A long trip

I love driving, my favourite past time to go for a long ride on the east coast road on my motorcycle. The east coast road extends from chennai to pondicherry and is a serene place where you can find speed limits like 100km/hr. I can take time off my usually hustle bustle and spend hours listening to the waves rush and collapse on the sand with the moon visible above on the beaches that the road hugs all through. Chennai's beaches are a favourite getaway. It helps that the flights that come down to the chennai airport take the path along the beach, and I can try to imagine all the sights in the beautiful cities they are flying in from. Lufthansa from Frankfurt, that one is from Dubai, one from Heathrow. frequent trips to pick my close friends at the airport and I always fly Lufthanse, so the usual arrival times are familiar to me. :)

I prefer driving mostly on the wrong side of the speed limit. :) After a couple of incidents (never had an accident in over three years), that gave me rubber legs, I decided it was time to throw away the bike and get a four-wheeler. The reason is not just that a four wheeler is safer, a car is simply not fast enough to get to the speeds I do on a powerful two wheeler. ( I would get myself a new bike later, that is resting at home without a rider with less than a month's riding, in over an year. LOL) . I would get a second hand fiat palio, my first real car, small and fast, suits me perfectly, Nope I don't consider the one my Pop paid for as mine.

I had promised a loved one studying in Kodaikanal, that I would come visit, after many broken promises, I decided it was time I kept my word. So I requested my roommate to come along
and the plan was to drive the 600 something km from chennai. Should take around 15 hours as the mapmyindia webpage calculated.

It would be fun. My roommate had some last minute plans to go home, leaving me alone. Now once I decide something there is no turning back. After getting the car cleaned, doing the usual checks, all fluids, brakes and the spare tire etc, (yes I can change a wheel in under 5 minutes) set off.

The plan was to avoid the direct route through trichy, which was under construction, useful info from a friend who goes home every other weekend, decided on the salem route which would go alongside the temple at palani and up the hills to kodaikanal.

In around three hours reached the sleepy town of Krishagiri, off the chennai bangalore highway, it is easy to drive fast here, usually do around 130 or more here. (That is faster than I manage here in Canada. :) ) It was already past midnight and after a week's work I was tired like hell. The thumbrule I follow on long drives is never drive more than an hour without break. I will stop occasionally for a coffee, a chat with some villagers, or dinner etc. Went looking for lodging for the night. Found lodging, woke up the security guard and asked him for a room he mentioned it was closed for the night, 100 bucks into his pocket and he had opened the gates and I got a room. It helped that he would be sleeping in front of my vehicle, so I could get sleep without a worry, no a thief in this sleepy place would not be smart enough to fool the car's locks. The room was easy on the pockets and quite neat too so I needn't get my sleeping bag after all. After telling the old guy to wake me up at 5:00 am and also get me some coffee in the morning, I went to bed. If you are surprised, I can get away with sleeping four hours on weekdays.

Morning sharp 6:00 am I was off, the next 100 kilometres the road was quite bad and I have take couple of detours. Driving on the unmarked state highways in Tamilnadu is fun, stretches and stretches of open road with few signs of people anywhere, the miles fly away so fast. With the windows up, with a/c on and some music on the cd changer, nothing can match the peace. I remember seeing a couple of cops out in the distance, slowed down abruptly to a respectable speed. They flagged me down anywayz, and asked if I was speeding. I denied speeding. They let me go without too many questions. When I got back and let the car cool down a bit, I could not help smile that the front grill of the car was peppered with dragon flies, not speeding, was I ? :)

It would be around 11:30 am when I reach Palani, and then disaster. It was something like 45 degrees outside, had the a/c turned on full and was speeding and the engine was overheating. After pulling over, I opened the bonnet to see what was going on. Then I made the mistake of opening the radiator cap and all the green liquids rushed out. It took around 20 minutes with the engine running for it to cool down and half of the coolant around the car in eeky green. In between lot of sympathetic villagers offered pushing the car, watering it to cool it and lot of things which I found funny and politely refuse. They are so helpful, one guy even offered to get me a mechanic from a few kilometers away if I wanted. Somethings just need patience to get right again, I explained in the broken tamil that I can manage. After filling the radiator back up with more green liquid I was off again through a few sleepy villages on a road barely one vehicle wide but without a person in sight. Soon I had reach Palani, I went into the temple, nope I was not going to climb to the temple on the top of the hill, just the temple at ground level.

You might think I get used to driving alone, not really usually I stop to get expert advice, it helps talking to guys around to know if a road is closed etc, and usually get a request for a lift, which if I find the person friendly I am only too happy. It is nice to hear their view of things. Like waiting an hour for the next bus. They are always surprised when I ask them to put the seat belts. :) Even more when how fast you can reach a place when I am driving. I am always fascinated by the simple life the villages lead.

Going up the Kodai road with the majestic view that follows you all along the hill climb is an enlightening experience. You have to do that to believe the view. I wanted to take some pics, but stopping or getting distracted on those climbing roads is not a good idea. The drive is not for the faint hearted though, if you are scared of taking on steep climbs on a stick shift or giving way to a bus with barely two feet between you car and the cliff that seems to extend to the bottom of the earth, don't even try.

It took around three hours to get to the top, a little more than twenty kilometres of uphill climb. Leaves me wondering why we don't get automatic cars here. Well going back down the hill would take a little less than an hours time. :)) It was in the after noon I reached kodai. Deepu you are a bad photographer aren't you, My cabinet in chennai has at least a dozen unwashed film rolls that I feel guilty looking at them. I still wonder why I never washed the rolls that included some excellent pics at even the neuschwanstein castle, garmisch in germany. Sorry, no pics to add on this post.

I borrowed a bike to see around the lake at kodaikanal, parking the car. Took some pics...it was a nice day with the usual hub-bub of tourists.

After calling my Sis to meet me, had dinner. It was late already. I went looking for a room. Next day would roam around kodai a bit with her, visit the college when she was studying and get some shopping done and in the evening the long drive back. Back at the hotel I traced down the route I had taken and got a smile that on the map which showd, I had taken the shortest route possible from salem to kodai, the road names were all in tamil, so no I don't remember them.

The only consolation about the drive back was there would be no climbing hills. :) The return journey would take around eight hours. Don't ask if I was speeding. Monday morning as I was leaving for office, our house owner was giving amused glances at the car, the grill had caught enough dragon flies that it looked like they were its dinners. Uggh back to the usual bustle of every day work.

Visiting Kodai

Kodai is best reached by train to kodai road station from where you can get a local bus up the hill. It is a hill station and so it can get a bit chilly, it is handy to have some warm clothing. If taking a vehcile, make sure you got fog lights, and you are comfortable driving in worse than normal conditions.

The serene environs are a photographer's delight and you can always find places that the tourists don't frequent to enjoy a peaceful and pleasant vacation. Some places may be out of bounds for safety reasons, so check out the boards before going into the forest etc. There is a sanctuary there, but no man eaters I think :)) , I have seen wild buffalo's and deer there but nothing worth my nikon.

I hope to capture a tiger on my Nikon sometime, when will I get that lucky I wonder. ;)