7th June 2020, 02:58
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| BHPian Join Date: May 2020 Location: Kolkata
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| Kolkata to Kannur (Kerala) drive in an EcoSport Like any ordinary banker, I was transferred after my promotion to next scale. But unfortunately this time it was not an ordinary transfer and not just few hundred kms away, it was to a far distant state known as God's own country, Kerala. Problem was that, the transfer was not only meant for me but for my beloved steed as well. An Ecosport Titanium Diesel (O) 1.5 ltr. Yes, I could have transported it simply through a road-transport but that would have been far more costlier than transporting it by self-driving, also most importantly, I didn't want to miss this great opportunity of making an adventurous road trip traveling through and experiencing the beauty of almost all of Southern parts of India and to reach my intended destination as well. I was making a plan to travel all alone on my vehicle along with my essential luggage, discussed the plan at home but my father didn’t want me to travel that far away all alone and wanted to go along with me due to safety reasons. He arranged for a driver and we started our journey on 10th of July from my hometown Jalpaiguri.  As I couldn't find a recent photo, sharing an old photo of the small machine we took for the first phase of our journey. We took our red Hyuandai i10 and started 8’o clock in the morning, set to reach Kolkata within 8pm, the monsoon was raging with its full might. It was heavily raining the whole day, which became an acid test day for our little 2010 hatchback. After crossing Siliguri got the four-lane highway, did few trial breaking before speeding up to 110kmph, heavy sudden braking in the rain was causing the wheels to get locked as it was non-abs version, so we had to slow our pace considerably whenever we were lashed out by flood-like rain. We stopped at Dhalkhola for lunch, Berhampore for evening snacks and Krishnanagar for dinner, and some tea breaks in between, and we reached my apartment in Kolkata at 1:00 am. It was a 650km long journey. This delay was because of full monsoon heavy rain since after crossing Farakka barrage. On 11th of July, I visited Kaikan Ford, Kolkata to take delivery of my Steed (Ecosport D) which was kept there for suspension work.  Day before journey: Roaming around CC2, Rajarhat I took a test ride on the worst patch of road to detect any vehicle noise before my 2200km long stride. All four tires were brand new Michelin primacy 4T, had engine mounting & suspension mounting replaced, engine oil changed, coolant refilled, all check done before my 12th July ride towards God’s own land. During the eve of our travel, I couldn't sleep out of excitement as I was about to embark on a very long journey, and this happens to me every time before a long trip. Major National Highway Used: NH16, which started from Dankuni, West Bengal all the way up to Chennai. This major highway is under Golden Quadrilateral project (Kharagpur to Nellore) Day:1 (12/07/2019) Kolkata to Bhubaneswar Distance traveled: 460Km Highway: NH16 Start Time: 6:30am & End Time: 12:30am We started our journey at 6:30am from my residence at Madhyamgram. We took Rajarhat road, the early morning light traffic allowed us to reach Park Circus seven-point crossing within 7:15am. After crossing second Hoogly Bridge we had our breakfast at a roadside tea stall and then started moving towards Kharagpur. The eight-lane Bombay road from Kolkata to Kharagpur was best for driving any day, we're able to maintain 130-140kmph on this stretch. We crossed Kharagpur at 12:30 noon and reached Jaleswar toll plaza at Bengal-Odhisa border at around 1:30pm. We had our lunch there with fish-curry and rice, then we proceeded towards Cuttack. For this first day, we had set our target to reach Bhubaneswar. During this phase, we were mostly cruising at speed between 100-120kmph, but after some time we felt a light fluttering noise below the vehicle whenever it was going past 80kmph. We were about to reach Baleswar, it was around 2:30 pm. I talked to a few roadside mechanics but they advised me to visit Ford as they were unable to fetch enough confidence handling a Ford. So, I have to take it to a Ford service station immediately as we suspected the noise was emanating from the bottom of the engine compartment, we stopped the vehicle and checked below the engine, the engine guard and any loose parts. But there was no problem. Only we saw the left side of the engine cover was a bit loose, but it seems unlikely of such fluttering sound at above 80kmph