The ground work done was quite minimal. A couple of glances as to which National Highways to take from Chennai and also which key cities would be enroute. We started in two cars, one - I drove and the other - my dad's - we had a driver take that one. Driving in the highway is one thing, two cars driving as a group is just yet another!
Learnt this extra-ordinary lesson on this trip. It was always going to be a long drive, and all family members had advised to take a backup driver as well, incase things went wrong! I was however, quite confident that I Could pull it off.
In all, the journey was supposed to take around 8 hours. This according to some bhp team (on their website) which I am sure now, didnt go by road from Chennai to Coorg!!! The roads were immaculate, one has to admit. Perfect for driving conditions and if the surroundings were kept clean, one could have been duped that they were in a western nation. Arcot, Vellore and many smaller cities followed. With each city, we were passing, the elevation was on the rise. Finally as we reached Krishnagiri and onwards, one could see straight roads sloped effectively to blend with the hills beside. It was 6:30 that we started in the morning and we reached Krishnagiri by around 11:00. The next challenge was hitting Hosur and ultimately the land of traffic nightmare - Bengaluru!!
Hosur has a decent road stretch and we had a good lunch in one of the many restaurants. Being the driver, I had to curtail my intake, to avoid becoming sleepy. And so I did!! (This is the part I hated the most in the entire trip!!)
Bengaluru and its experiences deserve a new paragraph. So here go. Hosur to Bangalore, on paper is around 40 kms and Bangalore to Mysore was stated to be another 2 hours drive. What lay in store for us beyond Hosur was a nightmare and that too in the middle of the day! The road to Bangalore seemed endless, what with the array of vehicles and the extraordinary flyover which was being constructed. One birdie on the internet mentioned about some route from Electronics City to the Mysore highway, without having to hit the City and its traffic. What that birdie missed out, as we later realised, was this route was only 80% complete and had a good chunk of it missing. So we had to go right through the middle of the city, Forum Mall and then onwards to LalBagh and finally the market. Needless to say to anyone who knows Bgl traffic challenges, this journey took nearly 2 hours. Finally we were pleased to hear that we were in "Mysore Road". Phew, we thought! 2 hours to Mysore and we could go to Coorg by evening!
The road to Mysore was not going to give us any leeway. It was again, a halfcooked, so called highway, most roads in Pondicherry, would beat the width it offered. Anyways, we drove and drove and drove.. finally we were on a highway and gave us some opportunity to hit decent speeds of 80. It was slowly getting to the evening phase, when most office goers decide, enough is enough, and go home to start logging again from there. Had a quick bite in one of the highway restaurants, and we asked him. how far do we have to go to get to Coorg? He said.. "get off before Mysore, you will have a road to the right and yeah you can take that all the way to Coorg". My next question - was the most important one - of the entire journey - "Are the roads ok till there? Is there any challenge in driving in the night?". - "Ohh Not at all", he promised - "the roads are good." Till date, I dont know why he didnt tell me the truth, maybe we didnt tip the waiters sufficiently?!!
The sun finally started to lower its guard and we were firmly committed to reaching Coorg by nite to stay in the accomodation I had booked the previous day. So no stopping elsewhere in between. Coorg it is, come evening, nite or midnite!! There were not adequate lights on the highway and it was dark now, around 7 PM, a Karnataka Tourism vehicle was honking hard at me in the front. I finally gave some way, once it was possible. The driver, dont know if he was a qualified driver, raced ahead and put a sudden break and did something which swerved the bus to hit my car on the right side panel, just behind the headlights. It was a cool "thud". SHOCK and AWE, (quoted from George W Bush) followed. It was the first accidental accident for my car. The damage wasnt much but tears of blood flowed to see the ghastly bump!
This was also not to deter us, in our quest to get to Coorg.
Soon, around 830 PM, we decided to break for dinner - we were in a town called Hunsur. From thereon, we were told, the roads would be steep as we were entering the mountains. Ignorance, coupled with lack of local conditions, ensured that we were climbing an unknown route, in the dark, with no idea of what lay ahead. A lot of twists and turns followed and somehow we mustered our guts and it seemed like we were getting somewhere. We were all so happy. Atlast, we had succeeeded. A polite enquiry confirmed that it was not Madikeri, but Suntikoppa. "Madikeri is another 30 kms from here". Next question obviously met with a sign of "sorry - you are in trouble" - "Is the road any good till there?"
The route from Suntikoppa to Madikeri is so extraordinarily damaged, that one should wish that one's enemy also shouldnt have to take this route by car! Oh Holy Road Engineers of South India! Wish I knew what raw materials you use to build this road. My Hyundai GetzPrime gruntled all the way, as we worked our way painstakingly, through the dark forests and the so-called "road". If our vehicles had broken down there or got punctured, if we had been robbed there, no one on planet Earth would have an inkling to know, leave alone help!!
Prayers to previously unknown Gods and Goddesses followed, and the signboards showing the remaining number of kilometres to Madikeri, were cheered like never before. Finally, around midnite, nearly 18 hours after we started from Chennai, we were in Madikeri. A couple of calls to the homestay lady ensured that we didnt roam around too much and found our way correctly to the residence.
Once inside, visibly tired - we were all in for a great treat. The cottage I had booked, was an old residence which has been converted into a homestay. It was a four bedroom home, complete with dining room and a kitchen. We were all thrilled to get into those cozy beds and all promised the homestay lady - "If we get up tomorrow morning, we will ask for morning coffee!!"
Ohh, we got at 7 sharp, with the sun slowly finding its way and the pleasant air of the hillstation, pulling us out of our beds!
What happened later and how the drive and the places were - I will cover in a subsequent article. Its tiring, even to remember a gruelling drive :)
1 comment:
well i love switzerland this is such a nice stuff.
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