The Queen of Arabian Sea..Kochi…Rediscovered

[Highway Ranger]

The Queen of The Arabian Sea..Kochi…Rediscovered

Pending for many years, I could finally make the trip to Kochi and Alleppy last week. Took off last Friday with a carefully prepared route to Kochi… but managed to make a mess of it in the end.

Started around 4 am from Bangalore, took the NICE road to Mysore road and managed to find a fast car as our pilot and followed it all the way to Mysore. This helped us to keep good speed in the dark and as well know where the speed breakers were.

We stopped just before entering Bandipur for breakfast. Clicked a few shots of the dawn.




Entering Bandipur


Drove slowly through Bandipur. The roads inside Bandipur were full of speed breakers..


Spotted some spotted deer and stopped to take some snaps. These appear unconcerned about us stopping there.


These guys were really concerned….


A wild boar…. first time sighting for us






Looked like he was ready to charge me


We could not sight any other animal for the rest of the drive through Bandipur.

 

[autosafari]

Wow!!

That's a nice start.

Was waiting for this travelogue.

Need to be careful while clicking wild boars.

Keep posting.

 

[Highway Ranger]

Thanks, Autosafari. Cannot match your long drives....

Drove into Mudumalai forest with great anticipation.

Nilgiri langur posing for us…







A lone tusker…..


More Deer/Stag




A Peacock trying to cross the road.....


Wild squirrels chasing each other and playing up a tree – the first time I was able to capture its glory. Did not come out good…. Now, my wife doesn’t mind if I spend money on a zoom lens.

 

[Releesh]

oh! you done the trip.Great photos.waiting for your pictures of Kochi.

 

[hari_hyderabadi]

Excellent photos, Highway Ranger.

Now I am considering for a Kochi trip seeing at your wonderful photography and scenic. I am wondering though, what if a wild animal (a lion or tiger) appears on the roads? Does it attack?

 

[Highway Ranger]

oh! you done the trip.Great photos.waiting for your pictures of Kochi.

Thanks. And thank you again for suggesting places of interest over there.

Excellent photos, Highway Ranger.

Now I am considering for a Kochi trip seeing at your wonderful photography and scenic.

Thanks. What you have seen is Bandipur forest, which is in Karnataka and Mudumalai forest, which is in Tamil Nadu.

The experience in Kochi/Alleppy will be completely different.

I am wondering though, what if a wild animal (a lion or tiger) appears on the roads? Does it attack?

They usually leave you alone.... unless they are provoked or disturbed. Even pets like cats and dogs attack if they are provoked over a limit.

I have never come across a lion or a tiger, though I would love to see them out in the open.

I have seen a wild elephant, which had minutes before attacked a person on a bike, run across my car, but looked at us tamely when we crossed it.

 

[Rajvel]

Awesome photos!!!!!!!!!!!
Bandipur drive would be excellent.
Waiting for more photos of kochi and allepey.
As we were planning a trip there on ferbruary first week.
Did you stay at the house boat ?
If yes What was the cost ?

 

[Highway Ranger]

Thanks Rajvel. Hope you have a nice trip. I will give all the details soon.


After passing through Mudumalai, we reached Gudalur and turned right towards Nadugani forest. The road through Nadugani forest was a narrow road full of twist and turns. Most of the turns had a rough patch making the drive a bit unpleasant. Came across a sign board saying “Elephant Prone Zone”. Drove slowly trying to spot some, but no luck.

Reached Nilumbur as per plan and proceeded to Perinthalmanna. Found a AC restaurant over there and had Kerala meals. I made the mistake of switching off the navigation during lunch and when I switch it on later, I had been disconnected from the data network. So google navigation failed. I opened sygic and tried to navigate to Aluva. I ended up in Guruvayoor. Now, Guruvayoor was nowhere in the route I had planned. I restarted my mobile to get the data connection and navigated using google which got me to Kochi via Kodungallur. Now it took me through the Ernakulam city, like Kaloor, Banerji road, North overbridge, MG road, etc.

