[Chevy_lover]

Thanks Wanderlust!

I will soon give a short description about the pics and where it was snapped.

[Surprise]

With only you are your wife on board that was a scary experience at those high speeds. Thank god you both came out without any injuries.

21 hrs of driving and still able to do more.... Sign of your spirit. Wonderful photographs and excellent writing.

[pjbiju]

I had only read the initial post. Great going chevy_lover. Loved the pictures.

I think your car's tyre must have gone flat because of tyre flexing since you were hard cornering at 90 kmph. Do you have alloy wheels? I think alloy wheels have bigger lips to hem the tyre in.

This is one dream trip that I want to do some day.

[Chevy_lover]

Originally Posted by pjbiju

I had only read the initial post. Great going chevy_lover. Loved the pictures.

I think your car's tyre must have gone flat because of tyre flexing since you were hard cornering at 90 kmph. Do you have alloy wheels? I think alloy wheels have bigger lips to hem the tyre in.

This is one dream trip that I want to do some day.

Thank you, Pjbiju.

I do not have alloy wheels. When I removed the tyre in Madurai (please read the second part of my travelouge), there was a big cut on the side of the tyre. This caused the burst. I think someone must have a left sharp object deliberately on the road. Otherwise it is unlikely that a tubeless tryre will burst all of a sudden! It usually loses air slowly, right??

You must surely do this trip! It is a heavenly experience, seeing nature at its best! I would say Karwar is the most beautiful place! Seeing the green rice fields and a small hut in the middle of it, was simply breathtaking!!!

[Chevy_lover]

Originally Posted by spadival

Nice pics.. Sad to hear that the Yellapura stretch is still in a bad shape. I had the misfortune of driving on this stretch at around 10pm in the night in Dec 2005 with mining trucks for company

Spadival, those potholes were so very big! Nothing has been done to atleast cover it up.

I came across a hugepothole on a big turn and there was no way I could avoid it! Luckily my crashguard took the full impact and it came loose off the car's chasis. I could find a mechanic only 5 kilometres later!

[Chevy_lover]

Originally Posted by Surprise

With only you are your wife on board that was a scary experience at those high speeds. Thank god you both came out without any injuries.

21 hrs of driving and still able to do more.... Sign of your spirit. Wonderful photographs and excellent writing.

Thank you very much, Surprise! My Guardian Angel really worked overtime to save us!!!

We did not have a single scratch on us and the best part was that I could drive off from the accident scene!!! Hats off to Chevy!!! He is realllly strong!

I can say for sure that our seatbelts saved us from a possible skull, hand or rib fracture. We both make it a point to buckle up as soon as we sit on the seats!!! That habit saved our lives!!!

I have always loved driving and most of my driving was done at night! I never felt bored or exhausted even after completing 21 hours behind the wheels! I felt really sleepy though!!!

[nickatnite]

Great pics!. Kerala is next door to TN, and i've never visited the state, only the city of Cochin for two days. I want to drive around Munnar and other scenic places. There's so much to see in India and with better roads, it is so tempting to just get up and go driving around. I wish i had the time.

[Chevy_lover]

Originally Posted by nickatnite

Great pics!. Kerala is next door to TN, and i've never visited the state, only the city of Cochin for two days. I want to drive around Munnar and other scenic places. There's so much to see in India and with better roads, it is so tempting to just get up and go driving around. I wish i had the time.

Definitely Nickatnite! You must visit Kerala soon. I would recommend Munnar, Kovalam and Varkala. These places have natural beauty beyond compare!

[snaronikar]

Amazing pics. The greenery en-route is very good. Whatz the exact place? But you have some pics of sea. Where was the place? Thanks for sharing this. Have downloaded a couple of them in my laptop. Hope you don't mind it. :-)

[Chevy_lover]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Amazing pics. The greenery en-route is very good. Whatz the exact place? But you have some pics of sea. Where was the place? Thanks for sharing this. Have downloaded a couple of them in my laptop. Hope you don't mind it. :-)

Not at all!!! Pics are meant for sharing! The beauty of a pic increases ten fold when it is appreciated by someone!

The green fields is just after Karwar. Please put your cursor on the pic. I have named pics according to the place. The beach beneath the cliff is Varkala near Trivandrum. The second beach is Vizhinjam Harbour in Trivandrum.

I will post all the details of the places soon.

[Jaggu]

Glad that you escaped unhurt, and great travelogue. Do post more pics with location details

Hope you go your car serviced by chevy guys after the trip.

[Nitin]

Beautiful pics! Nothing to beat the lush green fields in Kerala.Ah..miss it!!
And wonderful highways too. Haven't seen roads like that in India in a long long time.

I'm a huge nokia camera phone fan. which one did you use on this trip?
thanks for labelling the pics with the location names. will start doing that on my travelogues.

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by Chevy_lover

Thank you, Pjbiju.

I do not have alloy wheels. When I removed the tyre in Madurai (please read the second part of my travelouge), there was a big cut on the side of the tyre. This caused the burst. I think someone must have a left sharp object deliberately on the road. Otherwise it is unlikely that a tubeless tryre will burst all of a sudden! It usually loses air slowly, right??

You must surely do this trip! It is a heavenly experience, seeing nature at its best! I would say Karwar is the most beautiful place! Seeing the green rice fields and a small hut in the middle of it, was simply breathtaking!!!

You are right. Tubeless tyres do not lose air pressure all of a sudden. A big gash can do it or if the tyre flexes too much, creating a gap between the rim and the tyre. This may happen if you land hard into a pothole or in other situations.

I am going to Kerala this month by the konkan route, but by the Konkan rail. So probably next year! I think the ideal time to travel would be sometime in November/December.

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Originally Posted by Chevy_lover

Thanks VJ_Mavrick. These pics were taken with my N70.

On my way back, I took the NH4 towards the latter part of my journey. But I did not touch Bangalore. There are horrible roads near Yellapur, near Hubli on NH17. My crashguard got bent and the screws came off when I fell in a pothole. The lorry traffic is to be blamed for this pathetic condition of the roads.

NH4 was amazing. The only problem was that it was very dark with no reflectors on the roads or dividers. We had a terrible time with my stock headlights. By God's grace, we made it to Belgaum, without any untoward incidents by 8pm and halted for the night.

N70 is an awesome cell with well defined images and videos and i too can vouch for it as it sends the best cams to the corner as my wifey always does the pixing honors with the same.

Coming back to your trip back forth to Pune, that was unfortunate that there was some damage to the vehicle. Yea there are sparsed stretches in and around Hubli, Davangere which are too pathetic as I did go in 07 year end on NH4 and was just curious whether those stretches have been layered. Too bad its still the same