Weekend Travelogue: Kodaikanal, Madurai

Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Salem – Namakkal – Karur – Dindigul - Kodaikanal – Madurai – Dindigul - Bangalore (1050 km)


This trip was long planned as me and my wife promised Saravanan that we are going to attend his wedding. I immediately booked an office guest house when Sarav informed me about his marriage date (which was in a weekend) in July. Finally we decided to do a night trip and reach Kodai by morning.

Day 1(1st & 2nd Sept, 2006): Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Salem – Namakkal – Karur – Dindigul – Sempatti – Vattalakundu – Ganguvarapatty – Kodaikanal (460 kms)
I came back from office by 6PM and tried to sleep but couldn’t. I was very much excited for a night drive. After a brief nap, I got up by 8:30PM. We packed up the stuffs, took a nice bath and had a light dinner of puffed-rice with curd. We start at around 10:45PM . I was surprised to see Bangalore roads so crowded with the callcentres sumos and indicabs. May be I entered the road during the shift time. Still we made it to BTM by 11:15PM and started our journey at 11:45PM. .

NH7 in the night: Although I have traveled through NH7 till Salem but this was the first time I was traveling in this road at this hour. I soon realized the mistake of starting at midnight; it was fully loaded with trucks leaving Bangalore. It was trucks and buses till Hosur and road eased out after that. I think a 10PM or a 2AM start is a better option. Hosur-Krishnagiri part of GQ is a beauty and I traveled there so much that I can drive with eyes closed.

Upgraded Headlamps: The new 100/90W Phillips rally headlamps which I put recently did help a lot and I was able to do higher speeds. I did 80-100kmph, didn’t pedal further as people were fast asleep in the back and any hard braking may affect their sleep. Also this was first long trip with my new K&N filter.

The worst Stretch: It was exactly at 1AM, we reached Krishnagiri toll gate and after that my speed reduced as I was aware of the road till Dharmapuri. Later, this stretch turned out to be the worst stretch of the trip. I never crossed 50kmph even though some part were smooth because there are really some crater like potholes in this stretch, although I feel the number of potholes have decreased compared to that in 2004 but I suggest never cross 60kmph in daytime and no overtaking here. Here with on-coming traffic, my bulbs came really handy. I cleared all the potholes and once I reached the Dharmapuri signal, the speed increased and within no time I was cruising in Toppur Ghat.

Jam at darkness: At about 2:30AM, as soon as I crossed the toppur ghat, I was thinking about hitting Salem before 3AM as per our plan. But what is this, there is a km long trail of trucks and vehicles one after the other. Soon, I too got added to the trail. It was pitch darkness and everybody was wondering about why this road block. May be there is some accident, may be some checking…but what exactly no one knows! Still there was no sign of any movement. I stopped the car and soon realized that it would be nice if I empty my tank under open darkness. So my wife followed and we wondered when can we go out of this problem? Soon everyone woke up and also it was getting hot, and people starting the sweat so I started the engine and puton the AC for the comfort of the family. Soon the traffic started to crawl and this kept on and on. Finally after about1.5 hours of crawling, blocking etc we were out and put on the pedal to reach Salem.

Immediately after a small 5 min break at Reliance A1 Plaza before Salem, we started the journey at 4AM. I had to makeup the lost time and also be careful that I don’t over speed as the road after Salem is new for me. Soon we reached the beautiful Salem bypass. This is where NH47 starts to Coimbatore, Palghat towards Ernakulam. We kept the following the Madurai directions along NH7.

At around 4:45AM and about 20kms before Namakkal, I was feeling a bit drowsy and thinking of just stopping for a while but again we were running out of time. As my wife also taking a nap, I didn’t want to disturb him as well, but soon he woke up and told me whether I want a rest. I told yes, you take the steering now.

We saw dawn after passing Namakkal and then our speed too increased with daytime. We passed Karur in no time and pumped till Dindigul. We decided to stop for breakfast in A1 Plaza, 3km before Dindigul at 7:30AM. We had very tasty dosas and coffee. We had already made 369km with half tank left. I filled the remaining half (about 18lits) with Reliance petrol. There is a slight improvement in the average after I put in the K&N filter.

