Weekend Travelogue: Ooty-Mysore

Bangalore – Ramanagaram – Channapatna – Maddur – Mandya – Srirangapatnam – Mysore – Nanjangud – Gundlupet – Bandipur – Theppakadu – Masinagudi – Mavanalla – Ooty – Mysore – Bangalore

This was just a sudden planned trip. As my parents were in Bangalore for 10 days, we did have plan for a small trip. My dad last visited Mysore when I was 6month old and he was more inclined to see Brindavan garden and Palace. For me it was like, “No, Not again”. Slowly the trip extended to Ooty and I got a Friday off for me. Since I did not have much time to book hotel, I asked an agent to do it which was the mistake which I later realized. You pay him upfront and you have no other choice but to stay there.As usual I loaded the car with the 20lit water bottle a day before, did a full tank and checked the tyre pressure. Mom and wife did the regular packing and we were ready for this trip.

28th Sept, 2007 (Fri): We get up at 3:30AM but my initial plan to start at 4:30AM failed as everyone took some time to get ready. Finally the car started at 5:20AM.As usual passed OMR, Corporation Circle in quick time and hit the Mysore Road flyover. We were out of the city by dawn and the car was zooming. It was nice to see that with so many loads the car (340kg approx) was hitting 120kmph pretty easily. Weather was excellent as well for a nice drive plus the nice Bengali numbers in the ICE was adding aura to the occasion. I hit a top speed of 130kmph at a down slope near Srirangapatnam. We reached the Mysore Ring Road by 7:10AM and to Kamat Madhuvan on NH212 at Mysore by 7:30AM. My tripmeter read 153km. 153km in 2 hours was fast considering that we passed Bangalore and Mysore city in a very slow pace.This was the first time I went to Kamat Madhuvan and I liked the food as well as the ambience. We had some nice masala dosas with the Kamat special chai. At about 8:15AM, we start the journey again, amidst some heavy traffic reached Nanjangud. I think there were some elections happening there which added more problems for traffic. Anyway after Nanjangud, it was like empty stretch of road. There are occasional speed humps midways made by villagers, so careful in 3 digit speeds. I was aware of it hence was hovering between 80-100kmph. Soon passed Gundlupet, the roads were not so smooth in the initial 7-8km till Hangala village. I am doing this road twice in a month, went to Bandipur last month. Soon the smooth stretch arrived and zoomed past quickly. We stopped for a water break at Pugmark restaurant for 15min and quickly passed Bandipur national Park.Soon we reached Thepakadu, that is the TN border and gate of Madhumalai Wildlife Sanctuary. Straight road goes to Ooty which is the normal bus route. We turned left on a single track bridge. This is the Ooty road via Masinagudi and 30km less than the former. Initial 6km road was single track amidst the dense jungle but the road condition improved before Masinagudi and it was well marked. Within no time we were passing Mavanalla which the foothills of Nilgiris (just before the famous 36hairpin climb). There are lots of resorts there. Probably lots of people come down there.

The Steep Climb: Soon we hit the 36 hairpin climb. This was really an endurance test for my car with full load. It was the steepest I have encountered in my life. Initially my father got really scared seeing me drive in such a steep road (infact this was the first time he saw me driving on a highway). I didn’t tell him about this climb (otherwise he would not have agreed for Ooty). The car was not pulling at all in second gear; I had to engage first quit often. I did some red line push in first gear in the first two hairpins just for a test and felt some smell of coolant. After that it was smooth acceleration in only first and second gears. I could hardly keep it in second. I and my wife were enjoying the drive, not sure about my parents. It was an amazing experience, it was indeed very steep which we later realized while descent. It was like 36 Hairpins and 14km and you are in Ooty. After the climb, I must the car handled it pretty well.Masinagudi road meets Gudalur road about 7km before Ooty and from there the road was bumpy (not potholed though). We finally reached Hotel Charring Cross at 11:30PM. I was not at all happy with the hotel. No proper car park and view and at Rs 825 / room it was quit expensive. Anyway I had no choice as I had done the payment already.

