A Quick Escape To Kodaikanal

manojodungat · Feb 20, 2013

Palakkad-Trissur-Adimali-Rajakkad-Theni-Kodaikkanal-Theni-Rajakkad-Alappuzha-Palakkad

The winter got very severe here in Tianjin, this year. It snowed most of the days and the day temperature remained at around -10C for the last couple of months. So making a decision for a short trip back home wasn’t difficult at all.

After reaching home in Palakkad-Kerala,due to certain unexpected business cropping up, I was stuck there and many of the trips planned earlier didn’t materialize. But we did squeeze in a two day trip to Kodaikanal via Rajakkad [near Munnar] while visiting my relatives in Munnar and Alappuzha.

A few random pictures from various trips done.

Details with more pictures coming up..

amit1km · Feb 20, 2013

Yeah..bring all the writeup..do not make us wait and by the way teasers are good.

manojodungat · Feb 20, 2013

amit1km said:

Thanks Amit1km.

continued..

On 30th of January, we [me and wify] woke up and got ready quickly for an early morning drive from Palakkad to Rajakkad[near Munnar]. We wanted to have a stress free drive between Ottapalam and Trissur as the traffic gets very bad in this stretch during day time with narrow and congested roads with multiple towns in between. The road condition is fantastic though.

As we planned a 5 to 6 day outing to visit our relatives in Munnar and Alappuzha with a Kodai trip in between, we had quite a bit of Luggage to carry. With the third row removed, our scorpy had more than enough space for the luggage needed for the entire trip.

We had charged two of our phones, camera batteries and updated iTunes library/iPod and iPhone on the previous day itself. Stocked up a few bottles of water too. I had a quick check up of all the fluid levels in my Scorpy. Scorpy is ready for a yet another blast. [clap]

We left home, at Palakkad, at around 6.00am and enjoyed the early morning drive, listening to our favorite Devotional song collection of Dr.Yesudas.I didn't push scorpy hard and the relaxed drive got us to Trissur town by around 7.15am. In there, we happened to see this Trissur-Palakkad route bus in such a condition. How are these vehicles allowed on roads? [frustration]

Soon we reached Paliyekkara Toll Plaza. Paid Rs.55[for one side] and continued our drive on the 4-lane stretch to Angamaly. Though comfortable we were stuck for few minutes at some multiple traffic signals on this 4-lane toll road.

a common sight on Kerala roads

between Trissur and Angamali

We drove past Angamaly, turned left to Perumbavoor road and by then we were really hungry. Just before Perumbavoor, we stopped for breakfast at the tried and tested "Hotel Annapoorna". After having a couple of delicious idlies and wada we continued our drive towards Kothamangalam.

At kothamangalam we took the bypass to avoid town traffic and proceeded towards Neriyamangalam.

near Neriyamangalam

Here, just before Neriyamangalam town,the road towards right will take you to Idukki. We continued towards Adimali taking the left at the diversion.

Neriyamangalam bridge

Narrow ghat roads between Neriyamangalam and Adimali stretch.

Valara water falls- a very little life left

near Adimali

We reached home at Rajakkad[Near Munnar] at around 1.00pm. We all had a nice lunch together. We were to have a few more to join us from there for the Kodai trip, the very next day. [:)]

manojodungat · Feb 21, 2013

Road conditions between Palakkad and Rajakkad

1.Palakkad to Trissur town[via ottapalam] 85km - Excellent road with heavy day time traffic

2.Trissur Town to Paliyekkara Toll [via kuriachira] 14km- Excellent road

3.Paliyekkara Toll to Angamally, 32km- 4Lane excellent with some traffic signals

4.Angamaly to perumbavoor, 18km- excellenet with heavy day time traffic

5.Perumbavoor to neriamangalam,40km-Excellent road,fun to drive

6.Neriamangalam to Adimali,30km- Ghat roads, a bit potholed at places but patched up decently

7.Adimali to Rajakkad,26km- After Iruruttukanam and then Anachal hopeless roads all the way till Thekkumkanam

hardprem19 · Feb 21, 2013

Nice car nice Journey eh? Enjoy!

How did you feel the comfort in the car for such a long distance

AppU · Feb 21, 2013

Good start with excellent Pics Manoj [clap]

Waiting for the remaining travelogue with beautiful pics

manojodungat · Feb 21, 2013

hardprem19 said:

Thanks. Superb comfort. I had also done a much longer trip from Goa to palakkad at a stretch in 18 hours with my family with super comfort earlier. [clap]

AppU said:

Thanks Appu. Shall do it in a day time. There are some fantastic pics from Kodai.

AR Ram · Feb 21, 2013

manojodungat said:

Road conditions between Palakkad and Rajakkad

1.Palakkad to Trissur town[via ottapalam] 85km - Excellent road with heavy day time traffic

2.Trissur Town to Paliyekkara Toll [via kuriachira] 14km- Excellent road

3.Paliyekkara Toll to Angamally, 32km- 4Lane excellent with some traffic signals

4.Angamaly to perumbavoor, 18km- excellenet with heavy day time traffic

5.Perumbavoor to neriamangalam,40km-Excellent road,fun to drive

6.Neriamangalam to Adimali,30km- Ghat roads, a bit potholed at places but patched up decently

7.Adimali to Rajakkad,26km- After Iruruttukanam and then Anachal hopeless roads all the way till Thekkumkanam

Hi Manoj!!

