[Jammy70]

Hi,

I will be travelling from BLR to Guruvayur end-Jan'09. Instead of taking the Hosur-Mettur-Palakkad route, I thought I will use the Mysore-Gudalur-Nilambur-etc route this time. I need help with regard to the following:

1. Can you give me a detailed route plan from Gudalur to Guruvayur (I'm familiar with the BLR-Gudalur section, but not beyond)?
2. Any updates on the road condition for Gundulpet - Gudalur and Gudalur - Guruvayur?
3. Possible places we can stop for food, etc; any suggestions for fairly clean hotels will be most welcome!

I will be travelling by my Scorpio (but naturally!) and the 6 occupants' age range between 7 months to 65 years - thought this info might help.

Look forward to your inputs.

Cheers

[hvkumar]

From Gudalur, there are 3 roads - the road to the left going to Ooty, the road to the right going to Sultan's Battery, and the road straight going to Nilambur.

Distances are as follows:
Gudalur-Nadugani 11 kms (you have to take teh road to Nilambur, not the one to Vytiri/Kalpetta)-Kerala Border 7-Edakkara 18-Nilambur 12-Edavanna 15-Manjeri 10-Kuttipuram 50-Join NH17-Edappal 10-Kunnamkulam 23-Guruvayoor 10


Sometime ago, the roads around Edappal were in a bad shape, hopefully they are now repaired.

It is ghat roads from Nadugani to Nilambur.

At Kunnamkulam, you the choice of going on the NH17 till Chavakkad and then turning left, or going on the Trissur road and turning right.

I think there is a KTDC hotel in Edappal, please check other threads on this subject.

[renamo]

After you cross the bus stand in gudalur, keep going straight until you reach a T-junction with traffic lights

(if you go straight from here, it will go to ooty through Naduvatom)
Take the right turn towards Nadugani and after a few km you will reach a small junction where the left road (with a barreir check post) will take you through nadugani ghats towards nilambur. (going straight will tak you to Vayanad)

After the ghats, you will reach vazhikadavu and head towards Nilambur. The route is Nilambur, perinthalmanna, pattambi, kunnamkulam and Guruvayoor.

This way, you will avoid the mad Kuttipuram route.

The strech between Nilambur and Perinthalmanna was not that great, and if you dont mind taking a very slightly longer route, take a left turn before entering nilambur town towards Kalikavu-melatur-perinthalmanna, amazing road, excellent surface and twisties, but not really ghat.

Hope this helps.

[renamo]

bad roads in between Gudalur and Bandipur for approx 4-5 KM, but nothing that you will feel that bad in the scorpio.

forgot to add, stopover at "coffee day" @ gundulpet. after that only small hotels, so my suggestion is to take fruit juices/water with short eats with you.

if you start early (ideally 4:00AM) from bangalore you can reach guruvayoor for lunch easy.

[vrvarier]

If you are not keen on Gudalur-Nilambur route, Gundlupet-sultan battery-Kalpetta route also is not a bad idea. Excellent roads. Yes, the CCD (coffee day) is just before the right turn to s.battery road at gundlupet.

Whichever route you take, please do post a report with the pictures (especially the forest section and roads)

[Jammy70]

Hi all,

Thanks for the quick revert.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

....

Distances are as follows:
Gudalur-Nadugani 11 kms (you have to take teh road to Nilambur, not the one to Vytiri/Kalpetta)-Kerala Border 7-Edakkara 18-Nilambur 12-Edavanna 15-Manjeri 10-Kuttipuram 50-Join NH17-Edappal 10-Kunnamkulam 23-Guruvayoor 10

HVK sir, thank you for the detailed break-up with distances. However, while trying to trace the route on MMI, I got lost beyond Manjeri; Edappal for one seemed closer to Chavakad. Did you mean join NH17 near Malappuram and then on to Ponnani - Chavakad/Kunnamkulam (all on NH17)? Your distances were bang on, though (as expected!).