The roads in these places are so narrow with no leeway as the compound walls of the houses are the boundaries for these narrow roads. Saw two accidents on the way, one a sand laden mini lorry had smashed into a compound wall of a house and the other near Ernakulam, a Ritz had made an entry into a house without using the main gate.

Finally reached Vintage Inn, Fort Kochi by 6:30 PM.

Parked for the day…

 

[Highway Ranger]

Vintage Inn had a clean big A/C room ready for us and we settled in for the night. They charged us 1500/night. Breakfast is charged extra. We were the only Indians there. The rest were all foreigners.

The next day we started out at around 6 am went to the ‘Fort Kochi to Vipin’ ferry jetty, had tea in a stall nearby and got my car into the ferry/junker and crossed the backwaters and landed in Vipin island. They charged 30 rs for the car. People in the car get a free ride. Lots of cars, bikes, autos and even mini buses use this junker service.


The Junker...






Me, reversing my car into the Junker...






Enjoying the free ride

 

[AppU]

Excellent Pics HR

An another detailed travelogue from you and happy to see your wheel caps are tied, is the same wheel caps we brought at Vellore?

BTW,Waiting for the remaining pics with story.

 

[autosafari]

Wonderful pictures again.

We stopped just before entering Bandipur for breakfast.

So it was Gundulupet where you had breakfast.

..navigation failed..ended up in Guruvayoor..was nowhere in the route planned.. using google which got me to Kochi via Kodungallur.. roads in these places are so narrow..

Instead of Trissur - Ernakulam 4 lane highway, you ended up taking the narrow 1 and 1/2 lane NH17 (new Number NH66) with lot of twists and sharp turns (infested with tippers and private buses plying dangerously)

 

[FlyByWire]

Fantastic pictures, Highway Ranger! B&W pic of the 'posing Langur' was the pick of the lot for me! Great going and wish you many more such photo opportunities as well as road trips!

 

[Highway Ranger]

Excellent Pics HR

An another detailed travelogue from you and happy to see your wheel caps are tied, is the same wheel caps we brought at Vellore?

Thank you AppU. Yes, the 2 wheel caps that you see on the passenger side are the ones we bought in Vellore. Yes, all the wheel caps are tied - once bitten twice shy

Wonderful pictures again.

So it was Gundulupet where you had breakfast.

Thank you again.

Actually we had packed both breakfast and lunch as we were not sure of the availability of food in this route. So we stopped after crossing Gundulupet under a big tree and had our breakfast.

Instead of Trissur - Ernakulam 4 lane highway, you ended up taking the narrow 1 and 1/2 lane NH17 (new Number NH66) with lot of twists and sharp turns (infested with tippers and private buses plying dangerously)

Precisely. To add to that, we entered the Ernakulam city while our original plan was to bypass most of it by taking the Vyttila route.

Fantastic pictures, Highway Ranger! B&W pic of the 'posing Langur' was the pick of the lot for me! Great going and wish you many more such photo opportunities as well as road trips!

Thank you FlyByWire! Wish you the same. Just read your travelogue. Nice pictures.

 

[mukeshus]

Wow highway ranger, hooked on to this thread.

Excellent pics of the animals.

So far i have been able to spot Elephant, Deers and Wild Buffalo , you are fortunate to witness so many animals.

 

[Highway Ranger]

@mukushes, Thanks.

Just being lucky, I guess. For instance, we spotted the squirrels when we stopped seeing some elephants in the distance. We got down and were looking at the elephants and the squirrels were playing on the tree just next to us. We would have missed it if we have not stopped


Our plan for the day was to visit Paniyeli Poru, Elephant Kraal, Malayatoor Church and Mahagany Thottam.

After crossing over to Vipin island we crossed over to Vallarpadam island, where there is a huge container terminal.


500 yrs old church in Vallarpadam – Our Lady of Ransom Church...



Crossed over to Bolgatty island and continued on the ICT road (International Container Terminal Road). This road takes us on the edge of Bolgatty island. Stopped for some time and took a walk on the edge of the water front.


2 fishermen ready to cast their net for an early morning catch...




The long curvy railway bridge to the container terminal...




An isolated Chinese fishing net between the islands...




An old man returning to his boat after supplying a large can of liquor...




The Coconut lagoons...