02:15 am, National Highway 63, around 15 kilometers before Hubli…

A Mahindra Bolero screeched to a stand-still on the other side of the road. As we got out of the vehicle, I could see 2 burly guys in white shirts holding something that looked like a hockey stick. My skin went pale and I could feel a cold chill pass through my spine. Scared to death, but the first thing I thought of? ‘Finally, the “blog” incident I needed for this trip!’

Two days earlier…

This was going to be my third Goa trip in 6 months. But I was always thrilled by Goa’s atmosphere, moreover we were driving and it was my first chance to try the Scorpio. So I could safely say that I was all excited in anticipation.

For the onward journey, we had taken a rather unconventional route from Bangalore, via Belgaum into Maharashtra (Sawantwadi) and then to Goa. The roads were narrow and mountainous after we crossed the Maharashtra border. But it was decently maintained and had low traffic with the added plus of a scenic drive through the villages and mountains. We reached Goa by about 10. The next two days was spent on experiencing the things that you come to Goa for – the beaches and the booze! My co-travelers were also much luckier than me with the casinos and managed to win around 5k!

But the real adventure started after we left Goa. We took the more standard route back, via Karwar and Hubli. Somewhere on the forest roads towards Hubli, after Yellapur, our headlights started to dim out. We first thought the battery had gone weak and then realized that the alternator had burnt out. The electrical systems in the car started failing one by one and finally our headlights were gone and we were left with just one feeble park-light. There were no big settlements before reaching Hubli, which was still around 50-60 kms away. It was already 11PM and our best chance would have been to get to Hubli somehow and find a mechanic there. So we stuck to the first truck we could find with a proper enough backlight and tailed along with it, with no lights of our own at all.

After a few kilometers of tagging along, the truck driver in front of us stopped as he realized that we were in trouble. He came to have a look but there was nothing he could fix. Hubli was still 25 km away and the driver told us to keep following him, and that he’ll guide us to Hubli. So we went along. 10 km ahead and our engine cut off. There was not enough power to even drive the control unit of the engine. :( Tough luck. The same technology that is bread and butter for me via Bosch, made us get stuck in the middle of nowhere.

We asked the truck driver to carry on, since there was nothing more he could do. We pushed the car to the side of the road and tried in vain to reach everyone (the limited few) whom we knew of, in Hubli. We called up the Hubli traffic police and informed them of our situation. But they couldn’t do anything either till morning. We couldn’t even lock the car, because the battery didn’t have enough power to roll the car windows back up. We were basically stuck; without food or water till morning which was still 8 hours away. So we set up camp inside the car. The mood was still ok, with everyone joking about all that happened. Then came the Bolero; just after 2 o’clock while we were still sitting and chatting.

…

The two big guys rushed towards us and asked me something in Kannada. I told him I don’t understand the language very well. He gave me a cold stare, and then proceeded to go through all of our luggage. We (atleast me) were still scared to speak much. Suddenly as the Bolero moved to cross the road into our side, I noticed a green board with the lettering ‘Police’. I breathed a big sigh of relief! They asked us a lot of questions and still looked very intimidating. They told us that the road is not very safe, but what could we do – we cannot abandon the car there and go. They told us to stay there at our own risk and then get a mechanic in the morning. Then they took away 3 bottles of port wine that we had bought in Goa telling that it wasn’t legal (my @#%#)! But loosing a bit of wine was way better than what I had thought would happen initially; so it wasn’t that bad ;). We were terribly disappointed by the attitude they showed to us; though. Not even showing a hint of helpfulness.

After this incident I guess we all started to get tense. Only then we started to realize how much of a risk we were taking staying at that place. There were too many what-ifs running through my mind. What if the an overtaking truck knock us off the highway? What if a group of thugs come and beat us up? etc etc. I couldn’t sleep for even a bit, till the sun came back out.

Morning came as a relief of all of us. Ranjith suggested that we push start the vehicle. It didn’t seem a great idea to me; since the engine could cut off while running at any moment the battery dies out. But we decided to try and then limp ahead to Hubli some 15 more kilometers ahead. We pulled out all the equipment that could take away even a milliamp of power – the horn, the music system, the brake-light, the indicators – everything, leaving the engine control unit all the bits of power it could get to make the engine running for atleast 30 minutes. We push started the car and went as fast as we could to Hubli. And we made it! 8.30 am and we were finally back in civilization and in the Hubli railway station parking lot. We got a mechanic to repair our alternator. It took us 5 or 6 more hours; but finally we had the car repaired; all roaring to go. No worries left, we reached Bangalore, just before midnight.

All’s well that ends well! :)

Map of the route we took. Marker ‘F’ is approximately the place we got stuck.

