A short trip from vellore to hosur on my Maruthi 800
Part of my profession as security manager in a public sector bank involves travel to various branches of the bank. This time I had to go to hosur and surrounding areas and the journey was to start on 3rd Dec 2009. I had booked my stay at Hotel Tamilnadu at Hosur and they were charging Rs 725/- a day including taxes for Non AC Double room. It suited my budget and with the cool climate there it should be okay.
My car had undergone its 65,000/- kms service recently(1999 model) and I had to sort of upgrade my car AC as I was told that Maruthi is no longer supplying the Gas required for my type of compressor even though my car came with the factory fitted AC. So the maruthi authorized dealer at vellore got the kit so that the car AC can take the current AC refrigerant . This had cost me about 8000/- bucks but my AC was up and running like new. So the trip should test the AC also.
Day - 1
I had calculated the distance and it should be around 200 KMS at the most with some diversions and filled up 20 litres of petrol. The road to be taken would be the Chennai to Banglore super high way. Started from vellore at 8-00 am first stop was at burgur for work which is before krishnagiri at about 100 kms from vellore. Then had another stop at krishnagiri and from thereon was on the super highway towards Bangalore. Had my lunch beak on a way side restaurant, Hotel Park View. At 1-00 pm it was sort of an early lunch for me. After 10 minutes of waiting lunch was served. Veg meal was really good. Good rice, low oil vegetable etc. not bad for 40 bucks. Now had to hit shoolagiri branch and then I had to take a diversion to derigai and from there to hosur. Reached hotel tamil nadu by 5-30 PM and the hotel manager was little upset at may late arrival. Any way things were sorted out and took the room for 2 days. No pictures for the day. The hotel had non veg food and also a bar for those with a finer taste. I normally stick to veg food while on tour and this has helped me to keep my stomach in some working order.
Day – 2
Started my day at 6-00 am with a cup of tea and went down to my car had the mandatory checks done as I had to do some rough riding leaving the comfort of the super highway. After breakfast of 3 plain dosas at 8-30 am hit the road at 9-00 am. The place to go was denkinikottah it was about 25 kms from hosur. It was a cloudy day and I was expecting rains anytime. The drive was really good with some great scenery enroute with the road also somewhat okay. But had to keep myself to concentrate on the road as being alone in the vehicle one cannot indulge on too much of the luxuries on offer. Rains started upon reaching denkinikottah where I had to halt for my work. I was thanking my new viper blades replaced a week back doing a pretty good job. From denkinikottah I had to go to kelamangalam about 12 kms . Mild rains and reasonable scenic country roads well it was a good drive. After kelamangalam it was another place called Uddanappalli. Well well it was a 12 kms drive , but there was no road at all it was tracks and it took me almost 40 minutes to cover the distance. Finally reached uddanappalli. After the work had a light lunch of rice, rasam and sambar and was ready to hit the road by 3-00 pm. Destination back to Hosur and the road Rayakottah to hosur.
Started for Hosur rains had stopped sun was up and now time for some photography enroute.
Day 3
After morning tea came down for the mandatory checks and did some photography. I had to vacate my room and hit the road by 9-40 am . I had some work at hosur and Zuzuwadi ( 4 kms from hosur) and started back for vellore by 1-35 pm from zuzuwadi.
Drove for some 30 kms and decided to have some biscuits etc as lunch which I had stocked in my car safely in a Tupperware bread box. If you keep snacks inside your car overnight it is a good idea to have a air tight container to prevent ants etc.Having a regular lunch was ruled out as I had decided to hit vellore at one go and stop only to take some pictures enroute. Taking a lunch was not a good idea as It carried the tag of inducing some sleep into you. As I am alone it was better to keep my senses alert with a little hunger and music. Yeah I enjoy a liberal dose of music while on my drives with a pioneer head unit and a 12 CD changer under the seat . Even though the system is outdated by current standards still good for another couple of years.
Had some stops for taking photos and reached vellore by 4-30 pm. Total kms covered on the trip 520 kms.
So there till my next one bye.