North-South Corridor work: Entire Krishnagiri to Madurai stretch of NH7 had put up hoardings of 4 laning work as per NS express corridor project by NHAI. The date of completion is December, 2008. But no work has yet been started; it is only in the reconnaissance and design stage. So hopefully in another 2 years time, Bangalore to Kanyakumari can be done very fast.

Reaching Kodaikanal: After the much needed breakfast, we started from Dindigul about 8:30AM, took the NH45-extn. This is a decent 2 lane road and Kodai was about 88km from Dindigul. I was on the wheels this time and drove full throttle in 80-90kmph and within no time we passed Sempatti and crossed Vattalakundu and reached a small village Ganguvarapatty. Immediately after the village, there is a right turn from which the ghat roads begin. Kodai is another 53kms on this ghat road with turns, hairpins, and dwindling ghats. It was thrill to drive in the ghat especially for a person behind the wheels. Even distance, we were gaining altitude and the weather transforming from hot to cold. The car handled very well while overtaking in the ghats and at 2nd and 3rd gears. Sometimes we could even pull it at 4th gear. It took us about 2 hours to reach our destination which was even at a higher altitude from Kodai Lake. By 10:30m we reached ITC guest house, where we were received by the cook Selvaraj and his wife. We were served nice coffee and lime juice.

Pics of Kodai:


Chilling out in Kodai: After a small nap and nice warm bath, we gathered in the dining table. We all hogged nice TN special food prepared by Selva, the chef. We had egg-masala, chicken curry, roti, rice, sambar, curd and nice sabji. After hogging those hot foods in that chilly weather we started for the kodai site seeing. We visited Kodai-Lake view, Pillar-Rocks, it was covered with mist and it started to rain. In between the ladies cannot stop their shopping no matter what, we stopped at the shops where we get oils, tea, herbs etc. Then we moved to Coakers-walk and then into Kodai Lake. Enjoyed a nice boating on the star shaped lake and returned to the resort by 7PM.

Day 2 (3rd Sept, 2006): Kodaikanal – Vattalakundu – Madurai – Dindigul – Bangalore
We got up early at 6AM, Took a nice hot bath, had nice home made dosas and started to return journey at 8AM. Eslyn was on the wheels now. We stopped for a while on the ghat road to buy some fruits and honey and then pumped to Madurai. It is about 130km from Kodai. After reaching Vatallakundu, we kept going straight on the road that goes to Kodai Road railway station and reached NH7 and took right to Madurai. It was about 9:30AM and was getting hotter. By 10AM and as we were near Madurai, people were getting restless, ladies started to crib and the kid getting restless. So puton the AC. This was the start of real test of my car’s AC. I must say it handled beautifully. Things really cooled down fast and people were happy again. The AC never stopped till we reached Krishnagiri in the night.

Bangalore Effect: This bug has caught our family which I realized on reaching Madurai. In that heat, people are happily driving, walking, no one cribbing. Inside the car, with full AC and cold, we are getting restless. The small time that I was putting down the glass to ask for directions it was getting hot as if we have entered a furnace. I wondered whether our immune system decreased after landing in Bangalore and doing those white collared IT job!! I remembered my childhood all spent in hot places like Kolkata, Hyderabad and collage days in the even hotter Kanpur. The first time I entered an AC coach of a train was when I was 21. Did I crib that time? No! I didn’t know of what AC is till my first 20 years and look at now. Once I started this nostalgic topic, everyone stopped cribbing as everyone came from hotter places of Bengal, TN and Kerala before entering into Bangalore. Patience prevailed and all of us enjoyed the Madurai afternoon after that.

Wedding and Meenakshi Temple: We saw a big board of Sara and his wife; think this happens only in TN weddings. They are treated as if they are some politician’s son and daughter. Anyway we all clicked those pics. After the greetings and photography, we entered the lunch hall which had authentic TN wedding food. Although we were sweating profusely, none of us discussed or cribbed of it but rather enjoyed the moment, the food etc. Looks like my brief sentimental talk worked for all of them. Even the kid enjoyed the heat, food and crowd.




