Weekend Travelogue: Bangalore - Pondicherry

Bangalore – Pondicherry (via NH7/NH66) (321 km)Pondicherry – Bangalore (via ECR/SH58/NH46/NH7) (426 km)

This trip was more of a preparation/training trip.We called up hotels/resorts and all were booked or overpriced beyond our budget. My favourite Banyan Beach Resort is closed; St. James only had a suite available. Kailash, Ashok, Ajantha Sea View and Dune were beyond my budget. Finally got a nice guest house near Auroville called GAIA’s Garden with a nice AC cottage with kitchen but only drawback is no food available and it is not near the beach. Anyway the purpose of this trip was more of a long drive with the baby rather than roaming around there. I had already been to Pondi twice before (once by bike and another by PTC Volvo). This was the first occasion that my car will take the road to Pondi.

Day 1 (19th Jul, 2008): Bangalore – Sarjapur - Hosur – Krishnagiri – Uttangarai – Chengam – Thiruvannamalai – Gingee - Tindivanam – Pondi

Sarjapur/SH35 route: At 5:30AM sharp, I set the tripmeter to 0 and started the journey. It was drizzling outside. We crossed DRDO phase II and hit the ORR and slowly reached Bellandur signal and took left and came out at TOTAL MALL on Sarjapur Road. I didn’t push the car and was driving in 60-70kmph range.

This was the first time I will be taking this route as Hosur Road till Attibele is under construction mode. Taking Hosur Road can be a pain anytime now. This route turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Another 15km on Sarjapur Road we reach Sarjapur circle, it is marked right for Attibele and straight for ChikkaTirupati(13km) and Devanahalli(67km). My Tripmeter reads 26km. We took the right turn onto SH35. It was a beautiful 2 laned road and another 9km we reached Attibele junction took left and in 2 km went passed Karnataka border check post. With such leisurely drive we were in Hosur in 1 hour and which I thought was fast and we could not have done that on Hosur Road via Electronic City. It is actually a great route for people coming form North and East Bangalore and even for HSR layout and Koramangala residents as well.Once passed Hosur flyover (which was in repairing mode and not in good shape now) the GQ becomes a dream and my speed starting to hover at 120kmph. I overtook a Zen Estilo and he got personal and started racing with me. A car like Estilo with stock tyres could not take those curves on the Hosur – Krishnagiri stretch which I was taking at 120-130kmph and finally gave up the chase. I must admit that the Michelins in my car do perform very well in rain and corners.It was by 7:15AM and trip reading 72km, when we reached A2B (BPCL Ghar outlet). I did not tankup the car from Bangalore which I always used to do in the previous trips. With the steep fuel price rise I lost my obsession for Shell/Reliance and hence planned to tank up with cheaper fuel in TN and BPCL COCO Ghar outlet was the best point for a refill. We tanked up the car at the Ghar outlet.

This was the first time I will be taking this route as Hosur Road till Attibele is under construction mode. Taking Hosur Road can be a pain anytime now. This route turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Another 15km on Sarjapur Road we reach Sarjapur circle, it is marked right for Attibele and straight for ChikkaTirupati(13km) and Devanahalli(67km). My Tripmeter reads 26km. We took the right turn onto SH35. It was a beautiful 2 laned road and another 9km we reached Attibele junction took left and in 2 km went passed Karnataka border check post. With such leisurely drive we were in Hosur in 1 hour and which I thought was fast and we could not have done that on Hosur Road via Electronic City. It is actually a great route for people coming form North and East Bangalore and even for HSR layout and Koramangala residents as well.Once passed Hosur flyover (which was in repairing mode and not in good shape now) the GQ becomes a dream and my speed starting to hover at 120kmph. I overtook a Zen Estilo and he got personal and started racing with me. A car like Estilo with stock tyres could not take those curves on the Hosur – Krishnagiri stretch which I was taking at 120-130kmph and finally gave up the chase. I must admit that the Michelins in my car do perform very well in rain and corners.It was by 7:15AM and trip reading 72km, when we reached A2B (BPCL Ghar outlet). I did not tankup the car from Bangalore which I always used to do in the previous trips. With the steep fuel price rise I lost my obsession for Shell/Reliance and hence planned to tank up with cheaper fuel in TN and BPCL COCO Ghar outlet was the best point for a refill. We tanked up the car at the Ghar outlet.