At lunch inside hotel, slept for an hour. Weather in Ooty was chilling. At 4PM, we walked down to Botanical Garden which was just few minutes from hotel. Spend nice time there; clicked lots of pics, mom and wife did some timepass on the roadside shops. We decided not to go anywhere else, had dinner and back to bed.Tripmeter for Day1: 275km29th Sept, 2007 (Sat): Route: Ooty – Masinagudi – Bandipur – MysoreWe get up at dawn after a nice sleep, did some early morning photography, checked out of the hotel by 8AM. I opened the bonnet of the car to see everything is in order. Suddenly I notice that the coolant bottle is almost empty. I got scared initially. Opened the bottled and found that there was hardly any coolant left. Soon opened the radiator cap and found that the coolant was fine there. Immediately called up Lokesh (of Suraksha Car care, Bangalore) and told him about the situation, “He told to pour some clean water in the coolant bottle”. I poured drinking water to the max level in the coolant bottle and then started the car. Probably the first gear redlining uphill could have overheated the engine. Now I know what not to do at that steep climb when I come next time.Anyway, we headed straight to the Ooty Lake and came to know that it will open only at 9:30am. We did some photography outside and moved to the Punjabi hotel near bus stand where we had breakfast in my last visit. Had puri-chole and tea for breakfast and then started the drive downhill at 9:30AM.

Even before we hit the first hairpin bend, we saw multiple warnings / sign stating, “Keep second gear downhill”. Even in second gear my car was hitting 50kmph. I had to use the foot brake alongwith the engine brake to control the car in the descent.At Hairpin 15 we decided to stop the car and do some nice photography. We could also see the Kalhatty falls from there. Further downhill there is a road which goes towards Kalhatty falls. The road is good and also the very scenic compared to the Gudalur route.

Remaining journey to Mysore was as usual. We only stopped for Coconut water at Bandipur and reached Kamat Madhuvan for lunch at 1 PM. We had an excellent North Karnataka Thali meals (similar to Lokaruchi@JanpadaLoka) and spent a nice one hour there before moving towards Mysore and checking in Hotel Airlines, Mysore. It also rained very heavily while entering Mysore.After a nice rest and a bit of the cricket match @ Chinnaswamy we headed towards KRS which was about 20km from hotel. We reached there by 7pm. My father was very excited to be visitng KRS (his last visit was in 1979). According to him, many things has changed here and it looked more beautiful and structured. After the light-sound show and some pics we headed back towards Mysore.We stopped by at Hotel Heritage about 5km from KRS near the Srirangapatnam-Hunsur road. We had some amazing tandoori roti, chicken curry alongwith dal, egg-burji and spend a nice hour there. The hotel is huge and has a great ambience. We start from there at 10PM and reached our hotel in Mysore at 10:30PM and retired to bed.30th Sept, 2007 (Sun): Although the Mysore hotel was better than that of Ooty’s but the restaurant in the Mysore hotel was amazing. We had some amazing dosas and chai at a throw away price. Headed towards Mysore Palace, saw that it will open at 10:30AM, it was only dad who was interested to go there. Somehow I convinced him that we will get late here and also I have some pending office work to do today only before going to office. He agreed to skip this and we headed towards Zoo. None of us had seen the Mysore zoo yet.Amazing Zoo: It was indeed beyond my expectation after entering the zoo compound. It was the best zoo that I have seen so far (previous zoo were Alipore, Kolkata, Zoological garden, Hyderabad and Banerghatta near Bangalore). It was very well maintained and with nice collection of rare birds, animals, chimpanzees, deer, tigers, elephants. It was a fabulous experience. I can see my dad liking it now after missing out the Palace visit. It was only 12:30PM that we could come out of the zoo. I will surely visit Mysore zoo again with a whole day to spend. This time we had some time crunch.

We start the return journey at 12:45PM. We soon hit SH17, stopped by at a IOC pump. I was very much interested about the mileage after the powerful hill drive. Car drank 27lit for 471km. Kool !! that’s nice. Remaining journey was high speed one with speed hovering between 100-130kmph. By 1:45PM, we reached Indradhanush for lunch. We had paneer butter masala, tandoori roti, rice and dal except my dad who was in thali mode. He had South Indian thali.We start from Indradhanush at 2:30pm but this time it was heavy traffic throughout. Still we could manage the next 75km in 2 hours and reached home by 4:25pm. It was a nice and satisfying trip, moreover this was my first trip with my parents and they were very happy too.

