The start got delayed from 6 AM till 8 AM and further till 830 after the little one decided to stall us. Then we ran back and got the gifts which were for the marriage that we were headed to attend. Two cars were tricky to begin with and I had my doubts trying to maintain pace with the Indica, which came through soon enough. So I let the Indica start at 8 AM. 830 start meant that we were in the thick of Hosur road IT traffic. Senseless directions by BBMP to keep to the service lane to go till Hosur were ridiculous, simply because there was no service lane after a point of time. What’s the use of such a drastic notice I do not know.

Food stop right after Dharmapuri

Car was not tanked up so the search for IOCL Extra Premium started soon after we hit clear roads. Found one gas station and filled the car to the brim. Now we were all set to get till Thrissur on 1 tank, I knew that was easy to do. Bt traveling with mom, wife kid can be a lot of unexpected fun, things spill in the car and you have to stop every now and then for a clean up.

Had asked the Indica driver to wait near the turn off towards Chennai. He had done so. We reached that spot just 15 minutes after them. Needless to say that all FE went out of the rear window the moment we hit NH7 empty patches, all 6 inviting lanes of it towards Krishnagiri. And yes, we were in 5th and above the 3400 RPM mark for most of the time. AC on and windows rolled up. It was a hot and humid day today on top of that.

At Krishnagiri, asked the driver to stop at the nearest Dhaba possible so that the old folks could stretch and relax a bit. I took off, and despite keeping a light foot on the throttle, the Indica just lagged behind. I realized how inept I am at keeping the car permanently below 80 at all times. Gave up and went on.

Found a decent looking Dhaba but the Indica failed to spot us. Called them, and the driver said there is a good eating post right after Dharmapuri on the right hand side of the road. Got in, started off, caught up with the Indica, leaned the chair back and got into relaxed mode. Eating cake, lays etc. Stuck to the left lane and let everything pass by. Soon this place came up and we stopped for some good old Idli, Vada Sambar, Dosa, the works. Took very long to get through all that. Then there was a photo session with the grandparents and the kid. Started off after one and half hours. Going was slow as the Indica guy knew the turn off point towards Mettur.

The route from Bangalore to Thrissur. Map courtesy Google.

After the turn off, the roads are a bit messy. They are no longer 4 lanes and a median, instead they are 2 lanes and things hurling at each other at breakneck speed. Stayed behind the Indica for a while but that was not helping. The ride was too jarring at such low speeds. Went off ahead and started finding my own road. Had a print of that Map with me so was confident of finding the appropriate turns. Did not have any problems, except that now the other car was way behind and out of touch. Stopped, decided to wait, take a walk, asked everyone else to do the same as well.

Saw the Indica pass by after about 10 minutes. Started another 10 minutes after that in the same direction. The roads were lovely, the scenery was pretty and there was not much of a traffic (initially). Soon it became a little crowded. The numbers were about 3 vehicles to overtake every 5 minutes, which gets a bit tiring very soon. You cannot go slow as the chap in front of you is too slow. You cannot go fast as you do not have enough time and space to pull a 4th gear overtake. Solution is to drop down and zip out. In fact, stuck behind a regular bus, it was hard to maintain 4th gear most of the times.

Got a call from my father in the Indica that they were 30 Kms from Coimbatore. They had no idea where we were. We were 40 Kms from Coimbatore at the same time. Pressed on to catch up with them. Passed Coimbatore only to realize that they were still in the process of crossing it. That’s how bad the miss-match was between the two cars.

Went straight on till I got into Kerala and stopped at a respectable tourism Dhaba. Some photos, walks, general loitering later, the Indica arrived. Everyone had their fries and tea coffee. We started off a good one and half hour after we had arrived. The sun was coming down fast, the road got even narrower, and the sun was right in the eye on the East – West straight road. Indica soon got left behind and I decided not to really keep pace with it. It was really testing my patience by this time.

The Coimbatore – Palakkad – Thrissur section is crowded with trucks headed to and from Chennai to Cochin. Its a mess, specially at dusk when the headlamps come on. By this time I had a Gray fusion ahead to keep pace with. Unladen, it soon disappeared as it looked like it was on familiar roads, not to worry, now I had a CRV to give me company right behind our tail. I was surprised at how long the car takes to shoot off after an overtake, probably an Auto Tranny.

I must admit that at this point, things were very rash, I really wanted to actually be in that Indica instead of this at it would readily go slow and not demand such finesse from the right foot prodding the pedal. At 70 and in 3rd, you are in dangerous territory as any push on the Pedal would make the car lunge forward. At 70 and in 4th, you are way out of the power-band to attempt any serious overtaking with delicate timing. I chose 3rd.