In about an hours time we finally got stuck at the Samalpatti Railway crossing. The railgate opened after 15min and immediately after Uttangarai we found that the road was heavily potholed but the good sign was the patchwork was on. It was only about a km of potholed road we reached better roads and our speeds too increased. I could easily do 90-100kmph from Chengam onwards till Thiruvannamalai.

Passing Thiruvannamalai: We reached Thiruvannamalai at 10:30AM. I kept left on the highway till we reach the huge shiva temple in the right side. Once we cross that temple the road is blocked (it is made oneway), we immediately turn left. Actually there is a U turn from road to the highway to Pondi but I took the first right and hit the main road immediately. After about a km we stopped under a tree for about 5min. It was food time for the kid so my wife moved in the rear seat with the baby. Once the navigator seat is stretched forward fully there is enough space in the back to prepare food and feed the kid. By the time it was very hot and it was better to be in AC environs of the car. So I decided to start the journey.

We passed Gingee fort in no time and reached Tindivanam by noon. Took the Tindivanam flyover where NH45 from Chennai meets NH66 at the top of the polo-mint shaped flyover.

We passed Gingee fort in no time and reached Tindivanam by noon. Took the Tindivanam flyover where NH45 from Chennai meets NH66 at the top of the polo-mint shaped flyover.

At 5PM, we decided to check out the beach. We drove down to ECR and went to a nice beach (behind Soorya beach Resort). Spend the evening there until it was sunset. After sunset we drove down to beach road and had nice walk along the road and we drove to the other end as well. The atmosphere was really very good and it was fun enjoying the evening breeze on beach road.During this time we decided to cut short our trip and return the next day. Reason was it was very hot and as planned we wanted to cover Chunnambar Island the next day. With a 6 month old kid in this heat I thought it would not be advisable to do it now. May be sometime later.We had a nice dinner at Soorya Beach Resort before returning back to Cottage by 10PM.Day 2 (20th Jul, 2008): Pondi – Mahabalipuram – Chengalpattu – Kanchipuram – Ranipet - Vellore – Krishnagiri - BangaloreAfter a very nice sleep we woke up at 6AM, packed our belongings, prepared the kid and after a nice shower started from cottage by 8AM. Immediately we took the ECR (East Coast Road) towards Mahabalipuram. Soon realized to tank up the car in Pondi so entered into an IndianOil outlet next to Pondi Engineering Collage and did a tank full. Fuel cost Rs48 at Pondi, a good Rs10 more than Bangalore.

ECR experience: This was the first time I was driving on SH49 (popularly known as ECR) and must say it was truly a great experience. It reminded me of another such 2 laned road, the SH61 (Putalapattu – Tirupati - Naidupet). I was consistently doing 110kmph but I must also add that some of the curves are quite steep and negotiating those in lesser speeds is advisable. They also charged me Rs35 till Mahabalipuram.

We broke off for breakfast at Midway restaurant at about 9:20AM. Although the ambience was ok and their chutneys and ghee roast was fine but the ottapam and chai was poor. Overall the restaurant was much overpriced. We paid Rs110. (chais(Rs30) + Ottapam(Rs35) + GheeDosa (Rs40) + Tax). I expected better taste at that price. It was nowhere compared to the beautiful Kamat chains in Karnataka.

I was speeding very fast and enjoying my maiden ECR drive. It was very hot to say and we were sweating even in the restaurant.

It was 10:30AM when we turned left from ECR near Kalpakkam Township and entered SH58 towards Chengalpattu. This was a nice highway too but with small villages enroute the drive was getting slower. Somehow I managed to reach Chengalpattu by 11PM and took the Kanchipuram route. NH45 passes by Chengalpattu as a flyover at one corner of the town. Chengalpattu to Kanchipuram was a very fast drive. With lesser traffic and better roads I was consistently doing 100-110kmph and reached Kanchipuram outskirts by 11:30PM. I did about 40km in about 30min.

