Bangalore to Thalassery I got back from my marathon trip to thalassery last night. look out for some details below.
Route: Bangalore --> Mysore --> Gundlupet --> Suthanbathery --> Mananthavady --> Koothuparamba --> Thalassery
Departure: 5:30 am 31st January 2009 - Bangalore
Bangalore - Mysore -
As i left bangalore i was still a little groggy and so i opened up a can of Red Bull, this always gets me going. I had to wait for a few friends of mine who were on Bikes and parked up outside RV College and waited for them. While i was waiting i started arranging the music and downloaded the music from my laptop to the ipod and in the order which i would like to hear it. Soon my friends arrived and we left RV Coll on Mysore road at about 6:00 am. This was the best time to drive as mysore road normally chock a block with traffic had hardly any commuters on it. i reached maddur in about an hours time and realised that i should capitalise on the empty road and try to queeze better FE figures from the car, from there on i coasted at 70kmph to mysore. Little has to be said about this road that hasnt already been said its a great road with an annoying number of speed bumps on it and i really wish they would build a bypass around all the towns especially Mandya.
I parked up outside mylary hotel in mysore by about 8am.We all sat down for a nice plate of dosa and then proceeded. For those who are not aware of Mylary Hotel this is a must try. Great dosas indeed.
Departure: 9 am Mysore
Mysore - Gundlupet
I slowly travelled towards Gundlupet, very uneventful stretch this is, the road is a single carriageway hardly interesting to write about. i stopped at a coffeeday outlet jus before gundlupet. It was around 10:15 am. I was getting restless and wanted to grab a cup of coffee and relax and click a few pictures of the car. i found this coffeeday has a considerably sized parking lot and it was empty. so i used it to all of my creativity and clicked a few pictures of the car.
Departure - 11am coffeeday Gundlupet
Gundlupet - Sulthanbathri
This is lovely stretch of road, absolutely empty and its truly amazing to drive on. i have a bunch of pictures of this road which i will post up soon. This stretch has 2 parts.
1. The Plains - Lovely vegetable fields all around with farmers markets strewn in between and fresh produce being sold on the road. Do watch out for the occasional potholes. They appear out of no where and really hurt your ride.
2. The Forrest - This signifies the begining of the ghats and the border between Karnataka and Kerala. The roads through the forrests were painfully pretty with a good layer of tar on them, this meanders all the way to sulthan batheri. Reached SulthanBathery by about 12:30 pm.
From here on i took a little detour and went over to see Edakkal Caves. This is a 15 km journey from sulthan batheri. This is a site for neolithic carvings & rock etchings. Surely worth a look, the climb can be a little arduous.
We had packed some food along for lunch knowing that we would be somewhere in between towns and we found the parking lot at edakkal caves to be an ideal campsite for lunch.
Departure - 3:30pm, Edakkal Caves.
SulthanBatheri - Manathavady
This is a short ride of about 30 kms which would set the pace for the remaining journey to thalassery, the roads are quite narrow and an average speed of 60kmph is significant considering the errant KRSTC drivers. This route takes you through Wayanads Tea plantations and is quite scenic. We reached mananthavady by 4:30pm
Departure - 4:45 pm, Mananthavady
Mananthavady - Koothuparamba
Where do i begin, is it the sheer views that nature threw at us or the amazingly curvy roads with banking on every turn or is it the view of the ocean in the distance. Wow, that one word sums up this stretch. I was very tempted to really throw the car into the corners but the 2 bikers would have found it hard to keep up, so i jus maintained a healthy 50kmph and went through this stretch. it is one helluva journey to the coast from this point on. The roads will leave you breathless. i am not going to say that stretch is very well tarred, i will say that it is decently tarred with a few pothholes every now and then but the sheer number of turns and the angle of the banking in every corner is just amazing. all through this ride you will see dense forests around you and the sea at the horizon. i love this stretch and will want to do it again sometime.
Let me let you in on an evil secret, on my way back i clocked the distance from thalassery to gundlupet in all of 3 to 3.5 hours and i make a killing of it on the curves and i loved it to bits. i was being cautious but yes i did go considerably quicker on my way back to bangalore than on my way to thalassery. i will strongly recommend this stretch to anyone with an inclination to drive on some of the best roads india has to offer. This stretch is a lot better than the stretch from masinagudi to ooty. there are not that many hair pin bends on this stretch though, but the road will leave your intestines in a knot after you gotten past it. i reached koothuparamba by about 5:45pm
Departure - Immediately, Koothuparamba
Koothuparamba - Thalassery
This is all of 18 kms and you will do it not to quickly as the traffic starts to build significantly. Reached thalassery by 6:15 pm
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I stayed at the Sharara Plaza, decent accomodation and average service. i took a quick wash and went to mahe (pondicherry state) abotu 8 kms south of Thalassery for a few drinks, the alcohol is really cheap being a union territory. i got back into thalassery and went over to Paris Presidency for a plate of biryani. This is very different and surelky worth a try. It does taste amazing.
1st Feb, 2009 -
I woke up bright and early at 7 am and went to a colleagues wedding in an auditorium near by. ate some lunch as well, and then proceeded to muzhappilangad beach. this is a drive in beach and is located at about 8 kms north of thalassery. this is an empty beach with about more than 1 km of hardened sand to drive over. i took my car to the waters edge and clicked a whole bunch of pictures with my tripod . this is a great place to park up near the shacks and eat a few fried fish snacks looking at the beach and knowing that youve jus driven over it. its truly a must see while you find yourself in thalassery.
i left the beach at about 1:30 pm and headed towards bangalore. i reached gundlupet at exactly 5pm with a little bit of spiritted driving. those who have done this stretch will agree with me that it jus wonderful to drive on. there was a block on the nanjangud to mysore strech so the police had diverted traffic to a small road which had caused a significant traffic jam on a village road and it would have taken a good 2 hours to clear. i managed to locate a mud track which i saw a few jeeps take. i decided to take my car over it. and at one point the jeeps with their big ground clearance made way over this track really quickly and i was lost as a fork in the road and got out of the car and saw only flat ground all around me with no other car in sight. i decided to use a little common sense and take the track which would head towards the main road from which i had diverted, and voila in 45 mins i had cleared the section and thus got into mysore at exactly 6:30pm. my friends who were about 20 kms behind me decided not to be as adventurous and drive through the jam, they reached mysore at 9pm.
i made it back to bangalore in quick time and was home by about 8:30pm for dinner.
i must admit, covering 400kms in 6:30 hours is surely hard but i did do this stretch with little discomfort only because of my palio. i respect for this car has only increased. no other car would have taken those curves so well. i hated the body roll but never for a moment hoped to be in my ikon or my uno as both would have faltered miserably on poor roads.
Some pics will be put up soon... |