like someone was hitting below the engine with a wooden hammer after a particular speed. Did a quick google and luckily to our relief we found a Ford Service station in Balasore. It had already started raining lightly with thunder. We became a bit worried because of the time constraint we are having to reach Bhubaneswar, which is still 200km away, the precursor of heavy monsoon rain, and this sudden issue. Guided by google-map we reached Basanti Ford-Balasore and they gave us a warm welcome, I told them we are coming from Kolkata and going to Kerala and requested them to solve the issue as soon as possible, they offered us hot tea and assured all help to solve the issue within minimum time, the service adviser quickly did a test run, checked the noise and resolved our problem by lifting up the vehicle on a hydraulic lift and attaching the engine guard to the underbody of the vehicle with few zip ties and bolts, he advised us to change the under-cover with a new one after reaching Kerala. He did a final test run along with us and there was no more noise. The coolant level had gone down, they filled it up too. Unbelievably they charged me only Rs. 384 for all these. I couldn’t thank them anymore. Probably this is the reason Ford service always gets such a positive response all over the world because of their caring attitude towards customers and prompt response. Truly 'a family wali feeling....' When we resumed our journey it had started raining lightly. I could easily cruise the vehicle at 120-130Kmph now without any unusual noise. There was sporadic rain en route, we reached Cuttack at 8:45pm and outskirts of Bhubaneswar at around 9:30pm. I booked an Oyo on the go while entering the city in a hurry, and when we reached the hotel I found it was in a crowded market area without any separate space for parking. I called up Oyo and requested for an up-gradation to another hotel with parking without canceling my existing booking for that night. I talked to the Oyo customer care and after one hour of conversation, argument and negotiation we were offered another hotel with parking nearby and which was only about 4.4km away and also situated beside the highway, but I had to pay for it again. It was already 11:00pm, we were too hungry to find a better restaurant, so had our dinner at a small roadside food shop, the food was not at all worth eating. It was around 12:30am, we arrived at the hotel, we were three persons so having an issue with the third person(our driver) to accommodate him into our hotel room since it can be booked for a maximum of two persons. We negotiated with the hotel guys for another bed and they arranged it on the floor in the same room for just Rs. 500/- extra. I parked my steed then we took our luggage out, checked in the hotel, took a cold refreshing shower, and called it a day. Day 2: (13/07/2019) Bhubaneswar to Vijaywada Distance traveled: 771Km Highway: NH16 Start Time: 7:30am & End Time: 1:15am The next day in Bhubaneswar we woke up at the wee hour, got freshened up and checked out of the hotel within 7:30am. Since most of the Oyo rooms serve complimentary breakfast only after 8:30am, so we decided to go out and have our breakfast from outside as we didn't want to waste any more time. We had our breakfast with hot Khichri, Puri & Sabji with Chai at a roadside stall and started our journey again.  A Small Tea Break We were now approaching Chilka Lake which is Asia's largest brackish water lagoon.  A Small tea break We took a tea break before approaching Khallikote Forest(Eastern Ghats).  Driving past Khallikote forest range The picturesque surroundings, lush green foliage and beautiful road can be a feast to the tired urban eyes.  Father at Chilka There we saw many wet lily ponds and marshy lands en route.  Me at Chilka We stopped by the lake, the summer sun was raging with its full might, outside temp was touching 41 deg Celcius. We took a quick detour of the place and started our journey at 11:45am again.  [/ATTACH]Father trying to capture a few snaps of the beautiful lake I had set our target to reach Vijaywada for this second day. I was thoroughly enjoying the driving, in fact, I was enjoying it so much that I refused to give the steering wheel to our driver for a moment.  A quick refreshment  A quick refreshment At 14:10 we stopped at a roadside Dhaba just before reaching Srikakulam and had our lunch, it was rice, dal & egg curry. At this point my father asked me to give the steering wheel to our driver so that he could get used to the ford diesel which he had no past experience with as we still have many more Kms to drive, I gave him but it was only for half an hour and took the steering wheel again as I just couldn't let go the driving pleasure of this fun to drive machine for a moment.  