Stuck at Kanchipuram: I knew there was a left turn to hit Vellore road onto GQ from Kanchi but don’t know somehow I missed it and upon asking locals they directed me a wrong road which leads to the GQ on the Chennai side. I lost a good 45min in this jugglery.

I went past Kanchipuram Railway station and in another 4-5km hit the GQ. Not only I lost some kms but in all this process I lost a good one hour. It was 12:30Pm when I hit GQ at Kanchipuram BP. Car started to hit 120-130kmph and also I got an S-Class doing similar speeds and kept on following it. This helped me make up the lost time and did about 95km in the next hour. Vellore and Ranipet passed in no time.Tamil Nadu was baking outside as we were passing Vellore. Lesser traffic also helped maintain the speeds. In no time we passed 2 toll booths and were nearing Vaniyambadi. At Vaniyambadi I had to stop to fill some water from the watertank in the boot. I have been driving nonstop from ECR till now.Qualis at 140: I was doing 120kmph after the Vellore BP. Suddenly I see this Qualis overtaking me. I was amazed the way it took off. I am sure it was doing atleast 140kmph speeds with 5-6 people inside. It was surprising to me as I never expected Qualis to attain those speeds.I had to stop after Krishnagiri Toll booth for baby change over session. I calculated the distance was amazed that I covered 210km in 2hr 15min which also included 3 minor stopovers at Toll booths and a 5min break to fill water. Thanks for the amazing GQ we could cover such distance so fast.After that the drive was regular and we reached Attibele by 3:20PM. Took a right turn and reached home in another one hour.

Total tripmeter read 426 km.

About the Car: We covered 765km in 2 days and the car returned 15+ kmpl approx. (need to check the exact mileage after a tankfull here) with about 90%AC usage.

Signing Off

Vijay

Bangalore - Calicut - Bangalore

It’s been 2 months and the car has done some 3.5 k Kms on odo and so far so good.

Recently (last weekend) took her for a drive from Bangalore to Calicut some 370 Kms away and then things fall into perspective. I hate to drive it in Bangalore, its choppy ride along with the mental agony of having fellow bangloreans who can’t keep there brake levers, rear view mirrors and all sorts of gadgets they carry in hand away from the car.

Started of 8 am from Indira nagar, to avoid the traffic on the Mysore rd, took around 1 hour for both the cars (esteem on tag) to reach the out skirts of the city. And then the roads opened up a lil, and yeah baby yeah I started pressing the accelerator pedal harder n harder.

First break Kamat hotel on the Mysore highway (80kms from Bangalore), good clean food and some caffeine to beat the previous nights outing with whisky. Burrrp and I lead and just before Mysore huge traffic block, took the service road (katcha) and yeah this car is for all this alright! Took a deviation down hill, slip slide into a village road, pass through some narrow village galis and fields (yes barren field) jump the small culvert and back on tarmac. Lucky the traffic pile up hasn’t reached that long on the other end.

If u can find the sign board


hung over u will see horses


Forgot to mention, the ground clearance is not that great and scraped the foot board on rt side while getting down from the service road to katcha village road, lucky no damage apart from soft soil stick on the foot board.

Well esteem and that too with professional driver couldn’t take the risk and was left behind by 20 mts, new bypass for Mysore and well time to warm up the car with the twisties; yup it rolls, but yup can manage also.

Caution rear seat passengers better belt up or be prepared to have the feel of soft carpeting on there butts during hard braking, I had quick learners as passengers (bro’s driver n cousin) at the rear and they immediately belted up after the first braking fiasco, trying to overtake a qualis and tucking behind a truck and the good ol state transport inter city bus not in a mood to brake. The rear seating with space between the rows the reason, along with the excellent grip offered by the Bridgestone’s

Left Mysore and waited for the esteem to catch up, some leg stretching with ciggie and couple of snaps of the car + 30 mts of wait and esteem lands.

Small break at a shiv temple to keep mommy happy

temple..


banyan tree


elephant..


un starts


follow follow n follow..


