thanks srijit.
@ramkya- the next time I have a car with decent ground clearance, i shall do the attapady-silent valley route.

here are some more random pics from inside the forest

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

thanks srijit.
@ramkya- the next time I have a car with decent ground clearance, i shall do the attapady-silent valley route.

here are some more random pics from inside the forest

The Random pictures rock....... it has caught the mood of this section. I see from many of your pictures that present roads are a great improvememnt over what it was many years ago.

Reportedly, the roads from Marnarkad to Agali are good and improved; any normal car can do this stretch, have some SBI friends posted in Agali who go by bus and come back to PGT on weekends. Don't know conditions from Agali to CBE, should be good, its mostly downhill from there.

--Ramky
========

there were plenty of little rivulets on the way, and if I'd stopped for all of them,I'd still be in the forest, but any rivulet that is easily accessible from the road would be littered with plastic from "civilisation"

EDIT- the 2nd pic looks yellow, because I was fiddling with the white balance setting on my camera.

[johnda]

Ripper that was awesome ! thanks for the detailed route and a peep into what to expect, too bad i cant do this route this time coz of a time constrain and also a route like this demands a sunrise and an early morning. But surely next time and not on the OHC but on something with a higher ground clearance .
Those pics are out of this world. Is there a way to add them on to non auto image thread? folks there would love to see these too.
Cheers

thanks johnda, you should try the route sometime. its very doable in a hatch if one is careful and scouts a path through some of the bigger potholes. I've done worse with my Swift.

reached Malakiparai check post at 118.8kms on the odo from edapally.
the CP officer (if you can call him that)demanded 100rs, settled for Rs20

Below are obligatory tea estate pics and the third is where I sacrificed Rs 20 to the Gods of corrupt india.

the checkpost stands at the "V" of a fork in the road. we were directed to take the lower one(going left) as the roads were better that way.

Turns on the road further are sign posted well, so I dont have the driving instructions for those.
I did not actually touch valparai, but turned towards pollachi, while still 6kms away from valparai at a T junction(also sign posted)

[yzfrj]

Wonderful report yar, some pics are really wow...! (Eg: Sholayar reservoir)
some not so wow.

err... why did you turn right at Karayamparambu ?
I thought Chalakkudi > Athirapalli was better ?
One query here when we went via the road you took, there was a small river crossing (boat jetty ? what do u call it ? Rs.40 for car, in our case then it was a Jeep, Yeah...!)

one a scale from 1-10 how was the road ? (1 - Nightmare, 10 - Race track)
Really make me wanna go for a drive, just for the sake of driving.
Looks really good some sections in the pics you have taken.

Keep the pics coming pls.

@yzfrj-
the pics are all finished.
we turned at krayamparambu because of the new route that was available to see,the savings in distance,and the estate drive

the 40 hair pin bends from Valparai to Pollachi are amazing.
I hijacked my brother's endeavour and let the tyres burn on every corner. the car is fantastic on the bends. I just loved it. downshift to 2nd for the corner and stomp the accelerator on the exit for massive tyre squeal and spectacular clouds of smoke. some corners needed a little correction, but never went fast enough for opposite lock.

the ground clearance of the endy also helped in overtaking crawling buses/trucks over broken ground that would have destroyed the undercarriage of any sedan/hatch. all this meant that the 40 hairpins were done and dusted in a matter of minutes with my brothers yelling to back off

towards the end of the descent,I came round a corner with the tail out and the tyres screaming, and saw open mouthed CP guards staring at me. I put on a suitably sheepish grin and stayed in the car while my brother who went to the CP to sign us out got a dressing down on my behalf

Unga driver drinks pottirikangala? (is your driver drunk?)
Methuva otta chollunga!(ask him to drive slowly)
Vandi sarrukki varuthu(the car is sliding)
mela irunthae sattham kettichu(we could hear your car from the top itself)

as soon as the ghat section was over, I handed the keys back to my brother who was relieved to get his prized possession back in one piece.

he then proceeded to whip the car at silly speeds towards CBE, scaring the wits out of me in revenge for the ghats section.

there was half an hour delay in pollachi town because of roadworks on the main through fare, but once we got past the town, the two lane highway with decent surface let us get to CBE pretty quickly.

The return trip through the regular route(CBE-palghat-trichur-COK) was scary, with buses, trucks and cars all trying to kill each other and get us involved at the same time.

I felt much safer in the deserted forest.

[abhilash_iv]

Hi rippergeo,
Very nice write up and pictures.
I have not gone by this route completely until now. Gone till Vazhachal few times and Peringalkuthu once. Now you have forced me to take this route, next time when I go to Coimbatore.

Can someone please put up the distance between pollachi and CBE- my odo reading will give me the end point at my relatives place which is on the north end of CBE.

forgot to check odo at the toll gate near ukkadam, because I was too busy fiddling with google maps.

[johnda]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

Can someone please put up the distance between pollachi and CBE- my odo reading will give me the end point at my relatives place which is on the north end of CBE.

forgot to check odo at the toll gate near ukkadam, because I was too busy fiddling with google maps.

Rippergeo, its 40km, from cmbt to pollachi, I called a friend who did the route yesterday, He's from podanur ( right before the toll) he said 39/40. from the Gandhinagar.

[speedzak]

Pictures are finished?
You won't post any pictures from Valpaara - Pollachi route? That's a heinous crime!

[kutlee]

You fiddled with the white balance and you lost your balance??
good pics. konjhan medhuva ottunganna....
are the tyres ok now?? :-)

[trrk]

Hi rippergeo,

> Cochin-Ankamaly-Ezhattumugham-Athirappally-Peringalkuthu-Valpara-
> Pollachi-Cbe
> Total time taken 7 hours Total distance 270 kms (Door to Door)

Was that 7 hours including all the stops or just the running time?

Where did you have BF and lunch?

How much time did you take on the return trip (via the regular route)?

@trrk
7hrs from cochin to coimby including photo breaks, stops for tea/toll,traffic jam at pollachi.
Hairpins were done extra fast. at sane speeds they should take 45 mins atleast.
return trip via regular route in pouring rain took 4 hours. road conditions good, traffic conditions bad!