It was about noon when we completed our lunch and we left after meeting Sara as we need to return for Bangalore by 1PM. Meanwhile Sara told that Meenakshi temple will be closed this time, it only opens at 4PM. Still we wanted to visit it.

We reached Meenakshi temple south tower, just entered there, offered our prayers from outside and headed back to the car.

Return Journey: We start the car at exact 1PM (as planned) and I took on the wheel. It was heat at its peak. We took two towels and covered the rear door glasses, put the AC to full and started. Within no time, it was very cold inside and reduced it to No.2 and kept it in that. The car behaved extremely well after 80kmph. I was constantly doing 100-110kmph once I left Madurai outskirts as I wanted to reach Salem in daylight and it is about 250km from Madurai. And with AC it was cool inside the car. Slowly people slept in the rear and I kept track of the time and distance and tried to pump as much. We reached Dindigul in 50min, means I did 70km in 50min. Good, we are on time. But unfortunately I missed the Dindigul bypass and entered the small town but soon came out in 10min and started pumping the pedal again. Then we decided to stop in the same A1 plaza for lime soda. When we came out we realized the amount of cool the car AC provided. My wife the drinking water bottle at her feet and put on the second knob which gives air to the driver and navigators feet. The bottle in turn became so cool that it was great drinking that water and we invented this new technique of cooling your water. Infact the big barrel in the boot also was cool due to AC. We relished the lime soda & ice creams too. We emptied our tanks and ready for the second round of blasting.

Thankfully soon I found a ScorpioCRDe with Bangalore regn. doing similar speeds and I made him my pilot. We soon passed Karur and Namakkal. These towns have excellent bypasses, all four laned. Just about 20km before Salem, we stopped for Reliance petrol and as it was about 5PM, the traffic started to increase. Finally we reached Salem at 5:30PM, 30 min before as planned. We stopped at the junction of NH7-NH47 at Salem bypass and had coffee. Also the baby needed a nappy change etc etc. after all this trips, the think I have become a better planner in terms of time , road and distance.

After Salem, it started to get dark as we entered into Toppur Ghat, in addition it started to rain very heavily. My Speed reduced and slowly we reached Dharmapuri at 7:30PM, entered Kevi’s for dinner. It was drizzling throughout.

After a nice non-veg dinner at Dharmapuri, we started the last leg of the journey at 8:30PM. Actually we purposefully increased our dinner break as the road is bad and also there will more traffic between 7-9PM. Now Eslyn took over from me for the last 140km of the journey. Within 10min, it started to downpour, maaan, never imagined that kind of pouring in TN. It was night, we are in the worst stretch and plus it is raining heavily. Wiper at full speed was not sufficient. Anyway, the traffic decreased and we crawled slowly. The heavy downpour eased out in 15min but it kept raining till Krishnagiri.

We reached Krishnagiri toll gate at 9:45PM. This is where I stopped the AC after starting from Madurai. Weather was cool, traffic was negligible. Finally we reached BTM at 11PM and my house at 11:30PM. WOW, it was really a satisfying trip and everyone enjoyed every moment.

About the Car: Car drank 62lit of petrol for 1055km which included 600km of AC, 100km of hill driving with full load. Highest speed touched was 115kmph in the Dindigul – Salem stretch with AC.

Signing Off

Weekend Travelogue: Wayanad

Bangalore –Mysore – Nanjangud – Gundulpet – Sultan Battery – Kalpetta – Bangalore

After the Hogenakkal trip, I thought of taking a break and spend July weekends in Bangalore but the thought went for a toss when all of a sudden, on a Wednesday afternoon some team members in office gathered that uncanny josh to go for a trip. They made me the scape-goat (read as trip coordinator)

Still on Friday, I checked the car and kept it to tank full. On Friday evening, we went to Bangalore central to buy the stuffs like liquors, snacks, soft-drinks etc.