Nothing great happened from Mysore to Bandipur, especially tagging behind the pilot jeep (speed limit 90kph) n the car



Entered Bandipur after some 5 Kms, suddenly the pilot jeep screeches and the guys jump out flagging us out, ELEPHANTS ohhhh yeah and big heard, STOP/UNBELT/GRAB CAMERA and move close to them, remember to keep the flash switched off. Click click click…









Off again and finally enter mallu land  and guess what greets u, he he he he twistieeeesss…





yup a beautiful narrow and steep down hill twisties, parked the car to enjoy athe beauty.

Finished the hills and handed the keys to the driver (entering populated north kerala and no big fun to drive this ship, along with some bad sinus probs, ). Reached Calicut by around 545 pm, catch up with the bigger family over some vodka and snoooooooooreeeeeee.

Sunday morn family function and 3 pm starts off from Calicut, grab the keys from the driver, coz no head ache of pilot jeep n one is gonna lead the band 



Yup same “Kalpatta Churam” (GHATS for NON MALLUS) awaits you, and downhill ya uphill take in shtyle he he and hello the tailing car minus the owner means you need’nt slow down and wait after every corner. Ok some gyan time to the esteem driver, he complains the car doesn’t pull, hmmm solution: the MPFI motor loves to be revved and unless one does it, it’s a very sluggish machine. End result and he improves his style from 3 k to 4.5 k, nothing great to talk about but still any improvement was fine.



As for the car, keep her in 2 and 3 gear, keep rpm above 4k and trust me anything in front can be overtaken. Right from a CD 100 to BIG TRUCKS to Toyota Tercel.. GRINNNNNNNNNN.



Objective was to clear Bandipur stretch before nigh fall and yes uneventfully we passed Bandipur.





The road inside is being widened (shoulder work) and at places its only wide enough for one car, so be prepared to reverse couple of tens of meters, BUT once work completed, it will be one of those dream drives you can take, guess some idea can be gathered from the pictures.


Some sun set pics.





Reach Mysore by 730pm and decides to tread the kanakpura rd to avoid traffic, BIG MISTAKE!! Road exist for only 1/5 of the total distance, rest is katcha track thanks to widening and elevation works to take care of the water logging issue.

Lights, one of the best sets I have seen on a motor car (non xenon type) headlights along with running lights give you amazing visibility and no oncoming traffic will dare to play the chicken trick with lights.

Shot @ 70 kph 



THIS CAR IS NOT FOR THE CITY BUT FOR HIGHWAYS ESPECIALLY ONES WITH ¾ foot drops on the road (ground preparation being done) and yeah this baby takes them without a single thud or broken parts hanging afterwards. Loved the car in this front, where you would have to slam brake and pray to gods and end up swearing the contractor, you just dab the brake leave it milli seconds before the THUD (for suspension to raise) and RIDE OVER ANYTHING!!!

Arrive Indira Nagar at 1045 pm, open house door, unscrew a bottle of white wine and stretch on the SOFA. Thanks bro for not asking for the keys the whole trip

Weekend Travelogue: Sangam, Ranganathithu, Gaganchukki

Route: Bangalore – Ramanagaram – Channapatna – Maddur – Mandya – Srirangapatnam – Mysore – Bannur – Malavalli – GaganchukkiFalls – Malavalli – Maddur – Bangalore (401 km)

I had to undergo some hectic 4-5 months both in office and home that I could not even think of taking the road.Atlast i completed everything & ready to take on wheels.

Saturday: 23 Feb, 2008Finally I thought I will sleep the entire weekend and plan some drives in subsequent weekends. So comes the boring Saturday, I was dozing off since morning. Suddenly the phone rings, My friend raj was on line & planned for a travel.

Ok done, although I was not so interested for a Mysore drive but went ahead with it.

Sunday: 24 Feb, 2008We get up at 4:15AM and after a nice bath, start at around 5AM to pickup raj from his house in RT Nagar. It took me another 30min to reach there. Finally we start our journey at 6AM and soon hit the Mysore Road flyover after Corporation Circle.Early morning drives are very refreshing and thankfully there was not much traffic on SH17 and soon we start to zoom on Mysore Road (SH17) and car starts to hit 100kmph. We were enjoying every moment. While passing Ramanagaram, everyone was hungry so we decided for an early breakfast at Kamat Lokaruchi where we reached by 7AM. As always had the special idlis and tea and while coming out say a series of R1s and Hayabusas. This was the first time I was seeing those bikes and these were indeed very tempting. At the same time I wonder whether we can utilize these powerful bikes in India (I mean, where are the roads?)

