[bhansali_hardik]

Stuck in the monotonous life, waiting for a break, have a new car and a new phone. Both needed to be tested out there, what to do?

This was the conversation we were having at lakeview around 1A.M on a Wednesday morning and the monsoons had set in. Which led to inevitable break, taking away few days from the bangalore's hectic, pothole filled life.

Between few sandwiches and a huge ice cream we ended up chalking plans for valparai!

When do we go? Thursday night! Which is tomorrow! What! 3 of us were on board, we needed to convince 2 more chaps and before we knew we were on the road!

It was an impulsive decision, best decision!

Thanks to mother of all the forums a.k.a TeamBhp it was fairly easy to make the plan, get the stay and execute it.

The plan :



The whole idea of picking valparai was to have a relaxed and refreshing drive. Plus away from the crowd and bustle of the cities, valparai still relatively conserved and has a very few options for accommodation. Accommodation is either bad or expensive. We needed something between the two and managed to get a decent deal (no prior bookings as we did not have time to do that) a few phone calls and had a word with the folks at monica bungalow. They had accommodation at the tents for 5 of us.

We, however included the athirapalli falls on the way back for two reasons, to check the other route running through kerala and the waterfall of course!

Note : All the photos used in this log are taken using OnePlus 3 and none are post processed. I will throw in a few pics from DSLR post the log.

Day 0

An impulsive trip always has a rush and without any preps the first things first, prepping up the car.

Washing it up, polishing it, checking up the fluids, topping up the fuel and the tire pressures. Set to go!

A good shampoo treatment



Followed by polish!



We had an awesome run on the highway and took just a few breaks, the roads were just awesome through tamilnadu, traffic density was less and added to it I took this opportunity to run in the engine on the run!

At dawn, somewhere before pollachi :


Once you exit the 4 lane and get into 2 lane, you would think, oh! There goes the fun part here starts the rough patch and it will consume all the time and eat up the tires.
But, hold on! It was nothing less than that of the 4 lane highway! The roads were just beautiful and much more fun to drive on!

Day 01
Sun was up and the sights around were majestic!


The scenic beauty around was getting better with sunlight and so were the roads!


Darting straight roads and cloudy mountains ahead! The journey was never about the destination but about the journey, ain't it!


Yup! That's what we live for!


The road was narrow, but wasn't narrow for the hills! The road was in superb condition and the 42 hairpin bends ahead was all ours to play with and the fun began!


On the way we did have a few jaywalkers! They were the nilgiri thars!


The kid did well on the ghats with 5 on board and luggage, it did chug along well and made it fun drive!


The gang takes a selfie!


The whole route was scenic with many, many and yes I do mean many! photo stops. There was all the green you could soak in with a hint of the pure green lush tinge to it!


The clouds were setting in and were showering us with perfect drizzle.


We finally made it to the monica bunglow, it is fairly 10 kms away from the valparai town. The town in itself is less crowded and this place was literally deserted with the wildlife surrounding it!


The odo for the day!


We had a restful noon with amazing lunch, followed by lil runaround the town.


Day 02

With morning on us and no sun around, did try out the manual mode the phone! The results are satisfactory!

The main agenda of the trip was being served, lazy morning long bakar sessions and no hurry to do the touristy stuff, as there are really very lil things around to do. Only thing to do around here is to soak in the amazing greens and crave for tea and pakodas!
One of the tent which hosted wolfpack!


The lazy morning followed by break fast and numerous cups of tea and coffee!


Beautiful, ain't it!


The kid doing the runs on the ghats!


The big daddy watching over


We then went on to the Lower Nirar dam and it was pouring down!


A wet noon followed by amazing drive, next up was nalamoodi view point


It was just beautiful out there


The mist was coming in and the view point did not have anything to view!
It was a nice walk through the estate as the sun was going down


Day 03

We woke up late (yet again) with one agenda, to clear the kerala checkpost prior 5P.M and maybe catch a glimpse of athirapallai water fall.

