Summer vacation 2008

Vacations today are nothing like when we were kids – in school, the word vacations encompassed months, in college, months shrunk to weeks, and in corporate lingo, vacations better be expressed in single-digit days!! I am extensive traveller, thanks to my manager’s superb self-control when I turn up at his desk to beg for a leave 😀 . Well, most of these travels are with friends, and lately, I was feeling pretty guilty that I rarely travel with my parents. So it was, that in late April, I decided to take a long weekend break and travel to God’s own country with my parents. Now, for a person born and brought up in Bangalore, Kerala is a pretty horrid place to go to in the summer months, but Kerala it had to be, for I knew not another place that my parents would enjoy travelling to. And so, we set out at dawn on the 17th of April. Dad, of course, at the wheel.

We took the outer ring road out of Bangalore towards Mysore road. Mysore road today is a far cry from what it used to be a few years ago. The twin-lane highway has expanded into four lanes, with a concrete divider. During daytime, the jaywalking villagers, their animals and slow bullock-carts are a hindrance to fast driving, but the villages had hardly woken up at that hour. We whizzed along with a cool breeze ducking in and out of the windows. In two hours, we had reached Mysore, at which point we planned to ask truckers about the road’s condition. If we planned to take the Sultanbathery route, I knew the roads were alright, but I wanted to drive longer through the Bandipur forests and travel via Nilambur. Stopping at a petrol pump to top off and check air-pressures, we were aghast to find that the car had guzzled seventeen litres of gas for a mere 140 km. Now we were seriously biased against the Nilambur route, as I had not seen any LPG dispensing stations on that road. Nevertheless, we decided to take the Nilambur route, and set out of Mysore towards Nanjangud and Gundlupet. We stopped off at the Cafe Coffee-Stop out of Nanjangud. It is set in a peaceful locale, with lots of real-estate to walk and stretch cramped limbs. The place is neat too, unlike those in Gundlupet. We feasted on dosas and coffee, and soon, it was time to leave. Dad refused to let me drive – he was enjoying handling the just-serviced car on the smooth albeit narrow highway!!

We reached Gundlupet in a few minutes and, with a perfunctory glance at the faithful Sulthanbathery road, moved across to the road towards Nilambur. The road is in a horrible state for a distance of around 10 km out of Gundlupet, if one could call that a road. Thereafter, we entered the Bandipur forest range, with “jungle lodges” dotting the landscape. A few kilometres on, we entered the real forest, and I was thankful that I was not driving – now I could devote my time and attention to looking for animal herds, rather than on the road.. 🙂 . We were lucky enough to spot a herd of spotted deer, some peafowl and many many herds of elephants. It was certainly a treat to watch the baby elephants frolicking around. Though i wanted to go on the famed Bandipur jungle safari, the onward journey beckoned, and we proceeded towards Gudalur. Gudalur is a quaint little town bordering the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and it is believed that the place got it’s name from this fact. Somehow, Gudalur reminded me of Ooty.. 🙂 . Soon we were at the Karnataka border check-post. The guards looked like they wanted to ask me something, but backed-off at my fierce expression 😉 . On a previous trip, they had extorted some money from me for opening the gate, hence the fierce expression this time 😉 . We proceeded to the Tamil Nadu checkpost, where we had to pay Rs. 25/- as entry fee. This fee is acknowledged with a receipt. A few yards on, all vehicles were being examined by policemen. After this, the road got progressively narrow-er towards Nilambur. I asked Dad to stop by the side, and forcefully took over the wheel 🙂 . Yes, I love driving, especially on roads with twists and turns.

Now we were to proceed to a place called Nadugani. We asked for directions and were told to take a right turn. Folks, at the first traffic signal(with traffic lights!!) out of Gudalur, take a right turn towards Nadugani. We were soon buzzing along towards Nadugani. The road was ok, but I could sense the radial tyres struggling to maintain traction. I did not, sensibly, attempt any dangerous overtakes. Soon, we reached a junction with a closed forest gate on the left. Folks, this gate is easy to miss – you will reach here in approx. 20 mins after the right-turn I told you about. There is a small hand-written board that points the way; make sure your navigator is sharp-eyed!! A guard rushed to open the gates, and we were soon entering the Nadugani ghat section. During the previous monsoon, there was a landslide that blocked vehicular traffic upto Nilambur. The repairs have already been completed on the Kerala side, and still going on on the Tamil Nadu side. I navigated cautiously over the non-existent road, fighting to keep the tyres from skidding off. And at last, crossed over to the Kerala side. Yahoo!! The road condition changes abruptly. The famed rubberized road with yellow markings on either side.

I hardly ever touched the brakes on the ghat section. The roads are banked beautifully and the traffic is far and few in between. I felt a vertigo attack coming on, so I did not slow down to enjoy the sights. In minutes, we were out of the ghat section. Till now the weather was a sport, but now the heat was turning on. Amma was feeling a little sick from all the twists and bumps – I dont know why she dislikes wearing the seatbelt – so we stopped off for a nice salty fresh lime soda. We started off again, with Dad back at the wheel.

We reached Nilambur and rushed pronto to the LPG re-fuelling station, only to find that the car had used just 7 litres of gas for the drive from Mysore to Nilambur!! The figures were really impossible, what with the horrible roads and the ghat section, so we just assumed over-filling at Mysore. On enquiring at the pump, we were told to take the road to the left at the next fork, and drive on to Perinthalmanna. There was a shorter route, the man said, but I guess it was too complicated for him to explain to us.. 🙂 . We decided to set off and ask for directions along the way. We need’nt have worried, for there were the “Guruvayur, Sabarimala this way” sign-boards at all major junctions. Anyway, folks, to get to Guruvayur, you have to travel via Pattambi, and take a turn at Wandoor towards Kunnamkulam. Just to be sure, do ask at every junction 🙂 .

One thing I noticed was that there are almost no good hotels on this road – after a lot of slow-driving and searching, we settled for a typical Kerala meal at a run-down place. From there it was all smooth driving to Guruvayur via Kunnamkulam, and we had driven just 380 km in 8 hours.. pretty cool eh?

We stayed a day at Guruvayur, and two days at Cochin, mostly spent in visiting relatives. Was thankful to escape the stifling humidity and heat, back to cooler climes of Bangalore!!