It had to be just Finney and me from Bangalore. My 2 friends Rachana and Ashith (both married, and the best part is, to each other) accompanied me in my car. We decided to meet up with Finney at Attibele, which is at the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, because it is close to where to I stay. We 3 started from my house in my Palio Multijet and Finney met us near the toll booth at the Attibele in his Palio 1.2 NV.
Till Hosur, the road was full of trucks, but once I crossed it, it was easy to cruise at 80 KMPH. Finney was cruising at around 100 KMPH, so he went much ahead of us. I still don’t confident to go too much above 80 KMPH in IndiaL. Later we stopped for breakfast at Adyar Anand Bhavan, and then continued towards our destination, Yercaud. We crossed Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri and reached Salem, crossing many toll booths on the way. The roads are maintained well. They are painted well and have no potholes. There are flower plants along the median which increase the beauty of the road, and also block the high beams of irresponsible motorists. But at one stretch, the road is somewhat winding and goes downhill, so there are 8 speed-breakers. This stretch is tricky. Due to daytime heat, the asphalt melts and when huge trucks go over these roads, the melted asphalt shifts towards the lane dividers and so the road is uneven. At the speed-breakers, the road is worse!
But the biggest problem all along was the villagers who don’t understand the difference between a village road and a highway. Some of them drive their motorbikes on the rightmost lane. Some of them drive their motorbikes on the rightmost lane, in the OPPOSITE direction! And of course, some stray dogs here and there also test your driving skills. And then there are tractors whose birthright it is to drive only in the rightmost lane.
After catching up with Finney at Salem, we continued towards Yercaud. The road is uphill and winding. There are 20 hairpin bends. At the bottom of the hill, Finney offered me his car. Ashith drove mine. It was fun to drive the car on hairpin bends. There is no question about the ride and handling of European cars. They drive so beautifully. Having never driven a petrol car on an uphill road, I understood the difference between petrol and diesel. I don’t mean the engine, but the fuel itself. Diesel being much denser, gives a much higher torque. So a diesel car goes uphill without struggling too much. But not a car with petrol engine L. Perhaps a petrol car would also go easily, if the engine is much bigger. But our silly government rules ask for high taxes for cars with more than 1.2 litre petrol engines L.
It was easy to find Star Holiday Resorts, where I had booked rooms for us. We reached there at 2.30 PM. After freshening up, we went for lunch to Shevaroy hotel. This is apparently the best place to stay in or dine at Yercaud. Unfortunately, it was fully booked for the weekend, so I hadn’t got rooms there for us. We had an Indian lunch at the Silver Oak restaurant there and went back to our hotel. Mahesh Natarajan too arrived at the same time with his family in his GTX.
Then we all went to the Yercaud lake. Rachana had already grown fondness to MN’s children (son Uttam Kumar, and daughter Sri Meenakshi), so the children went with Rachana and Ashith in their boat. We went in another boat. By the time we were out of the lake, it was dark already. We also met up with Srinivas PS and his friend Alex, who had driven from Chennai in Srinivas’s 1.2 NV. They were also staying in Star Holidays, and were there since noon, and we had no clue!
We also met Thyagarajan and his family who had come to Yercaud from Chennai in his MJD (and also a Swift Dzire). We decided to meet up the next morning at 8.30 at the same place and we went our ways. Finney joined MN and family for dinner. We went back to the hotel. I had brought some beer in a Styrofoam box from Bangalore and it was still ice cold. As we had no more drives until the next day, we could have some beer to chill out. No drinking and driving, but always driving and then drinking ;-).
So Rachana, Ashith, Srinivas, Alex and I sat in Ashith’s room and shared a lot of stories. Later Finney too joined us for more stories. We probably spent 3 hours just chatting like that! And then we all headed to our rooms for a good night’s sleep. There were power cuts in between, but luckily the hotel provided backup power.
On Sunday morning, MN knocked on our doors exactly at 8.30 AM. By 9, we checked out of the hotel and went for breakfast to a vegetarian restaurant in Shevaroy. Thyagarajan and his family too joined us there. And also a couple of guys in a grey MJD. I forgot their names L.
It was raining all the time, in contrast to the bright Saturday. Yet, we went to Rose Garden and Ladies’ Seat. By this time, the guys in grey MJD had already left.
By the time we reached our next destination, Kiliyur Falls, it was not raining much. We had a Palio photo session there. We didn’t go till the falls, because of the slushy pathway and slippery rocks. From here, we went to the Shervaroyan temple, which is at a higher point. We had drive through the clouds and that was beautiful experience. It was cold but not enough to chill us. We parked our cars near the temple and some of us visited the temple.
This was our last point of visit, so we said goodbyes to each other. As told to us by Finney later, he sat in his car and wondered that nothing out-of-the-ordinary had happened. And within moments, MN and he reversed their cars together and that gave a broken tail lamp and a dislocated rear bumper to Finney’s NV and a dented door and a broker right rear view mirror to MN’s GTX L.
Then we went for lunch at Shevaroy. Few of us went to the non-vegetarian restaurant and a few us to the vegetarian one. After lunch, we met up at the lake again. MN gave us DVD copies of his recordings of his Leh trip at the beginning of the year. Then we said goodbye to each other and departed to our respective home locations.
