[kutlee]

How hard can it be? I just recollected famous quote of Jeremy. I had always dreamt of a long drive in my OHC. Made multiple plans to do trip to Goa and Vizag. Nothing happened. Finally made a plan to long trip to Kerala from Hyd.
Took 3 weeks holiday approved. Had to work on weekends in the office to compensate for the leaves. hard times. Desperate situations called for desperate measures. Well thats enough of preface. The plan was to start travel on 10th may morning. Travel to Blore, stay overnight and then next day start from Blore to Kannur. But pressure from all sides made me cancel the plan and take the train. But somehow tatkal wasn't avilable. So Just in time, luck came in my favour. 5 days to go and excited. There was very little time to get the car serviced. Booked an appointment with Sundaram. Now the maps. Took help from HVkumar. I needed a road atlas also. Pmed Zappo since i had learned that he used one on his goa trip. I checked whether i could order it online. voila it is available. Phoned up the webiste and they guaranteed me that this will be delivered the next day itself. So ordered one online and i got it next day itself. Eicher road atlas India map for 370 bucks.
Took the car for service. Had a real tough time explaning how the car should be serviced. The first response from the service engg was 'sir your ECU is mad. engine is not switching off after removing the key'. I told don't worry. Then i gave a long list of not to do things. Don't open spark plugs, airfilter, do not change engine oil etc. Then the engineer came with an idea 'sir can i write turbojet engine'?? Yes i did say word or two on turbo.
I told him you write whatever. Don't touch the engine, wiring and ECU and the engine oil. But i complined that speedo is not working. I knew that he is not going to fix it anyway.
I also found that i need a set of new tyres. Phone up Akshay and told him, 'send two tyres next day'. Yes i got my new tyres next day itself. Thanks to Akshay for that. Dunlop Direzza DZ101. Good grips. Got my car serviced the same day eveing. As expected speedo still not working. But Paid less than 1000 bucks for general service except for the oil change. Everything ready except for the can to carry extra petrol. Searched in the old city for a jeep jerry can. All rust buckets no decent stuff available. So went back and bought a plastic one. Didn't fill petrol since i was bit sceptical. So now the spare tyre. My last trip to Blore has taught me that one stepney is not enough. So planned to keep two. So had an alloy stepney and a stock wheel stepney just in case. So all set to go. 9th evening loaded the boot with boxes to carry. Two cans of water and enough snacks (which was not at all used).
T-bhpian Suren was also planning trip on same day to Kerala. So we had planned the treip together. Somehow Suren was planned to leave on 7th. His registration was not complete (fortunately lol) and just got his registration card just in time on 9th only Thank god i have got company. All set to go now. Tanked up in the night with BP premium. Woke up early morning, as we had planned to leave by 5am. Phoned up Suren and woke him up. Freshened up. Bang on time, i was in the car by 5 and left. Suren was yet to pack his kids up!!. I took a tea break and stopped at Mehdipatnam so that we could meet. Somehow Suren couldnot leave the house still. I told my wife we will wait. She was more into a driving mood so resistes. Leave now and let him catch up later. So we were off. boosted all my way till breakfast. Drive was pretty fast kept between 100-120 to get good FE. Hyd blore highway is barren and not many good fuel stations. I was really worried about my petrol consumption.
Phoned up Suren and learned that he had left his home. still 40 kms away from me. We finised a quick Dosa from Kurnool (had breakfast earlier at the same place on my previous trip to Blore). Decent stuff. Roads are not so good. Work going on so roads are bit narrow and get wide at some places. No sights on the roads. Truck infested. Thanks to the boost. I had not problem. Phoned suren at an interval of 2 hours. Still not closed in. But after 4 hours he had closed in. I hit a dip in the road. Tried to avoid the dip and took a bit off road hit something and had a flat tyre for sure. I knew that Suren might fly past any sec. So pulled over and saw a red Verna flying past. He spotted me and stopped. Helped me in putting my stpeney. But after the change the car started to pull to the left due to a worn out tyre i put as replacement.

Sorry no pics yet since the camera memory screwed up. But i have some pics for the later part of the travelogue.

[jkdas]

You wrote the write up after a turbo peg?

[srijit]

Nice read. Are you still in Kerala? If so, where?

[govigov]

heard about it. when in the part 2 of the write up coming?

[kutlee]

Now in TVM. Its raining.

After the wheel change, i drove a bit slow. Tried to keep up the verna but it was going blazing fast. I tried to speed up but not able to give the Verna a threat. I followed him so that i will be warned off the dips ahead since he will brake first. We stopped for a lunch. I found a neat BP pump with speed petrol and tanked up. Releived after that. Stopped for lunch at Chichballapur and the town too had a big pump and tanked up petrol again. Till now 4000 bucks of petrol and tank full left. I didnt' do further maths as i was happy that i had tank full. I was to turn right from Chickballapur to dodballapur to join Tumkur road. This was a pain in the whole trip. Took one 1hr 45 mins to cover that distance. This made my target to reach Sultan Battery by night fall. Took the Tumkur highway and then the NICE road. Then took a right where the NIce road ended.
This was the Blore Mysore road. Beautiful road. But the shops and houses on the road reminded me of Kerala roads. This road was a pleasure to drive. A KL reg NHC was a bit of a trouble. At the next speed bump, ipulled off and didn't see him again. Reached Srirangapatna. Phoned up HVkumar again. He adviced me to go for the final push and reach Sultanbattery by night. He guranteed that the roads are real good. Took the road via Nanjungad, Gundulpet and Sultan battery. Roads were a mix. Kept the speeds real cool. A bike fellow took advantage of my lights and was tailing me. I was not sure of the roads and the darkness made it real difficult to speed up. He followed me and when he reached the destinatoion, he sped off. I kept speeds of 80 (sorry i forgot to mention that the long drive had made my speedo OK. But not always. it was on and off).
Phoned up Suren and learned that he taken refuge in a lodge somewhere on the Blore Coimbatore highway. I reached Gundulpet and had a kerala dinner with fish etc. Recharged, took the final push to Sultan battery. This was about 50 kms though Bandipur forest. Roads on entering the forest was real bad. Kept very slow speeds. Got an idea of the roads from the restaurant owner. Roads became slightly better after 10kms or so. I knew that my intercooler will be chilled out in the forest and gave a try inside the forest. Rolled the windows down and pushed the turbo. The BOV soud in the forest in the night was the thing to die for. That alone repayed all the hard drive. ( i am doing it again...watch out for the next drive). Saw two ash black elephants on the road sides inside the jungle. Kid also enjoyed. Finally reached Sultan battery town and my friend arrived to pick me up at the landmark we had agreed to meet.
Meeting friend after 10 years was quite an experience. Had a nice sleep in a cold night and woke up to the birds' sound in the morning. That brings to day 2.

