This is my first ever travelogue and more significantly, my first useful contribution to Team-BHP (if I can call it so). Also, I have not referred in detail to any travelogues before either in this forum or anywhere else. So, any mistakes should be excused with the belief that, if pointed out, will not be repeated the next time.

Years back, I have successfully completed several long distance drives in models ranging from a small, humble Maruti 800 to the huge, comfy Lexus RX 300, only that, the roads were substituted by foam beds and marble floors and the ghat roads were replaced by concrete walls with steep falls on either side. And, not to forget, the cars were all scale models. Being passionate about cars and having dreamt of going on long drives ever since childhood, I inched one step closer to my dream in Feb-2010 when I bought my first car, a pre-owned Hyundai Santro Xing from Mahindra First Choice. Since then, I was waiting for a break from work to actually live my dream which happened in May-2010.

I had a week to spare including both the ensuing weekends and was forced to satisfy both my family and friends in the vacation, spanning 9 days from 22-May to 30-May. I charted out a Plan which went like Chennai-Trichy, Trichy-Munnar-Trichy, Trichy-Wayanad-Trichy-Chennai. By this time, you would have guessed that I hail from Trichy. Those 3 legs were done solo, with my family and with my friends respectively. The car was serviced on 19-May and both me and my machine were ready for the journey.

PART-1: CHENNAI-TRICHY_22-May-2010_04:45 AM

I decided straight away that I have to start early from Chennai as I had my close friend’s Wedding Reception in Trichy on the same evening and have to reach there well ahead of the function. After two episodes of “The Alarm Rings and I shut it off” story, finally I start from home at 04:45 AM. The car was fuelled up at the popular Shanti Service Station near “The Trident” and finally hit NH45 at 05:00 AM.

The GST Road (that’s how NH45 is called in Chennai City) is known for its notorious traffic till the suburbs are crossed. And rightfully so, it did. The complete stretch Chennai Airport-Tambaram-Chengalpattu had constant flow of vehicles (even at 05:00 AM) and made sure that I could only do 40-50 kph and had to take multiple lane changes in NFS style to overtake the slow-moving vehicles. The incident which I would cherish for a long time happened here. I was able to hold up a BMW 5 Series behind my Santro deliberately for about 5 kms before the BMW driver became impatient and went out of the road to pass me, immediately after which he flew out of sight.

Apart from the traffic in the suburbs of Chennai, NH45 is pure motoring bliss and after crossing Chengalpattu, most of the time, I was comfortably cruising at 100-120 kph. The car felt stable at that speeds and the Santro being a Tall-Boy design, I really did not want to stretch it further. But, the temptation that NH45 gifted me overpowered my logical thinking and I touched 140 kph once or twice. Somehow, both myself and the car did not feel comfortable and I again returned back to sensible speeds. I tried taking a snap of the speedo at that speeds with my mobile but before I could click, the speed came down a little bit. Having decided to skip breakfast, I drove non-stop except for a small 3-minute break in which I stretched myself and took some snaps. The occasional village with pedestrians and cattle trying to cross the highway in a hurry provided the much needed contrast to break the monotony of the smooth, straight tarmac with long sweeping curves. Apart from the BMW incident, the other notable thing which happened was a Tata Nano which was going at about 105 kph. I was shocked to see the Nano with 4 occupants doing that and am still not able to get over that sight.

I reached the outskirts of Trichy by 08:30 AM and instead of going through Trichy City, took the bypass and reached home at 09:00 AM. A total distance of around 350 kms covered in 4 Hrs. I am attaching some snaps taken in this stretch and it includes snaps taken from my mobile also (kindly bear with the quality).

END OF PART1: CHENNAI-TRICHY_22-May-2010_09:15 AM

PART-2: TRICHY-MUNNAR-TRICHY_24-May-2010_06:30 AM

Ignoring numerous warnings from friends, I had planned to drive to a hill-station in my first ever long drive itself. Point to be noted is that both my parents don’t drive and so, the complete trip depends on me only. So, I decided to be extra cautious and slow in my approach and gave myself enough time to reach my destination. After a good night’s sleep, we (me, mom & dad) started from home at 06:30 AM sharp and filled up the tank at the Indian Oil Pump (Dindigul Road, Trichy). Our plan was to reach Munnar by 01:00 PM via Dindigul-Theni-Bodi.