Dhaba cum restroom @Kasibugga, AP We were on the way to Visakhapatnam and during this phase of our journey we faced lots of under-constructed roads which slowed down our pace considerably. We reached Visakhapatnam at around 5:00pm. We had to face heavy rain sporadically throughout our journey, so it was an all rainy day for us.  The sky became a harbinger of impending rain, Near Vishakhapatnam.  Stopped by a herd of sheep crossing the road We stopped 2-3 times on the way to have some tea break and then again moving non-stopped as we had to reach Vijaywada this day itself anyhow.  A small break beside the toll plaza At 11:30 pm we stopped and had our dinner at a local Dhaba, food was Roti and Palak Paneer. It was raining heavily, the visibility due to pitch-black darkness, high beam of incoming vehicles and the incessant rain severed it to the lowest, which made me apprehensive of us reaching to Vajaywada within our scheduled time. I was just following the google map. At 11:45pm, we arrived at Rajamundry town and crossed the 'Cotton Barrage' over the Godavari river. (which was first built during the British raj in 1850. Source:wiki) At night, in this heavy rain, low visibility and the barrage road full of turns and potholes were just testing my driving skills, patience and endurance. We already traveled 630km, and 141km more to go to reach our destination for the day. I wanted to drive more but unwillingly handed over the steering wheel to our driver to drive till we reach our hotel in Gannavaram as I was feeling too much sleepy to drive anymore. With my sleepy eyes, I could only see the droplets of rainwater, scattered flashing high beams of oncoming vehicles and unclear roads disappearing endlessly. It was around 1:15am (14th July) we reached our hotel which was just a few hundreds meter away from the Vijaywada airport.  On the way to Vijaywada It was a stormy night altogether, we checked in, took a cold shower and jumped into the bed. Recalling the day's journey which was longest in my life to date, everything the happenings, lots of events on the road, crossing so many terrains I was like in my dreams already, signed out within moments. Part I| Bhubaneswar to Vijayawada | Day 3: (14/07/2019) Vijaywada to Bangaluru (via Guntur, Ongole, Nellore, Tirupati, Chittoor(AP) didn't enter TN) Distance traveled: 684Km Road: Gannavaram-Vijaywada-Nellore-Naidupeta: NH16, Naidupeta-Tirupati: NH 71, Tirupati-Chittoor-Mulbagal, Mulbagal-Kolar-Bangaluru: NH 75, Start Time: 7:30am & End Time: 1:30am We were staying in an Oyo at Gannavaram which is situated just beside the Vijaywada airport and on the banks of Krishna river. 6:30am, I woke up with a knock on the door, a hotel boy came and requested me to move my car a bit so that another car can get space for moving out. We got ready and moved out of the hotel within 7:30 in the morning, skipped the complimentary breakfast served at the hotel due to the same reason as mentioned ago. It was raining pretty heavily the whole night and in the morning the rainfall relented a bit. The atmosphere became chilled, I was very excited about next travel through many unknown routes and places again.  Dhosa hut beside Vijaywada Airport (Gannavaram) We charged ourselves up with hot Dhosa and tea from a local food shop and started our journey again. The rain stopped completely as we set our next pitstop as Ongole and then Nellore. From Vijayawada to Nellore the roads we got mostly were 4/6 lane national highways(NH16) and we could easily cruise at 150-160Kmph here. We reached Nellore at around 12:30pm, traveled 299km straightway which took us about 4hr 30 mins. We had lunch with rice, sambar, dal & omelet. After Nellore, the roads we found were a bit crowded and full of traffic signals. Our moving speed came down considerably. We turned right from Naidupeta (just after Nellore) and moved towards Tirupati.  A chameleon we found while stopped for a break Till now we were driving along the Eastern Ghats periphery, this is the point from where we will be dissecting the southern part of India to reach western ghats in Kerala. We Had a wish to visit the Tirupati temple but couldn't due to the time constraint since it was already 14th of July Sunday and I had to reach and join office the next day in Kerala anyhow. We bypassed Tirupati and took a small tea break in a locality and topped up the fuel tank full of diesel.  