[CornerCarver]

Just my 2nd post in Team BHP, so please excuse any writing mistakes which could have crept in inadvertently.I am not a great writer by any means but this forum has given me a new identity, igniting a nascent passion for cars and travelling.

Infact, TeamBHP travelogues had helped me plan this trip and earlier drives to Munnar and Panchgani from Hyderabad.
So, paying back in the same coin , thought of sharing with the contributors the drive and travelogue undertaken by me in September 2017.

Where:-From Hyderabad to Wayanad ( Vythiri) and Kappad Beach( Kozhikode).
Dates:- 24th to 28th September,2017
Drive:- Swift VXI with 36K on Odometer
Travellers:- Me with wifey and 7 month kid.
Total Kms. 1979

Teaser Pics.



So, that is how it all started.Vexed with long working hours and traffic "Trafficjamabad" i.e. Hyderabad, decided to take a well deserved break with family.
Planned a getaway from Bangalore as we have few relatives in there, so the dual purpose of a vacation and family meet-up would be satisfied.

Now, the leaves. Getting leaves in a corporate setup is tricky. As most of the other consultants were planning their break from 29th/30thSeptember onwards in view of dusshera, i had to plan it earlier. And they got approved. 4 days leave. 25th to 28thseptember and add to it the 24th Sunday and you have 5 days for yourself.

Deciding the Destination was easy. Had done Munnar road trip in 2016 and Vagamon was 520kms from Bangalore, so both ruled themselves out. Left with Ooty,Madikeri and Wayanad in the range of 250 to 300 kms from Bangalore. Of these did went to ooty quite a few times,albeit by bus. So Wayanad was enchanting enough and was finalized.

Initially had planned my stay in Thejas Resorts, but due to close proximity to Lakkidi view point,Wayanad churam and Pookode Lake chose Upavan Resort in Vythiri and got a good deal from MMT.

Preparations for the drive:-

For the Car. As it is the most important thing on a road trip, so, took it to Varun motors, Tolichowki for a checkup and fluids top up. It was serviced at 31K, and everything seemed fine. Fuses, lights,oils,battery, A/C. Perfect. But the glitch turned out to be wiper blades so had them replaced promptly as expected lots of rains en-route and it turned out to be true. Packed in a towing rope, hydraulic jack,Jump cables in case of a dead battery, checked the spare and tyres a day prior to the journey.

For the Travellers. Nothing much for wifey and myself except for basic medicines, power banks and a working 4G SIM. Utmost planning was required for my kiddo.Though she had already been on a road trip to Panchgani but that group was much larger and this time around we were only 3 of us. So, all her medicines, diapers, wipes, baby food, and, of course, a Car Seat made it to the luggage list. One special mention for Car seats for kids. They are a boon on Long drives and do invest in them if you do plan trips with kids.

All Packed and Ready to go.

Didn't want to strain ourselves and firmly believe in " Its not about the Destination, its about the Drive " adage, thereby took it slowly and the prime criteria was to relax at the resort than to roam around at touristy places wearing a raincoat and carrying an umbrella.

Sept.24th
Hyderabad to Bangalore. Started at 5.45 AM. Covered 590kms. via NH44. Awesome arrow straight roads though boring to drive. ( Ghats are fun )
Had Breakfast at Food Pyramid, Kothakota. Roughly 120kms from Hyderabad.
Stopped over for an early lunch at Blue Moon Restaurant, Miduthuru Village near Anantapur.
Reached Bangalore at around 6pm. Stayed at my folks place overnight (Hosur Road ) and wrapped up the day with a hearty dinner and lots of memories and conversations.

Sept.25th
Started at 7.30 AM. Took the NICE ROAD, MYSORE EXIT, ( Toll Rs. 105/- ) Had breakfast in one of the dhabas on this way. It was named "Vattika". The rustic ambience coupled with the rain and hot piping food was the perfect setup for good things to come.

The "Unique" MenuCard at Vattika


Moved forward and went through NH 48, NH 275. Passing through Ramnagara, Maddur, Mandya and Srirangapatna. Roads throughout were good barring for heavy traffic which is always the case on this highway and humps/speed breakers which are massive and should be carefully dealt with. One good thing about this NH is the presence of loads of eating joints and fuel bunks which works out well if you are with family and kids. It was raining intermittently but not much of a problem though.




Bypassed Mysore city via Keasare and continued on with our journey towards Nanjanagudu by NH766 and reached Gundlupete.
Again good roads throughout.
Over here, take the right turn to go towards Sulthan Bathery which goes through Bandipur National Forest. Stopped here at one of the dhabas for biobreak, kid feed and light snacks which we had packed in. The aim was to reach the resort atleast by 4pm as i did'nt want to take the risk of losing way in an unknown territory with zero malayalam language skills asking for directions post dusk time.

