakfast. Destination Goa.
One of the best drives. Coastal near empty roads. The sea one side and the hills on one side. Rainy on one side and sun on the other. Couldn't ask for more. Green thru and thru. Road surface not good as one would like it to be. But still manageable. Terrano again proves a great drive. Great fishy lunch ( picture attached) at Karwar. Hotel Amrut the place. Goa clocked at 4.30. Heavy blinding rain greets us. Wow the rain is surely following us all the way. Though I didn't ask for it, I guess the rain gods figured I am so much in love with them. Missed the turn to Panaji bridge and gets stuck in heavy traffic. Finally manage to come around and get the entry correct this time.
Reached our destination. Bliss , a perfect hideaway in an 8 acre property. Portuguese architecture villas with a lot of privacy. Weary legs need to hit the bed early. Oh wait there is Germany vs Portugal on the idiot box. I can barely keep an eye open. My friend is on the easy chair positioned towards the tv, pretending or wanting to watch the match, but look at him he is watching tv with his eyes closed!

At odo reading 4998kms ,48.25 litres diesel filled.

17/06/2014, 18/07/2014, 19/07/2014
Wake up to the sound do chirping birds and riveting rain. Who said Goa has an off season. Not atleast at the busy beaches. Crowded and busy.
The Asian paints aquapel coating down on the windshield is holding good during heavy rains. The water does not stick on. They roll down. But night driving was impacted with a glare from the coating.

Goa, Goa, Goa how can you ever have enough. Fantastic hospitality, beautiful people, amazing food, heavenly weather. All packaged very well on a platter. Had lunch at a small , but very busy restaurant Ananthashramam. Lip smackingly good. Got see the famous fashion man from Goa Mr. Wendell Rodricks singing at the House of Lloyds. ( pics attached)

Bodies are rested and refreshed. Look forward to the drive to Pune tomorrow. Plan to leave around 7.30 in the morning for a supposedly 10 hour drive to Pune.

20/06/2014
Things don't go exactly as planned. Late night yesterday and thundering rains at night will not let us crawl out of bed sooner than 8am. Quick bath/breakfast weary bodies hit the road at 9.30am. A well 2 hours behind schedule. But then hope we keep awake to reach Pune. Luckily a friend is joining us just for this stretch. So we have a third on board. Great driver, takes some time to get used yo the vehicle, but once in all good. I am confused as to should I sleep to freshen up, or should I stay awake to take in the views. I decide on staying awake, and not a bad choice. New places and sightings always freshen your mind. If I had to sleep I should have rather stayed at home.

The route we took was through Sawantwadi, Amboli, Ajra , Uttur ( using the Nipani Ajra link road and Nipani Gadhinglaj road to get onto the national highway 4,then Kolhapur, Satara and arriving Pune. Pretty decent surface all the way, except for patches of minor potholes. But in a nut shell, the Terrano sailed through with aplomb. Very sturdy suspension and cabin is very quiet even when you are going through bad patches. Touching 120km/hour the car seems easy to handle but anything over you do not feel the confidence as you feel the car is way too light. So 120km/hour is the max we took her to. Tried her at various speeds 140, upto 150km/hr but it just wasn't feeling right.

From the calm of the highways we enter chaotic Pune. To get to Koregaon park where our homestay was, there was I think 4 routes you could take. 7 pm on a week day is not ideal to enter Pune and be searching for Koregaon park. But we managed and finally reached our wonderful homestay hosts. Great space in their private flat.
Got to go out for dinner and hit the bed early.

21/06/2016
Next day managed some shopping on Centre street. Met a very friendly Kohlapuri sandal maker, in the business for the last 80 years wow. Mr. Abid Bootwalla, was a great find ( pics attached) with his amazing collection of Kohlapuri's. Lunch at the famed biriyani restaurant Blue Nile. Lip smackingly good. I think that was it. We had been done with Pune a day earlier than planned. Had to drop the Hampi plan as urgent issues needed us to be back home.

22/06/2014
The day when it started, did not seem would be that exciting. Journey starts at 5.00am. Plan drive from Pune the farthest we can. Little did we know it we would finish the day at Salem covering 1045kms.
At odo reading 5710kms, 39.12 litres diesel filled.
Brilliant does not justify the roads. The best roads I have driven so far in India, though the tolls are an irritant. Why cannot they have us buy the toll for the entire stretch in the beginning, rather than having to wait in long serpentine lines at almost every toll. Then each toll guy needs exact change. So this takes up a lot of time and energy.