Total distance Home to Home:

611kmFuel Mileage: 17.5 – 18kmpl (I have to do another refill to calculate the exact mileage)

Signing off

Vijay

Weekend Travelogue: A night in Bandipur

Bangalore – Ramanagaram – Channapatna – Maddur – Mandya – Srirangapatnam - Mysore – Nanjangud – Gundlupet – Hangala – Bandipur (halt) – Madhumalai – H. Gopalaswamy betta – Bangalore

This was a just a sudden decision to go some nearby place just for a drive. Mostly we have covered the nearby places.we decided to go to Bandipur, Also I thought this is the right weather to go to a jungle. Called up MC Resorts and lucky got a cottage there. We planned to leave on 5AM next day so I was forced to go to bed at midnight.

25th Aug, 2007 (Sat): We get up at 4AM and find that it is raining outside and no power in the house. Well in all this frustration, it was already 4:30AM and bingo, the power came back. I jumped out of bed.

We start at about 5:10AM, reached OMR Shell pump at 5:25AM, did a tankfull, set the trip meter to zero and proceeded towards Mysore Road. Weather was excellent but when we reached Mysore Road Flyover after Corporation Circle, it started to rain heavily and I was enjoying the drive. Soon I was doing 90-100kmph speeds and never felt any change in grip, Thanks to my Michelins, cornering and aquaplaning has increased a lot compared to my stock tyres.Soon we passed the ORR and on the empty stretch after Kengeri, I started to hit 110-120kmph. My initial decision was to halt for Breakfast at Kamat Madhavan on NH212 at Mysore but soon we were feeling hunger near Gabbar Hills. Finally we decided lets stop in Kamat Lokaruchi itself. I slowed down the car and tried my level best to reach Kamat by 7AM but we reached there by 6:45AM.After gulping hot chai, hot idli-vadas for breakfast. We started the journey again at 7:45AM. As the road was empty, car started to touch 120kmph again.

It was really hard to keep the speed below 100kmph, no matter how much I tried to slow things down, car simply didn’t want to slow. It was 9AM and we were passing Srirangapatnam and soon on the ring road signal at Mysore.I decided to go through Mysore and have a glimpse of the palace as well. Within 15 min we were on NH212 to Nanjangud, had a glimpse of the Palace. Road and weather was excellent so far. On the Mysore to Nanjangud stretch there was a increase in traffic flow. In addition there was occasional bad patches.Still we easily passed Nanjangud by 9:30AM. Now we were into a beautiful stretch of road and the car was touching 90kmph again. Now I slowed down and tried to enjoy the drive. Soon we reached a nice sunflower field and stopped there, had some chips and did some photography. Finally by 10:15AM we reached Gundlupet and onto the Ooty road. The normal road takes a right turn towards Wayanad.

Bad Stretch: The next 10km from here to Hangala village was pretty bad and it took us 15min to cross it. After Hangala the road is excellent and newly laid and with huge trees on either side.Finally we reached MC Resort at 10:35AM. It was the last resort before entering the Bandipur National park. After all those checkin formalities we had a nice lunch in the cottage restaurant of roti, chicken curry, dal, omlette starting with Lemon Soda. We ate so much that we slept till 3PM. Finally woke up and decided to take a drive towards Masinagudi.We start at 4PM, entered Bandipur national Park, saw some deer, peacocks and some nice scenic view till we reached TN border. There is a bridge which is the state boundary. Other side the jungle is Madhumalai. On reaching Madhumalai, straight road goes to Gudalur, we took left onto the single track bridge which takes to Masinagudi.

Spotted a Leopard: We drove down another 3-4km of the single track and inside the dense forest, finally decided to head back, somehow managed to reverse the car and stood for some photoshoot. Soon I could spot something at about 100m inside. It is a leopard, at the same time an innova stopped and we tried to take pics of the big cat. Me and another guy somehow climbed the roadside cliff and tried to take a nice shot. We were indeed lucky that we could spot the cat.

After some nice photo shoots inside the jungle both in TN and KN side we drove out to Pugmark restaurant of Jungle Lodges for chai and snacks. Spent a nice one hour there and drive back to our resort by 7PM. The resort packed with cars and people, some group was also starting bonfire and it was indeed an excellent atmosphere. Soon a herd of deer’s came grazing into the resort and it was a site to watch. The resort owner was also telling that leopard had killed one of their four cows 4 months back and he ate it for 8 days. He also showed us the pic of the leopard eating the cow which he displayed in reception.After a nice evening, we had dinner with roti, egg-burgi, sabji and retired to bed by 10:30PM.26th Aug, 2007 (Sun): After a nice sleep, we went for a stroll around the resort and did some photography. Finally packed up our stuffs, had a nice bath, had our breakfast and checked out the resort by 8:30AM. This time we were heading towards the highest peak of Bandipur called as Himavad Gopalaswamy Hills (Betta as they call in Kannada).