Goa photos coming soon!

We planned and even started off the latest in the series of ‘Keeral’ trips with the destination set to Goa. We even booked a place to stay there for a change, but circumstances (to be specific ‘Traffic’ and professional unpunctuality) made us end up at Chikmagalur, a good 700 kilometres away! First of all, we were left hung out to dry by some idiot in Calicut who had promised to rent us an Innova. We were delayed by around 8 hours when finally we managed to get a replacement car (a Qualis!). The plan was that Kurian and Hazer drove to Bangalore, meet the rest of the gang here and leave in the evening. But we ended up leaving Bangalore at 11.30 PM instead. And to our luck all the roads were jam packed with lorries and buses owing to the Diwali rush. So we made a quick decision to change routes and head towards Chikmagalur without having much of an idea about what to expect there.

Bad luck didn’t seem to end with the traffic though. It was around 5am now and I had been driving for around 3hrs and thinking about handing over the wheel to Hazer. But then the roads became suddenly better and I thought maybe a little bit more. Well bad judgement! As we were cruising along the superb roads, suddenly a huge gutter appeared from nowhere and before anything could be done, the car was in it with a huge thud. I knew something was wrong then and there as the steering suddenly had a jerk. We had to stop and luckily the town of Hassan was just 4 km away. We decided to limp on till there and get help. But that would mean another 3 or 4 more hours lost because the earliest of the earliest workshop guy would open shop max at 9. So we decided to do a gamble and change the front tyres because we had a feeling that the problem was that the wheel-rim was bent. Bad luck didn’t end there either, we did not have a lifting jack in the car to prop it up and change tyres. A good lorry driver lent us one though and we managed to do it and bingo problem solved! :(

The road from Hassan to Chikmagalur was awesome and picturesque. We stopped over at the town, had our breakfast, still having no clue as to what to do next. We called up Kurians friend and he told us about a few worthwhile places around. So we set off to the first one in the list – ‘Kemmangundi’. The road was all kaput, but the spectacular vistas made up for it more than enough. It took us a lot of time to traverse the 50 km to the place, but I would say it was great to be forced to drive slow as we could soak in the brilliant atmosphere around. We booked a place to stay there and head off to a place called ‘Point Z’. The road was motorable only for a little bit and after that you have to trek. I went along for a while but seeing the steepness of the mountains to climb I chickened out and went back to the car while the others continued. It wasn’t much of a miss though, since the peak was covered with mist. The one hour I spent waiting in the car was a totally different experience! It was mystical, alone in the forest, no access to mobile networks, knowing the nearest human is at least 5km away. I tried to soak in the experience as much as I could before my tiredness got the better off me and pushed me to sleep.

The night was spent in a dilapidated cottage playing cards and gossiping. Two years on and we still had something about college to talk about! The food was not that great and damn expensive – but that didn’t stop us from spending close to a thousand bucks there! The other major incident was the fight against the leeches. Each time somebody removes one from his leg, the next guy would start yelling ‘Leech!’ It seemed to go on endlessly. After a lot of blood and a lot of salt we managed to win the battle (it seemed).

Next day morning the plan was laid to go off to Kudremukh. We stopped over again at Chikmagalur town to have lunch and continued on to the next leg of the trip. We ended up driving most of the day, but again the roads were good and the surroundings smashtacular! At Kudremukh we went to this place called as Gangamoola which is the place were the mighty Tungabhadra river starts. It was again a nice place, but with more leeches. This time we were more careful and didn’t let too many of the slimy little things to prey on us. The only place to stay in Kudremukh is a forest department dormitory unless you are an employee of the iron ore company there. It was a very cheap option and also had the added thrill of staying right in the middle of the forest, though nothing noteworthy really happened there.

Next day was an early start since the guys had to reach back in Calicut by atleast 8PM before dropping us in Mysore. The roads again were beautiful by all means. We were able to do 200 km easily in 2-2.5 hours. By lunch time we had reached Mysore, had food at a mallu hotel there and it was time for us to split. Being totally unplanned we weren’t able to enjoy all the places to the fullest. We calculated that out of the 84 hours of the trip, around 50 was spent driving! But I’m not complaining at all! :) All the places we went to had a lot more to offer and I’m sure we’ll be back, well prepared next time!

Album @ Picasa

Bytes were being churned, products were being released, books were being digested and Life continued monotonously. It was time to go off the beaten track again and this time our journey took us to that majestic corner of Kerala called Wyanad.

