[XH_Vee]

Round Trip: Start 06.00 hrs. Whitefield Bangalore – Mysore – Gundlupet – Sultan Bathery – Kalpetta – Calicut (halt for night) – Thrissur – Coimbatore – Salem – Krishnagiri – Bangalore (third day 00.30 hrs.)

Total Distance: 1009 km @ approx 67 lit (15.1 kmpl) with 90% AC

Toll: Lots of it – will add details later

Vehicle: Chevy UV-A

One of my colleagues got married this weekend at Thrissur. Since it was a Sunday, and since it had been more than a month I had been on the road and since it is monsoon season, I decided to actually attend the wedding. My wife was slightly surprised at first, but now she knows me well enough to raise the eyebrow for too long over this.

Couple of my colleagues also joined up and we left Bangalore on Saturday morning 0600 hrs. in my Chevy UV-A and my colleague's Honda City. I like the NICE road despite the high toll, but I absolutely hate the stretch from Banerghetta road to Kanakpura road. So we took the ORR upto Kanakpura road and then went down it till we could get on the NICE road. Taking the exit on Mysore road, we headed towards Mysore. We stopped over little ahead of Channapatna for breakfast. The climate was dreamy and overcast with slight drizzle here and there. We took the ring road at Mysore and headed towards Nanjangud. The awesome weather persisted as the Chamundi Hills looked like Ooty...

[XH_Vee]

Passing Nanjangud, we took a right at Gundlupet towards Sultan Bathery. Soon we entered the reserve forest, the road more winding than the river it was flanking. At one place we boys left our ladies with our cars to venture closer to the river and snap some pics. We found a elephant pug mark on the trail to the river bank. The river had swelled to a raging flow...

[XH_Vee]

Soon we entered Kerala - as indicated by the bright blue & pink coloured houses amid even more bright green paddy fields. A little after Sultan Bathery, we stopped to snap a gem of a panorama. The clouds seemed like a huge roll of cotton arranged on the hilltops...

[ampere]

Nice vry nice! Season perfect for a drive.
May I ask why dont you like the BG-Kanakpura NICE road stretch?

[XH_Vee]

Originally Posted by ampere

Nice vry nice! Season perfect for a drive.
May I ask why dont you like the BG-Kanakpura NICE road stretch?

Oh... I meant the stretch between the Banerghetta road and Kanakpura road which is not yet finished and we have to go through a series of narrow streets crammed with more potholes than the rest of the city. To aviod that stretch we too the NICE road from Kanakpura rd.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by XH_Vee

Oh... I meant the stretch between the Banerghetta road and Kanakpura road which is not yet finished and we have to go through a series of narrow streets crammed with more potholes than the rest of the city. To aviod that stretch we too the NICE road from Kanakpura rd.

Beyond BG its all done full right, all the way up to Tumkur road.
Are you referring to the workaround at BG while coming from Hosur road?

[XH_Vee]

We continued through this beautiful district till we reached Kalpetta around 1330 hrs. We stopped for lunch - biryanis of every kind served with a really nice lime pickle. Post lunch, we decided to visit Pookot lake which is anyway on the road to Calicut.

There was a slight drizzle when we reached the lake. But we remembered to carry our umbrellas thanks to the ladies. There were few giant spiders in the nursery near the lake. Instead of boating in the lake, we decided to just walk around it. Again a good choice as halfway around the lake, it began raining heavily. Five of us trying to cram below 2 umbrellas, we somehow managed to keep our cameras from getting wet...

[XH_Vee]

Originally Posted by ampere

Beyond BG its all done full right, all the way up to Tumkur road.
Are you referring to the workaround at BG while coming from Hosur road?

Yup, that's the one. I heard there's some land dispute involved and that's why the work is stalled. So to avoid that, I decided to start early and zip through BTM before people living there woke up Coming from Whitefield and the Sarjapura road ORR flyover in place, it was not a bad option.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by XH_Vee

Yup, that's the one. I heard there's some land dispute involved and that's why the work is stalled. So to avoid that, I decided to start early and zip through BTM before people living there woke up Coming from Whitefield and the Sarjapura road ORR flyover in place, it was not a bad option.

The photos rock!
By the way that workaround has eased out a lot. The pending case is over and work is in full swing to complete that stretch.

[XH_Vee]

Around 1630 hrs. we got back on the road to Calicut. With rains still pounding and a twillight fog settling over the valley, the visibility was near zero and we had to drive at less than 20 kph for the most part - sometimes even less. Soon we were caught up in a big traffic jam caused due to a truck breaking its steering linkage (I think) right at a hairpin.

The cops were prompt though and did a commendable job of clearing out systematically. We reached Calicut around 1915 hrs, wet and exhausted. We got rooms at the Hamlet (thanks to my Nokia 5230 Ovi maps database) and opted for room service.

Waking up at 0630 hrs. Sunday morning, we hit NH17 around 0800 hrs. The GPS on my cell worked well to guide us to Thrissur where the wedding was scheduled at 1215 hrs...

[ampere]

Also just ask, why you went through Calicut? Any specific reasons? Or just for the drive? You could also have taken the Nilambur route.

Just got curious.

[XH_Vee]

We reached a bit late as we had to search around for the church a bit. But it was a grand venue nonetheless. We did manage to make it in time for the photosession and the couple's walk down the aisle together.

We stayed back at the church a little longer taking pics before proceeding to the cake cutting and reception.

[XH_Vee]

Originally Posted by ampere

Also just ask, why you went through Calicut? Any specific reasons? Or just for the drive? You could also have taken the Nilambur route.

Just got curious.

Thanks for the compliments and that is one great news about the NICE road.

Going via Calicut, yeah it was just for the drive. I was sure my colleague who got married would understand it even if we completely missed his wedding party due to taking the longer route. In his words - "I might have done the same" Frankly the wedding was a pretext to convince our wives!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by XH_Vee

Thanks for the compliments and that is one great news about the NICE road.

Going via Calicut, yeah it was just for the drive. I was sure my colleague who got married would understand it even if we completely missed his wedding party due to taking the longer route. In his words - "I might have done the same" Frankly the wedding was a pretext to convince our wives!

I guessed it! What I meant was even the Nilambur route is one hell of a drive.
In fact you could have returned that way!

I guess another reason to convince your wife!
So who is next bachelor in your line getting married at Trichur?

[XH_Vee]

Finally, we started back around 1500 hrs. on Sunday. On the way back, we took the NH47 via Coimbatore to Salem. Then it was the familiar NH7 thereon till Bangalore. We reached home by 00.30 hrs. It was a good decision to take this route for return as driving at night on these just finished international standard highways was a lot less stressful. Otherwise we would have stayed at an hotel again for Sunday night.

P.S. I have a video taken in the ghat sections of Wayanad to Calicut route. Its a bit large and uploading to youtube is taking some time. Will post it soon.