At odo reading 6329kms ,45.89 litres diesel filled.
Never before have I filled 2 full tanks on the same day. The beauty of this road makes we want to do the Golden quadrilateral very soon. Sheer pleasure to drive on and take your car to its limit. 6 the gear 90% of the way. Even the Bangalore bye pass to get you to Hosur is very good.
Reached Salem at 8.00 pm. Exhausted would be an understatement. Hit the bed early.

23/06/2014
Salem to Kochi. Everything goes well till we reach Kerala. Back to square one. Under contruction areas take up so much of your time. Since they are not properly regulated you need a lot of patience to sit back and wait for others to pass. Finally we cross the mayhem and reach Kochi at 3.30 pm.

At odo reading 6975kms, 46.44litres diesel filled.
odo reads 7092 kms.

Could have been incidences,

1) 15/06/2014 - cruising at 90kms/hr , just 20 kms from Trichur a man on an Enfield 30ft away suddenly decides to cut from left side of the road to take a right turn. He has his son sitting on the petrol tank. Luckily he sees the car, but doesn't panic and accelerates and reached the other side. Cannot imagine if he had in confusion stalled his bike in the middle of the road.
2) 23/06/2014 - crushing at 100kms/hr around 40 kms from Coimbatore an I10 pulls to the middle of the road for a side cutting. He does not check to the right before entering the main road. He is stretching his head to look behind to see if any vehicle coming from the back. But before he even knows he is the middle. Luckily I was able to down my gears and take my car behind his car to avoid a collision.

Today the 24rth the baby gets a shampoo wash at 3M car care. All clean and swanky, waiting for the next trip.

[4x4addict]

Originally Posted by Itty

Today the 24rth the baby gets a shampoo wash at 3M car care. All clean and swanky, waiting for the next trip.

Thanks for the write up. Wish I had time for stuff like this. Is there an automated car wash in cochin?

[Itty]

Thank you 4x4 addict. Yes Cochin has couple of automated car washes.

[vjabraham]

Planning to do a road trip from Kochi to Goa via Mangalore end of September. Would appreciate any tips and updates on the present road conditions.

[Itty]

Originally Posted by vjabraham

Planning to do a road trip from Kochi to Goa via Mangalore end of September. Would appreciate any tips and updates on the present road conditions.

Good morning, I did another trip on the same route in December 2017. The road surface is pretty good through out.Only two to three things you need to prepare for.

1) Leave Kochi as early you can in the morning. Like 3.00am.This lets you avoid as much traffic as possible. The route from Kochi to Kasargod is a nightmare during day time as there are no bye passes and you pass through all the towns. We left Kochi at 2- 3.00 am and was at Mangalore at 1.00 pm. Would suggest you do a night halt here as you would start to tire since you have left early in the morning. Physically you might be okay, but mentally you need to stay alert.

2) There is road renovation happening after Udupi. So in patches 4 lane becomes 2 way. There you have to be careful for the monster trucks who are still in 4 lane mode. Also watch out for the odd bikes that jump out of nowhere.

But this again is one of my favourite routes and just around 100 kms before Goa the road starts to get brilliant.Then the rive is great. But all in all the scenic beauty of this trip is wonderful with the sea on one side and mountains on the other.

Cheers

[vjabraham]

Originally Posted by Itty

Good morning, I did another trip on the same route in December 2017. The road surface is pretty good through out.Only two to three things you need to prepare for.

1) Leave Kochi as early you can in the morning. Like 3.00am.This lets you avoid as much traffic as possible. The route from Kochi to Kasargod is a nightmare during day time as there are no bye passes and you pass through all the towns. We left Kochi at 2- 3.00 am and was at Mangalore at 1.00 pm. Would suggest you do a night halt here as you would start to tire since you have left early in the morning. Physically you might be okay, but mentally you need to stay alert.

2) There is road renovation happening after Udupi. So in patches 4 lane becomes 2 way. There you have to be careful for the monster trucks who are still in 4 lane mode. Also watch out for the odd bikes that jump out of nowhere.

But this again is one of my favourite routes and just around 100 kms before Goa the road starts to get brilliant.Then the rive is great. But all in all the scenic beauty of this trip is wonderful with the sea on one side and mountains on the other.

Cheers

Thank you for the input!