Bachu, Kurian and I started off from Bangalore towards Kozhikode on a rainy night. There we were joined by Ranjith, Hazer, Anand bhai and Bose from such far away lands as Chennai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram ;) The plan was to rent a car and drive into Wyanad and as usual do what we do best – go where the roads take us. Using the deep rooted network of Bachu (the king of Kozhikode) we managed to rent a Toyota Innova without driver at a very cheap rate.

First day we started off with the goal set to Kuruva islands, but on the way after some typical spontaneous (in)decision making, we shifted target to Chembra peak. The route to Chembra is through a private estate and you need to pay a 20 rupee gate pass to take your vehicle through. We could travel only up to the end of tea estate and from there began the long 5Km (estimated) trek. It was incidentally Bose’s birthday that day and we gave him a grand celebration he will not forget, atop a small forest guards’ watch tower on the way to the peak. Half way through the path to the peak, yours truly lost all his stamina and decided to wait, while others tried for glory. It was a big miss though, and from the photos they took the peak was an amazing place with a small reservoir on top of it! Anyway Chembra is definitely in the must-visit list for Wyanad.

By evening we left Chembra for Thirunelly. The drive through the forest in the night was fun. The major attraction in Thirunelly was an ancient Vishnu temple there, and in another first for our trips, this was the first spiritual destination in all of the 16 trips we have had. We only just had time to have a quick darshan just before the temple closed at 8PM. That night we stayed at a decent government owned lodge there costing us merely 40 bucks per head.

After visiting Lord Vishnu again the next morning, we headed down towards the Kuruva islands. En route, I managed to put the car into a small gutter resulting in some annoyed looks from the co-passengers. Shrugging off their looks I continued on and 100 metres ahead as I looked into my rear view mirror, I could see a tyre lying on the road behind us! And yeah you guessed right, it was one of ours! Shocked, my first reaction was “Oh my god! Am I driving on 3 wheels?” Well that couldn’t be.. it was only our spare tyre that somehow slipped from under the chassis. Hazer the master took to the task and in no time we had the tyre back up. It was an experience especially since all this happened right in the middle of the forest and we had seen 2 or 3 boards saying ‘Do not stop your vehicle’ and ‘Do not leave your vehicle’. ;)

We did’nt find Kuruva island that interesting, but probably because we expected more because of a lot of hype surrounding it. Anyway crossing the river by walking across it to reach the island was not that bad. We left the place by afternoon in search of a lesser known destination Meenmutty waterfalls near the Tamil Nadu border. This is one thing you should not miss! I do not know how to explain the adrenalin, the nature, the greenery in words. You have to be there to believe it. The place requires a 5KM walk of which 4KM is a treacherous climb down through non-existent paths. It was the most thrilling experience I have ever had. For every small step you take, you need to convince your brain that you are not going to die. Seriously!

It was an early start to Sunday as we headed towards the Muthanga wild life reserve. Though we were early, we were unlucky and couldn’t see too many animals except for some deers, foxes and peacocks. Hard luck! But anyway the forest experience was enjoyable indeed. By afternoon after a brief stop over at Banasurasagar dam, it was time to head back home. The journey back again was another adventure. We had to stand all the way from Kalpetta to Mysore in a KSRTC FP and just about got seats in the last non-stop bus from Mysore to B’lore, reaching home somewhere around 2AM.

It was tiring but brilliant fun! So glad that these trips keep on going.. on and on… Lesson for the day? When you need a break, go back to nature, its well worth the effort :)

The Route:

Kozhikode – Kalpetta – Meppadi – Chembra
Chembra – Meppadi – Panamaram – Thirunelly
Thirunelly – Kattikulam – Kuruvadweep
Kuruwadweep – Meenangadi – towards TN Border – Meenmutti
Meenmutti – Sultan’s Battery – Muthanga
Muthanga – Sultan’s Battery – Ambalavayal – Banasurasagar Dam
Banasurasagar Dam – Kalpatta – Sultan’s Battery – Gundalpet – Nanjancode – Mysore – Bangalore

Tips:

• Petrol pumps are few and far between, so ensure that your tanks are filled at the major towns.
• Keep your base as Kalpetta or Sulthan Bathery and then plan as it is difficult to get acco. at other places, unless you are looking at expensive resorts.
• Have some salt handy as leech attacks are possible in the forest.
• When going into the forest, do visit the nearest forest department office as they might have important information and some places do require a written permission from the department to travel into (which is free of cost).
• English is more or less understood but don’t always bet on it especially in the more remote areas, so it is always better to do your homework and plan if you do not have someone with knowledge of Malayalam with you.
• Enjoy the forest and don’t complain too much about inconveniences, because the whole point of going to the forest is that it is a Forest… away from civilization! :)

Once again, when life seemed to get monotonous, we as usual decided to pack our bags for possibly (hopefully not) our last trip together. The destinations we chose this time were Ooty and Nelliampathy.

