[jeevmenon]

Its been a week since we returned from our 3 day trip of Mysore/Bangalore. We enquired in the routes&queries about alternatives to reach Mysore, since we were to use the famous Mysore-Road to get to Bangalore and back to Chennai on our return journey. So the options were either via Tamarakarai or MM Hills. Long back during college days I had heard about the trekking club going to MM Hills and BR Hills. Also, Addy mentioned it was ok to take the MM Hills. Initially my parents were to accompany me and we had planned to go to Bangalore, meet Dad's sister and then move on to Mysore for a day trip and then follow the Satyamangalam route to Coimbatore. We would then drop parents and then the NH to Chennai. But parents had to drop out and they took the train a week before to CBE.

It was a roller-coaster 3-day trip from bad-roads with zero people, left-tyre giving a scare on the bad up-hill, the great water-falls, great home-made lunch when we were the most-hungry (ate like a dog,) to the choke-o-block traffic on the 15 km odd Mysore-KRS stretch, nervous time before getting into the same hotel on the night of day-2, a birthday lunch celebration with wifey making chicken-65, petrol-reserve indicator for the longest we have experienced and the bunk arrival getting delayed.

Day 1: Sept 10, 2010

So, we started 3:38 and vrooommm! What a feeling - the start of 3 days of adventure, uncertainties, waterfalls, an old church, Kannada food, etc. So after filling the tank up at the HP bunk just after getting down the Thoppur Ghat (23.7L @56.01) we took the right turn a km further down. This is unchartered territory for us and as we got into the Mettur road we immediately found bad roads. Now, the dreaded feeling - is it going to be this way all the way till Mettur? Quite some trucks here and we thought the junction would have depressed roads. 2 km further down and Mettur - 36 km to go - improved roads. We had the home-made breakfast of chutney/kakdi sandwiches and coffee. Btw, our good old flask has gone bad and heat is not retained well now.

Place: Odo (km from Chennai)
Mechery - IOC bunk - opposite 339
HP bunk same side 340.3
Opposite side - HP bunk 344.7
Junction - 25 km to MM - Good road 376
Border check post - Palar 388.6

At the check post made an entry in the register and paid up Rs.20/- (might not be legal) to cross the forest.

[hvkumar]

The roads look spectacular from Mettur - is this the road via Kolathur to MM Hills?

The junction you are referring to - is that Mettur?

[jeevmenon]

Yes. Thats correct HVK, for both the questions. Yes, we saw a road-laying vehicle close to Palar as well and we were happy to see the road in very good condition and hoped that it would stay that way as far as possible into Karnataka. But alas...

[hillram]

The famous Mettur Dam looks very majestic.Wonderful pictures and a nice travelogue.

[ampere]

Nice! Jeev, Where is that view of Mettur Dam? All I saw was dried floor near the gates ? Do you take a diversion before the gates to go up the hill?
Do you go to Metttur town and then go towards Karnataka?

EDIT: I am a bit lost of geography. Did you go via Anthiyur to Hanur? If yes, at least I did not notice the Mettur dam view, which you snapped?
What am I missing?

[jeevmenon]

So you cross over that narrow bridge from where one can see the Stanley Reservoir like a sea. Its amazing. Once thats crossed, keep straight till you find this board (see attached) - It said right 25 to Palar, 10 to Kolathur, 48 to Madeshwara Malai. Good sign boards. There is a right and you go up the hill - couple of bends.



No. No. No Anthiyur. Thats the Tamarakkarai route which I have not taken, marked below in red-ovals.

[jeevmenon]

As we move on the roads are bad in KA (I have reported back in the routes&queries about these with photos.) It was so bad that we could neither enjoy the scenery nor take much photographs till MM Hills. Half-way up we heard strange noises from the left tyre. This made us think nothing but when will we reach the end of the bad-roads section. Here are the logs up until we reached Shivanasamudra.




On the downhill we clicked more snaps as we figured out that the tyre noise vanished completely (TD-ed roads around the temple. Surprising these are good with lamp posts on the 1 km median-ed road up there,) if the roads were good. So he is indeed a naughty boy! The temple was closed when we arrived. We moved on. Here are some snaps of the ~20 km up hill and ~30 km downhill.

[ampere]

The road less travelled!

Thanks for that info. Neither MMI nor Satguide has that route. Only Google has it.

[chethan.ram]

@Jeevmenon : Nice pictures. I liked the second picture in the first lot. What place is that?

[jeevmenon]

chethan.ram - Just 4 km short of Mettur proper. See the comment I posted before.

So you cross over that narrow bridge from where one can see the Stanley Reservoir like a sea. Its amazing. Once thats crossed, keep straight till you find this board (see attached) - It said right 25 to Palar, 10 to Kolathur, 48 to Madeshwara Malai. Good sign boards. There is a right and you go up the hill - couple of bends.

Stanley Reservoir always amazes me. Long ago we had been to Hogenekkal via a hired taxi. I told the driver that we needed to go to Mettur to see the reservoir. Though they did not allow people to get over/walk on the dam then, I remember we playing around in the garden area. It was worth a visit then and I was amazed at the sea-kind of view of the reservoir from the curved-road. Its a public road for vehicular traffic, quite narrow and the bus and the Sparky just managed up/dn.

On MM Hills: It draws pilgrims from both sides - talk of unity in diversity. One side calls it Male Madeshwara Hills and the other Madeshwara Malai - either way M.M.Hills At the car park one guy said he would give the car a good wash and put the "Om" sign on the windscreen and he showed me an other car as example. He said its a ritual of Madeshwara. Or was it made a money-making ritual the locals figured out after seeing a few cars coming over the dusty/off-road tracks!

[fazalaliadil]

Jeev, A nice writeup and photographs. Though I tried...but I don't see any correlation between your thread title and write up, kindly elaborate. Regards,

[jeevmenon]

@Fazal: I will elaborate as I move on in the journey. I wont stretch it like the Indian TV serials. But right now I dont have the snaps (they are in my home laptop) to support my travelogue as I write. I will continue writing tonight and day 2 is not far when the title will get clearer. We were surprised that no one brought it up so far. I felt a title like "Chennai-Mysore-Chennai" is boring. Till then maybe folks can start guessing

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

On MM Hills: It draws pilgrims from both sides - talk of unity in diversity. One side calls it Male Madeshwara Hills and the other Madeshwara Malai - either way M.M.Hills.

True. In Kannada, it is called Male Madeshwara Betta. It means the same though. Betta is Hill in Kannada

Your pics make the place look very inviting. Makes me want to go on a trip there, but the bad roads discourage me.

The title of the travelogue has made me curious. Looking forward for your explanation. Btw, Did you take any pictures of the bad roads?

[srishiva]

Ma-le itself means hill/mountain. Should be called Male Madeshwara or Madeshwara Swamy Betta!

Title is interesting. Hope he is not intent on vengeance!!

[jeevmenon]

Addy:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...-mysore-6.html

And as I write this, my colleague enters into office, he had been to Mogambikka over the weekend. First thing he says - "dirtiest roads". But that could be pure coastal issues - Mangalore, Udipi, Agumbe, Karwar - one of the highest rainfall areas in the country - greenest and beautiful pieces on earth but very difficult to move around. But Mysore, Kollegal, MM Hills are not rain prone, infact Mysore - I read in the papers gets rains as low as Chennai and I would expect much better road conditions.