At Hangala village, there is a left turn (right turn if you are coming from Gundlupet) where you enter an arch. Another 10km of scenic drive plus some nice gradient where I had to put in 1st and 2nd gears, we reached the top, where the temple is situated. Maan, it was breathtaking view from the top. I never imagined that this will be so beautiful. We visited the temple and took lots of pics and then started our last leg of the journey.

Slowly and stopping at various viewpoints during the descent we finally started the return journey by 10:45AM. This time I was doing nice speeds and within no time I was in Mysore and this time I decided to take the ring road. Although the road was deserted but I had to do 22km of ring road to reach the SH17 signal. I think we should always drive through Mysore unless you are in a peak traffic hour in Mysore. In the morning we took just 10-15min to reach NH212 from ring road signal.Now we were in Mysore road and my car was touching 120kmph again. I decided to try out Indradhanush for lunch. We reached there by 1PM. Indradhanush and CCD are in the same compound just after Maddur. I really liked the food there. We had some really good paneer masala and tandoori roti alongwith dal for lunch. I would suggest people to try out this place for non thali stuffs (and North India stuffs) and go to Lokaruchi for North Karnataka thalis.We started from there at 2PM and reached home by 4PM including one hour in Bangalore itself. Also filled the tank at Mysore Road Shell. I was shocked to see the car returned the best trip mileage so far.

It returned 17kmpl.Probably I used AC only from Indra dhanush to Bangalore (last 75km) and didn’t push the car much like I do in my other trips.

Total distance from home to home: 526km.

Signing Off

Vijay

Goa Trip (Fun, Fenny, Frolic)

This was the trip which was long due but just couldn’t materialize due to many constraints. Swarup (friend & neighbour, my ex-ITC colleague) also joined in this venture. Nikhil and Eslyn was also due to join us but was forced to back out due to illness and leave issues respectively. First Swarup booked the ITC Holiday Home in Dona Paula (luckily we got vacancy) and it was upto me to decide and plan the rest. I started my research on the route and based on discussions with Mr. Kumar and others in indiahighways group, felt that the Shimoga & Sirsi routes are the best so far out of the four available routes (other two Hubli-Ankola & NH4A were rejected). I didn’t want to take the Shimoga route as I have already done it before and hence zeroed it on the Haveri – Mirjan route. A day before bought all the snacks, a tankful at OMR, tyre pressure check etc.

Day 1 (22nd Feb, 2007)
Route: Bangalore – Tumkur – Sira – Chitradurga – Davangere – Ranibennur – Haveri – Sirsi – Mirjan – Ankola – Karwar – Canacona – Palolem Beach - Madgaon – Panaji

Alarm rings at 1:30AM. We get up and after a nice bath start to load the car. Every inch of the Alto boot was jammed. The things include 2 big bags, one 20lit water can, potty-tub for the kid, one big pack of snacks, loaded the extra pair shoes, chappals etc under the driver & co-driver seats. The car didn’t let me down and happily took in all the stuffs.

We start from CV Raman Nagar at 2:30AM took the Old Madras Road near BigBazaar and headed towards NH4 at Metro via, Ulsoor lake, Mekhri Circle, IISc. We were on NH4 by 3AM. Slowly the ladies and the kid in the rear were felt asleep by the time we passed Neelamangala. After Neelamangala, the road was almost deserted and the speedo started to hit 100-110kmph. I didn’t go beyond it as it was night and the car was fully loaded and heavy braking might disturb sleep of others.

We lost some time due to the 2 toll plazas before Tumkur. We were in Tumkur at 3:45AM. As Tumkur BP was not complete, I missed the turn and entered NH206 which I realized immediately and luckily found a policeman who told to me to take a right turn which will take me to the BP again. In this process we lost 15min, I wonder why no work is on for Tumkur BP when the foundations and the columns are already been made.