8th July, 2006: As planned, we were supposed to meet at ITC Park at 5AM. So we get up at 3:45AM packed the regular stuffs, took a nice bath.

Finally we start our journey at 5:50AM.

Mysore road was almost deserted and I was in the lead as the cab went for a fill. Once after Kengeri, speed increased and I was doing a nice 110-120kmph. Within no time we were in Kamat Lokaruchi after Ramanagaram for Chai, breakfast at about 7AM. Soon the cab followed and the guys were really excited to have food here as they heard a lot through my travelogue but never experienced it. All relished the ambience and ofcourse the banana-leaf wrapped idlis, dosas, chais, vadas.

We left Kamat at around 8 AM. Roads were as usual deserted in the morning and we did enter Mysore by 9:15AM. Instead of taking the ring road we decided to go through Mysore as it might not be that crowded on a Saturday morning. It did turn out as we expected. In another 30min we were out of town and on NH212 to Nanjangud. As we went past Mysore the roads became better-n-better and so was the speed. I kept the speed between 60-80kmph as this was the first time I am driving on this road. We also enjoyed the scenic beauty of the surrounding especially the sunflower trees spread in huge area was simply awesome.

Road and surroundings before Gundulpet

We reached Gundulpet in an hour’s time and there is a right turn immediately after that which goes to Calicut. After driving another 10km we broke for some snacks. All had chocolates, cakes, soft drinks, snacks. I drank lots of water and took a bar of munch.

At around 10:30AM we started the last leg of the journey. This was an awesome drive mostly through the jungles, first through bandipur and then through Muthanga (although the jungle is same but name is different in different state). Roads were great but inside the jungles there were sudden unmarked humps (set of three), even though I knew about this and was careful but still missed one of them and went over it thud-thud-thud at 80kmph. Maan, I felt really upset that my baby (car) had to undergo that torture. Anyway, I didn’t miss any after that and also during return. We also had slight drizzle and this deciduous forest looked dense green and awesome.

Pics inside Forest


Soon we reached the Kerala border and the checkpost. We reached Sultan battery by 11:15AM and Kalpetta by noon. We had already booked an ecotel named Hotel Harithagiri there. Nice hotel and a great ambience at a reasonable price. We freshen up in another 30min and head towards the restaurant for lunch. All of us hogged almost whatever we thought of from Mutton biriyanis, chicken65, fish curry to egg omlette, burjis to kerala parathas to dal frys. Even some of us didn’t spare the Fosters and the 8PMs too.

After the sumptuous lunch we decided to go to Pookot (Pookod or Phookode) Lake about 13 km from hotel. The ride from Kalpetta to Vythri, Lakkidi was another worth mentioning. I am short of words describing it with occasional slight drizzle, winding roads, huge hills with full of greenery, tea plantations etc etc.

t is a natural fresh water lake, brimmed with ever green mountains. The weather here is salacious; the scenic beauty, hypnotizing and the nature, unspoiled. I was also told that one of the main tributaries of Kabini River (Panamaram rivulet) takes its origin from Pookot Lake. Thick bushes and tall trees along the path round the lake gave a cam spiritual atmosphere.

After boating it was time for tea.We were in the lake cafeteria for about an hour and then decided to leave.At around 5:30PM we moved towards the ghat pass at Lakkidi another 5km from lake. We stopped by at one of the point on the ghat section and did some photo shoot and relished the nature. The lofty mountain peaks, the gurgling stream, luxuriant vegetation and the bird's eye view of the deep valley on the south, with its winding roads, were breath taking.

Pics of Valley from Ghats:


Before we reach the hotel, we decided to get down at Kalpetta town for some shopping. We strolled back to hotel after shopping at about 7PM.

9th July, 2006: We wake up at about 6AM and stood by the hotel window to experience the beautiful Mountain View from there.We also had the bed tea not in bed but adjacent to the pool.