It was around 8AM we start again from Kamat and pass Channapatna and Maddur in no time. I like the Mandya – Srirangapatnam stretch except for those 2 bumps just after the downhill, guys please watchout, those are axle breakers. Anyway I was already aware of those, so no problem; I hit 140kmph in this stretch. Pachhu was amazed by the car’s cornering ability and performance since he was traveling for the first time in my car on highways.Sangam: Reached Srirangapatnam by 8:45AM, took left turn for Sangam. Sangam is another 8km from there passing Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace (Dariya Daulat Bagh) and Gol Gumbaz. Sangam. It is the place of religious importance where the river LokPavani meets Cauvery and it was nice to reach there in the morning. Last time I went there during the monsoons and the river was overflowing. This time the level was low and we could see the two shiva lingas at the junction of the rivers. We took a coracle ride and went past the lingas and took some pics as well.

Ranganathithu Bird Sanctuary: We spent a few minutes in serene environment at Sangam car park. After a few rounds of cakes and chips we started again. This time we headed straight to Bird Sanctuary. We took left towards Mysore on SH17 and immediately after a few kms there is a right turn (Hunsur / Coorg Route). After taking the turn RBS is about 4 kms from there which we reached by 10AM. Reaching early in the sanctuary helped. We could experience the chirping of birds. We spent sometime sitting at the bank of cauvery and chitchatting. Also saw a bunch of crocs roaming around and a few of them resting on the rocks in between the river. We walked around the bank and took some pics.

Now what? I told lets go to KRS / Brindavan Garden. Nobody was interested for KRS but they wanted to see some falls too. So we decided to go to Shivasamudram after lunch. We decided to go to my favourite restaurant Hotel Heritage Shelters for lunch which another 10km enroute KRS. We had some nice lunch of Tandoori roti, Chilli Chicken, Egg bhujiya, Egg Biriyani, Paneer alongwith lassi and softdrinks and also spent some quality time taking pics in the hotel campus. I like this resutarant both for ambience as well as food.

Gaganachukki Falls: After filling the belly with the nice stuffs we headed towards Shivasamudram. I had to take a new route this time. We went past the Infy campus and hit Ring Road and past the Bangalore junction and headed towards Bannur junction. There is a left turn for Bannur from Ring road which we took. We took the following route:Mysore – Bannur – Malavalli – ShivasamudramFirst time on this stretch: I was traveling on this stretch for the first time. The road turned out to be a nice one. Although you cannot do very high speeding because there are bumps within every few kms but there were nice picturesque surrounding and nice curves.Excellent road on NH209 after Malavalli: Road construction activity was happening in Bannur and after Malavalli. The NH209 from Kanakapura meets at Malavalli. The stretch after Malavalli to Shivasamudram was pathetic last time but it has become excellent now. I was doing 120kmph after Malavalli till Gaganchukki falls on this newly laid road.Hotel at Gaganchukki: A couple of things that has changed in Gaganchukki. There is a nice hotel cum restaurant has opened up there. I also went and enquired the room rates and checked the rooms. I felt an AC room for Rs2300 was quite expensive. Also the room amenities don’t quality for such a price. We did spend some nice time there. As it was already evening we decided to return back and do Barachukki and Talakad sometime later after monsoons.

After the mad rush in Bangalore, the sisters did enjoy the beauty of Karnataka outskirts.Return journey: We did the return journey through the Malavalli – Maddur – Bangalore route. We started at 4:45PM from Gaganchukki and did a nonstop dash to Pachhu’s house at 7PM. Mysore Road was choked with traffic. We had a nice dinner prepared by Shikha there and return back to our house by 10PM. It was a nice break after some hectic months and was quite refreshing indeed. Moreover, the sisters enjoyed a lot.

Total distance from home to home came out to be 401km and the car drank 23lit of petrol with 75% AC.