Things got really messy after this. Every single small bike, car, auto coming from the other side was shining full beams of 100+ watt lamps at us making it impossible to see what’s behind them. I passed a truck as I could spot a bike coming from the other side from its headlamps. The moment I gunned the 1.6 in 3rd, a truck right behind the bike switched on its headlamps (he never had them on). This got a bit messy with me brushing the front left nose on the truck tyre in front, light rub and no damage. Enough was enough, switched on all lamps and just drove on.

“When in Rome, do as Romans do”

Now that I was on high beams, even though 60 watts each, the Fogs and the High Beams can blind anything in the front forcing them to slow down, move away or dip beam in the hope that I would comply. Worked very well and soon after the white on green said “Thrissur, 6KM on the right”. After taking the right at some awkwardly unmarked junction and continuing on for another 6 KM, we were safe and set in the Hotel rooms. The Indica arrived about 30 minutes later, the driver looking equally hassled. Touch down, 640 PM.

Start to end time of 10 hrs with breaks (for Fusion) of about 4 hours (ridiculous). FE was not great either as I was mostly in 2nd, 3rd after Coimbatore. I think its 460 Kms and a full tank of Gas, thats 10+ with AC.

Checked in. Checked for wifi. And there was one, not belonging to the Hotel though, but some generic open network of some good soul.

On our way to Chavakkad from Thrissur (another post, later)

The Return

As always, the initial plan to start early and return back never worked. We had to attend a lunch and then start on our way back. Since it was 10 Kms out of Thrissur and on NH47, I decided to pack everyone in and check out from the hotel and continue straight on after the lunch.

By the time we started it was 230 PM, getting the cars out of narrow lanes on the outskirts was a challenge, but did not take much time. It did take a lot of reversing the car.

The Indica promptly stopped for some diesel at the next available pump. I had tanked up the Fusion 2 days back and had done about 120km so I was not in a hurry to tank up again. In fact I was pretty confident on doing the distance without having to stop for gas. Tall order as we were going to have the AC on all the time (kid and grandmom), and NH47 is not a very 5th gear friendly road. If you check the accidents thread on Team BHP, its got a lot from this particular road that connects Chennai and Cochin. Two ports and lots of trucks with barely enough space to fit two trucks.

General landscape after Coimbatore

A solitary tree next to the road

Within no time we were up to speed. Given the road condition, the amount of traffic and the Indica I was in no mood to exceed the 80 kmph mark. Assumed that it would be the speed limit as well. I was wrong, soon I was stopped by a couple of cops with a speed cam, they claimed I was doing 90 kmph, the speedo was definitely showing stuff around 80, and their claim was that in was a 70 kmph zone. Did not wish to waste my time, paid the Rs 300/- and got on my way. Maintained 80 even after that, wondering at what speeds I was actually taking the bends on NH4 on the Pune trip where the speedo showed 140 kmph.

By this time the Indica was lagging far far behind. Stopped for a tea to dilute the effects of a heavy lunch. Waited for about 10 – 15 minutes and yet the Indica never caught up. Simply headed on.

Things went by much faster after that (still at 80, occasionally hitting 90 to overtake), Coimbatore bypass came and things were looking up. The road condition improves from here till Bhavani.

Cat in the System

Just about to get off the newly constructed section of NH47 from Bhavani, halfway till Coimbatore, a cat pounced in front of the car without warning. Braking hard meant that the Sumo behind me would never stop and hit me, braked soft, dropped the speed to about 30 kmph before hitting the cat, never know what happened to that poor fellow but pretty sure it never went under our wheels. A km down some fellows on a bike flagged us down saying there were things dangling. Not surprised I went to the front fearing another major damage, found the center cladding under the bumper dangling. Ripped it off and put it in the boot and drove on for another few kms to stop for some tea.

The Indica finally caught up with us. There was a short pit stop without tea and we took off for Dharmapuri for a dinner stop.

The Route

I was not familiar with the route as SH20 from Bhavani, all the way till Thoppur through Mettur was unknown territory with signages only in Tamil. My only hope was to follow the Indica. Unfortunately started a little late and got stuck behind some tractor trailers trying to make turns. Costed us time and the pilot car for the section. Decided to just drive off and use the local GPS (the chai guy).

Stopped at Poolampatti for some coffee, and chatted up with the shop owner. Turns out he stays in Vijayanagar, and was helping out folks on his holidays at the family shop. Got detailed directions. Picked up speed after Mettur doing 80 – 90 kmph on the now empty SH 20. By 930 we landed up at the dhaba right outside Dharmapuri. Dinner followed and we stopped for about an hour.

Last leg

The last leg was fast. The lovely golden quadrilateral is hardly populated by anything in these areas and locals prefer to avoid the toll road. Result was a steady 100 – 110 without stressing the car at 2500 RPM and 5th. Truck traffic got thicker after Krishnagiri occasionally bogging us down in 2nd but overall time was good, things were looking under control to reach home by 1130.