Originally Posted by renamo

After you cross the bus stand in gudalur, keep going straight until you reach a T-junction with traffic lights

(if you go straight from here, it will go to ooty through Naduvatom)
Take the right turn towards Nadugani and after a few km you will reach a small junction where the left road (with a barreir check post) will take you through nadugani ghats towards nilambur. (going straight will tak you to Vayanad)

After the ghats, you will reach vazhikadavu and head towards Nilambur. The route is Nilambur, perinthalmanna, pattambi, kunnamkulam and Guruvayoor.

This way, you will avoid the mad Kuttipuram route.

The strech between Nilambur and Perinthalmanna was not that great, and if you dont mind taking a very slightly longer route, take a left turn before entering nilambur town towards Kalikavu-melatur-perinthalmanna, amazing road, excellent surface and twisties, but not really ghat.

Hope this helps.

Thanks renamo, again for a detailed break-up of places. I read about the Kalikavu-malatur-Perinthalmanna route on some blog and it sure is enticing; surely this is an option.

Regarding stop-overs, I don't think I can realistically look at a 4am departure with a 7-month old baby to be bundled into the vehicle. My guess is we would leave around 6.30am, take an early BF break at Kamat (Ramnagaram) and maybe look at early lunch at Gudalur (12-ish) - not sure about specific hotels, though. Does Nilambur (around 1.30pm) offer any decent restaurants? It's going to be a very relaxed drive and my intention is to get into Guruvayur by 5pm.

Originally Posted by vrvarier

If you are not keen on Gudalur-Nilambur route, Gundlupet-sultan battery-Kalpetta route also is not a bad idea. Excellent roads. Yes, the CCD (coffee day) is just before the right turn to s.battery road at gundlupet.

Whichever route you take, please do post a report with the pictures (especially the forest section and roads)

vrv, the kalpetta route is one of my favourites and have taken this route couple of times (once all the way to Cherthala) and is surely there in the consideration set. I just thought I will try a different route this time; of course the Gudalur route will need the Home Minister's approval!

The other consideration is the Kalpetta route is about 45-50km longer (correct me if I'm wrong), which would mean an extra hour or so of travelling time. With the baby on board, would like to compress travel time as much as possible.

Cheers...

[giridharl]

Hi all,

Thanks for the route details from bangalore to guruvayur.

After deliberating a lot on which route to take,
ultimately decided to go with the bangalore - mysore - gundlupet - gudalur -nilambur road - kalikavu - melattur - perinthalmanna -pattambi - kunnamkulam - guruvayur.

Road conditions and distances were as accurate as described in the thread.

Special thanks to renamo for his advise to take the route from gudalur that was really time saving and convenient.

Small section after gundlupet towards gudalur in bad condition for about 15 kms.Also random stretches after calicut towards kalpetta where repairs are being undertaken.

thanks and regards,

giridhar

[Jammy70]

Hi all,

I did the trip in the last week of Jan (30th to Feb 1st) and here is a quick summary:

30th Jan: B'lore - Guruvayoor
Route: B'lore-Mysore-Gundulpet-Gudalur-Nilambur-Wandoor-Perinthalmanna-Perimpilavu -Kunnamkulam-Guruvayoor

Total distance: 424 km (from HSR L'out to Guruvayoor West nada)
Left B'lore at 6.45am and reached Guruvayoor by 5.15pm (breaks amounted to a little over 2 &1/2 hours, actual driving time: 8 hours)

Positives: Hardly any traffic, good scenery (drive thru' Bandipur & Mudumalai WLS, tea & rubber estates from Gudalur to Wandoor), twistees all the way from Bandipur to Perimpilavu (including a lovely rubberised ghat road before Nilambur)

Negatives: Not many decent eating points beyond Bandipur, Gundulpet-bandipur road (15-20km) non-existent, road surface not the best from Nilambur to Perimpilavu (rough surface combining with the twistees made the ride a bit bumpy in the back), too much of twistees, (I got a little bugged as my wife who was in the back seat kept cribbing!), Theppakadu to Gudalur stretch has these incredibly irritating sudden breaks/dips in the newly laid surface every 100-200 meters which even the Scorp found painful - apparently a device to prevent you from speeding through the WLS!

Overall, the route is much shorter than the Hosur-CBE-Palakkad-Trichur route by about 71km (took that route while returning) and your driving time is reduced by over an hour. Only issue is decent refreshment points - not many were sighted.

