[Fordmanchau]

Hello Everybody,

This is the detailed account of my first major road trip, though have done many a short trip of maximum upto 500 kms a day but was never on road for four continous day. Had been planning since long for a good road trip and the weekend of 2nd April presented this opportunity to me. Wife had three day continous holiday on 2nd, 3rd and 4th April on account of being a good friday, saturday and sunday.
Around March 1st week, she came to me

She : April me teen din chutti hai 2nd april se, teen din ghar par baithkar kya karungi?
Me : Mera to koi chutti nahi hai, good friday ka no chutti and saturday as usual half day.
Next day went to office with a thought in mind that this is a time for a trip I have been wanting. I called her and said , if you can make some plan for that week then I can manage leave from my work too but I straightaway put one condition -this had to be a road trip. She reluctantly agreed and then we started looking out for a suitable place that can be done in 4 days.

I wanted to catch a IPL match at Bangalore, my mistake didn't see the schedule, if had planned during the ugadi week on 16th march, would have caught one at Bangalore. But no issues, if no IPL match then we get more time with friends and relatives.
We discussed Panchmarhi, Bangalore-ooty / Bangalore - Yercaud. Ooty was shot down and we finally decided we will head to Yercaud as place is just perfect for a one night visit and it would be a new place for us.Both of us have been to ooty before. We took a additional leave on monday, 5th april so that we get enough time to drive down to hyderabad by evening.

Started preparing for the trip, search for hotels started, went through various travelogues on TBHP for Yercaud. I am putting those link here for reference:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...y-yercaud.html

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...g-yercaud.html

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...y-yercaud.html

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...d-yercaud.html

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...t-yercaud.html

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...st-2007-a.html
and finally
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...y-yercaud.html

There are other threads too, but reference to these threads where enough to plan yercaud trip.

Preparation for Trip
My car got it's yearly service in february 2010, so it was all set, but got the headlight bulb upgraded to 90w/100 though needed the headlight for 3 hours during the total trip. Bought glass cutter, extra tube,stuffed a bag full of snacks and three 1-litre water bottle.
Had been waiting for 1st April very anxiously. Had planned to come from office, have quick dinner and then off to sleep by 8 p.m so that we can catch up with some sleep as we had planned to get rolling by 3 a.m on 2nd April. But couldn't sleep in the excitement. Finally got up at 1 a.m, woke up wife, and then I picked a cloth, system G and wax polish and headed straight to parking. Cleaned the car, wiped it, waxed it and came back sweating. Quick bath and freshening up , we had breakfast of tea and toast , we were finally rolling at 3:30 a.m
Crossed the PVNR Expressway and we were soon on NH 7. Headlight upgrade was worth it as found the light good enough, much better than the stock bulb.
By day break time, around 6 a.m we had already Kurnool. We did first 100 kms in 75 minutes and in 2.5hrs we had already covered 200kms. Roads were in perfect condition and Truckers were in left lane. It was blissful drive.
Now for some snaps of NH7.

Following a Truck


Day break


Smooth surface of NH 7




The curves




Approaching Ananthpur-ISKCON temple


Some greenery on the stretch.












NH7- good surface all through








Accident enroute

Saw many accident through the route. Saw a terrible accident due to diversions, a truck swallowed a tractor, only the mangle remains of the tractor remain, when we reached there, police were on the spot and tractor was being pulled from inside of the truck with the help of crane. It was a deadly head-on collision.

[sriswe]

Nice start Fordmanchau,

Eagerly waiting for the rest of the log..

Thanks,
Srini...

[Fordmanchau]

Originally Posted by sriswe

Nice start Fordmanchau,

Eagerly waiting for the rest of the log..

Thanks,
Srini...

Thank you Srini,
Just compiling everything. Will post in a while.

[mobike008]

Nice start Manish.

Yercaud is a nice place. I visited it quite a few years ago and stayed in a resort which was right on the slope of a mountain/hill ( not able to recall the name of that resort).

Look forward to seeing pictures of this place as keen to see how it changed over the years.

[MX6]

Nice trip you had there. But why are you looking so serious in that last photo fordmanchau?

[Fordmanchau]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Nice start Manish.

Yercaud is a nice place. I visited it quite a few years ago and stayed in a resort which was right on the slope of a mountain/hill ( not able to recall the name of that resort).

Look forward to seeing pictures of this place as keen to see how it changed over the years.

Yes Pandey ji, it was indeed a nice place, as we spent only one night there, couldn't visit all the view points.This place needs a leisurely 2 nights stay. But its an ideal place for a quick visit.

Originally Posted by MX6

Nice trip you had there. But why are you looking so serious in that last photo fordmanchau?