Anyway by 4:15AM, we were back to the completed GQ section and sped towards Sira. Drive till Sira was a breeze, I never kept the speedo below 100kmph. After Sira till Chitradurga although the GQ is not complete the lane markings are done and you can speed up except for very small section. I could still keep 80 – 100kmph. I again started to wonder why NHAI not completing Sira – Chitradurga stretch by putting up the signages and illumination marks and completing the side roads.

We entered Chitradurga BP at 5:30AM. Nice 200km in 2.5 hours. Although I lost some time at Tumkur still I could make up with the good roads.

Incomplete construction of GQ: The problems started once we entered Chitradurga BP. Looks like the construction have been stopped and we couldn’t speedup as well. There were frequent diversions. Now I was racing against time. My target to stop at 7:30AM for breakfast was at threat now. Although Ranibennur is about 100km from there but the roads were really killing the time.

Anyway once out of Chitradurga BP, Sun started to rise and the roads were double laned for sometime although it had diversions but at longer intervals. Still I could keep at 70-80kmph but I had to keep strict vigil of sudden diversions and bad stretches etc. Soon we reached Davangere. Davangere BP was also in the same state as Chitradurga BP. I got really pissed off, Why to keep it incomplete; the normal 2 laned highway would have been better choice? Somehow I managed to reach Reliance A1 Plaza at Ranibennur at 7:32AM (2 min. late as planned). Tripmeter read exactly 300km from home.

We had a nice breakfast of dosa, chai, tankup the car. Car drank 16lit for 307km. Had the GQ been complete I would have lost an hour and probably a lit of petrol as well. We start from A1 Plaza at 8:30AM and reached Haveri by 9:15AM.

Onto SH from NH4: From the first signal inside Haveri, we took left turn for Sirsi, the straight road goes to Hubli. Once out of town, road was typical village road with cotton, sugarcane plantations on either side. Most of the stretch till Sirsi was smooth and Some stretches were uneven but not potholed. One nice thing about this stretch is that it had hardly any traffic. All the heavy vehicular traffic takes the NH63 (Hubli – Ankola). We could easily average 40-45km in an hour in these roads.

Haveri - Sirsi stretch


At Sirsi, we asked for Kumta road and took it. It is better to ask for directions at Sirsi as there are similar looking roads which goes to Siddapur, Yellapur, Shimoga, Kumta from Sirsi. Once we were sure that we were on the right one we sped up. Once past Sirsi, it was an awesome drive. The road was damn smooth and was in excellent condition. Soon we were into Devimane ghat and into beautiful dwindling roads. We were speeding at 50-60kmph in the bends.

Devimane Ghat road


About 10km before Kumta soon after the devimane ghat section there is a single lane road in the right (right arrow for karwar). We took that road and entered NH17 at Mirjan. This stretch was awesome. Beautiful broad road, full vegetation & greenary on either side. I tried to speedup as we wanted to have lunch in Palolem. By 12:15PM we were passing Karwar port. It was a nice drive where the sea was playing hide-seek with the highway. We passed the Rabindranath Tagore beach and onto kali bridge where we can see the river meeting the sea. Awesome sight but we didn’t stop as we planned to stop in the return journey for some photography.

Although Karwar in the noon was hot but with the AC inside chilling, all the members were found napping at Goa border. Once into Goa, road gets a bit narrow but the roads were good. Within half an hour we were in Canacona and in another 10min onto Palolem beach. It was about 1:15PM. We had a nice lunch of bread, eggs, chips which we carried along and went into the beach.

Palolem beach is excellent. Wish I could spend some more time. We spent about an hour on the waters and did some photography.

Palolem and the car boot


We started from Palolem beach at 4PM and took a nice goan road which passes through Cape Rama and joins NH17 just before Madgaon. I wanted to take the diversion to Cape Rama but couldn’t do as the ladies were tired and wanted to reach the guest house as soon as possible.

We encountered some heavy traffic in Madgaon but that was nothing when you are coming from Bangalore. By 6PM we were in the ITC guest house in Dona Poula. Trip meter read 649km. Spent the evening in the beautiful guest house with 5star facilities with the visibility of sea plus a homely delicious dinner with nice fish and egg curry, sabji with rice, roti. Meanwhile Swarup and myself gulped a Bacardi breezer and a Smirnoff as well.