We set off on a Friday night, just prior to our last week in college, on a Toyota Innova. Our first stop was Mettupalayam, a small town in the foothills of the Nilgiris. The plan was to go up the hills to Ooty on the heritage toy train. We reached the railway station at 4 am and the train was due to leave only at 7, so we had some time to kill and we had a walk around the station. It was a surreal experience; it was like we were visiting some ghost town! The train stood there all empty… There were lights on everywhere, but no human being anywhere… It was indeed a cool experience, but our tired eyes wouldn’t let us enjoy more and we happily slept for three hours on the nice hard benches at the station…

As we woke up, just before the train was about to leave, the scene was totally different. The station was now bustling with activity. We took tickets for ourselves and crammed into the small compartment. The tickets for the 5 hour, 45 kilometer journey were just Rs. 11 ($0.2) each! The train started off in style… the music of the steam-engine was just awesome. My first time on a steam train and I was lucky enough to get the compartment right next to the engine! After a while on the plains came the real deal. The train went up the slopes with the assistance of spike-like tracks. The ride was a bit bumpy, but that only added to the fun, we weren’t really there a luxury ride either :). The view outside the window meanwhile began to change from beautiful to breathtaking. My camera clicked on and on and on; trying to capture every one of those beautiful views… but you really have to be there… you really do to enjoy it to the max!

The train made a lot of stops to fill in water and everyone of those halts seem to be planned to be on an awesome spot. There was plenty of time to wander around and enjoy the wild-beauty while the engine drank some water. After our journey through small lovely stations tastefully named “Hill grove”, “Lovedale” etc. we finally reached the first major station uphill, Conoor. Our time constraints forced us to abandon the train and continue the journey via road. When we finally reached Ooty, there was our Innova and our faithful driver, Aneesh waiting for us. It took him just one and a half hours for the climb, while it cost us five… but trust me, every second was worth it!!

Ooty seems to be a much cleaner place than it was during my last visit some five years ago. We roamed around a few of the normal tourist spots like the Botanical Gardens and Doda Betta , shopped a bit at the Tibetan market, walked around the lake and race-course and then finally on the next day bid adieu to Ooty town and headed west back to my Kerala.

Our next stop was a very little known hill-station called Nelliampathy. We didn’t even know how to get there and was a little bit apprehensive about whether it would be worth the effort… but we soon found out that all our doubts were needless. The drive up itself was challenging. The high range roads were all single lane and our driver was driving as if he was competing in a rally. :) hehe. When we finally reached there, the locals advised us to go to a place called Mānpāra. Our Innova wasn’t four-wheel drive so we had to hire a jeep.

The jeep driver asked for Rs.500 and when we protested, he said we need to pay him only if we found that the drive was worth it… well after our experience, we would have paid him double that had we had the funds ;) The ride began on a tarred road leading to an estate and once we were inside it, the roads changed to a bit muddy. The ride started to get a lot bumpier… and after a while there was no more road left! Then after a little bit more we were riding on huge stones… and after that on big rocks! It was just awesome, seemed like we were on a never ending roller-coaster ride! After around 40 minutes of this life-or-death drive we reached the foothills of our destination. One hour ago I wouldn’t have believed any vehicle could climb up to where our jeep guy was pointing to… but now I had to… this guy could make that jeep climb up anything, anywhere. He put the jeep on gear 1 and floored the pedal down to the floor… The jeep roared and roared up to maximum power and we propelled up the steep (really steep) slope. We were all screaming with joy. And at the end, as we reached the top of the world, he did a 360 degree turn for us without even bothering to brake. Just at that moment I really thought we were tumbling down to somewhere below! :). Oh boy! No words can express what we felt then.

The view from Mānpāra was awesome too. Definitely one of the best places I have ever been to. The place was quite empty too… devoid of the crowds at other tourist places. That added to the charm of the place. After spending an hour, we made our journey down. It was by now quite dark and our jeep driver, to add to thrill I suppose, drove down without the headlights turned on. We enjoyed ourselves talking about the what ifs…. what if the jeep broke down, what if the tyre got punctured, what if the petrol tank got empty… but the Mr. Jeep Guy had a solution for all that. Hehe… I became an instant fan of this guy… definitely the best driver I have ever met!!

