Romancing the rains and roads in South India

India during the summer rainy months of June to September feels like a different place. The hot moist air of the Indian Ocean, blowing over the country and months of oppressive heat is all forgotten once the monsoon arrives. The sky and sea turn a different shade of grey and the clouds can be seen rolling in the sky. Rains hit India in a very dramatic way.

Last year in the month of February we had taken a trip of Kerala.....the very "travel agency" type of itinerary which most people do.....Cochin, Allepy, Munnar, Thekkady and back to either Travandrum or Cochin for our flight back to Delhi. The trip was good except that there was too much driving involved and so the dependence on cabs which were not always as good as we wanted them to be. Hence the idea of a self drive road trip starting from a city which had good self drive rentals and from where we could cover north Kerala ....... in the monsoons! Bangalore was the best and obvious option.

As always we made no hotel bookings and planned to stop where ever we fancied at the end of the day. We had earlier done a road trip from Mumbai to Delhi in a similar manner, a couple of years back with several detours and several of those "extra" kilometers. It was a thoroughly enjoyable trip with myriad landscapes which continuously changed as we changed state borders.

We landed in Bangalore early morning at around 7.30 am on 6th July. The car was handed over to us at the airport and we drove off immediately towards the Mysore road, aiming to miss the morning city traffic. The GPS was locked, tanks full, with a return ticket from Bangalore to Delhi for the 13th of July and absolutely nothing else planned, it was time to explore the western ghats and much more with the monsoons.

Wow... was it fun from the word GO.....the awesome weather and the rain washed greenery a balm to the eyes after the Delhi heat.

The roads were rain washed and smooth as mirror. The scenery breathtaking. A very appropriate time for a road trip.

After a sumptuous breakfast of hot idlis and filter coffee at Kamath in Srirangapatnam, we drove towards **Bandipur National Park**. The Mysore bypass road was a breeze with a dense green cover. Enroute were pretty small towns and sunflower plantations which added another hue to the landscape.

Called Kalhatti ghat or "Steep ghat" it branches off from Gundalur saves approx. 30 kms, on the standard route,though it is much steeper and has a mind boggling 36 hairpin bends. The Ghats are recognised as one of the world's hottest hot spots of biological diversity and contain a large portion of India's plant and animal species, many of whom are found nowhere else in the world.

Manoeuvring these treacherous bends,we have reached the beautiful hill town of....**Ooty**.... awesome weather....light continuous drizzle and a temperature of a chilly 12 degrees.

By this time it was almost 5pm.

Time for hubby dear to take a break from the driving....so we checked into a hotel and submerged ourselves into a hot water tub.

Enough time later for a south Indian vegetarian dinner at one of the numerous diners of Ooty.

Highlight of day one......the fantastic drive thru Bandipur National Park and the hairpins of western ghats.

Time taken: from 8.30 am to 5.00 pm

DAY 2

We drove after breakfast to **Coonoor** about 25kms from Ooty.

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway Toy train is unique as it is the steepest one in Asia. It weaves through forests, along the valleys and into little dark winding tunnels.It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005.

Ooty Botanical gardens is a must visit.

It was lunch time by now and after a south Indian "meal" we thought of going back to the plains and staying in one of the forest resorts around Masanagudi near the national parks but it was not to be, as we started for our downhill drive, we unknowingly took a road which was not the ghats road, which turned out to be equally beautiful and mesmerising.

After a turn on this road we came across the **Pykara lake** which is named after the sacred river Pykara. The river flows through Murukurti, Pykara and Glenmorgan dams, and forms part of an important hyro-electric power project. Beautiful.....lots of water...... very very picturesque, the kind of sight where you expect the king of the jungle to walk up for a drink...... very filmy. Boating available here too. Lovely view.

After a sumptuous breakfast at the resort we decided to hit the plains. The destination this time - **Wayanad**! The drive thru the tea gardens all the way was super comfortable and picturesque.

Waynad district is in the north east of Kerala. It is set high on the western ghats with altitudes ranging from 700 to 2100 metres. The name Waynad is derived from Vayal Nadu means the land of paddy fields...so we hit Kerala now into a land of paddy fields .