The kid lost it soon after and got extremely cranky for reasons completely unknown. This made us stop a couple of times trying to figure out the problem while finally the Indica was ahead and we were trailing. Reached home at 1200 midnight after almost 10 hours on the road.

The Fuel

Yep, the car never needed refueling till we stopped and left the car idling outside our house. I normally do that after very long drives. Thats 460 Kms of return and 120 kms of local travel in and around Thrissur. A total of 580 kms + 6 kms in Bangalore done in 38 liters when I got it back to the Auto Cut level at a Gas Station. That’s 15.4 kmpl with AC on at all times and less than perfect roads.

Shortcoming were the lights on the less than perfect NH47 from Palakkad till Thrissur (while going) and SH20 from Bhavai till Thoppur (while coming back). I really wished that the car had a headlamp that it deserved instead of guessing where the next bump or pothole might be. In is not an issue with the wattage, but how everyone else manages to blind you without any effort. The other problem is when you have a good throw on the high-beam, your visibility up front gets highly compromised forcing you to switch on the Fog Lamps. This in turn illuminates almost everything around making the foreground (objects nearer) much brighter than the background (objects far away), a balance is somehow missing.

Overall a good outing. Heading off to Puttaparthi on 16th morning and returning the same day. That’s next.

Round One

Not long ago I used to be a Hyderabadi, or a person who stays in Hyderabad, India and behaves in a certain way. Going to Pondicherry was something I attempted first from Hyderabad, and that too with success and ‘on road’. Hopped in a Volvo from Hyderabad and landed up at Kalasipalayam bus station near Majestic in Bangalore. Did I mention that I really did not plan the trip through? I guess I did not. So here I was, at Kalasipalayam, wondering what or how to get till Pondicherry from here. The only people I knew in Bangalore at that point of time, were In Pondicherry waiting for me. Kind of futile to go looking for a place to stay in this expensive place after that. I also had the option of going straight to Chennai from Hyderabad and then get to Pondicherry. Wonder why I did not do that!

Kalasipalayam is a place where you get things easily. First thing I needed after the overnight travel was to freshen up, visit the loo, take a shower etc. Even before that I needed to sort out the whole travel plan which at this point was kind of haywire. Went from ticket shop to ticket shop, and nothing was available before late evening. At this point I realized that the bast bet for me was Karnataka State Transport. Got myself a ticket, which was not easy, had to get an agent who could then go and get the ticket. Now that the agent was off to get My Ticket, I had time to do the rest, freshen up, loo, bath etc. Finding a loo was the next challenge, finding one large enough to park my bag and take a bath was bigger challenge, finding one that was clean was impossible.

Did what I had to do, did a few rounds of the shopping / office complexes nearby and located a toilet large enough to park my bags and take a shower. Got hold of a guy to get it cleaned, once done I sent him off to get the State Transport Bus Ticket. He is a local to that area and will not have to face harassment from the agents as well. Plus he gets to make a harmless extra buck. In one hours time I was all set with a ticket, bathed, shaved to hit the road. This was summer so a RayBan was mandatory. Once in the bus I parked myself firmly on a central driver side seat next to a window and just tried to merge with the people around. Although no one understood a word that I could speak (Hindi, Bengali and Little Gujarati) still they tried and so did I. Found a lot of fellows that were making the Journey all the way. The present NH7 (Hosur to Krishnagiri) was getting constructed in those days and the ride was bumpy with one diversion after the other. State transport buses stop generously and for longer duration and getting a Tea every now and then with Wada Sambar was great. Starting at 8 AM, the bus took a staggering 12 hours to reach Pondicherry. The route map is on the attached image.

The road from Bangalore to Krishnagiri

Round Two

This was a year after that. And this time I took the most non-interactive option of Road Travel from Bangalore. I got into a Volvo from Sharma Travels and I travelled cocooned in Air Conditioned Luxury till Pondicherry without even realizing when or where the Bus made a stop. This was a very boring ride from a Road Trip point of view. From comfort point of view it was great. Given the circumstances, don’t remember much apart from getting into the bus and getting off the bus early next morning. But who wants to travel this way!

The main difference from Round One was, people knew how to communicate with me, but somehow no one (including me) made any effort.

From Bangalore, the tricky turn off to Pondicherry on NH66 is after Krishnagiri

While coming back, there is a confusing left at Tandivanam. Best is to ask for Tandivanam and be prepared.

Round Three (Holi, 2008)

What I did not mention in the first two rounds is that in the first one I was going to meet my Girlfriend, in the second I was going to meet her parents. In the third one, we were married and were going to the Bank on a Saturday. On reaching the bank we realized that it was a holiday and well, it was shut. I work from home and have little or no clue about public holidays, most of my clients work from home as well.