[kutlee]

Day 2-> I will add some pictures to the narration now. The drive was to Kannur. Took the route map from my friend. He gave me a detailed map of where to take turns etc. I had a nice breakfast of appam and chicken curry. Forgot to mention the sweet papaya that i had last night. Early morning i put the two new tyres from the back to the front to rectify the alignment issue caused by the worn out stepney tyre in the front. I had to change all the four tyres. Was bit of an exercise. Got hungry and ate the appams and chicken full stomach. Took a couple of pictures and bid bye to my friend and promsied him that i will return for a longer visit next time. The previous day was his engagement day. Wished him all the best for his marriage.
After the breakfast, took the route map. Took the car out after a quick wash. Bid farewell to my friend and left for Kannur. The roads started superb and i was blasting and after 10 mins, i realised that i might have missed the turns that i needed to take. Pulled over and phoned up my friend. He said that i missed the turns and next best thing was to take the next right turn. Took the turn and was full of winding roads. What a scene. Pics follow. Took a video also. Reached kannur in 2hrs 20 mins. Had lunch from a hotel in Kannur.
After lunch found my way to Payannur (medical college) to meet my sis in law. Parents in law waited at payyanur junction to meet us. Took them and met my sis at the hostel. Then we together went to the hotel that we had booked (well my in laws had booked). Evening plan was to visit a couple of near by temples. Had to travel 30 kms to visit these temples. Day three was planned to visit Kannur fort. Had a bad dinner from the above hotel. Decided not have food from here any more. Had food from an outside restaurant. That's end of day 2.

[srijit]

Keep it coming How long are you in TVM? Must be cos of you that it rained today

[suren181]

Hey kutlee, good to see your travelogue up and running. Nice pics too.

Glad to see that you are still blasting it out there at Kerala.

As they say ensooooooy and keep it coming. Waiting for the tons of pics that you have clicked.

[jkdas]

Eyes wide open for a gold OHC with Hyd no plates?

[suren181]

Oh yes AP registered and Greddy stickers on the doors

@kutlee- you finally managed to type out a travelogue!
great work. show the TVM bhpians how a modded car drives!

[kutlee]

Day3-> Pictures of kannur fort. Calm place and there was no one to disturb us. Took photos and spent some time in the beach. Finished pictures and time for lunch. I stopped nearby place and where the local fellows had lunch. Three days of junk food had worn me out. Found good rice with fish fry and had a very good lunch. Left my relatives in the car with a/c on till i returned. They wanted Chinese food (i didn't believe that Kannur had chinese rest). Sis in law had visited the place and toook us there through narrow town roads. I had a soup and others had very good lunch. Total bill came to 350/- only. That is the money i pay for one crab dish in mainland china in Hyd. (should search for job in Kerala). Then my wifey wanted to buy some dress etc. We all went to an old town shop and did a huge shopping of 20k. This was hugely denting but the dress materials were very nice not to be bought. We had planned to visit the beach in the evening. We finished the shopping by 3.30 pm and blasted the way to the beach. The beach had to be reached on the boat to an island. We reached the destination. There was a boat and an old man in the boat. The boat had no engine. We all sat in the boat and the old man asked me to row. What????????? I stared at my sis. You didn't tell me that i have to do this. By the time we argued the boatmap pushed the boat into the waters. He too was rowing. I rowed to the best use of my muscles. But the big boat and seating 6 was moving slowly. We reached the island. There were only couple of houses on the island. The otherside of the island was the beach.
The beach was lonely. There was no one on the beach. We spent an hour splashing and the boat man had promised to return by 6.30 pm to take us back. As promised we were back on the other end of the beach and the boat man came and we rowed our way back. We went back to our hotel and i was damn hungry. I was sure that the hotel food will disappoint me. I took the street and found a small hotel and ordered a beef biriyani. Had good dinner and came back to the hotel. My relatives and family were still waiting for their dinner by the time i had a nap. end of day 3.

Clean beach...







Me rowing the boat and the island in the distance.

[kutlee]

I think people are getting more interested in the car rather than the travelogue.
Guys, i have spent days to type these things out!!...

[JayD]

Hey nice write up Kutlee! I'm sure u had a blaast driving down. Missed the airport meet, so didn't see you or the car?? Are u visiting cochin again??

P.S: where are the pix of the cra?? I can only see a reflection of a boost guage in one of the pix!!

[srijit]

where in TVM are you?