How are the roads in Kodai? When I went three months back it was really pathetic.

manojodungat · Feb 21, 2013

AR Ram said:

The roads in and around Kodai were really bad as you have experienced.

autosafari · Feb 21, 2013

Nice pictures Manoj.

Keep them coming.

Its good that you took Ottapalam route to Trissur.
Palakkad - Trissur highway (old NH47) is very bad after Vadakkanchery.

manojodungat · Feb 21, 2013

@autosafari.
Thanks. For almost 4 years I didn't take that NH47 road to Thrissur.

Continued...

31 Jan 20 13
Rajakkad to Kodaikanal

After having an early lunch we got ourselves comfortable in the scorpy at around 1.30pm. I was excited as I was going to drive to Kodai for the first time. We were to drive to Bodi mettu via Rajakumari and Poopara. The roads were good till poopara and after that excellent but narrow until Body mettu. The drive through Cardamom forest was very refreshing.

Body mettu - Body drive was even better with those hair pin loopy roads and steep Ghat. Didn't take pictures thinking to take while returning but couldn't do it as it got darker by the time we reached this stretch on our way back.
We reached Theni soon and didn't stop at our usual Theni International Hotel for tea this time as the traffic was bad at Theni town. We drove further towards Periyakulam and just before there, I guess we parked our scorpy in front of Travancore Paragon restaurant for Tea. The tea was good but they just had some onion pakkoda which we all had, though not so great.

We drove past Periyakulam headed towards Vathalkundu. Though 4-lane work was on progress there were no issues at all. Just before Vathalkundu we took a left turn to Kodai road.

The roads were very beautiful.

Slowly we started to climb up the narrow Kodai Ghat road. It was in good condition for almost 10-15 kms.

The relaxed drive got us close to Kodaikanal and the roads got really pathetic. By around 6.30pm we reached Kodai and took a spin through kodai town before taking any shelter. The roads in Kodai were very bad and I decided to rent another car to visit various attractions the next day. We drove down a bit from town and headed towards Hotel Spring Valley where we had planned to stay for that night, earlier.

We got a Family Deluxe Suit with two bed rooms and two bathrooms for Rs. 1600 which I thought is very reasonable even in off season.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g303890-d1058698-Reviews-Hotel_Spring_Valley-Kodaikanal_Tamil_Nadu.html

Rooms were clean and the room service was good too. We parked our scorpy in their private parking area. After having dinner we decided to go to bed early. Meanwhile I booked an Innova for exploring Kodai the next day.

to be continued..

mukeshus · Feb 22, 2013

Excellent pics and narration of Tlog Manoj.

I would love to do Kodaikanal during rains.

Infact i had even planned this during Kanyakumari trip, but in the end did Rameshwaram and skipped this.

Valaparai and Kodai are next in my to do list.

I love driving on narrow roads rather highways.
Waiting for rest of your experiences.

manojodungat · Feb 22, 2013

mukeshus said:

Thanks Mukesh for those nice words.We will also be planning another kodai during monsoons. Will be doing a kanyakumari in july, if everything goes well.

Road condition

Rajakkad-Rajakumari-poopara-bodi mettu ,29km –excellent
Bodi mettu- Bodinayakanur,26km –excellent
Bodinayakanur- Theni-,16km –excellent
Theni-periyakulam-kodai, 85km-excellent except in and around kodai a few kms very bad

01 February 2013
Kodaikanal

We woke up around 6.00pm and got ready. Had some nice Idlies and Dosa at the Hotel itself. We were waiting for an Innova we had rented for the day for Rs.1600. Mr.Hakeem with his Innova [with 2.5lakh km on ODO arrived at 9.00am. Mr.Hakeem was a very nice person and proved a great guide too.

Coakers Walk

Fantastic view of the valleys with cool mist covering mountains from this balcony on the hill.

We headed towrds upper Lake View point.A few pictures on the way

Upper Lake view

Guna Caves

We had some nice tea made by him.

We had a few more places to cover including the Pine forests, Golf area, Pillar Rocks, Green Valley View, Kodai Lake [boating experience] etc.

manojodungat · Feb 22, 2013

Pine forests

Golf park

Green Valley View

The most disappointing as we had a lot of expectation about the view from there. But the amount of human intervention [shops] and the mist cover we didn’t find anything interesting at all.

Pillar Rocks
Just lucky enough to have a little view for a short time. Soon it got covered in clouds.

manojodungat · Feb 22, 2013

Time for some shopping

It was almost 1.00pm and time for lunch. We had a wonderful vegetarian meal at Astoria Veg Restaurant.

Kodai Lake and boating

After that fantastic boating experience we decided to wind up. We got back to Hotel and then to the scorpy. We drove back to Rajakkad via theni. We reached home at rajakkad at 8.30pm.

It was a great experience of driving, photography and having fun with each other in the family. We will certainly plan another Kodai visit during monsoons in the near future. [:)]

A Quick Escape To Kodaikanal

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