Signing off

Vijay

Mysore-Madikeri-Bhagamandala-Talacauvery-Mysore

Friends,
This is My third Travelogue in our site & this time the difference is I got a New Sony H7 (Digital camera) and hence photos should be OK as in my earlier travelogues, Photos were out of focus Or Bit Shabby.

Date : Feb 2nd / 3rd 2008
Car :Wagon R
Route Taken : Mysore - Hunsur- Periyapatna-Bylekuppe-Koppa-Kushal Nagara-Cauvery Nishadharma - Hosakote - Suntikoppa - Madikeri- Abey Falls-Bhagamandala-Talacauvery-Madikeri-Mysore

Distance (From Mysore) ( You need to add +6 kms to the undermentioned as we Joined the Hunsur Road @ Hinkal Junction) :
Hunsur (38 kms)
Periyapatna (63 kms)
Bylekuppe( 78 kms)
Koppa ( 80 kms)
Kushal Nagara(82 kms)
Cauvery Nishadharma ( 88 kms)
Hosakote(94 Kms)
Suntikoppa ( 100 kms)
Madikeri (115 kms)
End- to - End :- 340 kms

General Hints:-

1)Once you Leave Mysore, you have good Hotel near Hunsur Bypass Followed by good Hotels At Kushal Nagara and that's it in the entire stretch of Mysore - Madikeri
2) Take Care while you drive back from Abbey Falls as it's SSSSSSssoooooo Steeppppp Climb for few Kms and one Mega U turn which I felt someway odd and difficult to take the turn & Also road is kind-of-single at many places (I mean IF a car comes in the opposite Direction, it's better to stop and go instead of getting down which might create problem as the Road sides are with Bigger Holes
3) It's better to aVoid taking older people for the Steep walk From talacauvery temple to the Top to have views of Brahmagiri Mountain Ranges as eventhough the view is brilliant the Steep walk is very very difficult for anybody

Feb 2nd :-
We started at around 11.30 am from Mysore on Saturday and took Hunsur Road and Road is as usual smooth, Drove Thru Hunsur Bypass and Reached the first bad patch of the Trip and that is periyapatna (For Around 3 kms) Road is Bad .Drove past Bylekuppe / Koppa ( People who are interested to Visit the Tibetan Settlements / Golden Temple need to take a Left in Bylekuppe Or Koppa and in one of our earlier trips we visited Tibetan settlements and we took the left from Koppa).From Koppa again the road is bad and the stretch is bad upto Kushal Nagara.Stopped for few minutes in Kushal Nagara anf got some snacks / Packed lunch and continued in Madikeri Highway. Road is bad until Suntikoppa .From Suntikoppa the actual Ghat road starts and it is just like normal Kerala Roads and we never felt we are climbing up with no Valley view OR Hair-pin bends.Reached MAdikeri around 3 pm (I normally drive relatively slow and hence and experiences drivers can make it much faster).
From Madikeri, We wanted to go to Hotel Mayura Valley view (Karnataka Tourism Hotel) and we asked a Policeman and he directed us towards the Raja's seat (For Raja's seat, just before Madikeri bus stand, we need to take a left). Drove past Raja's seat and took the extreme left and passed "All India Radio Madikeri" and saw the Hotel.
We got a Double B/R and it's 999 Rs /Day (INcluding Taxes) + 200 (For extra mat). Rs 1200 /Day. Complex is new and rooms are also neat and we have the same view from the rooms equivalent to the view we had from Raja's seat. Just Relaxed for 1/2 an hour or so and then we started towards Abbey Falls.
We got a Double B/R and it's 999 Rs /Day (INcluding Taxes) + 200 (For extra mat). Rs 1200 /Day. Complex is new and rooms are also neat and we have the same view from the rooms equivalent to the view we had from Raja's seat. Just Relaxed for 1/2 an hour or so and then we started towards Abbey Falls.
ForAbbey Falls, Basically we took the Same road and reached the Madikeri Private Bus stand (Via Raja's seat and Turned left). From MAdikeri PRivate Bus stand we took a right (It's better to ask i the PRivate bus stand). Road is excellent with roads Zig Zag kind of and towards the end there was a Mega U turn and reached Abbey falls (I think it's around 8 kms). Parked the car ( PArking 20 Rs) and Walked for 10 minutes or so and reached the falls and it's almost 6 pm and the Lone Policeman there told, it's relatively late and hence may be you can finish soon and come back to the PArking & he started walkign back. Took Few Photos and we followed him to the parking. Started back From Abbey Falls and PArked near Raja's seat.
AIR Madikeri @ 6.00 am:-