Next time I intend to try the Wayanad-Calicut route.

Hope the above helps. Do let me know if you need any specific inputs.

My sincere thanks to HVK, renamo, vrvarier & tomRider for all the inputs during the planning stage.

Cheers,

[VarunM]

Hi All,

Planning to go to Guruvayur from Bangalore during last week of Oct. Want to take the same route as Jammy (i.e bangalore - mysore - gundlupet - gudalur -nilambur road - kalikavu - melattur - perinthalmanna -pattambi - kunnamkulam - guruvayur).

Wanted to know the condition of the road currently from Gudalur to Guruvayur (had been towards Gundalpet recently and the road is fine until there). And the approx travel time currently.

(Hoping that the rains have not turned the roads into craters!!!)

Cheers,
Varun

[ampere]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

From Gudalur, there are 3 roads - the road to the left going to Ooty, the road to the right going to Sultan's Battery, and the road straight going to Nilambur.

Distances are as follows:
Gudalur-Nadugani 11 kms (you have to take teh road to Nilambur, not the one to Vytiri/Kalpetta)-Kerala Border 7-Edakkara 18-Nilambur 12-Edavanna 15-Manjeri 10-Kuttipuram 50-Join NH17-Edappal 10-Kunnamkulam 23-Guruvayoor 10


Sometime ago, the roads around Edappal were in a bad shape, hopefully they are now repaired.

It is ghat roads from Nadugani to Nilambur.

At Kunnamkulam, you the choice of going on the NH17 till Chavakkad and then turning left, or going on the Trissur road and turning right.

I think there is a KTDC hotel in Edappal, please check other threads on this subject.

Wow ! I have done both Ooty and Waynad. But some how I never recollect this third road. In fact immediately after Gudlupet check post I remember a fork and not the third road! Next time I will look for it.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by VarunM

Hi All,

Planning to go to Guruvayur from Bangalore during last week of Oct. Want to take the same route as Jammy (i.e bangalore - mysore - gundlupet - gudalur -nilambur road - kalikavu - melattur - perinthalmanna -pattambi - kunnamkulam - guruvayur).

Wanted to know the condition of the road currently from Gudalur to Guruvayur (had been towards Gundalpet recently and the road is fine until there). And the approx travel time currently.

(Hoping that the rains have not turned the roads into craters!!!)

Cheers,
Varun

Last heard he Nilambur road is closed for night traffic,would be a good idea to cross this stretch in daylight.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by ampere

Wow ! I have done both Ooty and Waynad. But some how I never recollect this third road. In fact immediately after Gudlupet check post I remember a fork and not the third road! Next time I will look for it.

Actually, the three roads are from Gudalur not Gundlupet. Even I remember seeing the 3 roads in Gudalur.

You are absolutely right in Gundlupet. There is only a fork and no third road at that point.

[VarunM]

Thanks Ranji,

But hows the road from Nilambur onwards to Guruvayur?? Any idea??

Cheers,
Varun

[ampere]

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

Actually, the three roads are from Gudalur not Gundlupet. Even I remember seeing the 3 roads in Gudalur.

You are absolutely right in Gundlupet. There is only a fork and no third road at that point.

Thanks that settles it. I had taken the Masinagudi route to Ooty both while going and coming. Hence did not go past Gudalur.

May be next time, I will get it a shot. Looks like this also is a good option to enter Kerala (For Munnar, Thekkady etc.)

PS: Did not realize the place mentioned by HVK was Gudalur. Thought it was Gudlupet. Sorry for the error.

[Morgul]

I'm planning to drive to Guruvayoor later this month. My onward journey will be through Kannur. However, the return journey would be through the above mentioned route.

Here are the details :

Bangalore - Mandya - Mysore - Gundlupet - Sultan Bathery - Mananthvady - Koothuparamba - Kannur

Kannur - Thalassery - Kozhikode - Kuttipuram - Ponnani - Chavakkad - Guruvayoor

Guruvayoor - Kunnamkulam - Pattambi - Pernithalmanna - Nilambur - Gudalur - Gundlupet - Mysore - Mandya - Bangalore

Can someone update me on the status of the Kannur - Guruvayoor route ?

~Morgul