1,200 km trip our 10 year old French people mover: Renault Lodgy

We started from home by around 7:30 as planned, with the odo showing a total mileage of 162,164. An interesting number to start a journey on.

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Our Onam vacations this year started on the 13th of September. A Friday. This was perfect for a family road trip. Leave on Friday and reach back by Wednesday, just a day before my parents had to go in for work. Since we were stuck at home this summer vacation due to the extremely busy schedule, I decided to do my own research this time and I was hell-bent on going somewhere this time around. First checked for resorts in Pondicherry but dropped the plan as my mom (and honestly I too) wasn't interested in going to a hot, tropical place. Looked up Coorg next and found lots of places. Presented all the facts to the parents and we, being last-minute-planners, decided not to book anything right then, just in case anything cropped up.

Finally, Thursday (12th September) came and my Onam celebrations at school were over. Reached home and asked about the next day's plan and found that nothing was decided and we still weren't sure if we'd be able to go as my dad wasn't feeling well. The next day, the day we were supposed to leave, he still hadn't improved but since everyone wanted a break, we decided to push our trip by one day, leave on Saturday and reach back by Thursday. So my mom and I looked up places to stay, in Coorg and Coimbatore. Coorg was the final destination but then, we wanted to visit the G.D. Car Museum at Coimbatore. So, decided to stop there for a day as well. My mom found a place at Coorg, Three Hills, Coorg. The place was interesting, we would live in a tent in the middle of nowhere, in a valley between three hills. Everyone was excited to live in a tent, try something new. Except me. I wasn't really sure about having no walls around me while sleeping. I, being a pretty indoor-ish person, would prefer living in a place with actual walls between the dangerous outside and the safe inside. Especially when we were going to be living in the middle of nowhere. But the reviews were really good and I finally succumbed. On one condition, we would stay at a place I decided in Coimbatore. I chose O By Tamara, Coimbatore for the stay as we almost always stay at their property in Trivandrum when we go to visit our relatives there.

But now another problem cropped up. My dad, already not very confident in driving the 10-year-old Renault Lodgy, wasn't sure about driving non-stop to Coorg from our home in Haripad, as the work being done on the NH would delay us significantly. It would be a 13-hour journey even though the distance was only about 500 km. And that was if we didn't stop on the way, and since we definitely would have to stop for food on the way, we'd take more than 16 or even 18 hours. 18 hours of non-stop travel was not preferred by anyone. So, we decided to stop in Kozhikode on the way, which was the mid-point of our journey. For this same reason, we also decided to take a break in Ooty on the way to Coimbatore.

And thus, a plan was formed; we'd leave from home on Saturday, early in the morning at 7:30, reach Kozhikode by about 5 in the evening and roam around Kozhikode for a while and stay at Yash International Hotel, Calicut. The next day, we'd reach Three Hills, Madikeri by about 5 or 6 and the next day, i.e. the 16th of September, we'd go to the Dubare Elephant Camp, Namdroling Monastery, a Coffee Plantation and finally end the day with watching the sunset from Raja's Seat. I insisted on the Raja's Seat visit as I had read an excellent story by @GForceEnjoyer on his trip to Coorg. After Coorg, we'd leave for Coimbatore on Tuesday, 17th September. Take a break for the night at King's Cliff, Ooty. We'd reach Coimbatore by about 3 or 4 on Wednesday and finally, back home on Thursday by night. Atleast, this was the plan

Day 1

We started from home by around 7:30 as planned, with the odo showing a total mileage of 162,164. An interesting number to start a journey on.
And we also had a surprise tag-along on our road-trip as well!

We were going via the Edathua-Kottayam route so as to avoid the absolutely horrifying stretch of the NH between Haripad and Edapally. The Edathua roads are a joy to go along. A vast paddy field can be seen on one side and the roads are really well maintained as well. The roads are narrow and curvy but it really is a joy to drive along. We reached Kottayam by around 9 via the Kottayam-Thiruvarpu road. The roads were curvy with no big potholes. It wasn't a smooth road per say, but it was decent. Something we noticed was that policemen were standing at every junction we passed. While we were wondering why, the Kerala governor's convoy passed by, explaining the whole ordeal. We stopped at an IOCL pump at 9:15. Filled to auto-cut off with the DTE showing 230 km. Except... The nozzle didn't stop. Diesel overflowed, falling onto the ground as well as on the car making all the dust stick onto the rear bumper.
36.51l went in. Cost 3,464.79 rupees. Sorry for the out-of-focus pic

Nothing much happened after that. Sharing some random pics from on the way:
An interesting fuel pump I happened to see on the way

We reached Kochi by around 11:30 and cut into Vytilla through Thrippunithura. A bit after crossing Edapally, everyone was hungry. We found a place called Palaaram in North Paravur which required a small deviation from our route to Kozhikode. Reached there by 12:30. But we wanted a 'Sadhya' as the next day, Sunday, was Onam and since we wouldn't get a proper sadhya in Coorg, we decided to try to find a place that served it before leaving Kerala. Decided to continue on our route and search for another place on the way. We accidentally stumbled upon a shop named 'Illam' at Kodungalloor and stopped there for lunch at around 1. It was a small shop right next door to a FruitBae. The food there was really good and AFAIK, they only serve Sadhya. No 'options' but their Sadhya is definitely worth trying. The bathroom though, is a different story. They don't have a bathroom attached to the place and so, you'd have to go outside and the entry to the bathroom is on the right side of the shop. The bathroom itself is decent enough but the way leading to it is... How shall I put it? Unpleasant. . Also, the water in the bathroom is disgusting. It was quite literally blood red in colour. So you'd have to go back into the shop to wash your hands with clean water.
P.S. They have ginger candy at the front desk which, according to my mom and dad, was really good. I don't like ginger


Left from Illam by around 2. After that, the Thrissur-Kozhikode roads were terrible and full of potholes. We were forced to slow down, which drastically increased our ETA. Saw this very interesting Creta on the way though. It confused all of us. It was owned by a BHP-ian! But that's not the confusing part. Just see for yourself.


That's right! A brand new Creta with a temporary registration! But the Creta is from 2016 . I quite simply do not understand how this is possible. Especially considering that the Creta was selling like wildfire! Please tell me if I'm missing something or if he just crossed 88mph in his Delorean!

Finally reached Hotel Yash International, Calicut by 8:20. Everyone being very tired after the long day, we decided to go to the famous S.M. Street in the morning before going for Coorg. The parking is behind the hotel, in an open area. But the hotel itself is a decent place. The lobby seems very nice and gives off a nice vibe. The rooms are decent-sized and comfy. The one big problem with the place though, is also it's biggest selling point to some people; it has a huge bar. The problem with that, however, is that they only have a bar. They don't have a separate restaurant. There is only a bar that happens to serve food. And so we got the food delivered to our room. Which honestly, was the only option other than going out to eat and of course no one wanted to do that after a long day in the car. Contrary to my belief, the food was actually pretty decent though.

Continue reading BHPian ryanMathew's post for more insights and information.