FasTag! Really? Govt announced it in Oct,19 and the toll plaza had it in July,19 already. Much Ahead of time  . A lord Shiva temple on top of a monolithic stone block From Tirupati till Chitoor the road was through a forested area. After Chittoor, we got butter-smooth six-lane Bangalore-Tirupati highway. It was dusk at 5:45 in the evening, in the twilight we were entering Bangalore city, took a tea break, the weather was as usual very pleasant which is Bangalore always known for. But this time we did a mistake. We shouldn’t have entered Bangalore, although google showed us an alternate road bypassing Bangalore city but we took the direct route via Bangalore thinking it may take less time as it was a direct and shorter route, which proved me wrong later. During this city ride because of frequent clutching-gearing, stopping at innumerable signals and rash driving of the scooty riders made me exhausted and I had started feeling pain in my left knee. I handed our driver the steering wheel, so that I can take some rest but only after half an hour he was struggling in this metro traffic since he was not used to drive in city. Without any option left I took the steering wheel again, jumped over many countless potholes, unpredictable speed-breakers and crossed Bangaluru finally, as the notorious traffic made us take almost 5hrs to cross it. Understood, if we had taken the bypass road, even though it was longer we still could have saved a lot of time and energy that we wasted by driving in the city. After this toilsome Bangaluru ride, We were hungry like dogs and were searching for a good Dhaba. We stopped beside a big restaurant cum Dhaba and ordered my favorite Palak Paneer and tandoori roti. The food was very tasty, it was 11:00pm, after having dinner we moved forward on the way towards our final destination Kannur. I found an HPCL petrol pump outskirt of the city crowd. I had a long wish of spending a night sleeping in a car. So, I didn't book any hotel on this last night of our journey, since I didn't want to miss this opportunity.  Our self-made hotel room for the night Also, I might be missing my office the next day if we took shelter of a comfortable hotel and subsequently woke up late. I kept the engine running so that the AC remains on. My father rested in the front seat as I was tired as hell because of all-day driving and desperately needed a bed, so my father told me to make the rear seat of my car as a bed for that night. I laid down and completely signed out within moments. It was a deep and satisfying sleep after all those tiresome city driving and a sumptuous tasty stomach full dinner. Part-II | Vijaywada to Bangaluru | Day 4: (15/07/2019) Bengaluru to Kannur Distance traveled: 362Km Road: Bangaluru-Mysore: SH17 Mysore to Kannur: Kannur-Mattanur-Coorg road Start Time: 5:50am& End Time: 10:30am I woke up at around 5:30 in the morning. We freshened up and started our journey towards Mysore. We crossed Srirangapatnam at around 7:30am and were moving at a speed of 100-120kmph constantly.  incoming KSRTC Bus After Birajpet(Karnataka) we had to slow down a bit as the road was getting narrower and it was a two-lane road without divider.  Entering Brahmagiri Forest Range At around 8:45am, just before entering the Brahmagiri wildlife sanctuary we had our breakfast at a roadside food shop named Annapoorna Food Truck on the Birajpet-Mysore road, just after Hunsur. The food quality was awesome and very tasty too. After reaching the Brahmagiri range our traveling speed reduced further. Now I was driving through a wildlife-sanctuary. The morning clouds & fog over the Brahmagiri hills dusted the mounted tops and made us feel like we were in a chilly Himalayan hill station like Darjeeling.  Upclimbing at Brahmagiri forest range The road was serpentine but very smooth and beautiful. The surrounding atmosphere was chilly and fantastic. It was like we were driving through a rain forest.  All good things are wild and free ~ #fordmoments #fordlovers @Brahmagiri wildlife sanctuary There were lots of rubber plantations, we stopped, tried to feel the all beautiful and pleasant surroundings, and took a few photographs.  Rubber plantation at Brahmagiri range I had a strong budding desire to stay, trek and spend the night in a forest bungalow and enjoy the pure nature, but we were bound by our schedule. We crossed the Brahmagiri range and arrived at Kerala-Karnataka border, then crossed the Kottupuzha bridge(built during the British period, in the Karnataka side just before the border) and entered Kerala. Then through Iritty and then Mattanur(situated beside Kannur airport) we reached my office premise at around 10:30 in the morning. I had to join my office that day anyhow.  