Day 38 - Kochi - Homecoming

06.11.2022

Day 38

Country roads, take me home

To the place I belong…

Country roads, take me home

Today is the last day of our incredible journey across India, which we started 38 days ago on 30th Sep 2022. We have mixed feelings today - excited to get back home to our families but sad this journey will end today. 

We started from Madikkeri at 7.30 am, after having breakfast at Club Mahindra. Since many people had cautioned us about bad roads travelling to Kerala, we pondered over several options - in the end decided to take Virajpet - Iritty - Mattanur - Panoor - Vadakara to Calicut.

After Virjapet on Madikkeri-Virajpet, it is very curvy mountainous road making driving bit difficult. Add to that, the narrow road has sharp edges and we were worried the edges may damage “Panchali’s” tyres. Besides, it was dense forest on both sides.

We crossed the border into Kerala at 9.30 am at Iritty and stopped at the first “thattukada” and ordered  “5 chai without” to mark our entry to our home state! From Attari border to Kerala border!

Soon we started seeing signature Kerala style - political parties flags and football fan clubs flex boards cheering their favourite team in the upcoming Qatar WC. We merged into NH66 at Kunjippally for our final drive to Kochi. 

We continued on NH66 to Vatakara and to Calicut, where we stopped for lunch at Ambhika hotel. We ordered their speciality dish “Samudra Sadya” or loosely translated “Sea feast”. it is a non-vegetarian Sadya with 18 seafood dishes. It was yummy and well worth the drive to the city. The menu is too long to be given here (Instead a photo is posted for the foodies delight).

Back on the road at 1.15 pm, we continue on NH66 upto Ponnani and thereafter we are on some of the most difficult sections of our entire 38 day journey. The sky was cloudy and it was threatening to rain any minute and soon the rains arrived. 

Add to this road work and diversion on NH66 due to road widening made this the least enjoyable drive for the next four hours until we merged into NH966a Container Road at  Cheranellore.

Fulltankers touched down at Kochi at 7.00 pm. 

Photos of welcome at home of fulltankers Zac and CK.

End of an incredible journey! We covered 18 States, 2 UT and travelled 12,456 kms and paid Rs.9,500/- as toll, plus 1100+ litres of diesel and 30+ litres of Ad-blue. All well worth it. 

Words cannot describe it. Many dream of making road trips, but few can make it happen. We did it and we thank you for your wishes, prayers, encouragement and following us through our journey.

Signing off for now (till the next time)

#fulltankers

Day 37 - Madikkeri (second day)

05.11.2022

Day 37

Today is the penultimate day of our incredible journey across India. We have planned a laid back second day in Madikkeri to rest and rejuvenate..

We spent our day tasting the local cuisine, meeting old friends or just relax. Lunch was at Coorg Cuisine, a small restaurant selling authentic Coorg dishes. We tasted Pandhi curry, Kori Yerchi curry, Pandhi Malukootunadh, Baimbale barthadh, Byne Ennekai, Neer Dosa, Akki Otti and Nool puttu and we liked all of them. 

Meeting Abyshekar, whom I know for over 40 years was special. 

We also enjoyed hospitality of Dr. Abu and Jacinth friends of fulltanker Zac, who have a lovely place overlooking the hills. We spent a great evening with them.

We ordered our dinner from Thaliya, a traditional kodava restaurant, and enjoyed the meal in the comfort of our rooms.

Tomorrow, we head back home. This series of fulltankers incredible journey across India will come to a close. We go to sleep today with fond memories of our trip, which will remain in our minds forever. 

End of day thirty seven - 12,021 kms (no change as we are parked in Club Mahindra) on our tracker.

#fulltanker

Day 36 - Madikkeri (first day)

04.11.2022

Day 36

We continue our southward journey, to Madikkeri, Karnataka. This will be our last stop before we return to our hometown, Kochi

It’s a long drive from Varca to Madikkeri - approximately 470 kms and estimated travel time of 10 hours. We started at 7.00 am and hit NH66, the highway that will take us to Kochi! It runs north–south along the western coast parallel to the Western Ghats. The highway connects Panvel to Kanyakumari passing through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and TN.

We pass through hill sections and once we reached Karwar it was as if heaven had opened its doors - on our right it was ocean meeting river, hills to our left and coconut farms alongside the highway. We passed by Karwar Port and Naval Base.

We had a brief stop for breakfast near Udupi. While passing through Surathkal, we took a detour to drive through NIT Surathkal campus, another premier institute of India.

Nearing Mangalore we see areca nut plantations and several industries. The city has many large chemical industries, port etc. Some of the earliest schools and colleges are established in Mangalore, several of them more than 150 years ago. We stopped for a quick lunch before proceeding to Madikkeri.