At around 10AM, we started the drive.It was another breathtaking drive through dense vegetation, tea plantations, jackfruit plantation etc. The surrounding was awesome. We reached there by 10:30 but we need to walk down through dense equatorial forest for 1.5km or so from the parking to reach the foot of the falls. It was a steep decent and then a set of stairs. Although it was tiring but the reaching the falls we felt it was worth the effort. We did some photography. Trekking back was tiring but great. We did some shopping at the parking shop and had 2 rounds lime juice.

Pics of Falls & plantations:


We reached hotel from falls at 1PM. We took a realistic / sensible lunch with kerala-fish thali and ice creams.Finally we checked out at 3:30PM and started the return journey. This time my speed was touching 90-100kmph as I was more familiar and we were covering the distances very fast. While I was approaching Mysore, I decided to take the ring road as it was about 6PM and Mysore can get crowded. It worked out really well. In another 15-20min I was entering Srirangapatnam.

Once in Mysore Road, It was 120-130kmph all the way. Thankfully traffic was not so much as you expect on this road (Atleast I experienced heavy traffic during this time in my previous trips). It was getting dark by the time we reached Channapatna. By 7:25PM my car was parked in Kamat Lokaruchi. I did a nonstop 239km in 4 hours. WOW, that was fast considering the kind of roads we were in.

It was hogging time again. I preferred a North Karnataka Meal which was simply awesome.
It was a nice rest and also there was nice breeze blowing across. Now it was bye-bye time as I will move straight to home and will only meet them in office the next day. We started the final leg of the journey at 9PM when there was less traffic and within an hour I was in the Shell pump in VM road.

I covered a distance of 586 kms(with AC on for 50% of the distance).
We reached home at 10:30PM after a very satisfactory trip to Kerala and lots of memories to cherish in my maiden step in God’s own country.


Signing Off
Vijay

Hogenakkal Falls

Hogenakkal Falls – 25 June, 2006

Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Pennagaram – Hogenakkal – Bangalore

This was my 3rd trip to Hogenakkal Falls after the previous bike trips in Nov2004 and Sept2005 but maiden one on car. It was a sudden decision taken on Saturday to go to Hogenakkal Falls on Sunday.

Sunday, 25th June: We get up early at 4:30AM. Pack up the necessary stuffs, medical kit, extra clothes for bathing, food etc, take a nice warm bath and start at 5:45AM. Weather was cold as usual like Bangalore.

The road was deserted and it’s always enjoying to drive in city in early mornings. Within 30min of driving we were in Shell outlet in Bommanahalli for tank full. We spent another 30min there, filling petrol, checking tire pressures of all 5 tyres, also bought a mineral water bottle from the shell retail shop.

We left petrol station at about 6:55AM and back to NH7. Traffic was ok but we kept 70-80kmph till Electronic City and close to 100kmph till Hosur. Traffic eased out after Hosur and the speed increased when we kept 100-120kmph throughout till the breakfast break in Krishnagiri. Weather played a great role in this trip. Even in TN there was no sun and the drive was more pleasant. We didn’t put on the AC till Dharmapuri.
We had our breakfast break in Hotel Uthyaiah at around 7:45AM where we regularly halt for food. Had delicious masala dosas and hot tea.

We started our journey at 8:30AM and headed towards Krishnagiri. At Krishnagiri we left the GQ stretch and headed to Dharmapuri along NH7. It was amazing to see that the stretch from Dharmapuri to Krishnagiri has improved a lot. Lots of patchwork has been done on the graveyard potholes which we encountered in my last trips both by car and bike. Also in 2-3 places reconnaissance work is underway by NHAI engineers means soon we might see that turning into a beautiful 4 laned highway as part of the NS Corridor. Anyway this time in mango season saw lots of mango walas on road side selling mangoes next to the mango garden. Maan, we stopped by to check it. It was damn sweet mangoes again and that too Rs10 / kg. We bought 7kg of mangoes and dumped in the boot.

t Dharmapuri junction, we take a right turn for Hogenakkal (arrow marked). This road was under construction when we visited Hogenakkal last time in Sept2005 but this time it is smooth and also broader. We drove 40km in 35min via Pennagaram (Veerappan’s wife stood for TN election from here) and before entering the jungle paid the toll (Rs40 for car which I felt was very high). One funny thing that I noticed for the first time was that in the second gate and policeman took note of car number and took Rs10 don’t know for what. He gave an explanation in Tamil which we couldn’t understand. Finally we reached the falls in another 15min through the jungle and ghat road.