3+1/2 th day of our journey, reached @Payyambalam Beach, Kannur  Enjoying the sunset @Ayikkara Fishing Village In the evening we visited Payyambalam beach and Harbour viewpoint beside Ayikkara fishing village. We basked in the beautiful sunset view and returned to our nest. Distance traveled 1. Jalpaiguri to Kolkata: 650km, 2. Kolkata to Kannur: 2227 Km Below particulars are for Kolkata to Kannur only. Fuel(Diesel ) cost: Rs. 11600/- Toll receipts: Rs2200/- Hotel Expense(Oyo after discounts obviously��): Rs. 3000/- Time took: 3+1/2 days I hope, this little effort of mine through the blog post will help those adventurous minds/travelers who might be planning for this road trip someday. Cheers. ✌️ Few more snaps of the journey: Last edited by moralfibre : 9th June 2020 at 15:35. Reason: Minor typo. Thanks. |
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7th June 2020, 08:24
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7th June 2020, 18:21
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| BHPian  Join Date: Aug 2019 Location: CRJ (WB) / UAE
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8th June 2020, 15:48
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8th June 2020, 16:23
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8th June 2020, 16:24
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| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: CNN/BLR
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8th June 2020, 18:01
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| BHPian  Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: KL-08/Chennai
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8th June 2020, 18:35
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| BHPian Join Date: May 2020 Location: Kolkata
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| Re: Kolkata to Kannur (Kerala) drive in an EcoSport Quote:
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That's Virajpet obviously, thank you for correcting me. Initially it was difficult for a newcomer like me in the Gods own country, now I have become habituated and totally enjoying my stay here. Quote:
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8th June 2020, 19:18
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| BANNED Join Date: Apr 2020 Location: Kolkata
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| Re: Kolkata to Kannur (Kerala) drive in an EcoSport Beautifully narrated travelogue. Planning for similar route from Kolkata to Kanyakumari & return through Kerala and some parts of Karnataka. Hope this will materize by the end of this year  |
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8th June 2020, 20:30
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| BHPian Join Date: May 2020 Location: Kolkata
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| Re: Kolkata to Kannur (Kerala) drive in an EcoSport Quote:
You are absolutely correct, as per calculation and normal road condition we shouldn't have taken more than 12-14 hours to cover an average of 700-800km per day. But first day we met with an issue and spent approx 2 hours + 2 hr extra on dinner and settling issue with Oyo. Second day, we faced bad road conditions sporadically till Gannavaram which took us 4 hrs+ 1 hr extra for dinner time. Third day, the road from Vijaywada to Bangalore was more than perfect without any road delay but at the same time we decided to cross Bangalore City(5hrs)+dinner (1hr) extra before we stopped for the day. So, everyday we got delayed by some kind of circumstances which costed us average 5-6hrs extra per day  . Had not been those issues we would have reached our every next pit stop (hotel) well before dinner time, so we would have taken average 12-13 hrs per day max. But the last +1/2th day we were able to drove perfectly covering Bangalore to Kannur(362km) within 4.5 hours only and that includes 45mins of breakfast break. So, we were driving normally on the last day only. Last edited by topse : 8th June 2020 at 20:54. | |
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8th June 2020, 20:58
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| BHPian Join Date: May 2020 Location: Kolkata
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| Re: Kolkata to Kannur (Kerala) drive in an EcoSport Quote:
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9th June 2020, 00:39
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9th June 2020, 08:44
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| BHPian  Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Lucknow
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| Re: Kolkata to Kannur (Kerala) drive in an EcoSport Quote:
Your travel routes are due though, especially the Vijayawada - Bangalore - Kannur. I know you had gone via Virajpet (which you called Birajpet, in the Bangla way), Iritty and Mattanur. The places you called Brahmagiri forest must be the Hunsur - Gonikoppal road (?), which is then full of tall speed brakers, cautioning us about wild animal movement in the area. You must have crossed the elephant camp also here. There is a full dedicated thread in this forum on Bangalore - Kannur route. Your 4.5 hours Bangalore - Kannur drive looks too fast and flying, however. Were you able to enjoy the route in that speed? Your 4.5 hours include a 45 minutes breakfast stop too, if I read it correctly. That makes the 362 kms journey in 4 hours, with the forest, speed-restricting, winding, single carriageway roads (?). In fact, Bangalore to Kannur will be around 330 kms only, if you had taken Mysore city, Hunsur, Gonikoppal, Virajpet, Koottupuzha British bridge and Mattanur road. Take Mysore bypass either after Srirangapattanam or at the Columbia Asia Hospital junction, the distance will still be shorter. This 330 kms would change, again, if you had avoided Hunsur and taken the Hanpost forest route, the distance would be different (and in that case, "Birajpet" will not come in the route). So, there is some digression you had somewhere, which made it a longer way. In another region, I am interested in your route details around Chilka which can be guiding... Last edited by Vipin Kumar : 9th June 2020 at 08:49. | |
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9th June 2020, 21:03
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| BHPian Join Date: May 2020 Location: Kolkata
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| Re: Kolkata to Kannur (Kerala) drive in an EcoSport Quote:
Quote:
We were indeed very fast upto Mysore and took the Hunsur route. We left outskirts of Bangalore at around 6am and reached Mysore sharp at 7:30am, and I was driving 110-120kmph as far as I remember constantly without any break upto Mysore. I was blindly following google map as I set to reach Kannur within 10am anyhow and join my office without being late as we were already late by +1/2 day(had plan to reach Kannur within Sunday, take a good rest and join office, but unfortunately due to many unanticipated circumstances we were already late with our plan). So, on this last day of our journey I was very near to my destination and was in too much of rush to reach the mirage which I wouldn't have been if it was a normal travel. Those innumerable speed breakers and few elephant crossing zones in the Bramhagiri range area made me more desperate and impatient at that time specially. You can even see in that last video I was like jumping over those(start watching from 5:00) speed breakers in that forest area and even veered off the road once (video @15:36)at Bramhagiri hills area. So, you can understand how fast and desperately I was driving almost throughout the route. To save time we stopped only two times and that's also after crossing Mysore, one beside the food truck and another one in the Bramhagiri hills(as given in the captioned photo). And even within that shortest span of time available to us, I realised the Brahmagiri hills itself will take a day time or two to explore properly, and same applies to Chilka which is also a famous tourist destination, so we missed exploring these two places properly as our target was to reach Kannur primarily. Hope to explore these beautiful places properly next time if possible. And lastly deviation of extra few kms may be because we roamed within the Kannur city for sometime, visited the Kannur beach, Kannur fort ( not mentioned ) and the fishing village.. And also after reaching Kannur I struggled for few more minutes to get my vehicle parked as Kannur has a serious parking issues in most of the places with clogged up narrow roads and traffic conditions. But still I was able to login my system around 10:30, so we had reached Kannur at around 10:10 am if I omit the parking time. So, yes it was less than 4 hours for us traveling approx 362kms from Bangalore. We reached this place in full mighty peak monsoon time of Kerala when it was raining every no and then. Also, Just after few days of my itinerary the infamous flood in Kerala happened and I heard from the locals that the route which we took upto the British made bridge before iritty was closed and since then it was closed for few more months due to landslides and flood damage. Last edited by topse : 9th June 2020 at 21:32. | ||
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10th June 2020, 07:51
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