Done with the Pit stop, now went ahead and through the Bandipur Forest which is well maintained. Speed Limitations apply themselves with humps spread all over the road in an evenly manner but the restriction to NOT HONK is upon ourselves which was practiced by most of the car drivers barring a few trucks. It was around noon and i guess most of the wildlife was sleeping ( I don't know ) but still spotted a deer. Crossed it and entered into Kerala side with Muthanga wildlife sanctuary.

Finally, Made way through Sulthan Bathery and Kalpetta which are taluks in Wayanad District taking you through meandering, well-maintained 2 lane roads of Kerala with frequent encounters with crazy bus drivers who drive quite rashly. Reached Vythiri, the last part of wayanad and made it to the pre-booked Upavan Resort at 4.15pm.





Total Distance. From Bangalore to Vythiri. 288 kms.
Time. Roughly 8 Hours. incl mini breaks for Kid and Fuel. Toll. Only once on NICE Rd.

IMHO, Vythiri is the place to be if you want a quick getaway to the nearby sight seeing places but Kalpetta also works fine. The Resort is what brought us all the way to Vythiri.

Nothing like seeing your dear car from the room balcony. Surely, a room with a view.
.


Sept.26th.
While going to the resort had seen a Kerala Tourism milestone mentioning "Kappad Beach-58kms".


This is what activated the Traveller in me and did some workup on it via GMaps and found this unplanned destination doable. As such, the waterfalls were closed to the public due to heavy rains ( Soochipara ) and were not interested in doing phantom rock, etc. Wayanad Churam and Lakkidi view point were on the way by Ghat section with 8 Hairpin bends to Kappad Beach, so we were not missing much. Started at 10.00 am after breakfast at the resort, and immediately the ghat road started. Road condition is ok but at the junction of the bends, the road is broken and repair was being undertaken at one of the patches.

Lakkidi view point



Reached Kappad beach at 1pm. Oh, what a sight it was. Clean sparsely populated beach with fine sand and blue skies.

Unplanned yet delightful.



Spent some quality time there clicking photos and just enjoying the vistas. A well planned out promenade like park exists there with benches and is good for families.

At the Beach




Wanted to stay bit more, but time constraint and driving back on ghats after evening with family in tow and on-the-verge-of turning cranky li'l daughter prompted us to turn back. While returning,had lunch at a nice family restaurant named White House.

Nothing to beat this Chicken Mandi when you are super hungry and its raining.



Were back to resort at 5pm with intermittent rains throughout which made the view points even more scenic.

Fog making the view points and the ghat section even more beautiful.

Note- No problem with food if you are in Wayanad as most of the restaurants are owned by Middle east returned expatriates serving proper non veg/veg food along with the regular south Indian fare.
One huge round of applause for this product of Maruti Suzuki going by the name SWIFT which performed with aplomb on the ghat section and is truly a driver's car at-least in the mid level hatchback segment.


Sept. 27th.
Checkout and Drive back to Bangalore via the same road. Encountered few more deer in Bandipur, this time they were much closer.


Sept. 28th
Finally Started from Bangalore and Reached Hyderabad. There is generally nothing eventful and much to write about during the return journeys of road trips except for happy memories and whole lot of rejuvenated feeling.

The Final ODOMETER READING of the trip.


Few Drive Trivia:-
Total Toll Paid. Around 1500 Rs. Majority of which was on Hyderabad-Bangalore Highway.
Avg. Mileage. 21.0KMPL. with A/C on/off occasionally though it was not much required.
Speeds maintained. 80-90KMPH even on NH44 slowing down on 2 laned Kerala roads and on Ghats.
Eateries/Pit Stops. Not an issue throughout the drive and it was tasty, palatable food even in the resort but priced a bit on the higher side.
Upavan Resort.. I recommend this place for couples and familes. Nice clean well maintained rooms with serene surroundings. Its located right on the highway. The food options are limited though and the breakfast buffet has few varieties.
Kappad Beach. Clean, safe for families, non-touristy. It is asosciated with a piece of history in that its the point where Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese sailor first landed in sub continent ( 1498 AD ) in the Kingdom of Calicut ruled by the Zamorins.
Local Savories/Souvenirs.. Some woodwork items and Aromatic oils but those are better at other places like Ooty. You can still try the Calicut Halwa though. Didn't go much into shopping as this was a relaxed drive and getting stressed out haggling around with vendors was pointless.

This is how the Drive screenshot looked one-way from Hyderabad to Kappad.


The Resort and few beach pics.



Thanks for reading and Keep Revvin.

[GTO]

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

[Rajeevraj]

Well written travelogue.Since I drive Bangalore-Wayanad-Calicut several times a year, the beauty of the route has kind of become taken for granted. Such pictures and travelogues from a different perspective helps bring back the refreshing beauty of this whole stretch. Thanks for sharing.

I frequently break at Upavan. Good location and one of the few resort kind of place where the restaurant is open to outside visitors.