At Hogennakal, the Cauvery River enters the plains and the river dashing against the rocks is a great sight. Hogenakkal is a riverside spa. The sound of the Cauvery, roaring between rocky banks, is a constant presence in most places in Hogenakkal. The Hogenakkal Falls is not a single waterfall but a series of falls. The mighty river Cauvery flows through a relatively plain land before mother earth suddenly opens up and the whole river falls to a depth of between 50 to 150 feet on a bed of granite rocks. There are so many waterfalls, both big and small, all over the place. The whole spectacle is spread over a kilometer or so. The fine spray that rises as the water hits the rocks below have given these rocks the name Hogenakkal, which means "Smoking Rock" in Kannada. On one side is the gushing, roaring waterfalls spread over as far as your eyes go, and on the other side, there is relatively calm water flowing through a narrow but steep gorge. People cross the current-rippled waters in circular basket boats called coracles. To reach the falls you have to take the coracle (there is no land access). We didn’t take that instead enjoyed the mist and the beauty. I am also told that the shooting of many tamil films takes place here and I also think that some song sequence in Roja took place here too.


After some photoshoot, it was bathing time so we all plunged into the flowing water and spent a nice 2 hours inside it. At 2:30PM, came out of water, took a coracle to our bank.

We started the return journey at around 3:45PM. Weather was very pleasant; it was also drizzling inside the jungle. We stopped by at about 10km before Dharmapuri had our sandwiched and potato chips and drank lots of water. There was no stop after that and we zoomed the Bommanahalli junction by 6:30PM. We did a nice 140km in 1hr 40min.

Overall it was a Nice trip!! Even nice weather!!

Total Trip distance 380km.

Signing Off
Vijay

Weekend Travelogue: Yercaud, Tamil Nadu

Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri - Salem – Yercaud – Bangalore (460 km)

With this trip I have completed all the four hill stations of TN (after Ooty, Kodai, Yelagiri).

Day 1(1st April, 2006): We get up at 4:15AM, take a nice bath and pack the necessary stuffs and start at 5:15AM.The road was empty and within no time the car was zooming at 100kmph. This is the first time that my car is running in this beautiful stretch and we were enjoying the drive. Also the beautiful Kishore numbers adding more aura. We reached Hosur in no time and once past the Ashok Leyland plant, the speedo started to increase. Hosur – Krishnagiri stretch is a beauty as always and also there was almost no traffic in the morning. The speedometer already touched 120kmph. A blast to 130kmph and left the pedal, maintained 100 – 120 kmph thereafter.

By 7:15AM, we took our first break at Hotel Uthaiyah about 10km before Krishnagiri toll gate, the same place where we always take our first break. Had 2 rounds of hot tea and the always-amazing masala dosas. I have a special liking of food of Tamil Nadu specially dosas. It has a special taste and I make sure I don’t miss the masala dosas in Tamil Nadu.

We started our journey after breakfast at around 8AM, reached the toll gate in 10 min. This time I had to pay the toll-fee and proceeded towards Dharmapuri. I knew from my previous experiences that the road from Krishnagiri to Dharmapuri had lot of sudden potholes and I was very careful this time and never increased the speed past 50-60kmph even though the road appeared smooth fearing a sudden graveyard. But this time the road has improved a lot compared to my last visit although there were some potholes. Work on the North-South corridor has started on this stretch.

We reached Dharmapuri at around 9AM. Roads improved after that. The 4 laning work is in progress in the stretch from Dharmapuri – Salem. Also the existing 2 lane roads are also good. We were held up for 15min due to a jam on the rail-gate. After that the traffic slowly eased out and we entered the ghat section. Here the 4 laning has been done and the drive was an absolute beauty.

