Road trip south India

 I read about an young couple going around India last one year in their Creta SUV .

They even slept in car and cooked on way .

Me and my wife both doctors who are having a more relaxed career now drove to a lot of places since September 2020 in South India stayed in hotels ,with friends and relatives houses rarely ,and in Chennai in our apartment for more than 2 months .

It started like this .

We had gone to Trivandrum in September 2020 for a wedding

We went after stay in Poovar Club Mahindra resort for three days .

Later we went Via Coimbatore to Yercaud in October 2020 staying in Sterling resorts .

On return we stayed in Coimbatore in in relatives house .

Returned via Palghat back to Cochin .

Then in our next trip via Coimbatore to Chennai with a stopover near Mettur in my classmates house for breakfast and stayed in Villupuram in another classmates home .

When in Chennai once we drove to Thirupathi temple via Tiruthani and to Kalahasti temple .

We were in Chennai till end of December and experienced a cyclone there !

We returned from Chennai in December 2020 via Trichirapalli

went to Sreerangam temple ,Thiruvanaikoil and Samayapuram temples .

Then we drove to Kodaikanal Sterling Kodaikanal lake view for 5 days

Then we drove down to Palani visited temple there and drove back to Coimbatore .

Then in January we went to Mysore for my nieces wedding

This we drove via Wynad

stayed in a Vythiri Mango stein resort

later in Thirunelli temple for a night .

later via Nagarhole forest reserve we drove to Mysore .

Visited Brindhavan gardens and Nandi hills .

After wedding in Mysore we went to a resort of Club Mahindra in Virajpet Coorg for 3 days .

We returned via Tellicherry and Kappad beach to Calicut stayed for a night .

We returned to Cochin .

On return we visited my ancestral village Parapanangadi Sharriyekil temple .

Later on our next trip for a wedding in Pollachi we went in a circuitous route .

We first reached Changhanassery in kerala via Kuttanad route .

Went to Chenganur Mahadeva shetram,Tiruvalla Sree Valabha shetram and later Aranmula Parthasarathy temple .

We then drove to Kottarakara stayed for the evening and night .

Went to Kotarakara mahadeva temple and famous Ganapathy temple .

We left next morning to pandalam Saastha temple .Then mala dam Aryan kaavu shaastha temple and Kulathu puzha temple .

Then we went to Tamilnadu Courtallam finding a meagre waterfall returned to Kerala via Shenkottah followed by the ghat forest section to reach Achan koil temple .

We stayed that night there .

Next day we were going to Tiruchendur discovered a hill temple for Murugan on way

We visited Then kasi temple on way too .

Stayed in Thiruchendur .

Next day via Thirunelveli to Rameswaram. Stayed there went to Dhanuskodi

Next day to Madurai and Pazamudhir cholai .

Next day we went to the wedding in Pollachi after checking in a hotel arranged .

We drove to Coimbatore .

Next day we went to Adi yogi ,in juggi Vasudevs ashram then to Vilayannur temple

We returned to Coimbatore and back to Cochin .

The last trip we went to palghat later to Guruvayur later Coimbatore back to Palghat .

We returned via Guruvayur .

We had some ground rules .

We took trip relaxed with flexible deadlines .

Think during Covid driving in your vehicle is safer .

One has time to stop and stare .

On our return from kalahasthi Tirutani to Chennai we took a country road .

It was very scenic but we got diverted due to breach of a dam as it had been raining .

The diversion took us to lonely villages hills and we were glad to reach civilization

.

We avoided night driving

We took turns with my wife relieving me on off .

We would check in to a hotel or resort by afternoon

Most were booked online or in our Sterling or Club Mahindra memberships .

Most places we stayed were satisfactory some surprisingly good .

We ate when hungry generally searching with ratings and in foodie pages reading reviews and were rewarded .

We went to exotic legendary heritage restaurants and i reviewd most and we enjoyed the food

In Tamilnadu we visited several degree coffee outlets and famous highway places like 99km .

We even had jigardhanda in Madurai .

In Kerala we discovered tea shops and tiny food places .

We took pictures videos even monkeyed with selfies and video vlogs me more of course .

Luckily we had no major mishaps a big risk in self driving .

The road from Kodai to Palani was bit stressful as narrow steeper .

Wife drove this stretch kept her cool when huge buses passed us on opposite side .

The most dreary stretch was Thiruchendur Rameswaram

Most exiting was over pamban bridge and to Danuskodi .

Yercaud Kodai Coorg and Wyanad were rewarding with cool climate and lovely sceneries .

Nagarhole forest reserve showed us wildlife .

Kappad beach and Vythiri lake were surprisingly maintained so well

The hill temple to Muruga on way to Thiruchendur pazamudircholai near madurai Thiruchendur palani temples were all spell binding so were Tirutani and Tirupati .

The Adhi yogi statue Siruvani falls and Villenur temple were exotic

Virajpet nearby waterfalls coffee estates in Coorg and typical Coorgi cuisine were rewards .

Kerala roads were narrower had more speed cameras steeper edges excellent tea shops

Tamilnadu had wider roads no cameras more tolls excellent rest areas .

We got no speeding tickets

Google maps made us independent but at times took us through narrow roads .