[devnull]

On the way back from Wayanad, we had to take the Mudamalai reserve route as the Sultan Bathery road was closed due to water logging. Initially, I was a bit apprehensive as I hadn't done any research on this route. But this proved to be one of the most beautiful drives of the whole trip. Drove through Mudamalai and Bandipur forests in this leg. Again, the wildlife decided to keep away from us :-), but it was an exhilarating experience nonetheless. Also, the stretch in TN before Gudalur was another experience as it involved driving through the tea estates and green mountains of that region. Since it was raining and the TN stretch had a lot of winding mountain roads and hairpin bends, the return to Mysore took much longer than the arrival journey. Plus, this route forced us to stop a lot of times to soak in the breath taking views and also, was about 50 kms more than the Bathery route.

Key notes:-
Start - Wynberg Resort, Kakavayal, Wayanad; 10:30 AM
End - Infosys Mysore, 4:30 PM
Distance (door to door) - 199.7 kms
Route - Wayanad - SH12 - Ambalavayal - Gudalur - NH67 - Thorapatti - Mudamalai - Bandipur - Gundulpet - Mysore
Comments -

• Lots of winding roads in this stretch and saw lots of accident aftermaths. Safe driving recommened here.
• TN charges you 20 bucks for entering it.
• 5 kms before Gundulpet jn. is an absolute nightmare. It is on this pot holed stretch that the Scorpio rammed us while overtaking. The driver he said he tried to avoid some pothole, hence had to veer to the left. But thankfully, no damage incurred and issue settled with polite apologies.

Infosys Mysore pics will be posted in a separate post (they deserve it).


Prepping for the drive.


Cottages at Wynberg Resorts


Off we go!


Entering TN


Bridge separating KL and TN




Sparky takes a break after entering TN


And the tea estates start

[MileCruncher]

Rahul, Amazing pictures and crisp writeup. Please continue

BTW could you please provide a little more details on the Wynberg REsort, tariffs, rooms, facilities etc.

Cheers

[muralisk]

Great shots there. The road seems quite good and is kind of inviting me to drive down. And I do agree with you that Infy Mysore campus does deserve a thread of its own.

[devnull]

Approaching Mudamalai




"Wildlife" at Mudamalai






The nightmarish stretch before Gundulpet


Post Gundulpet


Approaching Mysore


Overflowing river (Kabini was it?)


Mysore re-conquered


I entered Infosys Mysore through this very gate on June 28, 2004. July 17, 2009, I re-enter with my wife and Miss Chamko (Chevy Spark). It was a very emotional moment for me. Infy Mysore pics coming up...

Now for a video. This one is from our drive within Mudalamalai Tiger reserve.

YouTube - Driving into Mudumalai forest in Tamil Nadu

[vnabhi]

Good pics again!

Hey, did you notice that even the signboard to Karnataka has 'state' as a suffix?

[happy.tripathy]

devnull great travelogue, really enjoyed the pics !!! still wondering how did the Chevvy took all that muck and went through those bad roads in Wayanad ... awesome dude

[Fordmanchau]

Awesome man!! this is hell of a trip.. good to see such nice eye soothing pictures!!
just one query. Can a non-infoscian enter the mysore training campus ? or does need to be a employee?

[pulsar56]

That apart, the car ran smooth as butter throughout. I have to keep saying this - in terms of handling and driving quality, Spark does an awesome job. I touched 150 kmph at one point and the car was quite stable.

We know as we had a glimpse of the sparky during Vikarabad drive!

Hey, did you notice that even the signboard to Karnataka has 'state' as a suffix?

Venu sir, remember the days when anything south was Chennai?

Rahul, I was waiting for the wayanad pictures before commenting.
"Simbly Sooper pics".

Awaiting the Infy Campus pics now!

[devnull]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Rahul, Amazing pictures and crisp writeup. Please continue

BTW could you please provide a little more details on the Wynberg REsort, tariffs, rooms, facilities etc.

Cheers

Thanks, Ani Da. I will PM you the details soon.

Originally Posted by muralisk

And I do agree with you that Infy Mysore campus does deserve a thread of its own.

It's a world on its own. And another disclaimer at this point - I could cover only 70% of the campus because we had very little time and I basically wanted to visit the new buildings which weren't there during my training time. Anyway, more on that in another post.

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Good pics again!

Hey, did you notice that even the signboard to Karnataka has 'state' as a suffix?

Hehe... Now I think even our Andhra had "stated" that when I was returning to Hyd.

Originally Posted by happy.tripathy

devnull great travelogue, really enjoyed the pics !!! still wondering how did the Chevvy took all that muck and went through those bad roads in Wayanad ... awesome dude

Thanks man. As said before, Chevy can take all that quite well. One guy did Leh-Ladakh on a Chevy Spark, so this is nothing.

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

Awesome man!! this is hell of a trip.. good to see such nice eye soothing pictures!!
just one query. Can a non-infoscian enter the mysore training campus ? or does need to be a employee?

Yes, he/she can but has to be accompanied by at least one employee (any DC).

Originally Posted by pulsar56

We know as we had a glimpse of the sparky during Vikarabad drive!

Hehe... that Sparky wants to have a look at the newly moded Zen now which it met during that drive :-).

Rahul, I was waiting for the wayanad pictures before commenting.
"Simbly Sooper pics".

Awaiting the Infy Campus pics now!

Thanks, Nazim bhai. Infy pics will come up soon.

[devnull]

Two videos for the time being.

Drive through tea estates in TN

YouTube - Drive through tea estates in TN (between Ambavayal and Gudalur)

Landslide near Kanthambara Falls in Wayanad

YouTube - Landslide near Kanthambara Falls in Wayanad