We reached Salem at 10:30AM and took a small break under a tree just before starting the hill climb. Thanks to boudi, we relished some home made dal-puri and paneer-sabji alongwith lots of water, as Salem was really hot that time.

We started the hill climb around 11AM. The roads were decent and the stretch was about 30km with lots of hairpin bends. It is bit on the narrow side too. It took us about 45min to climb. The weather was improving with altitude and surroundings picturesque. There were lots of monkeys on the road too.

In the evening went to visit the Lady’s seat about 3 km from hotel to see the sunset. It was great place where we can see the entire Salem town. You can also see the roads winding up to Yercaud from Salem. One strange thing that I noticed from that viewpoint is that once it gets dark, and Salem town illuminates, if you carefully watch the boundary it resembles like an India-map. I tried to confirm the same with the bhajji wala there and he too told the same thing.

Spent a nice 3 hours there, enjoying the valley and eating hot mirchi-bhajis and chips. There was a nice breeze blowing across. We drove back to the hotel at 7:30PM.

At 8PM, we went walking past the lakeside to Hotel Shevaroys for dinner. Before entering the restaurant we checked into the super-market of the shevaroy group and did some shopping. We had a decent dinner with malabar fish curry, rice, basket of rotis etc. and strolled back to hotel by 11PM.

Day 2(2nd April, 2006): We got up at 6AM and decided to do some trekking. We decided to trek up towards hotel grand palace at the topmost point of Yercaud. This is the only hotel on this hill totally owned by grand palace. It was a great atmosphere, nice breeze, and little misty environment. We went into the hotel checked the tariff and visited the other side of the hill which opens up on the valley. Next time I will surely try this hotel, little expensive but nice place to experience valley on all sides.

We return to hotel at 8AM did some photography and time for breakfast. We all were very hungry after the trek. We had delicious masala dosas and idlis alongwith tea for breakfast in the cottage’s restaurant.

Then we started towards lady seat to visit the Rose garden and Carmel Ashram. On the way visited the beautiful nursery near the lake. Both the ladies bought some plants from there. I really liked the nursery and the kind of drip technique they use to water the plants.

Checked into carmel ashram first, saw the church and met with one sister who took us to a room where they sell some stuffs like candles, kali-mirch, tej-patta at throw away prices. We bought some stuffs and did some photo shoot in the kali-mirch-cum-coffee jungle inside ashram campus.

We moved to rose garden just opposite to the ashram and spent some time there. It is a huge garden. It was already past 11 when we decided to move back so that we don’t get late returning to Bangalore before night. On our return to the hotel we checked into Bhavani Singh’s perfume factory where hari singh, his son explained all the funda of various lotions and oils and their remedies. We did buy a couple of stuffs for my dad.

We reached back to hotel by 12:45PM. Packed our stuffs, had a nice bath and an even nice and hot lunch from the hotel’s restaurant. It was a delicious south Indian thali. We checked out hotel at 1:30PM and went into the lake for some photography and started our return journey at 2:30PM.

We had a brief 20min break after Dharmapuri for soft drinks and biscuits. I thought of taking a break at Uthaiyah but the empty roads on golden quadrilateral was so tempting that I just couldn’t slow down and zoomed past. Reached silk board by 7PM and reached home after dropping Sukanta by 7:45PM.

Some pics:


Nice weekend journey from Bangalore. It was a nice place to just do nothing and simply enjoy the atmosphere.

Tripmeter reading 503kms

Signing off
Vijay

Weekend Travelogue: Bangalore - Lepakshi - Bangalore

Pics in and around the temple

Bangalore – Yelahanka – Devanahalli – Chikaballapur – Bagepalli – Lepakshi (125km)

This is probably the first time we went off for a short trip entirely without any prior plan. Till 8AM of a lethargic Sunday morning (11th March) we had no plans for any outings forget about long drive. My wife was discussing about what to have in lunch. We were debating about veg-nonveg. Finally she told me lets walk down to the Sunday fish stall and check out whether they got any prawns. I was discussing all this while reading newspaper.