The four-laning work is in progress throughout the Trichy-Dindigul stretch. Roads were horrible till Trichy outskirts were crossed. After that, some partially finished stretches were opened for 2-lane traffic and it was a mix and match of horrible potholed roads for a few meters and freshly laid smooth tarmac for the next few. We reached Dindigul at around 08:00 AM and stuck to the bypass without entering Dindigul Town. After briefly joining the North-South Corridor for about 3 kms, we took the exit and turned right towards Kodaikanal. This stretch of North-South corridor was the fastest in the entire stretch and bigger, faster cars could easily maintain above 170 kph in this small stretch. After Dindigul, the roads, though 2 laned, were truly great and would be an enthusiast’s delight. After briefly stopping for home-made breakfast after crossing Dindigul, we continued our journey. Crossing Batlagundu, a small town in Dindigul district, was a nightmare, with it’s ridiculously narrow roads and swarms of vehicles and people jostling for space on the road. Once past, the traffic density decreases considerably, as the road to Kodaikanal, which is where most of the traffic is headed, turns right after Batlagundu. Heading straight, the awesome roads made sure that all the towns enroute like Periakulam, Theni and Bodi were reached in no time. Except for a brief stop at Theni to fill up the tank, it was an uneventful drive with smooth roads and sparse traffic. Having reached Bodi by 11:00 AM, I was happy that we were on track to reach Munnar by 01:00 PM.

Up until this point, availability of fuel stations will not be a problem at all and one needs to be really careless to run out of fuel. Not so, anymore. The road to Munnar takes a sharp left after crossing Bodi, immediately after which the ghat roads starts. It’s quite possible to miss the signboard which tells us to take left for Munnar. From here, till Munnar, it’s full of Ghat Roads. The road from Bodi via Bodimettu till the Tamil Nadu border is simply superb to say the least. Smoothly paved, with clear signboards for directions and distances, it’s a motorist’s pleasure. A total of 19 Hairpin bends and quite a lot of S-bends later, we reached Bodimettu where the only Fuel Station in the entire Bodi-Munnar stretch was spotted. I am not sure whether that’s the only one or there are others which I have missed.
Once you cross the checkpost and venture into Kerala, the difference in atmosphere strikes you immediately. The smooth roads suddenly turn into mediocre roads, there are absolutely no signboards to warn you of an approaching turn or even hairpin bend nor are there any distance boards to let you know the remaining distance to be covered. But, the lush green surroundings and the forest like atmosphere more than made up for it. To be frank, until we entered Kerala, we were so clearly informed about the distance to Munnar that we hardly took note of it. Only after entering Kerala, I realized that mistake as we were now pretty clueless about the distance. Driving along the Ghat Roads for the first time and about 4 to 5 stoppages for taking snaps clearly slowed our progress. The scenery in some places was so beautiful and breathtaking that it invites you to stop and take a snap.

Finally, we reached Munnar Town by around 02:00 PM. The hotel we had booked in, the “Misty Mountain Resort” was on the other side of Munnar in the Ernakulam Road, approximately 8 kms from Munnar Town. A further 20-minute drive later, at 02:20 PM, we were there and checked in at the hotel. That evening and the whole of next day were spent seeing the places of interest in and around Munnar. The best part of this trip, the drive from Munnar to Top Station, happened on 25-May. This road is pure heaven for motor buffs and I am sure everyone who has driven in this stretch will agree to it. The entire 30 odd km road was silky smooth, had super S-bends and curves taken straight out of NFS Carbon and the drivers were mostly disciplined and stuck to their lanes except for the odd Jeep driver or so. I really pushed the Santro to it’s limits in this stretch and found that the high-speed handling around the corners were tricky and not so confidence inspiring. I am sure driving a Ford, Fiat or a Swift or even an i20 in this road would be huge fun.

After two refreshing days in Munnar, we checked out on 26-May morning around 10:00 AM and after some quick shopping for tea and spices, we filled up the tank in Munnar Town and headed towards Trichy. The drive started at 11:10 AM and the same route was taken to Trichy via Bodi-Theni-Dindigul. This time around, I was more confident with two days experience of driving in the hills and the distance was covered much quicker. Also, we only stopped twice in the entire stretch, one for taking snaps in the hills and the other for lunch at Theni. Finally, we reached home at 05:10 PM sharp, a full 2hrs quicker compared to the 8 long hours it took 2 days back. Check out the snaps and give your comments.