**Vythiri** is a small town in Waynad district which has the max number of resorts and it's here that we checked in.

After a relaxing cup of coffee, we decided to explore the area around our resort. So we just walked around lanes and by lanes and came across amazing sights. There was a christian mass being held at the crossroads by some missionaries who later proudly showed us their convent and school. The houses were painted in attractive colours and the area was full of coconut, banana, jack fruit, spices like pepper and cardamon and even coffee plants.

After an early breakfast we decided to drive to **Kozhikode or Calicut** as it was now known which was about 85 kms from Waynad.

Before we knew, we had hit another western ghats road and the hair pin turns were back. Quite a bit of traffic here with buses and trucks chugging along slowly. But the greenery and the random water streams coming down the mountains were a treat. Once we hit the plains, the drive was spotted by small prosperous towns along the way. Small towns with very clean colourfully painted houses are very typical of Kerala. The market places have a large number of gold jewellery shops. Kozhikode itself was a typical metro with huge malls and markets, traffic and noise, flyovers and bridges and a lots and lots of people.

The **Calicut beach** was again a very commercial - touristy beach, something that doesn't really work for us.

So, we drove on to **Kappad beach**, a few kms down the Mangalore road. It was beautiful... lots of water and waves hitting the humongous rocks on shore. The golden color of the sand was pretty. This was where Vasco da Gama had first set foot on Indian soil and it eventually marked the sea route from Europe to India.

As always, the drive was awesome..... driving on the rain washed roads was a treat. Lot and lots of green cover, small streams of water and the tea gardens once more. On the way to the dam, came across some really beautiful resorts.... nestled in the interiors of this beautiful place, less visited and had some of the best views of this region.

The dam was fun! We then moved on to the mighty **Meenmutty water falls** again brimming with water, these were a bit tough to climb and reach, but worth the effort as we reached almost the source of the water.

Next we decided to go towards **Kuruvadweep** - a protected delta comprising of a cluster of islands over Kabini river. However the area was inaccessible due to the rains.

Plan B: we decided to drive to Coorg......the coffee plantations waiting to be explored by us.

The drive was mesmerising with narrow roads going up and down. The landscape gave way to paddy fields and large plains. The plantation was now tall straight trees of beetle nut.

We stopped at the **Iruppu falls** in the Brahmagiri Range in South Coorg in Karnataka. The incessant rains had added volume to the water. The walk up was fun with small bridges and sneak views of the water fall. The source of course was roaring with huge volumes of water making it difficult to hear ones own voice. But it was therapeutic to just sit there with closed eyes and hear the roar of the water. Whatever tiredness that we felt just vanished here.

For the first time on our trip we faced a bit of a difficulty in finding a place to stay. Coorg has mostly got homestay accommodation and we had to ask around for it. Finally we came across a lovely place a little off the main road in the middle of 8 acres of coffee plantation. Nice big clean rooms,hot water and yum home made dinner. Incidentally all the homestay facilities are registered with the authorities and regularly monitored and audited by them. Great experience on the whole.

Highlight--All the touristy and non touristy places were worth a visit.

Day 6

**Madikeri** is the most popular town in Coorg. We were a good 40kms from there. So after an early morning tour of the coffee plantation of our host, and home made breakfast, we left for Madikeri. Here again the roads were good and the landscape rain washed and green. Beetle nut, banana and coconut palms in abundance .......of course the coffee plantation is to die for ..... thick healthy shrubs with dark green leaves. The super tall and straight trees are the beetle nut trees.

The town of Madikeri has a domineering fort in the middle which now has several govt. offices. But with the downcast sky it looked beautiful in the "filmy" way. There are lots of tourist spots to visit here. The Omkareshwara Temple, Golden temple, Mallalli Falls, Elephant camp, Raja's seat etc..

As we were heading back to Bangalore today, we drove towards Kaushal Nagar which lead us straight to the Mysore Bangalore road.

The drive here too was good and dotted with places to sight see and after meeting the evening traffic in the city, we were back to the metro city with two whole days to do what we hadn't done so far......meet up with family and friends and shop shop and shop in Bangalore.

We drove around 1200kms in the 6 days that we were on the road. Fantastic well metalled roads and highways in all the three states that we went in and out of - Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The rain Gods blessed us with lots and lots of rain...just as we hoped, expected and wanted. The landscape and scenery that we saw is to be experienced to believe. The accommodation we got was all super. The vegetarian food was available in abundance

.....so.....overall....

A brilliant trip...couldn't ask for more....& Thank God for it.