Hehe!! thanks MX6, have been reading your pune to Tirunelveli trip. I must say that was one commendable trip. This is just a small one.
I was concentrating on the road and I was not given time to pose. But have a smiling photo too. will post it this evening.

[ampere]

I really like the train snap ! Where was that?
Have a great love trains and I slow down where I can to spot one !

In fact after we cross Bangalore on the Dodbellapore route there is a station called Makali Durga, very famous for rail buffs. You can see an grandiose view of trains appearing behind a curve with hills in the background.

Waiting for more snaps !

[pulsar56]

Nice trip there Manish. Looking forward for the rest of the travelogue.
I always make sure that I stay in Yercaud for a minimum of 4-5 days. Hmm... Time to plan for my next trip. (May or June)

[MileCruncher]

Manish nice start. Now please let the pics flow. Btw is the entire stretch 4 laned on NH7 or do you still have sections?

[MX6]

@MileCruncher. Looking at photo 2399 where he's behind the biker on the right side of the divider, seems like NH7 is not all 4 lanes. Seems there are stretches where one needs to get on to the other side of the divider.

[mpksuhas]

Yes, as MX6 commented. The biker pic shows him driving in wrong side of the road since the other left lane is blocked by heap of sand. Guess road work still not fully over. Not sure about NH 7 Bangalore - Hyd streach since its been few months since i took that route on road. But for NH 7 Bangalore - Salem is fully done apart from a over pass just in Salem.

[Fordmanchau]

Originally Posted by ampere

I really like the train snap ! Where was that?
Have a great love trains and I slow down where I can to spot one !

Waiting for more snaps !

This train snap was taken at the first crossing towards Bangalore. This is after kurnool, I can't recall the name of the place but probably before entering Gooty from Hyderabad.

Originally Posted by pulsar56

Nice trip there Manish. Looking forward for the rest of the travelogue.
I always make sure that I stay in Yercaud for a minimum of 4-5 days. Hmm... Time to plan for my next trip. (May or June)

Thanks Nazim bhai,
It was a good trip, we did it comfortably, but didn't have so many days with us for long stay at yercaud.The place was small and nice though.

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Manish nice start. Now please let the pics flow. Btw is the entire stretch 4 laned on NH7 or do you still have sections?

Thanks Anirudh,
Not the entire stretch is four laned. Diversion starts after you cross Kurnool from Hyderabad. Flyover work at Ananthpur and four- laning at some places are in progress.Major portion of four laning have been completed but I couldn't make out why there were so many diversions. I saw one side of road blocked due to another accident between trucks.

Originally Posted by MX6

@MileCruncher. Looking at photo 2399 where he's behind the biker on the right side of the divider, seems like NH7 is not all 4 lanes. Seems there are stretches where one needs to get on to the other side of the divider.

Bang on!! keen observer

Continuing with the story here..

It was 7 a.m and 268 kms on the tripmeter, we decided to break for breakfast. We found the Reliance A1 dhaba open but could see no vehicle parked there. We ventured in and asked a man sitting there and he confirmed that it's open. We parked the car, informed our friends in bangalore of progress and went inside the place.It was early for them and breakfast was still getting prepared. Uttapam was ready but idli was inside the steamer. They said it will take 10 minutes. We decided to wait for idlis and wada but it started getting late. So we asked them to serve the Uttapam. It was tasty, we had 1 plate each and to our surprise it was just 12 bucks per plate. We happily chatted with the guy there, who narrated how it was open before , then got closed and he went back to his village ad how new owner opened the place again and called him back. By the time we were leaving two more cars had parked in.
Some snaps of the A1 Plaza(excuse the image quality, left the camera in the car and this taken by the mobile cam)

View from the back side of the Dhaba


The main seating area


Small seating area in the garden outside.

[Fordy]

Wow!! Great roads. Hey Manchau, as your Ford came to Karnataka & Tamilnadu, I took my Ford to Andhra during this time from Karnataka. I would love to see the logs of the milage

[ampere]

Fordmanchau,

Yours is a petrol ikon or the new TDCI?

[Fordmanchau]

Sorry guys, couldn't post tonight, no electricity till the time I came from office till 11 p.m .

Originally Posted by Fordy

Wow!! Great roads. Hey Manchau, as your Ford came to Karnataka & Tamilnadu, I took my Ford to Andhra during this time from Karnataka. I would love to see the logs of the milage

Hey Fordy , I read somewhere , probably in MX6(pune to tirunelveli thread) that you were planning a trip to hyd and vishakapatnam??? How did it go ?
I did not maintain exact log of the mileage but tank full to tank full gave me approximately 16kmpl with 100% ac.

Originally Posted by ampere

Fordmanchau,

Yours is a petrol ikon or the new TDCI?

It's a petrol 1.3 Flair, Old model.