While coming back, there is a confusing left at Tandivanam. Best is to ask for Tandivanam and be prepared. So here we were, a perfect saturday morning, around 10 AM and the only thing we had planned for was not possible. Got back home and decided to head for Pondicherry. Grabbed the Map Book, and the Copy of 52 Weekend Getaways and headed off after filling the tank. Bang, and 11 30 AM we were crossing Silk Board Junction and were on a crowded Hosur Road. Once you cross Attibeli on this road, things ease out a lot, and speeds become a lot faster. There are two reasons for this, One: it was a holiday and there were very few vehicles on the road. Two: The going is mostly downhill and the car just glides on. Before we knew it, we were at the Toll Gate and asking for directions. The chap at the collection booth was very helpful, somehow they all are, he clearly said go over the first Flyover and under the second. Turn left and immediately take the First Right. Did exactly that and was on the Krishnagiri Chennai road. Although the road looked very inviting, we had to take a right almost immediately onto NH66.

A tanker in front of us. I somehow have a talent to stop right behind them at toll gates.

Leaving the toll gate behind

NH66

NH66 is not one of those swanky Golden Quadrilateral roads. Its just a simple basic National Highway. It does not have a lane divider, does not have the white markings at most places, and has very little population around it as well. What it is though is a gem of the track to drive on. The road was perfect for an unladen heavy hatch doing 3 digit speeds. Also for the fact that there was hardly any traffic from either direction on the road. At around 2 PM, Tiruvannamali came up, we stopped at the first available road side shop and sampled Fish Curry and Rice. All charged and slightly heavy, we headed on and reached Pondicherry at around 4 30 PM.

On NH66. Gives an idea of the road.

Pondicherry

After battling the minor city traffic we headed off to Sri Aurobindo Ashram, parked the vehicle nearby and continued on foot. Thats the best way to roam about within Pondicherry. If you have to go a little outside, you can always hire a Kinetic or a Scooty of take your own vehicle. After a darshan at the Ashram, we headed to the beach, had some Gol Guppas, some Chat, and did all the Beach Things that we don’t get to do in Bangalore. At 7 30 we called it a day and started heading back.

Looking for a parking spot in Pondicherry

Pondicherry has a lot of Good (bordering on very good) places to stay near the Beach road. These are mostly 3 – 4 Floors of small hotels with ample amount of amenities to let you live and enjoy the city. Not very expensive either. You can also opt for staying at the Ashram Guest house, but that would surely need advance booking and known contacts within the Ashram.

Heading Back

We had our doubts weather we will find our way back in the dark or not. Weather we will be tired to drive back and may have to stay over and head off only the next day. We had many questions. Decided that after a few Kilometers we will have the answer anyway. heading back we were not alone. There was a Hyundai Accent before us who clearly was local (number plate) and I decided to follow him happily shielded from the task of navigating hard. There was a problem though, the fellow in the Accent would brake at almost any light that he saw on the horizon and so did we. After about 50 times of such false alarm, I decided to get ahead and make my own track. Overtaking the Accent was a breeze, just went behind him (not too close as he could brake again) and blinked. As expected, he did not move out of the way but braked, I took this opportunity to pass him from the Right and say goodbye. The next 70 Km was calm. It was us, the Music from the iPod playing though an irritating FM transmitter, still it was good. And there was moonlight, from a Full Moon. The drive was getting better but we were loosing time trying to travel on unknown roads. Though we were faster than when sitting behind the Accent, we were not as fast as we had hoped to be.

A blink on the rear view gave me the shudders. Have I been traveling so slow that the Accent actually caught up with us?

Nope, this was a Maroon Innova with a Yellow Number Plate. Yesss!!! This was our answer to make up on lost time. I let the Innova pass and quietly tucked in behind him. He was fast and doing healthy 100 + speeds on roads that were obviously well known to him. We dod not follow too close, but maintained enough distance to just have his tail lamps visible to us. A lot of fast Mile Crunching went on and we were back in Tiruvannamali, this time for Dinner.
After having a basic dinner and tea, we were back on the road. The Innova was no where to be found, but we kept up the momentum never the less. The sparsely populated roads were now deserted and absolutely dark. Nature paid us a visit soon after. To my horror the car was filled with Large Ants near the driver area and we had to get them cleaned out. We stopped and soon were questioned by Police Patrol. They asked us not to stop on the deserted section and only stop after reaching Krishnagiri, which was a few Kilometers away. We cleaned up good at Krishnagiri and topped up Tea and Coffee, and headed straight out.

Barring minimal truck traffic, the road was empty till about Attibeli where a lot of Large Trucks carrying windmill components were blocking most of the road. This delayed us a bit but not much. At around 1245 we were at our doorstep.