DZiRE'd Yercaud - Quick Getaway From Bangalore

appus · Aug 23, 2013

We could feel the freshness. We could feel the calmness. We could feel the peacefulness. Yes, We felt serene. We enjoyed each and every bit of our travel.

How it all started:-

When I saw a thread ‘Another Independence Day meet’, was overjoyed because of two reasons. Last time, I couldn’t attend the meet. Second, I can take my wife along. I immediately shared the news with her. Later, we saw less or no activities because of various reasons.
Initially we planned for 15th August as per the forum. Later, when we did not see any ‘good’ happening in that thread, I planned for weekend. Not Saturday-Sunday. But, Sunday (18th Aug)-Monday (19th Aug). 18th August '13 is our DZiRE’s 2nd Anniversary & 19th August is my wife’s Birthday. [;)]

So thought of taking a day off from busy schedule and celebrate. I wanted some calmness and that was another reason to choose Monday than Saturday. (It worked out well).

Why Yercaud:-

As we are expecting a new member in our family, I did not want to drive on bad road. Doctor also advised her not to travel long distance So, the destination from the ‘Independence Meet’ thread came to my mind. Did not select Horsely Hill/Yelagiri as we were looking for a two day trip After talking with AR Ram sir, I came to know the roads to Yercaud are of excellent condition. I always wanted to spend some time in calm atmosphere breathing unpolluted air.

Planning phase:-

Checked few travelogues for travel tips, accommodation etc. Anshuman’s thread was one among them which helped me a lot . Later I hijacked the thread [evil]

and started posting queries. I got valuable suggestions from Anshuman, Highway_Ranger, AR Ram Sir, quitefar & finally a new TAIan Vinod from Chennai. I finalised on Hotel Shevaroys (Ranked 6th in tripadviser). Zeroed down to Orchid Room @ Shevaroys (around 2800 with discounts)
Initially my friend told that he will join with his wife and kid. Later he pulled out as I kept on pressuring to book hotels. Travelguru was giving flat 1000Rs which I missed because of my friend’s delay . Later, when I was about to book @ Hotel Shevaroys thru Groupon, found NO availability on chosen dates. I was really feeling bad that I did not get the pricing of 2800 or 2899 to the actual pricing of 3800(including tax). Called them directly and they also said that there are no ‘Orchid’ rooms available for Sunday check-in. Finally, cleartrip.com came to my rescue. I booked thru them even when we travelled to Ooty. They had some 300Rs off. At last, booked the Orchid room at @3415/-. I wondered how they could allot me the room if it is already full.
After booking the hotel, I thought of renting a lens and trying out the differences by clicking various shot. Highway_Ranger gave some valuable options. I could not rent lens because I was tied up in office.
On 17th Saturday, I tried to finish all my pending work and wife packed two bag full of dresses /water bottles, eatables. She loves DZiRE as she could dump without worrying much about space. Slippers, shoes etc etc.

18th August :-
We had planned to start by 5.30 to 6AM. Since my friend was not coming, I was lazy to get up. Slept till 5.45AM. Got up, took bath and was ready in 45 minutes. Initially we thought of going thru Hosakerehalli-Devegowda PetrolBunk-BTM-Silkboard-Elevated Express way-Electronic City-Hosur. As we got delayed, we quickly changed our plan to get into NICE Road (from Link Road).

Set the Trip Meter & GPS (My phone with Sygic Map)

Dell Streak with Sygic map

Initial distance showed 230 and it became 245 as we took NICE Road.

Toll -115 Rs for just 28KM
Newly Concreted nice road.

Some 'NICE Road snaps' (Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise)

Near the first exit (Mysore road / Kanakapura road)

In 25 minutes, we reached the electronic city exit. It would have taken at least one hour or more on normal roads for crossing that 30KM (as I did not want to get into any potholes).

After Electronic city exit

We paid another toll before Hosur (Attibele) 25Rs (Passed 7:20AM)

Roads were as good as nice road at times.

First stop came much before Krishnagiri for breakfast. We wanted to go to A2B (Adyar anand bhavan) and went to Kamat. When we entered inside the road, we found that we reached at a different restaurant. We thought of trying out as I was kind of hungry. Food was not great compared to a2b. Less. More over, over priced. Comparing to their other branches, found this below par.

Masala dosa without salt :( (Wish if the chutney/sambar had salt at least). I kept myself cool than my normal behavior of fighting.

Did not even thought of clicking more photos.
Learned once more - Experience makes man perfect

It was 8.10 when we left there.

1/2 DZiRE

To be continued

amit1km · Aug 23, 2013

First of all congratulation for the expected arrival.
In Krishnagiri route heard like a lot of road construction is going on. How much time did it took to cover from EC.

appus · Aug 23, 2013

amit1km said:

Thank You Amit.
Yes. There are lots of construction happening Hosur -Krishnagiri Stretch. Few photos I have which i will update in next post. Cropping/resizing takes a lot of time [frustration]

Attibele toll was at 7.20AM. We passed Krishnagiri around 8.40AM Including breakfast and a fuel break. (Almost 40-50minutes actual). While coming back, the stretch were stressful. There is Ashok Leyland plant. We were struck almost 40-50minutes

amit1km · Aug 23, 2013

appus said:

That's pretty good rather fast [drive]

man.

Hanging on to this thread for remaining story.

msjawahar · Aug 23, 2013

appus said:

use IrfanView software. It can resize files in batch.

AppU · Aug 23, 2013

Superb Start appus [clap]

eagerly waiting for the remaining part of TL.