Returned back after taking few photos Had breakfast in the restaurant (Breakfast is inclusive in Room Rent) and we had Upma / Bread Omlette and Vacated the room around 8 am (We Planned to vacate as in all the Karnataka tourism hotels the check-in time is 12:00 and check out time is also 12:00).
We started and took first left after Raja's seat and then took left after few metres (there are 2 lefts one leading to Virajpet / Gonikoppal & this left is almost like U turn and the left which we are supposed to take is proper left (Sign Board Bhagamandala says 36kms and Talacauvery 43 kms and mangalore 110 kms or 115 kms --This OR is mine as i forgot). It's gradual descent with every curve in bad patch and after few kms, we need to take a right as the straight road leads to Mangalore. Road is excellent and Sign boards are there and no need to ask anybody for route and we reached Bhagamandala and drove past for Talacauvery (Bhagamandala to Talcauvery is Ghat Road and Relatively steep , scenic Valley views , Saw Few PRivate Buses on the way) and at last reached Talacauvery. Parked the vehicle.

TalaCauvery Temple Photo:-




Steeep Walk From Talacauvery temple to View Brahmagiri Mountain Ranges :-



[IMG]http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/4985/talacauverytempleinbgzj3.jpg
[/IMG]

View of Brahmagiri Mountain Ranges :-







WIP to build an Arch in front of the temple and the temple is Beautiful and we saw people climbing up the Steps near to the temple and it's dead steeeeeepppp. That walk is worth as we saw beautiful views from the top, came back and visited the temple , had prasadam, theertham and drove back to Bhagamandala. On the way, Saw a Board "View Point" stopped there and took a photo of Bhagamandala Temple and it came out good.

View of Bhagamandala Temple from View Point (Talacauvery):-






Then we visited Bhagamandala temple and we saw temple authorities are preparing the temple for Kumbabhisekham (Not sure on the date but the work is in full swing)
We Started Again and on the way , near Cauvery nishadharma , People are cutting down the trees for Road Widening . We waited for 1/2 an hour or so as the road is blocked as they are trying to pull down the chopped tree.

Then we continued and I thought of visiting harange Dam this time atleast (8 kms from Kushal Nagara) BUT saw a PWD board , "Welcome to Haranage Dam - 8kms" & " Entry to Harange Dam is prohibited"".. It's good we saw as We had a simlar experience when we tried to Visit Shimsha Power Plant near Shivsamudra some time back. We drove all the 10 kms (After seeing the Board " Welcome to Shimsha Power Plant First Plant in South East Asia " in the bad roads with none around on the way to ask for route to face the question at the Dhimsa plant gate, "Who asked you to come here & without authorization you are not Supposed to use this road first of all"-- We turned back (Aleast HAranage PWD people are good)
We Drove Straight with few minutes stop at Kushal Nagara for refreshments and reached Mysore at around 5pm.

Hope this will be of some help when our T-BHP Members plan a trip in future to these places.

ForAbbey Falls, Basically we took the Same road and reached the Madikeri Private Bus stand (Via Raja's seat and Turned left). From MAdikeri PRivate Bus stand we took a right (It's better to ask i the PRivate bus stand). Road is excellent with roads Zig Zag kind of and towards the end there was a Mega U turn and reached Abbey falls (I think it's around 8 kms). Parked the car ( PArking 20 Rs) and Walked for 10 minutes or so and reached the falls and it's almost 6 pm and the Lone Policeman there told, it's relatively late and hence may be you can finish soon and come back to the PArking & he started walkign back. Took Few Photos and we followed him to the parking. Started back From Abbey Falls and PArked near Raja's seat.

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