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