The route taken was towards sholayar dam into the anamalai wild life through athirapalli coming out at thrissur to pallakad and a run back to home!
The sholayar dam, just took a few snaps and we hit the road.


Old aye?


Why did we hit the road? Cos, the roads were amazing and we did not want to stop! It was blissful and sinful drive through the ghats, amazing roads, slight drizzle and barely any sunshine!

[bhansali_hardik]

The jungle was thick and so was the tarmac! It was super fun to drive through and then we hit the brakes hard to see a few cars stuck at some point.

Why? well, there were wild elephants crossing the roads and we love disturbing them don't we?


Once we got space to squeeze out, we were back on road and this time around we found langoors



The wildlife here is rich and it indeed makes sense to have kerala govt force strict norms about the travel and what you carry through (including the platic bottles)

Once we were out of the sanctuary, there were many lil waterfalls along the road there were people rejoicing


We reach the athripallai waterfall and there was a huge rush, it was more like a fair with all the garbage noise and the amount of people trying to barge in. It was almost 5 and the ticket counter closes at sharp 5. We decided to skip the rush and get back on the road and leave this as place to come back to some other time to do the touristy stuff!


This was the final odo, at my home again.


What did we take away from this trip?
1) Green serene pollution free weekend.
2) The destination worth driving for rather than the destination itself.
3) Be punctual, if we would have been, we wouldn't have missed the athirapalli waterfall.
4) The OnePlus 3's camera is good.
5)Brezza can take on the curves happily, not a great highway runner, MJD1.6 could do wonders to this, on highway. Gives a healthy mileage of 17kmpl with the spirited runs and the ghats.
6) Bags and bags of banana chips from kerala!

[Aditya]

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

[NPV]

Nice little break you guys got away from maddening Bangalore traffic, roads and the hectic lives we live!
Nice photos, the places look so serene in monsoons, thanks for the log and the pictures

Originally Posted by bhansali_hardik

3) Be punctual, if we would have been, we wouldn't have missed the athirapalli waterfall.

Would have been nice to visit Athirapilly and Vazhachal falls (on your route from Valparai you would first see Vazhachal falls near the forest checkpost).
Of course you need at least about an hour for Athirapilly itself so that you can trek down to the base of the falls, it's a great sight from there and feels nice with the misty water spraying on your face.
Of course, there's always a next time and give you another reason to visit once more.

[petrolhead_chn]

I am sure you guys had loads of fun.

Originally Posted by bhansali_hardik

Brezza can take on the curves happily, not a great highway runner,

But I was taken aback by that comment. I am like if
Lively narration. A brief summary of costs would make your travelogue complete.

[bhansali_hardik]

Originally Posted by NPV

Nice little break you guys got away from maddening Bangalore traffic, roads and the hectic lives we live!
Nice photos, the places look so serene in monsoons, thanks for the log and the pictures


Would have been nice to visit Athirapilly and Vazhachal falls (on your route from Valparai you would first see Vazhachal falls near the forest checkpost).
Of course you need at least about an hour for Athirapilly itself so that you can trek down to the base of the falls, it's a great sight from there and feels nice with the misty water spraying on your face.
Of course, there's always a next time and give you another reason to visit once more.

Yes, we did miss them. They were not a part of the plan this time to have a visit and looking at the crowd it did look like a good 4-5 hr affair at both the places!

Originally Posted by petrolhead_chn

I am sure you guys had loads of fun.



But I was taken aback by that comment. I am like if
Lively narration. A brief summary of costs would make your travelogue complete.

Don't take me wrong there, the car can do good speeds. However the revs go past 3K and mileage drops, added to it it does not give you oodles of confidence to push it further. But, it can do decent runs on the highway, a lil decent paced ones are it's forte and it does well there!

