[lordofgondor]

Originally Posted by Games Goblin

There are a lot of hairpins starting from SH-19 (I reckon at least 30). Great for perfecting that hard on the brakes-enter corner-clip the apex-accelerate hard out of the corner technique that we do so much on Gran Turismo!

Pretty interesting & spirited narrative and good pics in there buddy. Reading your thoughts on taking those curves, I'd say the song Speed King by Deep Purple would be perfect to go along!

It also reminds me why my wife used to complain on our mountain trips; "that why do you always get so close to the mountain while taking these hairpins/flowing curves". When I told her about downshifting, taking the apex and thumping the accelerator, she just told me that F1 is getting too much to your head, but I guess she understood how I feel.

I'd propose to include 1 other cars in the list you'd mentioned:
Maruti Esteem - Great handling & power-to-weight ratio, albeit a slightly longer gearshift. It just zips through those uphill hairpins or other curves on the road.

[MX6]

Great photos of a great place. No wonder Kerala is called God's own country. What I like about Kerala is the high civic sense and cleanliness. What I dislike is youngsters go overboard with their crass behaviour and hence taking women alone to some places becomes a big botheration sometimes. But nevertheless, this place rocks!

[Games Goblin]

Originally Posted by ranjith.rajaram

I am excited as I have also planned to do a three day trip to Munnar in June, but on different route Salem – Coimbatore – Munnar. You photos give me that joy to visit Munnar soon but no go I need to wait until June.

You Black City look great with alloys on her.

Thank you ranjith.rajaram! Looking forward to your travelogue & pics on that route!

Originally Posted by lordofgondor

Pretty interesting & spirited narrative and good pics in there buddy. Reading your thoughts on taking those curves, I'd say the song Speed King by Deep Purple would be perfect to go along!

Thank you lordofgondor! I plan on returning there again with some proper music and camera! Was ill-prepared this time as I was caught out by surprise!

Originally Posted by MX6

Great photos of a great place. No wonder Kerala is called God's own country.

Yup, when we get to drive on roads like this - the name seems befitting!

I searched T-BHP's travelogues and I came across one from bhpian c10.

by now all were fast asleep and by 11:30pm or so the ghats befoe Tekkadi started, and i was having a gala time driving on the ghats...Stopped over at Tekkadi for chai and started to Munnar...

The Ghat roads from Tekkadi to Munnar is around 116Kms if im not wrong...All my friend were fast asleep and my drive thru the Ghats is a memorable one i can say...The Ghat roads are also good, and many a times i was on the top gear, yes i meant 5th gear...could be while going down hill...At 3:00am or so the mist and fog was getting worst and i could'nt see anything even beyond 5ft the car...The nature around, made me feel and say "GOD'S OWN COUNTRY..."As the fog and mist started getting even worse, my friends asked me to pull over for sometime and we tried to catch nap for sometime till 5:00am and i had to start to reach Munnar early...It was a lil better and the drive was mind blowing...

He attempted the strech (Thekkady-Munnar) at Night! That is a very brave thing to do, as the fog is very thick. But you'll be missing out on the scenery if you drive at night.

Another thing, he too encountered the Jeepers on his trip!

The Freaks: I forgot to mention about the Jeep Drivers(Taxi) we came accross in Munnar "the freaks", O my, they drive like maniacs!!!

You can find his travelogue Here.

[blackrat]

I covered the exact same stretch a while back in Jan 2007.
It was in a Tempo Traveller. Ours was a little more exciting.

* Our transport broke down twice. We got off and started climbing trees to kill time on the first breakdown. On the second we explored a cardamom plantation.

* On a particular uphill stretch the visibility was down to 1metre. Yes One metre. The caustic air filled the Tempo when we rolled down the windows.

* There was a strike in three districts called by some goonda politician. We were stopped thrice by villagers blockading the roads.

-> First Blockade : Villager signals, "No passage". With some convincing they let us pass.
-> Second Blockade : We get stopped. The natives seem angry. They're carrying machetes. Not cool. One signals with his hand "if you try to drive, we will burn your car (makes lighting matchstick sign, feigns lighting our vehicle and boom! explosion with both palms and sound FX ) We try reasoning with them that we have tickets to leave back to Delhi that night via train.
5 minutes later a police jeep rolls in. An inspector starts hurling abuses at the villagers to stop this nonsense. Angrily gestures us to get out of there.
We happily comply.
-> Third blockade. We're stopped again. This time the same police jeep that helped us out last time, is parked at some distance past the blockade. We meet the gunda politico. He sees we're carrying video cameras and still cameras. He talks to us, asking where we're from. We mention our (false) train that evening to Delhi. After some consideration he orders his men to let us pass. Calls up some people and tells them something about our Tempo.

After that it was smooth sailing. Our driver was not a Keralite, poor fellow spoke some bits and pieces of Malayalam. He offered only a rough translation of what was said.

[Games Goblin]

That must have been some tense moments blackrat! Glad to hear that you guys completed the journey with no problems

But I guess it's experiences like these that last for quite a long time in your memory

[anekho]

Sweet drive buddy - definitely got to do this one soon

And the car looks really nice as well - perfect for the curves

[lancersfx]

I don't think i paid much attention to the roads rather than the black beauty. Superb ride buddy. Well maintained.

[aniketi]

Hey Goblin, i like the effect in the photos I guess its because you took them when you were driving at speed from car. Looks awesome but. Next time i will also try the same.

[Games Goblin]

Originally Posted by anekho

Sweet drive buddy - definitely got to do this one soon

And the car looks really nice as well - perfect for the curves

Originally Posted by lancersfx

I don't think i paid much attention to the roads rather than the black beauty. Superb ride buddy. Well maintained.

Thanks guys. But credit goes to my dad for maintaining the OHC in top shape.

Originally Posted by aniketi

Hey Goblin, i like the effect in the photos I guess its because you took them when you were driving at speed from car. Looks awesome but. Next time i will also try the same.

Yes, the photos were taken when the car was moving. I'm not much of an expert in photography, can experts please tell us how to put the "speed/motion blur" effect to great use? What settings in the camera etc?

[ampere]

My Question:

How do you get admission to that college?
I want to get one more degree.

[MX6]

Longer shutter helps. Normal persons can hold camera steady up to shutter speeds of 60. Any longer shutter speed leads to camera shake. so keeping shutter speeds in the range of 60 to 100 when the vehicle moves, with appropriate aperture for correct exposure helps a lot in creating such effects.
If one feels they have a pair of very steady hands, then go down to even 10 or 20.

[sarmarishi]

If Ia am driving to Periyar from Bangalore, will I get to hit this road?

[DicKy]

Awesome cool road. saw the pics of ferrari's blasting through these type of roads in the Magic India trip,that's when i found about the winding roads in munnar.
P.S. how much kms is it from ernakulam?(thru the above said road). But my ride is far from sporty,(wagonR)

[inreverse]

Wow! It's such a treat to see our country roads with a different perspective (minus the potholes), each road seems so less travelled yet so frequented...!

[bijuks]

Good pics and nice write-up!

Enjoyed it. Your route just circled my home-town. The road quality has improved a lot in recent years.