Day 2 (23rd Feb 2007)
Route: Dona Paula – Panjim – Mapusa – Chapora Fort – Vagator beach – Arambol beach – Terekhol Fort – Dona Paula

The rooms were climate controlled and opens up to a big balcony. We had a nice sleep, got up leisurely, had a heavy breakfast prepared by courteous maid sushmita. We had puri, aloo sabji and omlette not to mention the nice tea.

We start at 11AM towards Panjim and then crossed the Mandovi bridge and onto Mapusa. Petrol was damn cheap in Goa so tanked up again at BP outlet. Speed costed Rs 45.9 / lit.

From Mapusa we took a road towards Vagator and diverted towards Chapora fort (well, that’s the DIL CHAHTA HAI fort). After parking the car at the bottom, it was a steep climb up and worth visiting. You can see the Vagator, Mandrim beach from top and it’s an awesome sight.

Some pics from DCH fort


From Chapora Fort, we went to vagator beach and spent some time there. By 1PM, we started for Arambol after a round of sugarcane juice and covered a distance of 30km in the next 30min. This road passes through Morjim, Mandrim beaches till Terracol Kery via Arambol.

Vacator beach


We halted at Arambol, had a nice bath, and played around in the water for an hour. Then we had a nice lunch at one of Shacks. The lunch included fish fry, prawn fry, French fries, chicken curry, garlic naan and egg fried rice. Aah, awesome tasty plus we were damn hungry too. A nice beachside relaxing lunch with fresh breeze was very soothing. After lunch, the ladies did some shopping while walking back to the car park.

Arambol beach


We started from Arambol at about 5:15PM towards Terakhol. The northern tip of Goa (or should I say it is in Maharashtra as per my map). In about half an hour in nice dwindling roads we reached Terakhol where the road ends on a river bank. A ferry was waiting and the ferry man called “Bring the car in”. Without thinking twice, I stopped the car inside the ferry. It was an unbelievable experience of a ferry ride with the car in it. When the conductor came for ticket he charged only Rs 10 for the car. WOW!! Isn’t it cheap? This was an unforgettable experience. Otherside of the bank is Terakhol fort. After our decent from the ferry, we drove for about a few kms to reach Terakhol fort which has converted into a heritage Hotel. Nice hotel and I took their tariff plans, took some pics infront of St. Anthony’s Church inside the fort. From other corner of the fort you can see Kerim beach and it was an awesome site as well. After that we returned to the ferry and back to the other bank. This time the ferry carried 4 vehicles – my Alto, a WagonR, a Tata407, a Scorpio plus 3-4 two wheelers. That was an experience too. We saw a nice sunset from the ferry and started our return journey back to our guest house which was now about 60 odd km from there, which we reached by 8:15PM.

Pics of Ferry Ride with car & Terekhol Fort & Sunset from ferry


With this I complete a full South to North Goa Coastal drive and some amazing roads and picturesque surroundings. Back home had a simple dinner of Chicken Manchurian, roti and French fries and hit the bed for another entertaining day ahead.

Day 3 (24th Feb 2007)
Route: Dona Paula – Panjim – Old Goa – Calangute – Baga beach – Dabolin – bagamolo beach – Dona Paula

After a heavy breakfast of Aloo Parathas with pickles and curd, we start our day at 10:30AM. We took the old goa (vela goa) road. It is nothing but the NH4A to Ponda. This is a nice road running parallel to the mandovi river. In another 10km on this road, we hit the old goa square. On one side there was Se cathedral and on the other side St. Francis Xavier Church alongwith his 500 year old body.

Basilica of Bom Jesus: We entered the church of St. Francis Xavier of Assisi; St. Francis Xavier was here in mid 16th century. It is a world renowned church which contains the body of St. Francis Xavier. I took some pics of the body. It was indeed a very nice feeling going round there. We also visited a museum inside the church as well.

An Example of Communal harmony: One thing that attracted me in the church was when we were lighting the candles, I moved around to see a Sardarji family, a burkha clad muslim newly wed couple, hindus including us and ofcourse the Christians lighting candles. That was an awesome sight!! Wish the politicians could see it too!!

St. Francis Xavier's body


Se Cathedral: It is situated just opposite to the church and walked down there. The Se Cathedral is dedicated to St.Catherine of Alexandria. Built between 1562 - 1619, it is the largest church in Old Goa and the largest in Asia with a barrel vaulted ceiling. There are four chapels on each side of the church. On the right St. Antony and St. Bernard, the Holy Spirit and the Cross of Miracles. On the left the Blessed Sacrament and Nossa Senora de Boa Vida.

