[Hayek]

Originally Posted by JoshMachine

A trip like yours just gives me more motivation to plan future road trips in such a way that I send out my folks up ahead and then drive out, alone

Loved the songs too, "Riders on the Storm" and "Comfortably Numb" are among my fav songs of all time. Just love Pink Floyd, maybe you could try some Scorpions' love ballads next time round!

Always great to pass what I have got from the Team BHP greats forward. Yes, have plenty of Scorpions too in my collection

Originally Posted by NagaBond

I am not sure how much you like Safari. You could have done that in Bandipur or Madumalai.

Love Safaris. Did Nagarhole a few years back, and will look to do one this year too.

How did the Nexon AMT fare in the masinagudi route?

While I was not in the Nexon, I must say it handled the climb with aplomb and stuck with me through the journey. The only flaw is the long shift times - but in sports mode, shifts are at high enough revs to make the lag acceptable. In City and Eco, the lag becomes a bit irritating.

Originally Posted by keroo1099

Lovely travelogue Hayek and impressive mileage from the X3 on the flats.
If you decide to do another trip you must try 'The Place to Bee' opposite the Hill bunk in Ooty and 'Le Maison' in Kotagiri which is very similar to Café Diem with a, set menu.

Flagging these for my next visit - hopefully not another 8 years from now

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Great road trip, Hayek! Your X3 is perfect for such road trips, and glad to see the X3 doing such a long road trip.

Regarding Bangalore-Mysore highway, yes it is a mess. I avoid that road at all costs now. There are other options to reach Mysore, via NH75 (Bangalore-Hassan highway) which are a bit longer but offer smooth fast roads all the way.

Thanks - you have been an inspiration for this journey. Did debate going back towards Neelamangala and then taking the road from there but seemed like too far out of the way.

Originally Posted by androdev

That's an epic road trip! I like your music collection. Will we see more such trips to perhaps other corners of India?

Thanks. Guess a number of us belong to a certain kind of demographic. Hopefully this will inspire more long trips - perhaps one to the North once the Delhi Expressway is complete.

Originally Posted by Axe77

I too have only stretched my four wheel travel limits no farther than Goa and have been itching to do a driving trip to Coorg - even offered for my family to fly to Bangalore as long as they would be willing to let me drive.

What would you say to the feasibility of such a drive if it were in peak monsoon - say in late July?

Based on last year’s Goa experience, very doable indeed. No idea how wet Coorg is in the rains. Coonoor itself does not get the South West monsoon - but Ooty can be very wet indeed.

[RJ2285]

Such a beautiful travelogue Hayek!

We did a Mumbai - Mangalore - Chikmagalur - Mumbai trip during the same time and reading your travelogue just brought back beautiful memories of our trip. I could relate word by word, especially the stretch from Mumbai to Belgaum. We stayed at Fairfield too and loved the food and cherry on the cake being the car wash

Also, similar to Coonoor, chikmagalur was scenic too with similar coffee plantations all around. Our X1 performed really well on all the ghat sections and I enjoyed every km that I drove as part of our 2800km road trip.

You have penned this down beautifully! Looking forward to more such travelogues and thank you for inspiring us to to do more road trips across India!

[dean5545]

Wonderful travelogue of an epic trip!
I too did Mumbai-Cochin for the first time in January 2020 and loved the experience so much that we did another 2 trips in a year's time! My family is never going fly any time soon to Kerala!

The roads post Nipani till Tumkur are a hoot to drive on. And the best part is the number of Shell petrol pumps on the way!

I recognise the Sarvana Bhavan near Thopur Ghat, we had lunch there on our way back from Kerala and guess where we took a halt for the night? Fairfield Mariott, Belgaum!

I am pretty sure you are going to do your next trip down south very soon.

You've got an epic taste in Music too! Not many listen to American pie by Don McLean.

[ampere]

Amazing log! Also if you want to reach Conoor another easier option is to just drive Salem/Avinashi/Annur/Mettupalayam. Its longer but much faster. You can bypass Ooty. (You don't need to go to Coimbattore. Avanshi has an exit to Annur).

[ulag62442]

Such a great trip. Visited some really good places in one stretch. Were you worried about Covid in the journey. What precautions did you take? The one thing keeping me from long trips is my concern around stopping and eating at hotels where there would be crowds and using the restrooms etc.

[AP_1812]

Thanks for sharing such a lovely travel post Hayek.

Just could not resist pointing out that i saw your car parked at the Fairfeild Marriott, Belgaum. Not only that, i too had a simmilar view of the windmills and solar panels from my room.

We were trying to get back to Mumbai from our long road trip to Madikeri and decided to stop in belgaum for a halt.

Gave my new Tucson a nice work out while at it. We did Mumbai - Goa - Madikeri - Belgaum - Mumbai.

Posting the picture i took of the view from our room.

[cpabhijit]

A fast paced travelogue, that! In keeping with those startling 80kph averages that you achieved!

On your return leg, with so much time on hand and that too at Apoorva, why oh why did you not go into Davangere for THE benne dose?

NICE road now accepts fastag, apparently! Yesterday's news. And the other expressway to Mysore is nowhere on the horizon now. This 6 lane one is the only hope.

[graaja]

Awesome travelogue Hayek. It's great to see you had lot of fun driving the X3 on this long road trip and also the good times you had. Now that you have experienced the fun, looking forward to many more long road trips from you. It is a great idea to mix family time and road trips by making the family fly for a part of the journey while we enjoy the drive. I am going to use this idea in future road trips

Missed meeting you when you were in Coimbatore. Hope you another Coimbatore drive in the near future and we get to meet.

[thirugata]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Day 2 – Poona to Bangalore

Just around 1235, I saw signs for the Apoorva Resorts Davangere which was on the other side of the road. I debated taking an exit to get to the other side to make a lunch halt, but realized that I had 8 Teplas and some fruit with me – and decided to instead stop after the next toll plaza and eat lunch in my car.

.

Not sure of lunch here, but if you ever pass this hotel across during breakfast time, I recommend you try their Benne Dose. They make some amazing Benne Dose here.

[catchjyoti]

Amazing trip to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Hayek. Driving a capable machine like X3 through this trip must be a special experience.

And I like the fact that you too seem to prefer three of my favorite bands - Pink Floyd, Doors and The Beatles. But unlike you I do not get much opportunity to play them during family trips as other members are not very receptive to them. They would much prefer the regular Bollywood fare