[Surprise]

At the outset I would like to thank H.V.Kumar for providing me all the details. Great support from him

Initially we planned to do a road trip from Chennai to Manathavady. Due to various reasons our plans shifted to Chikmanglur to Mangalore to Coorg. But none of it got through, as we were hesitant of such a long distance road trip. At last we finalized to visit Masinagudi (is that a short distance? Kumar made look so

One thing that I never liked is getting early from bed. After reading lots of travelogues in our forum, I understood it's better to do early morning start. Fellow travelers made fun of me when I insisted to start early & they were not confident that I would make it as promised. I set the alarm in my cell phone for 04.00 am. But I got up at 03.45 am even before the alarm disturbed my sleep. Called up all the others and confirmed them that I will be on time.

Day:1 Four of us started exactly at 05.00 am in my Swift Vxi. Around 05.30 am we hit the Bangalore highways at Kancheepuram (app 45 kms). Once we hit the highway, there is no stopping and we maintained at 120 kmph constantly.

One of my friends, behind the wheels is a very passionate driver. I do appreciate his skills and judgment, but doing constant 120 kmph even while crossing the village roads or doing zigzag overtaking of heavy vehicles without slowing down is not my cup of tea. I voluntarily need to free up my legs as it got stiffened due to fear of car getting crashed. To add fire to the fuel, saw a maruti omni completely crushed with bloodstains all over the road. Not a good sight while doing such a trip.

Around 09.30 am we reached Hosur & had breakfast at Hotel Victoria. We started back from Hosur to Bangalore at 10.00 am with another friend taking the pleasure of driving. Lots of lorry traffic & it took 2 hrs to reach Bangalore-Mysore highways through ring road. Once we reach the Bangalore-Mysore highway, again we hit the speeds of 100 kmph.

We reached Mysore by 14.00 hrs. Had wonderful lunch at an eco friendly resort on Mysore-Gundulpet road. Gundulpet road is in good condition.

We were busily discussing on various topics & kept cruising. BANDIPUR FOREST RESERVE AREA signboard welcomed us & we continued traveling down the lane. After few minutes, we were stopped at a check post & the persons were speaking MALAYALAM.

We were confused & traveled down with a suspicion that we took the wrong route. Few minutes later we read a sign board “ MUTHUGA FOREST 6 KMS”.

Oops, we missed out the left turn to Ooty road. But it was a wonderful travel as the roads were completely empty and in good condition expect few bad patches. We certainly enjoyed our ride.

Confusion, do we need to travel back to Bandipur or make it to Sultan bathery and Kalpetta. Finally we decided to travel back to Bandipur. We reached MC Resorts at Bandipur around 17.30 hrs. Just before Bandipur a stretch of road is in very bad condition

Around 22.30 hrs, we decided to do a night safari. We took our car to the Ooty road and traveled till Mudumalai. At TN check post, our car was thoroughly checked before we were permitted in. We spotted elephants/Indian guars & deers. It was absolute dark & even switched off the headlights on a lone straight stretch to feel the darkness. We came back at 23.45 hrs. That’s all for Day-1

We refreshed and had breakfast at a nearby restaurant & traveled to Gopalsamy hills. We went towards Mysore, traveled down for 4-5 kms & took a right turn at a junction to travel 11kms to reach Gopalsamy hills.

There is a temple on top of the hill & greeneries surrounding the entire place. [FONT=Verdana]Superb place. Climate there is very chill with heavy breeze

Spent some time & traveled back to Masinagudi via Bandipur and Mudhumalai.

Restriction in timing to pass through this check post

Climate is very hot at Masinagudi & we were not convinced with that place. Sign board to Ooty –25 kms tempted us. We decided to travel up to Ooty & filled petrol at Essar petrol bunk in Masinagudi. Within few kms, we could sense that petrol pumped in is very bad. It became very difficult to climb up the hill. Almost in 60% of the hairpin bend, I am in first gear. We still managed to cover 25 kms in 30 minutes or so. We stayed in Hotel Vinayaga Inn (next to Botanical gardens). Rates are very nominal (we availed the half-season rates) & service is exceptional. Good place to stay. I drove for the entire day & first experience is driving on hills during day (gopalsamy hills and ooty). We went for shopping for the whole evening session.

