I am back as promised with another post. No 2 year gap this time. This post is a travelogue of our trip to my home town in Kerala from Bangalore. Since we were going for 5 days, decided to drive down. You may wonder whats is so special about a trip to Kerala. Well, here the speciality was the scenic route. Large part of the journey though forests and ghats.
So here goes....
Car: Zen Lxi
People: Me and my wife
Date: 7th Aug 2009
We decided the previous night that we would start of at 5am on 7th.To our great surprise at 5am on 7th I was in the car ready to move. Started off from Sarjapur Road, went through Silk Board and ORR to meet up at Mysore Road by 5.30 am. It was a cool cloudy morning and Mysore Road looked inviting.
Reached Mysore Byepass by 7.30. Since it was early traffic going out was minimal
From the byepass, took the left turn and via the Lalit Mahal palace reached the Gundlepet Road. The stretch of road for 10-12 km was quite bad. After that the surface was quite good and the traffic was minimal.
Some sunflower Gardens on the way
By 9am we were at Gundlepet. There is a new 24hr Cafe Coffee Day outlet opened there. Stopped for a coffee and some snacks. Had travelled around 190km.
Once we left Gundlepet, we hit a very bad stretch of road leading up to the Bandipur wild life santuary. And as the photo below shows, vehicles did not have the right of way
One we overcame that obstacle and after a stretch of non existent roads, we entered the Bandipur forests. Here the roads were excellent, lots of twists and turns and almost non existent traffic along with beautiful views of forests. The santuary is caled Bandipur on the Karnataka side and Mudumalai on the Tamil Nadu side. Following pictures show the drive through the santuary. Not much words are needed.
This deer did not like us disturbing
We exited the forest and stopped for a break amidst bamboo forests before reaching Gudalur(Gudalur is the base from where you climb to OOty)
A great view of the Western ghats just after Gudalur
We crossed Gudalur by 11.15am and then entered Kerala through the Nadugani ghats. Again great roads with almost no traffic.
Crossing this section we reached Nilambur by 12.30pm, the first major town after you enter Kerala. From here another 1.5 hours, We were at my hometown Tirur by 2pm.
Summary:
Total Distance: 387km
Time taken: 9hrs(including 1 hr break)
Roads: Apart from a couple of small stretches absolutely brilliant with plenty of twisties. No potholes. Traffic almost nil most of the way
One we overcame that obstacle and after a stretch of non existent roads, we entered the Bandipur forests. Here the roads were excellent, lots of twists and turns and almost non existent traffic along with beautiful views of forests. The santuary is caled Bandipur on the Karnataka side and Mudumalai on the Tamil Nadu side. Following pictures show the drive through the santuary. Not much words are needed.
This deer did not like us disturbing
We exited the forest and stopped for a break amidst bamboo forests before reaching Gudalur(Gudalur is the base from where you climb to OOty)
A great view of the Western ghats just after Gudalur
We crossed Gudalur by 11.15am and then entered Kerala through the Nadugani ghats. Again great roads with almost no traffic.
Crossing this section we reached Nilambur by 12.30pm, the first major town after you enter Kerala. From here another 1.5 hours, We were at my hometown Tirur by 2pm.
Summary:
Total Distance: 387km
Time taken: 9hrs(including 1 hr break)
Roads: Apart from a couple of small stretches absolutely brilliant with plenty of twisties. No potholes. Traffic almost nil most of the way
Overall a very good trip. It was great to drive on good roads through dense forests with no traffic. We switched of AC, and music, Just cruised along listening to the sounds of nature.... Something we miss in the daily bustle of city life....