END OF PART-2: TRICHY-MUNNAR-TRICHY_26-MAY-2010_05:10 PM

PART-3: TRICHY-WAYANAD-ERODE-CHENNAI_27-MAY-2010_08:00 AM

Having decided Wayanad as my next holiday destination, which is also in Kerala, I had to come back to Trichy to end my first successful family tour and move on for a bachelor’s tour the next day. Unlike the Part-1 & Part-2, in which the journey started exactly on time as per the initial plan, we were able to start only at 08:00 AM, a full 2 hrs later than our initial plan. My buddies, 3 of them being who they are, made sure that we stay true to our 100% record of not starting on time for any of our journeys. Having been in the driver’s seat continuously for the previous 3 days, I decided not to touch the steering wheel today and left it to the other 3 guys who are all very good at driving and enjoy doing it too. The hotel we booked was “Hotel Mint Flower”, which was in a town called Sultan Bathery in Wayanad district. Our charted plan was to reach Sultan Bathery via Karur-Erode-Sathiyamangalam-Ooty-Gudalur. Even after repeated searches in Google Maps and Map My India, I was not able to find a route to Sultan Bathery without crossing Ooty.

Though the entire Trichy-Karur stretch was littered with potholes, we reached Karur by 09:00 AM, had a brief stop for breakfast and proceeded on our journey. The roads were in much better shape now and we were comfortably reaching speeds of 90-110 kph. But, it was not possible to maintain those speeds partly because it was 2-laned and also because of the numerous disturbances that typical Indian National Highways present to the travelers. We quickly crossed Erode and Gobi and stopped for lunch at Sathiyamangalam. After lunch, we took a sharp left in the middle of the town towards Mettupalayam. Please follow the signboards clearly or else we will be clueless about this turn right in the heart of the town. Once out of the town, I have absolutely no words to describe this marvel of a road – smoothly paved, lots of curves and bends to stretch the car to it’s limits, very sparse traffic, uneven sloping landscape giving you excellent view of the road of upto 1 km and above all virtually no two-wheelers. You will be in awe of the road and thus killing time. Up next is Mettupalayam, which comes oh so soon ending your honeymoon with the awesome road after which it’s going to be a full drive in the ghats. It was 02:00 PM by then, we filled up the tank again and left for Ooty.

The traffic in the ghat road from Mettupalayam to Ooty was so high that we were virtually moving up the hill at 20 kph. Every bus or truck coming downhill will be followed by a train of vehicles, each one of them trying to overtake the one immediately ahead of it, thus eating into our lane. All the vehicles seems to have missed the “GIVE WAY FOR UPHILL VEHICLES” sign posted at so many places. A plethora of hairpin bends, narrow mountain bridges and traffic jams (yes, in the hills) later, we finally managed to reach Ooty by 04:00 PM. Crossing Ooty in peak-season was horrible with irritating traffic. Ooty has really bore the brunt of commercialization with this quaint little hill-station having become dirty, congested and polluted, despite the drastic measures taken by the authorities. From Ooty, the journey downhill started again towards Gudalur. This is another excellent road but the heavy traffic ensured that it can’t be enjoyed to the limits. K(arnataka)SRTC runs it’s full fleet in this road in Ooty-Bangalore and Ooty-Mysore routes and we could see quite a few Volvos and a couple of Coronas in this stretch. Driving in hills takes so much time without your knowledge and when we reached Gudalur, it was already past 05:30 PM.

It was only in Gudalur, after almost 9 hrs of driving, we spotted the first signboard mentioning “Sultan Bathery”. Up until this time, we were driving with a doubt whether the route we had taken was right or not. We crossed the border town of DevarShola in Tamil Nadu by around 06:30 PM. After crossing this town, we were driving through dense reserved forests of Tamil Nadu for about half an hour after which the checkpost came. Just like my Munnar Trip, I expected the roads to turn worse immediately after the Kerala border but surprisingly, the roads were awesome all the way till our destination Sultan Bathery.

The next two days were spent seeing the places of interest in Wayanad District. We started our return journey at 11:00 AM on 30-May after checking out and filling up the tank in Sultan Bathery. The fuel was a full 1.2 Rupees cheaper per liter than in Tamil Nadu. How I wish we had those fuel rates over here in Chennai. Though the final destination was Chennai, we had to drop one of the guys at Erode, from where he proceeded to Trichy and we drove to Chennai. We took this gamble even after knowing that it’s a huge detour from the normal route. For your information, the best route from Sultan Bathery to Chennai was to drive through Mysore, Bangalore and Vellore.

