Did a 1400 km round trip to chidambaram and pondicherry last week.
The excuse- Post graduate entrance exam for annamalai university
The tool- My Pete’d Swift DDiS
The route-…read on
I took the assistance of team BHP in determining the route. I was’nt disappointed, got prompt replies from quite a few members.
I think I’ll put up the travelogue in sections as I have a habit of rambling when I write, that most people find tiresome.
The plan was to stop at CBE at my uncle’s place and then drive on to Chidambaram.
Set off at 1300hrs after a customary snap of my wife and son waving me goodbye from the verandah(I do it before every long trip)
I was accompanied by my brother in law who works on a cruise ship and wanted to experience traveling overland after 8 months at sea.
Covered a distance of 207 kms in 4 hrs between CBE and cochin. Traffic was heavy as usual with truckers and buses competing with each other to be more annoying. I had to exploit every legal and illegal gap to overtake and maintain a paltry average speed of 50kmph(200km in 4hrs)
Palakkad police are on a crackdown on speeders and have handheld radar guns, but I got by without being nicked.
Favourite spots for the pigs with radar guns
- end and middle of long straights.
- just beyond a crest so that they are hidden
Off topic-Brother got caught yesterday,overtaking an alto at 100kmph. Paid Rs.300
About the route between CBE-cochin
4 laning between chalakudy- thrissur-vadakancherry- bearable
vadakanchery to walayar is decent-including the little, but infamous ghat section
upto 10 kms after the checkpost on the TN side, there are large rim bending craters that pop up without any warning while you’re doing a 100 on the intervening smooth sections
I turned off left at Kovaipudur(180km from cochin) from the main road to bypass coimbatore city traffic.
I love this section Kovaipudur-perur-thondamuthur-vadavalli(uncle’s place)
Winding roads through coconut groves with mild traffic and scattered villages. Very relaxing with sandy corners suited for some drifting(I promise I was safe)
Till then traffic was heavy and had to use 3rd and 4th gears most of the time to accelerate and overtake.
Only rarely was I able to engage 5th and cruise.
My mileage for this section was 17.33kmpl
Pics and further route descriptions to follow