So people… whatever happens you really have to go to Nelliampathy at least once in your life. Trust me, it is a life-changing experience! :)

The drive back home was filled with a lot of discussions and speculations on whether we would be able to continue with our series of lovely trips, now that college is getting over and we are going our different ways. We split promising that we’ll at least try our very best to make trip number 11 a reality :)

How to get there?
Ooty
From Trivandrum, Ernakulam : Via NH47 upto Coimbatore. Then to Mettupalayam which is 53 kms away. The railway station should be easy to find. There is only one train a day, which leaves at 7.15 am and reaches there by 12.30
From Bangalore and North India: Take the NH209 via Mysore, Chamrajnagar, Satymangalam and then to Mettupalayam.

Nelliampathy
From Ooty:
Come down to Coimbatore city and then on to Palakkad via NH47. Continue down via NH47, and then take a left at Alathur. Nelliampathy is around 70 kms away from Palakkad.
From Trivandrum : Go up to Thrissur and then on to Vadakkancheri on the NH47. Turn right at Mangalam to reach Nemmara then to Poothundy Dam and to Nelliampathy.

One of the most beautiful places I have seen is a paradise called Munnar. So, when some of my friends suggested that we go for a trip to the place, I was more than happy to YES. I had been there just once before but I had already fallen in love with it, at first sight.

Seven of us crammed into a Toyota Qualis on a Saturday night (Jan 7) and set off. We took the more scenic routes, all those extra miles where worth every bit. It was a surreal experience travelling through the winding mountain roads cutting through the thick fog that surrounded us. You couldn’t see anything five feet beyond! As we reached higher though, we were a bit worried about the fog, since it could blur out all that beautiful scenery. But god was kind to us and the fog cleared at the right time. We parked near a tea-plantation on the way and had a lot of fun walking amidst the tea plants down the steep slopes. The greenery around us was truly breathtaking. Only now can I understand why Kerala is in fact “God’s own Country”!

We didn’t stay for long at Munnar town and headed to Rajamalai a part of the Eravikulam National Park. It was a short light trek up the mountains. Unlike my last visit, this time we were able to see the famous Nilgiri Thars… an endangered animal. Nothing special about them though, just wild goats! But again the view from the top was sensational. It also provided us with plenty of photo opportunities, and being the way we are, never missed one of them :) Oh, that old rusty shack, which inspired the title of this site during my last visit, still stood there.. neglected but brave! :D

Our next stop was an unlikely tourist centre called Marayoor. It is famous for its sandalwood forests and notorious for its sandalwood smugglers. There we were lucky to enjoy the hospitality of two locals – Babuji and “Comrade” Johnson. One of them was the local committee secretary of the Communist Party and the other was an ardent Congress party worker. You can guess the fun we had listening to their never ending amusing arguments about Kerala politics! They had a small place at the edge of the forest where they helped us to cook some food for ourselves. Our stomachs’ full, we set off to Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary.

The road is such that it cuts 40kms through the forest. I was wondering what would have happened had our vehicle broken down somewhere there! Hmm. The forest has a huge population of Elephants and Tigers, but unfortunately we had to be satisfied with seeing a few peacocks, a lot of monkeys and two or three deers. We also encountered a crocodile reserve on the way and we succeded in gettting into trouble taking a few photographs there, when it was stated quite clearly that photography was disallowed! Anyway “somehow” we managed to pull out from that mess and headed straight to Pollachi and our way back home.

The trip back was mostly filled with gossip and prank calls to friends who couldn’t make it ;) But one thing of note were the huge windmills by the side of the highway. Made for some nice picture postcards! Tuesday early morning after a brief stop over at Ranjith’s home in Alappuzha we were back in good old Trivandrum and then were those loooong zzzzs.

For the complete photo gallery, simply click here :).

How to get there?
From Trivandrum: The best route is to take the MC road to Ayur, then to Pathanamthitta, Pirmed, Thekkadi, Kallar, Devikolam and finally to Munnar. This seems to be the best option to me. Our return leg was from Marayoor to Udumalpettai, then Pollachi, Nenmara, Thrissur and then back to Trivandrum via NH 47. That was a (very) long route, but the drive through the forests was really exciting!
From Kochi: NH 49 via Muvattupuzha, but then you will miss the beauty of the Devikolam-Munnar road. One solution is to go to Devikolam just for the pleasure after reaching Munnar. But if you don’t want that, you can go to Thodupuzha from Muvattupuzha, then to Iddukki, Devikolam and Munnar. That route would cost you atleast 50km additional though.
From the North: From Bangalore via NH 209 to Coimbatore, Pollachi, Udumalaipetta, Chinnar, Marayoor and then to Munnar. Since you are coming down all this way you can also go to Thekkady via Devikolam and you wont miss the sight of all the tea-plantations :)
From outside India: Take a flight to Trivandrum or Kochi. Then as above. :D