The cost breakup per head would look like :
Tolls + Entrances = 290/-
Stay + 2 breakfast = 2800/-
Fuel cost = 840/-
Rest all (Like dinner, tea, lunch... )= 2343/-

Total cost = 6273/-

[STraiTDriVE]

Nice Travelogue and delightful snaps… How was Brezza rear seat comfort on different roads specially for 3 people? Did you guys feel lack of sufficient thigh support at any point of time ?

[ghodlur]

Nice travelogue accompanied by some fantastic pics.

I for one did not like the position of the LTD sticker, should have been on the hatch cover or bumper but not on the glass.

Some details about the stay would have been nice. All in all a weekend spent in great company and at a great place.

[bhatta151]

Turning Radius of Brezza -- How is it for city driving?

[ankurchaturvedi]

Great travelogue. Loved the photographs-especially of your car parked near the dam. The Brezza finally got to stretch her legs. Have to agree with Girish sir(ghodlur) about the positioning of the LTD sticker. Doesn't it block the view while reversing/looking into the RVM? From a drivers point of view, were you completely comfortable driving? A friend of mine wants to purchase this car and he will be undertaking long journeys on a weekly basis.

[bhansali_hardik]

Originally Posted by STraiTDriVE

Nice Travelogue and delightful snaps… How was Brezza rear seat comfort on different roads specially for 3 people? Did you guys feel lack of sufficient thigh support at any point of time ?

None of them complained about the space and one of the passenger is 6'2" he was ok with the leg space and did not complaint, but there were times when I could feel his knees in my back!

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Nice travelogue accompanied by some fantastic pics.

I for one did not like the position of the LTD sticker, should have been on the hatch cover or bumper but not on the glass.

Some details about the stay would have been nice. All in all a weekend spent in great company and at a great place.

The sticker's placement was rather a confused decision made, there was no good spot on the body to place it and was not sure of putting it on bumper, with the monsoon here it was sure to get dirty and wear out so settled it there!

We stayed at a place called monica bungalow, which is a property of the briar estates , all their properties are put up here
http://teabungalows.com/valpara-briar-bungalows/

Originally Posted by bhatta151

Turning Radius of Brezza -- How is it for city driving?

Turning radius in real world is just ok, not great! I still have to take 3 pointers at places where my swift takes a clean U-turn!
Coming to city driving the steering is light at low speeds and which indeed is a boon at low speeds for maneuvering.

Originally Posted by ankurchaturvedi

Great travelogue. Loved the photographs-especially of your car parked near the dam. The Brezza finally got to stretch her legs. Have to agree with Girish sir(ghodlur) about the positioning of the LTD sticker. Doesn't it block the view while reversing/looking into the RVM? From a drivers point of view, were you completely comfortable driving? A friend of mine wants to purchase this car and he will be undertaking long journeys on a weekly basis.

I have already mentioned as to why the sticker ended up, where it ended up! However, it is on right bottom of the rear windshield. Let alone the RVM it does not get in the way of the rear wiper either!
From driving seat, it is sure you will be at home within few minutes of adjustments. I drove it for continuous long hours and made a few adjustments when and where I found a lil room. Like my arm was hurting after a couple of hours, adjusted the seat height and the steering and then did not face the issue. The seats could have been a little thicker for the back support , to make the experience better, if someone tall sits behind, you surely can feel the legs kicking your back!
The seats are a little stiff and that's a good thing for long runs!

[venkatt1800]

Nice travelogue and beautiful pictures, hardik. What was the cost of stay at Monica Tents, being off season? Apart from those Tents, are there any rooms for families and if so what are the tariffs?

[bhansali_hardik]

Originally Posted by venkatt1800

Nice travelogue and beautiful pictures, hardik. What was the cost of stay at Monica Tents, being off season? Apart from those Tents, are there any rooms for families and if so what are the tariffs?

The price we paid was close to 2700 rs per head for 2 days. Yes, they do have the normal rooms in the bungalow which were priced north of 4850 Rs!