This is one of the longest drives that I've done in my Esteem & whatta road trip it was
The reason (rather excuse) for this trip was an upcoming friends marriage in Chockly, Kerala (Near Mahe). We were to leave on the 25th Morning and return on 28th night/ 29th early morning.
The planning started atleast a week back with an enquiry on TBHP about the route that we could take, the road conditions in kerala etc., as expected the advice was spot on. I actually carried a printout of the post by hvkumar, which proved to be really helpful.
Got the car serviced a day before the trip and also renewed the insurance which to my horror was expired atleast month back LOL... A bit of running around in the last minute and a lot of help from CARS in Ambattur it was done on time and we were all set.
The evening on Thursday 24th in office... Damn!!! I can't work, the only thing on my mind is the vacation that is about to start in well... 9hrs... peek into the watch... 8hrs... 7hrs... the count down begins
. I finally get out of office by 3:00, pick wifey, pick another friend and by 04:30 we are on the Ponnamalle high road. Ahhh... finally the highways!!!
We had planned the first stop at the A-One Plaza in Hosur by 08:30, but we were able to maintain speeds of 120 (I think I hit 150 on one stretch!!!) On the GQ reaching the A-1 plaza by 07:45 the average speed was around 90kms, not bad!!! Since we were ahead of our plan we decided to take a little longer break.
A1 Plaza in Hosur....
Time to switch positions & my friend is now on the wheel. We are now very optimistic about reaching Mysore in the next 3-4hrs i.e. around 12pm in the afternoon. We quickly decide to go through the NICE road instead of the ring road as it would save sometime... I was kind of aware about the broken stretch in between, but was certainly not prepared for this...
Offroading in Bangalore (the pics are misleading, but the roads (?) were really really bad, scrapped the chassis on couple of ocassions:
But the rest of the stretch was really beautiful. Sweeping curves, amazing roads... Lovely!!! It was worth the trouble of crossing that broken road.
Couple of snaps of the NICE roads in Bangalore...
The Mysore-Bangalore roads were also great, uneventful but fun to drive. Reach Mysore by 12:00 per plan, not stopping here... we get straight onto the Ooty Main road.
Since we had a pretty heavy breakfast we decide to stop only in Sultan battery for lunch. The roads from here on get a lot narrower with a few really bad patches... Till we hit the Kerala border at the Muthanga Wild Life Reserve. I think these roads were laid just recently and were much much better than the ones in Karnataka.
We were in the reserve forest & doing only about 40-50 kmph. This forest is a sight to behold, I was taking a break from work after a long time & quite honestly had almost forgotten how beautiful nature truly is... The forest was thick, covered with greenery. We could probably see only 5-10 meters into the forest from the main road, which unfortunately also meant reduced chances of spotting anything. All that we could see were a few Peacock and a lone Stag.
Roads in the wild life reserve...
We reach Sultan Battery at around 2:00 in the afternoon. Not bad and atleast 2hrs ahead of our schedule. We decide to take another longish break, we head some hotel in Sultan Battery and HOG!!!!!
The food there was amazing... Kerala Parotta & Chicken Curry with Beef fry.... YUMMY!!! All the driving had made us really hungry we ate to our hearts content, but quickly realized that it was a big mistake. With a night shift and about 600kms behind me, all that we wanted to do now was... SLEEEP lol. After quick smoke and lemon tea we are back on the road. It was now my turn to drive till we reach Chockly.
Heard so much about the infamous bus/truck drivers of Kerala and it didn't actually take us too much time to realize why! They are really fast and reckless. The roads aren't too wide anyways and they have this uncontrollable urge to stray on the right side of the roads... You have no choice but to be defensive and super alert on these winding roads. The scenery outside is so beautiful, yet I keep reminding myself... EYES ON THE ROAD... Yamadharmaraj's ride in Kerala is a BUS LOL!!!!
Our next destination is Manathavady. The roads between Sultan Battery & Manathavady is narrow, winding and pot-hole ridden. You'd be causing too much pain to your ride, if you do anything above 50-60 KMPH. We stick to 60.
We reach Manathavady around 4:00 in the evening & the fun begins here... The road between Manathavady and Kuthuparamba is ghat section through thick rain forests!!! You could hardly see anything beyond a few feet on the side of the mountains till you reach a clearing. Only to realize how high you were & "high" we all were... due to the beautiful Mother Nature surrounding us (thanks HVKumar for letting us know about this route).
There is hardly any vehicular movement on this road. The roads in Ghat section are actually much better the SH.
We go through Kuthuparamba & reach Chockly by 8:00 in the evening after numerous stops in the ghat section.
The end of a tiring and fun filled day.
Total distance driven 750kms. (600kms took 10hours & remaining 150kms - 6.5hrs!!!!).
To be continued...