[CornerCarver]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Well written travelogue.Since I drive Bangalore-Wayanad-Calicut several times a year, the beauty of the route has kind of become taken for granted. Such pictures and travelogues from a different perspective helps bring back the refreshing beauty of this whole stretch. Thanks for sharing.

I frequently break at Upavan. Good location and one of the few resort kind of place where the restaurant is open to outside visitors.

Thanks.
I agree. With the presence of much more famous and scenic places in Kerala like Alleppey, Munnar and Vagamon around, Wayanad does'nt just get its due as a tourist attraction. But trust me, during monsoon, the place has a charm of its own and the added advantage of being in close proximity to Bangalore than the other places mentioned makes it a viable option.

[Ram78]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Well written travelogue.Since I drive Bangalore-Wayanad-Calicut several times a year, the beauty of the route has kind of become taken for granted. Such pictures and travelogues from a different perspective.....

I travelled for 9 days starting 29th Sept.for 9 days covering around 2200 kms from Hyderabda to Wayanad and back.A brief of the same alonghwith pics are given below.

Entire travel was by road in my Nexon with 5 adults,1 child and loads of luggage. Stay was at my aunt’s place in Padhinarathara.

Note that I’m a sedate driver and hence the time taken will be on the higher side.Roads were extremly good everywhere.

• Day 1: Hyderabad to Bangalore (Tranzotel service apartments-near Airport.). Around 10 hours
• Day 2: Bangalore to Wayanad via. Nagarhole forest reserve and Tholpetty. 8 hours. You will not be touching Mysore if you take this route. Somewhere in the highway post Chennapatna and before Mysore,Google will guide you to take a right-cutting the highway and towards Brindavan Gardens.
• Day 3-7 : Leisure at aunt’s place at Padhinarathara and visit to prime tourist locations in Wayanad.
• Day 8 : Wayanad to Bangalore via Bandipur. Nothing to see in Bandipur. Roads were too good inside the reserve.
• Day 9: Bangalore to Hyderabad.10 hours

I'l list down the tourist places we visited which according to me are a must visit places while in Wayanad. , along with the pics.Roads all across the places i mention below were very good. Bandipore was like NH44 .Nagarhole reserve was rough..but that added to the experience.Mods may please move it to any other thread if they feel so as this may look to be a mini travellogue as well.

1) Nagarhole reserve (pics 1 & 2): If you are travelling by road (from Bglr and not touching Kozhikode),then don’t miss travelling via Nagarhole. Among Bandipur,Nagarhole,Tholpetty,Madhumalai and Muthangi, Nagarhole is what I found to be the most stunning reserve. Gives you a feeling of actually travelling through a forest. Valparai comes close to Nagarhole. The reserve is shut between 6 am to 6 pm. Time your entry at sometime post 5 pm. That’s when you have the highest probability of seeing some wildlife.

The highlight was sighting a tusker standing at less than75 mtrs. from our car…with very big tusks. Apparently, we need to be very careful while encountering a single elephant. Hence did not stay long near it.

Apart from peacocks we saw herds of deer..sometimes more than 30 of them together.


2) Banasurasagar dam (pics 3 & 4): It is the largest earthen dam in India and the second largest in Asia. I remember visiting the place in 2005 while it was being built. It’s surrounded by beautiful landscape including hills.


3) Thirunelli temple (pics 5 & 6) : Sitiuated in a beautiful location,it is an ancient temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu on the side of Brahmagiri hill in Kerala, near the border with Karnataka state. The temple is at an altitude of about 900m in north Wayanad in a valley surrounded by mountains and beautiful forests. It is 32 km away from Manathavady.(Google !)


4) Edakkal caves (pics 7,8 &9): Edakkal It’s a natural cave,1,200 m above sea level , near an ancient trade route connecting the high mountains of Mysore to the ports of the Malabar coast.Now whether this place is a must-see or not is subjective. If you are interested in History and are fit enough to walk around 1 km of steep road and then climb around 300-350 very steep steps ,then I think you won’t forget the experience in your life-time. Total ‘effort-vasool’. But ensure you are either wearing shoes or in case of slippers, then good soled. There are carvings inside the cave which apparently were chiseled by our Stone-Age ancestors ! Read everything about the caves before going there. No point climbing without knowing the history. This holds good for any visit to a historical place. If possible pay and engage a good guide.


5) Soochipara water-falls (pics 10,11 & 12): I really was not interested in going here. Having nothing else to do, drove down to this place. And God! it was the best decision I made during the vacation. The path to the water-falls per-se are closed now due to some environmental concerns so you won’t be able to see the same. But the place is surrounded by tea gardens and would stand-up to an Ooty –Coonoor – Valparai in beauty.


6) Lakkidi View point (pics 13 & 14): I will let the pics do the talking.

And at-last ,view from the place i stayed.(pics 15,16 &17)