26th July 2010, 23:05
| #16 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Hyderabad
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27th July 2010, 08:37
| #17 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Pune
Posts: 461
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| Mavoor - Ottappalam Before I move on to the Mavoor-Ottapalam stretch, a couple of pictures from the earlier section: The first hairpin as you go down. Tiles paved to prevent frequent pitting I guess.   The next day I drove to Ottappalam from Mavoor. The route was Mavoor - Kavanakkal Bridge - Vazhakkad - Edavannappara - Kondotty - Malappuram - Perinthalmanna - Cherpulassery - Ottappalam. Here is the route I took: ( from my trip log in instamapper - it uses Google maps)  The roads were excellent upto Perinthalmanna. From Perinthalmanna to Ottappalam, the road condition was strictly average, with uneven surfaces and broken stretches here and there. However, Once you get off from the Kozhikode-Palakkad road at Perinthalmanna and eventually take the Perinthalmanna-Cherpulassery road, the traffic density drops down considerably, and overall the driving becomes much more easier. Somewhere in Malappuram   Caught in the rain  Reached Ottappalam by lunchtime, and visited the Chinakkathur temple a few km outside Ottapalam town in the evening. Chinakkathur temple in the evening   Rest after today's drive-a lot more to do tomorrow!  Last edited by Bigzero : 27th July 2010 at 08:44. |
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27th July 2010, 08:43
| #18 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Pune
Posts: 461
Thanked: 601 Times
| Quote:
The Ghat roads are much better nowadays. Well I know which restaurant you are talking about. Our bus stopped at a different one, this time before Gundlupet. I didnt have lunch at all ( as I had a decent brunch in Mysore ), so I cant comment on the quality of food there... | |
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27th July 2010, 08:52
| #19 |
| Team-BHP Support   | Real nice. Very nostalgic as Ranjit mentioned! Evening snap and the one one with scooter caught in the rain is worth a "chilli bajji"  |
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27th July 2010, 09:20
| #20 |
| BHPian Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Pune
Posts: 461
Thanked: 601 Times
| Return journey starts The plan for the return journey was like this - reach Bangalore by evening, stay somewhere overnight, and then push off early in the morning to reach Hyderabad for lunch. So, we left Ottappalam at around 7.30 am. It was drizzling when we left, but it stopped eventually. However the sky continued to be heavily overcast, and the temperature was pleasant throughout.   The shortest route from Ottappalam to Bangalore will be Ottappalam - Perinthalmanna - Nilambur - Gudalur- Mysore -Bangalore . Another option was to go via coimbatore, krishnagiri etc. I decided to go via Perinthalmanna-nilambur with a slight twist in the route. I had wanted to explore the Perinthalmanna-Melattur-Karuvarakkundu-Kalikavu-Nilambur route for a while now, and this was an opportunity to do that. The Kalikavu-Nilambur stretch was familiar to me as I had spent a couple of years of my early childhood in a place near Kalikavu ( more on that later ). We also had our small patch of rubber estate in the area as well, which we sold off in 1989 or so. I had made a number of trips to those places when I was a teenager. So that was reason enough to try this route. I wanted to find out how these places looked twenty years later. Also, Karuvarakkundu was a place I had never been to, and I just wanted to find out what kind of place it was. So the decision was taken, and off we went.  Oh by the way, I had configured my mobile to feed my location data to a site called www.instamapper.com, so that I could retreive it later and relook at all the places I went ( I dont have a GPS equipment, so my phone coupled with google maps for instant reference and instamapper for recording is a cheaper alternative - at least till the time I invest in a full-fledged GPS solution. ). Ottappalam to Perinthalmanna was a very pleasant early morning drive. We crossed through Perinthalmanna town towards the Ooty road ( the Perinthalmanna-Nilambur regular route ). The turnout to Melattur is at a place called Pattikkad, around 5 km or so after Perinthalmanna. The road surface was excellent upto Melattur, where I had to take a right turn for Karuvarakkundu, onto a slightly narrow but still quite decent road.    Eventually I touchted Karuvarakkundu, which is a small town right outside the Silent Valley Range and close to the mountains.  We stopped at a local tea shop to have some nice "podi"tea. A pity I didnt take a snap of the place. An old hajiyar was at the counter and we chatted for a while . It was great, to have piping hot tea in a small tea shop with benches and desks and a samovar in the background, while it drizzled outside. |
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27th July 2010, 11:37
| #21 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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27th July 2010, 11:54
| #22 |
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27th July 2010, 12:19
| #23 |
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27th July 2010, 12:54
| #24 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Mumbai
Posts: 62
Thanked: 20 Times
| Super photos! Those buses really bring back old memories ... especially the 'toddy' sign |
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27th July 2010, 13:56
| #25 | |
| BHPian  | Quote:
It all started when they opened up the bar. Now this place has turned into a full fledged brothel.  So be warned guys..never ever step into this place, especially if you are traveling with your family. | |
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27th July 2010, 14:05
| #26 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Palakkad/Coimbatore
Posts: 1,229
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27th July 2010, 18:58
| #27 |
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Lucknow
Posts: 789
Thanked: 115 Times
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27th July 2010, 19:13
| #28 | |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: CNN/BLR
Posts: 4,337
Thanked: 10,626 Times
| Quote:
My last to*dy session in Mysore was a disaster  . This time I am planning to do it in my home town (next month). Thanks for sharing pictures | |
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27th July 2010, 20:02
| #29 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Trivandrum
Posts: 427
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28th July 2010, 07:00
| #30 |
| BHPian Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Pune
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