BTW, where is the other 1/2 of Dezire [lol]

appus · Aug 23, 2013

@amit,
We took 4.40hrs to cover 245KM on good roads like this (total of 4 breaks). Many would have reached in 4 hrs or less. :)

msjawahar said:

Thanks brother. ACDSee is what I use for batch resizing. I mostly use Irfanview only for converting NEF to JPG at times. I crop first (if required) and then accordingly re-size. Yeah, we need to put some effort right ? :)

AppU said:

Thanks AppU.
will be posting other half once we reach to Yercaud. Now it is on half way :D hence half [glasses]

AR Ram · Aug 23, 2013

Woh!! woh!!! Good start and pictures

Welcome back to TAI....

Better late than never ... the TL & pictures

Good to know that you reached safely. Yes roads from Attebele to Krishnagiri is not all that good since expansion work is going on. Now after six lane work is partially over AAB hotel is little inside and you have to take a small deviation. Another advantage with AAB is that attached to the BP - company owned petrol pump, and you can ensure the fuel quality and quantity is good.

19th morning I drove down to Kerala, and on the way I had the fuel top up from there only. How was the weather in Yercaud? Did you cover all the places there?

Waiting for the remaining TL and pictures

appus · Aug 23, 2013

Started after the break fast,

6 Lanes

Then to 3 1/2 lanes ?

Then to two lane

And no lane (DIVERSION everywhere) - You see a lot till krishnagiri

Then back to normal

Then the next toll - Krishnagiri

Wished if those part belonged to Kerala. We hesitate/protest to pay even 60 rs for 100 odd km in Kerala. we fight there. Here I am paying 115 for 28km . Tolls are too close I felt. They should have stopped taking toll till they finish the work.

Two sides of a coin. Pros and cons. Here we pay without asking much, so we are getting good roads and they take a toll on our pockets. In kerala, we protest against toll and pay less. So, you do not see many good roads. End of the day - Common man is the loser

Right time to post the total toll we paid :)
NICE – Link Road to Hosur Road exit ->115
Attibele (Bangalore Elevated Tollway Ltd) – 25Rs (7.20AM)
Krishnagiri Toll -55RS (passed at 8.45AM)
Krishnagiri-Thopur Toll Road ->79 (passed at 9.20am)
Omalur Toll Plaza ->63 (passed at 10:00 AM)
Salem- Yercaud ->20RS (It is two way toll ) (10.50AM)
Total Toll 694.

Then passed thru Krishnagiri.

Remembered Vellore Golden temple (which I wanted to do for a long time), Chennai trip where i missed the road and went on Salem road for 24 KM, AppU, the man who was ready to help when visiting Golden temple, Chennai members, Independence meet which did not take place, etc etc.

Sign board - which may be of some use for future travelers

Some Greenness

Beautiful non-bumpy roads which asks you to accelerate.

Sudden change in weather

PLUS Size lorry

4 lane roads.

For those who wants to go to Hogenkal , please take left [;)]

. When we went to Hogenekal, we first went on Chennai route confusing Dharmapuri with Krishnagiri and then went thru so many narrow roads. OMG. Even though map set on phone, i did not use it before. Now a days, I keep it on till we reach the destination

To be continued... (Exhausted [cry]

)

appus · Aug 23, 2013

AR Ram said:

Thank You Sir.
We been to a2b twice before this. One while going Chennai and once while going to Hogenekal. This time, my hunger pulled to the first restaurant I guess. And, Kamat is not bad everywhere. May be 'just that day' ? Who knows. I loved the Kamat's in Mysore road. I even liked one near Chikkabalapur and one in Hassan road. Taste was pretty good.

Yes, I too filled from that Petrol pump while coming back. We had lunch on way back from A2B. 100RS !! for a thali meals. But, it was tasty.

Fyzy09 · Aug 24, 2013

Here comes the much awaited [;)]

Congratulations for the good news [:D]

Great writeup with awesome pics. Waiting for more [clap]

msjawahar · Aug 24, 2013

guys... howz the road condition from salem to krishnagiri and from krishnagiri to vaniyabadi ? cud any one help me in this. planning for a trip to Yelagiri next month.

appus · Aug 24, 2013

Thank you faizy. This is my first travelogue in my whole life. Do not compare with any other. You will be laughing at me [lol]

.

msjawahar said:

Salem to Krishnagiri -> Excellent !
Krishnagiri to Velloor /Vaniyambadi ->Excellent
Krishnagiri to Chennai (U turn) - 1 KM f construction work happening and you will see a slight delay /confusion taking U turn. Except that, it is excellent. But, you will spend a lot on tolls though :)

AR Ram · Aug 24, 2013

msjawahar said:

The roads are good except few diversions near Krishnagiri due to lane expansion, but negligible. Are you driving down from Trivandrum?

AR Ram · Aug 24, 2013

appus, your travelogue is excellent with good pictures.

How do you feel now?

Some places the toll is exorbitant in spite of bad roads. I don't know on what basis the toll fee is calculated. When you buy a vehicle, you pay excise duty, sales tax, road tax etc. etc., after that when you drive, you are paying toll fee, entry fee, parking fee etc. apart from the tax on fuels, spares and service tax during service.

In 15 years, if you are using your car regularly, how much tax you will end up paying? [frustration]

DZiRE'd Yercaud - Quick Getaway From Bangalore

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appus

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msjawahar

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appus

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AR Ram

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appus

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Fyzy09

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