While I was thinking all this my wife was getting ready to go to the fish stall. Now I told my wife lets dump some fuel in terms of some kms. She told where can we go in a day? Nandi Hills is too near and we have done it twice. Krishnagiri dam already done, I wanted to drive to an unknown road (preferably 2laner) not on NH7 GQ. Ialready read about Rahul Dubey (of indiahighways) riding to Lepakshi on Saturday. Chalo, lets go to Lepakshi. She told OK lets go, I had no food so lets go and perform some puja, Fine lets go but I will have something on the way as I am feeling hungry…

We had a nice bath and off we started at 9:15AM from home. ODO reads 13705km. immediately took the KR puram ring road to Hebbal flyover and onto NH7 also known as Bangalore-Hyderabad road. Immediately after a km there is a nice restaurant (Swati garden) near my office, I stopped and had a masala dosa.By 10:15AM, we started again and zoomed away. Within no time we passed Yelahanka, IAF Station and ITC cigarette factory. It was a nice 6 lane highway till Devanahalli. There was only one diversion where there some flyover construction. The 4/6 laning work was completed even about 8km after Devanahalli till the Nandi Hills turn as part of North-South corridor of NHAI.After that it was 2 lane road throughout. The road was OK and traffic was moderate till Chikaballapur. I was easily doing 100-110kmph. We were enjoying the nice dwindling roads. At Chikaballapur there is a right turn for Mulbagal (86km) on NH4. People going to Tirupati / Chennai from North can take this road bypassing Bangalore.After Chikaballapur, traffic eased out more and speed increased. It was hard to keep the car at 120kmph. The speed was increasing to 130kmph at down slopes. As we approached AP the roads became up and down (steep ascend and descent). It was a nice drive. Soon we reached Bagepalli, the last town/village of Karnataka. After that we entered AP where you can see a huge board “Eenadu Pradesh welcomes you”. I saw the same in Ichchapuram during the Kolkata trip.

At the RTO check post in AP there is a left turn for Lepakshi. You cannot miss it as you can see lots of trucks parked and at the corner there are models of 2 huge swans. We left NH7 from there and entered this state road. This was an excellent narrow road with nice vegetation all around. There were neem trees, tamarind trees, sunflower plantations and those typical thorny bushy trees which we can only see in AP. Lepakshi is about 15km from NH7. This SH takes you to Hindupur via Lepakshi. Initially I thought to take Hindupur – Dodaballapur – Yelahanka route while return but dropped it as I have heard that the road was bad between Gouribadinur and Dodaballapur.

At about 12:15PM, We were welcomed by a huge bull / nandi statue (but with his back side facing us) in Lepakshi. Immediately within 0.5km we reached the Veerabhadra Swamy temple (Veerabhadra is a form of Shiva). Veerabhadra swamy and goddess durga are worshipped at the same place. Total distance traveled was 125km. The temple architecture and paintings were one of the excellent things that I have seen so far. It has really much more than I expected. Its paintings / carvings reflected the Vijaynagar dynasty aka Hampi style. Inside the temple it had lots of carved monolithic pillars probably made of sandstone. Another major attraction was a huge shiva linga well guarded by a king cobra all marvelously carved by sandstone.

We offered puja and spent about an hour inside the temple and also sometime in a small park outside it. After the visit in the temple, we took a photo break at the Nandi statue and proceeded to our return journey by 2PM. I was feeling damn hungry and wanted to stop at some dhaba on NH7.By 2:45PM we stopped in a decent dhaba just 2 km before Chikballapur. We had nice rotis, egg bhurji, dal, channa-masala. The food was amazingly tasty which I was really surprised looking at the dhaba from outside. The bill came out to be just Rs 74. You can also find a Shanti Sagar in Chikaballapur and it looked a nice joint for food (atleast by the amount of cars parked outside).We started after lunch at 3:15PM stopped to buy grapes immediately after Chikaballapur and entered home by 4:40PM.

Total distance: 254km.

Signing off

Vijay