[FONT=Verdana]Bangalore[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] – Sultan Bathery – Calicut – Guruvayoor – Cherutheni/Idiki - Munnar- Bangalore[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Brother from Salem calls up on a lazy Sunday afternoon. His one year old Indica Turbo odo reads 5k – this is not at all acceptable. Need to do something fast before the year end. He wanted to go to Guruvayoor – I suggested Munnar – final decision – lets do both. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]He arrived on Thursday and we celebrated his first highway experience beyond Yarkad. Our other cousin joined and celebration continued till late. By the time we were ready to start on 21st Dec morning, it was 7:30 again. Some day I’ll love to start early from Bangalore,…some day. It was four of us in the Indica with me on wheel. Kamath was full – we had to wait for 15 mins to get a table. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]We took Mysore bypass and the right turn for Sultan Bathery. Had no time for hotel booking and this was peak season. We reached the Muthanga sanctuary around one and Bro started enquiring about rooms to stay within. Some one suggested a home stay – Mykara Home Stay. We decided to try it out. One km beyond the sanctuary gate we saw a small A4 size sing board for Mykara on left. One mud track turning and twisting out of sight and there I had my first off-road experience. The place is about a km away from road – typical village house setting with 5-6 rooms. The guy promised us a bonfire at night and a herd of deer grazing the front field in the morning. We started unloading.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Went for Safari –worst one I had ever been to. After bone raking 2 hours all we saw was half a dozen monkeys. Mykara guy kept his word and lit the fire. It was chilly and we enjoyed our drinks by the fire till he called us in for a well made dinner.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Saturday morning they got up early and were lucky to see the deer herd. By the time I was up some moron started a jeep (to go for Safari) scaring them away. We started after breakfast and went to see Edakel Caves – took us about 2 hours. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Next stop was Pookot Lake for some boating and lunch. Reached Aunt’s place in Calicut around four and stopped over for coffee. Reached Guruvayoor around eight – it was crowded like Brigade Road.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]On a Sunday morning got up at four in the morning, for ‘durshan & puja’. Then, went to see the elephant training centre. Left for Munnar around ten and reached around five thirty. On way a restaurant called Copper Chimney delayed us by taking an hour to serve lunch. We stopped many times to enjoy views. In the evening Bro suddenly remembered about a place called Cheruthoni where he spent a year of his childhood while his father was building Iddiki dam- about 60 km away on the hills. We wanted to see the second largest gravity dam - Cheruthoni and curvy Iddiki.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Monday, we had our breakfast at the viewpoint and took the turn for Iddiki. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]After driving through hills for about two hours, reached there around noon and was pleasantly surprised. The dam is open for tourists only for 4 weeks in a year – including 2 weeks during Christmas. No camera (including mobile cams) is allowed beyond a point – else it would be a splendid pic. We walked for about 2 hrs over the dams - it was a nice feeling. Glimpse of the lake from road.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]We were late and picked up some sandwiches from Cheruthoni for lunch. Reached back Munnar at five to face the dilemma: to continue to Salem or spend the night in Munnar? We wanted to reach Salem and I was game to drive. I find it easier to drive at night on hills (less traffic and can see oncoming vehicle lights) and that was not the problem. Issue was if something goes wrong with the car then we would be stranded with two ladies in middle of hills or forests or both. We decided to take the chance and started from Munnar at six in the evening. The Tata Indica reached Salem uneventfully at one in morning to celebrate the Christmas. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]We drove back to Bangalore next day. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Total distance covered 1624km.[/FONT]
Someone in this forum said earlier 'do not expect the wild animals to wait for you while u r on safari'. Never ever seen any animals while going for safari.
Bandipur is the best place to see dozens and dozens of deers (esp while staying in the govt cottages)
Nice reports, but please edit the format
Oh my. It's tough reading this with all those tags coming in between..