Drive up the hills was smooth and we checked in at Club Mahindra, Madikkeri at 6.00 pm for our last pit stop. It was a long drive today, but we have planned two nights stay in this hill station before we return to Kochi.

Madikkeri, is known for attractive coffee plantations and green meadows sprawling over acres of land. We have a whole day tomorrow to see this quaint hill station.

We took these pictures just as the sun was setting in Madikkeri.

End of day thirty six - 12,021 kms on our tracker.

#fulltanker 

Day 35 - Goan Rendezvous

03.11.2022

Day 35

It was Goan Rendezvous today. Friends of fulltankers - Jose Kattikkaren, Babu George and Mohan George with their families along with family of fulltanker JK had flown in from Kochi. JK moved to Sterling to join his family for a day. Other fulltankers spent the day relaxing and enjoying local cuisine and sunshine.

Goa, has several beaches stretching along the Arabian Sea. It was a Portuguese colony prior to 1961, which is evident in its preserved 17th-century churches.

First stop, Joecons shack for lunch. It was awesome food and beach ambience. 

While the team from Kochi, drove to Panjim to visit Se Cathedral. 

We could not visit the Basilica of Bom Jesus church, which holds the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier. It is closed since September for repairs.

Fulltankers and friends from Kochi, met for dinner at Martin’s corner, a multi-cuisine speciality Seafood and serving Goan, Indian, Tandoori, Continental, Oriental dishes. It was a perfect place for a rendezvous and we enjoyed the food and camaraderie. After a sumptuous dinner, fulltankers bid goodbye to their friends from Kochi.

Fulltankers are now reqdy for our next destination - Madikeri. This will be our last stop before we complete our incredible journey.

End of thirty fifth day - 11550 kms (no change as we are taking a day off) on our tracker.

#fulltankers

Day 34 - Goan Sunshine

02.11.2022

Day 34

Today we started our journey to South India, destination Varca Goa. From hill station to sunny Goan beaches.

We have booked at Club Mahindra, Varca Goa and distance to travel is approx 420 kms and estimated travel time of 8 1/2 hours. We left Mahabaleshwar at 7.15 am and and took NH48 again. As mentioned in earlier blog, this highway starts in Delhi and traverses through seven states ending in Chennai. Good highway to drive, but heavy truck traffic. We stopped for breakfast at Kamats, near Satara.

As we travelled through Satara, Kolhapur, Belgaum (or Belagavi) we see vast areas of Sugarcane fields on either side. Incidentally, Belagavi is the sugarcane capital of Karnataka. We had to merge into NH748, but unknown to us the route would take us through Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary via SH30. The road was very bad for several sections and driving was a nightmare for over 30 kms. But for the bad road, the trees on either side created a canopy for most part, a fabulous treat for the eyes.

We were pleasantly surprised to see a cricket pitch alongside this jungle road! Shows how much Cricket has influenced this country.

Finally the road merged into NH748 and it was good driving thereafter to Varca. We stopped at Coastal Tawa, a nice restaurant for lunch before check in to Club Mahendra at Varca, where we will be staying for two nights.

To share our excitement, few friends from Kochi with their family are joining us in Varca. 

More about it tomorrow.

End of thirty fourth day - 11550 kms on our tracker.

#fulltanker

Day - 33 Strawberries & Mahabaleshwar

01.11.2022

Day 33

Today we are driving to Mahabaleshwar, the strawberry capital of India. It’s a hill station and grows strawberry in an estimated area of 3,000 acres and produces more than 30,000 metric tonnes annually.

The drive from Aurangabad is more than 320 kms and over 8 hours. We started at 7.45 am and took NH160 and NH965D. Some sections of highway was not good but luckily traffic is light today and we covered good distance.

For sure we are in sugarcane country as we see vast areas of sugar cane fields on either side for almost throughout the journey. We also see roadside vendors selling Custard Apple and Guava - probably secondary crop in this region.

We have booked our stay at White House a modest homestay in Panchgani, about 14 kms before Mahabaleshwar. We checked in at homestay at 2.45 pm and went looking for strawberry trail. 

Mapros (Mahabaleshwar Products) is a big name locally. We had Strawberry with Whipped Cream in Mapros restaurant - must say, it tasted yummy! 

Unfortunately we could not visit their production unit as it was closed for the day and they open tomorrow only after we leave. 

We also drove to Mahabaleshwar and toured the town. It has a nice lake and good sunset point. The place was very crowded despite being a working day. Diwali euphoria still in the air!

We return to homestay for dinner and rest for our long drive to Varca, Goa tomorrow.

End of thirty third day - 11,055 kms on our tracker.

#full tanker