Day-3: Ooty is a very congested place & the only place I like in Ooty is Dottebetta. We have plans to visit Parsn Valley next day. But since we got up very late in the morning, cut short our plans and visited few places before we set our travel back to Masinagudi.

Spent some time at a bar in a local resort before we traveled to Mysore. Few snaps are our way back

On our way we did saw an accident where a Wagon-R hit a quails coming in the opposite direction & overturned. Right hand side of quails got damaged. We helped the occupants of the wagon-r to come out from the car. Luckily none of the occupants were injured expect a small scratch on the chin of the driver.

Before the traffic gets jammed, we moved out of that place & reached Mysore at 19.00 hrs. Went for shopping and bar before we retired at 01.00 am

Day:4 - We decided to start at 10.00 am previous night, but I got up at 06.30 am. Pushed others to get out of the bed & finally we were out at 08.15 hrs ready for travel to Chennai. I had read lot about Kamat in this forum, hence suggested to have the breakfast there.

Decided to drive down for the entire stretch from Mysore to Chennai & took the driver seat. Once we hit the Mysore-Bangalore highway, I did constant 100 and occasional 120.

At an empty stretch, I was traveling at somewhere around 100+ kms & spotted a white colored bus fast approaching in my rear view mirror. I stepped up to 120 & the bus passed me effortless (the bus is from Ooty to ______ . Written Volvo BR….. on the reverse side). He must be doing somewhere around 130+. Never seen a bus doing such high speeds.

Reached KAMAT at 09.30 hrs & had breakfast for one hr (heavy rush). Good food. Next stop was at Ambur for 20 min. at 14.00 hrs. Finally we reached our residence at 05.15 hrs with two stops for breakfast and lunch (total travel timing including food stops is 9 hrs)

Total kms traveled 1450 kms

[rjstyles69]

Nice trip there surprise. Hmm tough decision made, all the way from Chikamagalur to Mangalore to Coorg and finally Masinagudi was the destination.

I salute your good deed on helping the accident victims. Good one, now this is what a t-bhp'ian is all about.

Oops, we missed out the left turn to Ooty road. But it was a wonderful travel as the roads were completely empty and in good condition expect few bad patches. We certainly enjoyed our ride.

Your never missed the turn, you only need to follow the road straight from gundlupet and the same road takes your to Masinagudi.

Instead you guys took a right from gundlupet and headed into the Muthanga reserve.

[hellstar]

Nice write up and good pictures , but i sure do hope you kept you distance from the animals as in all probabilities they might Surprise you !

I did make a trip to ooty about tow months back but i can see for your pictures that the bad stretch that you have referred to here has gone from bad to worse, its about 8 kms i suppose right ?

[Lukeskywalker]

Hey nice trip and travelogue there with good snaps, the bad stretch near the entrance of bandipur forest reserve has been that way since god knows when.

We went towards Mysore, traveled down for 4-5 kms & took a right turn at a junction to travel 11kms to reach Gopalsamy hills.

If you were travelling towards Mysore from Bandipur, I think you need to turn left to go towards Gopalaswamy hills.

The snap of the mysore bangalore stretch looks like near Mandya dairy, can see the "nandini" milk trucks in the snap.

Overall, great writeup.

[fiery enzyme]

A nice trip you had filled with all adventures..Nice pics BTW. Were you that close to the elephant or were you using a zoom lens?

[bottle]

excellent write up and even better photos amazing that you got so close to the animals

[Eddy]

Did you note the FE during the whole trip ?

[swathyd]

Excellent travalogue , wise decision to avoid kerala as there are no roads in kerala. Only patholes and mud roads are here, as it may be because its 'gods own country' , perhaps god wants it to be like when he created earth.

[akroy]

Nice travelogue and excellent pics !! SO you had a taste of kamat, next time try to North KN meals (during lunch and dinner), it is awesome too...

Actually Bandipur / Ooty is straight after Gundlupet, the right turn takes you towards Wayanad and yes the straight is a absolute empty and nice to drive, even the road inside Muthanga is great too...

One clarification: Which road is this in the first pic of Day3? It resembles the Wayanad stretch, hence i am getting confused !!

On Independence day, we just drove down to Kamat to have lunch there...

BTW, Volvo B7R has a max speed of 120kmph...