Cathedral


After the Holy visits to the churches of Old goa, we started our journey for Calangute, Although I didn’t want to go there because of the mad rush still for the sake of ladies we decide to got here. By 1:30PM we were in baga beach, it was quiet crowded. I and Swarup decided for bath. The ladies preferred to sit under the umbrella on the wooden beach chairs. Although baga was crowded but the food there was simply awesome. We had a nice lunch of mocktails, cocktails, chicken tandoori, noodles, naan, egg curry etc etc.

After a nice lunch, we headed towards Bagamolo beach. It is situated in the southern goa near the Dabolin airport (Vasco). After crossing the bridge towards Panjim we continued on NH17 towards Madgaon. Somewhere in between there is a place called Cortalim there is a right turn for Vasco. This is NH17A, excellent road passing through excellent scenic surroundings. Within no time we were on 4 road junction 2km before vasco, from there we took left for the airport. From airport we took left on a nice 4 laned road which goes to Madgaon (I think it was NH17B). Unfortunately both this roads were not marked in my Eicher Road Atlas. After going a few distances along this road, basically we were going along the boundary wall of the airport. Once the boundary ends on NH17B we took a right turn and kept on going along the boundary wall. This roads straight leads to Bagamolo beach. This is one of the best beaches I have seen in Goa. Almost virgin, it has a big beach resort. Mostly foreigners stay there and some nice shacks. You can see the lighthouse of the Goa’s natural port. Sunset was an impeccable experience. We spent nice time there.

We started from bagamolo at 7:30PM and reached guest house by 8:45PM. Since this was the last day and we were yet to taste cashew fenny, Fenny tasted different like a juice. Then we had a light dinner of rice, dal, dry egg and chicken sausage curry and hit bed by 10:30PM.

Return Journey Day 4 (25th Feb 2007):
Route: Panjim – Karwar – Mirjan - Sirsi - Haveri– Tumkur – Bangalore

Finally the day has come, we have to leave Goa. We started the return journey by 11:30 PM. I wanted to start earlier to have a visit to Colva beach but people seemed to be very lethargic to move of Goa, they wanted to stay more and slowly we got delayed. Then we dropped the idea of Colva as it was already noon. We took a final tankful at BP pump at Madgaon and proceeded towards Karwar. We did stop for 15min at Karwar before entering Kali Bridge and did some photography of the Kali River meeting the sea.

Pics at Kali bridge, karwar


We stopped for lunch at Kamat Upachar at Ankola at 2:45PM. Had nice south Indian thalis and in this process lost an hour as people were very lethargic and were taking their own time.

Finally we started from Kamat at 3:40PM and sped away. The next stop was A1 Plaza at Ranibennur at 7:30PM for some tea. It was already dark and bad and heavy truck traffic on NH4. At 8:15PM we started again and amidst all this finally reached Chitradurga A1 Plaza for dinner at 10:30PM. My target to reach home by 11PM failed long back as the ladies and the kid were enjoying every breaks. We had a nice dinner of naan, fried rice, chicken curry, paneer masala and started the final leg at midnight.

It was pumping time for me as people were falling asleep and I used this opportunity to pull faster. Also the roads started to improve. From Chitradurga to Tumkur the speedo never came under 90kmph. It was hovering between 90-120kmph. At Tumkur we got stuck in the BP and took us about 40min to be back on the completed stretch of GQ. Finally we parked the car at 2:55PM. I did 200km in less than 3 hours. It could have been done faster had the Tumkur BP and Sira – Chitradurga stretch is fully completed.

Salient Features:
1) Car consumed 89 lit of petrol for 1545 kms (Home to Home).
2) Reliance A1 Plaza at Ranibennur is operational 24 / 7 but the one at Chitradurga serves meal until 11:30PM.
3) Haveri – Mirjan is an excellent route to go to Goa as you can avoid the heavy traffic of Ankola road and also this is a shorter route.
4) Special thanks to indiahighways group and logbooks of Mr. Kumar which helped me plan it out well.
5) Who said 800cc car doesn’t pull with AC in ghats…we traveled in Goa with almost full AC all the daytime and the car still pulled nicely in ghats from vagator to Terekhol and Karwar to Madgaon with a full load and chilled us well…

Signing Off
Vijay

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