We were driving along the same route to Erode, but this time, the beauty of the Queen of the Hills (Nilgiris) made us stop on a couple of occasions near Ooty to enjoy the nature and take a few snaps. The Ooty town was again a mess with heavy rains lashing the town and turning the already crowded town into a nightmare. This is where the only bad incident of our trip happened. A boy in his teens, riding a TVS Victor, tried to overtake our car from the left in a narrow road. The oncoming vehicles made us go near the shoulder of the road, because of which, the kid was unable to balance, hit our car and fell down in the middle of the road. Though the bike had some damage, the kid was not seriously hurt and we could make out that he was terrified about the incident. Later, when we enquired him, we found out that he didn’t even have a LLR. We were wondering how the parents allowed him to take the bike out, that too in Ooty, without even a LLR. Our car had a small, mostly unnoticeable dent in the left front fender just above the wheel arch.

Putting the incident back, we had lunch in Ooty and proceed on our drive. The entire stretch from Ooty to Mettupalyam was full of choking traffic and we even experienced a huge traffic jam on more than a couple of occasions. Finally, we reached Erode by 05:00 PM, then decided to take the Salem-Ulundurpet-Villupuram route to Chennai. This also proved to be a bad decision, as the Salem-Ulundurpet stretch was simply horrible. To make matters worse, it was raining cats and dogs throughout the entire stretch, making it extremely difficult to drive. Once we reached Ulundurpet and joined the NH45, we gained momentum and finally reached Chennai an hour past midnight.

END OF PART-3: TRICHY-SULTAN BATHERY-CHENNAI_31-MAY-2010_01:15 AM

Having seen and enjoyed Munnar and Wayand, I would say Kerala stays true to its ad caption and is really “God’s Own Country”. Also, a special mention has to go to the state of Tamil Nadu for its excellent roads throughout, except for a few stretches. That, my dear folks, ends my first long road trip with a satisfaction that one of my childhood dreams has finally come true.

FACTFILE:

· Total No of Days – 9 (22.05.2010 ~ 30.05.2010)
· Vehicle Make & Model – Hyundai Santro Xing

· Odometer Start Reading – 50420 km
· Odometer End Reading – 52827 km
· Total Distance Travelled – 2407 km
· Total Quantity of Fuel filled – 166.92 l
· Average Fuel Consumption – 14.42 km/l
· Net Worth of Fuel filled – 8673 Rs

· Destinations Covered – Trichy / Munnar / Sultan Bathery (Wayanad Dist.)
· Route Followed:
Part-1: Chennai-Trichy
Part-2: Trichy-Dindigul-Theni-Munnar-Trichy
Part-3: Trichy-Erode-Ooty-Gudalur-Sultan Bathery-Erode-Salem-Chennai

· Best Stretch of Tarmac (in Plains) – Villupuram-Trichy
· Best Stretch of Tarmac (in Ghats) – Munnar Town-Echo Point & Bodi-Bodimettu
· Worst Stretch of Tarmac (in Plains) – Salem-Ulundurpet
· Worst Stretch of Tarmac (in Ghats) – Near Top Station (2 km stretch)

PHOTO INDEX:

1 – The Sunrise just outside Chennai
2 – The awesome NH45 (Chennai-Trichy Highway)
3 – The Tata Nano in full blast
4 & 5 – The good looking buses of TNSTC & SETC (TN)
6 – The superb Bodi-Bodimettu stretch
7 – Just inside Kerala at the checkpost
8 & 9 – The ghat roads in Kerala
10 – These are still running in Kerala
11~13 – Splendid view of Mother Nature enroute to Munnar
14 – The tea plantations in Munnar-Top Station stretch
15 – Photo Point (Munnar-Top Station stretch)
16 – Maatupatty Dam
17 – Snap of Santro in Echo Point
18 – View of TN Hills from Top Station
19~22 – Flowers in full bloom at Blossom Park (Munnar)
23 – The Misty Mountain Resort in Munnar
24 – The old yet gorgeous Mahindra Classic
25~28 – The awesome Hyundai in awesome Munnar
29 – The snaking ghat roads in Bodi-Bodimettu stretch
30 – Gulmohar Tree in full bloom at Batlagundu
31 – Neolithic Insciptions at Edakkal Caves (Wayanad)
32 & 33 – The serene Pookote Lake (Wayanad)
34 – The Kuruva Island (Wayanad)

Awaiting your comments...

Originally Posted by arvi86 (Post 1934249) 24 – The old yet gorgeous Mahindra Classic

I have seen this CJ340 too in Munnar. Owned by a plantation group. Beautifully stock. The hoods been changed though and the dash has been slightly altered.

Originally Posted by arvi86 (Post 1935425) @ All the above - Thanks a lot for ending my worries by replying to this thread. Thought it would go unnoticed.

Originally Posted by arvi86 (Post 1937676) @ MX6 - I am humbled by your words. BTW, now when we think of those things which we used to do as kids (playing with toy cars in this instance), it evokes good laughter.