Abhi

[greatDrive]

Beautiful Pics, Sunflowers in the pics reminds me of my trip to ootywhich I did last in july last year.
Cheers

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by Surprise

Day:1 Four of us started exactly at 05.00 am in my Swift Vxi. Around 05.30 am we hit the Bangalore highways at Kancheepuram (app 45 kms). Once we hit the highway, there is no stopping and we maintained at 120 kmph constantly.

Around 22.30 hrs, we decided to do a night safari. We took our car to the Ooty road and traveled till Mudumalai. At TN check post, our car was thoroughly checked before we were permitted in. We spotted elephants/Indian guars & deers. It was absolute dark & even switched off the headlights on a lone straight stretch to feel the darkness. We came back at 23.45 hrs. That’s all for Day-1

We decided to travel up to Ooty & filled petrol at Essar petrol bunk in Masinagudi. Within few kms, we could sense that petrol pumped in is very bad. It became very difficult to climb up the hill. Almost in 60% of the hairpin bend, I am in first gear.

Great write up, Surprise.

Thanks for the warning about the Essar petrol pump - was the fuel really contaminated? Somehow, Essar pumps never gave one confidence and I have kept away from any so far. The Masinagudi particularly seedy.

How good is the road from Chennai/Poonamale to Sriperembudur - is the double-roading work truly complete?

I am surprised that thye let you drive around at night inside Mudumalai/Bandipur - since the roads are closed after 8 pm - I remember the last time I had to pay a "fee" to go through from Ooty to Gundulpet in the early morning (4 am) at the Kalhatti checkpost.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Instead you guys took a right from gundlupet and headed into the Muthanga reserve.

But it seems (ooty) road was branching out from the main road. But what you say is right, we took right turn instead of going straight.

Upon entering the forests area (there is board mentioning "Bandipur forest area") it was cloudy and slight drizzle. Wonderful atmosphere. Good that we took the right turn

Originally Posted by hellstar

but i sure do hope you kept you distance from the animals as in all probabilities they might Surprise you !

Lesson learnt. When we tried to click a bunch of elephants, one among the bunch vigorusly turned upon us (much faster that wat u imagine with its size). But we were safe enough to enter into car (doors kept open) & run away.

Originally Posted by Lukeskywalker

If you were travelling towards Mysore from Bandipur, I think you need to turn left to go towards Gopalaswamy hills.

Yes, u r right. We need to turn left and not right as mentioned earlier

Originally Posted by fiery enzyme

Were you that close

May be at a distance of 40-50 ft approximately

Originally Posted by Eddy

Did you note the FE during the whole trip ?

I wanted to do it. But could not find Shell anywhere & not confident of the bunks were we stopped. Hence we filled in parts (no full tank).

Since you had asked this, did a approximate calculation and it came to 12.5 kmpl

Originally Posted by akroy

One clarification: Which road is this in the first pic of Day3? It resembles the Wayanad stretch, hence i am getting confused !!


BTW, Volvo B7R has a max speed of 120kmph...

Abhi

The road is after the downhill from Ooty towards Masinagudi.

I might be wrong. Since my attention is on the bus (ofcourse road too), meter reading of 110 read wrongly as 120. This speed difference of 10 kmph is enough to sail past ( but he breezed past, I dont know where iam missing)

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Thanks for the warning about the Essar petrol pump - was the fuel really contaminated? Somehow, Essar pumps never gave one confidence and I have kept away from any so far. The Masinagudi particularly seedy.

How good is the road from Chennai/Poonamale to Sriperembudur - is the double-roading work truly complete?

I am surprised that thye let you drive around at night inside Mudumalai/Bandipur - since the roads are closed after 8 pm - I remember the last time I had to pay a "fee" to go through from Ooty to Gundulpet in the early morning (4 am) at the Kalhatti checkpost.

Fuel is very very bad & had difficult time climbing the hills. I trust only Shell, Reliance and BP to some extent.

I went via Tambaram/Padapai/Walajabad/Kancheepuram. Hence I don't went via Poonamale (but when I went to Thirutanni few months back, its in bad condition)

None of them questioned us. They verified whether the driver of the car was drunk/checked the entire car & let us go (ofcourse after paying $)

I too had attached a photo of that sign board mentioning the timing restriction.


Good that there were sign boards mentioning " stay in 2nd gear during downhill"

Is it possible to keep in 2nd gears at hairpin bends while uphill (masinagudi-Ooty road) in Swift?