Motorbiking - Chennai to Coimbatore

ma_hat_ma_candy

Hi guys,just found this forum and glad I did ! Just wondering if anybody has m/biked Chennai to Coimbatore as I'm going to on my RE Bullet mid- September this year. I know it's not a major odyssey but if anyone knows of any scenic routes with good places to stay - I'm not going to rush it Looking forward to the trip.Thanks in advance

pmvelu

I did this circuit in bus and train quite a few times !

I guess you are going to take :

Chennai-Vellore-Salem-Sankagiri-Bhavani-Perundurai-Avinashi-Coimbatore !

1) All through end-end road condition is Excellent
2) Scenic Route -- Hmmm In this circuit nothing much as such BUT If you would like to , You could do the following :-

a)Near Jolarpettai , You could visit Yelagiri Hills which is a small hill-station and good for Trekking as such!

b)From Salem , You could drive to Yercaud Hills [ 29 kms] and also possibly could stay for a night out there.. A Medium- Hill Station with comfortable Weather

c)In Bhavani , you could visit "Kooduthurai" [Confluence of 3 rivers - You could get into this town from NH-47 ..Around 5 kms ]

Hope this helps !

ma_hat_ma_candy

Thanks PM - yes - very helpful

ma_hat_ma_candy

- I'll be making the trip via the route suggested by PM between the 10th and 18th of September, 2008
a)Near Jolarpettai - Yelagiri Hills stay a night

b)From Salem - Yercaud Hills stay for a night

c)In Bhavani - "Kooduthurai" [Confluence of 3 rivers]

I'll be arriving at Chennai from the UK and motobiking to Coimbatore. Free accomodation in Coimbatore for suitable rider (s) and ride
around Coimbatore. Not looking for pillion passengers and dates given approximate and amendable.

pmvelu

Fantastic plan & I thought of adding few information which might be some help to you !!

I wil share more info on this route and whatever is appealing / suitable for you, you could make a call.

1) Bhavani "Kooduthurai" & "Temple" will be more appealing on Religious front & Bhavani is a relatively smaller town and am not sure how much you will like it for a Stay as such. I suggested for a visit !

2) From Sankagiri, you could try out "Tiruchengodu" [You need to take the first "Left" after the Sankagiri bus stand] .This is 11 kms fantastic road and in Tiruchengodu ,there is a Rocky Hill Temple and where you could see one of unique & only one of it's kind of temple in india as such [ Here the deity name is "Arthanareeswarar" meaning Half Male / Half Female Shiva- Parvathi as a single deity and it's a beauty to see one half with dhoti & Male things and other half with Saree & ornaments etc]. You could drive upto the hill top in your bike .There is a proper hill-road laid and this Temple's Bus plies in this route

3) If You are going for the option(2) mentioned above, you could drive straight to Erode [ 20 kms from Tiruchengodu - Nice Roads] and you could stay in Erode[ Which is a bigger town in that area] . Next Day you could drive to Perundurai -Followed by Avinashi and reach Coimbatore . Basically No need to back track to Sankagiri from tiruchengodu to travel to coimbatore as such !


4) "Bhavani" is very famous for Textiles & Bedsheets as such .. There are lots and lots of Powerlooms on the way from Sankagiri-Komarapalayam-Bhavani route .If you are interested , you could have a look on the same

5) In Yercaud, Look out for the "tribal Temple" and it's around 5 kms from Yercaud Bus stand and it's worth a visit !!.

And on this circuit :-

1) Ambur [ Near Vellore] is Very famous for Biriyani
2) Between Chennai -Aminjikarai-poonamalle- Sriperumbudhur ,Perundurai - Coimbatore the Lorry/Public bus Traffic is Just tooooooo much .
3) Important Or decent Enough towns in this circut are :
Vellore , Salem,Erode,Coimbatore
4) In fact, Public buses from Chennai to Coimbatore takes a different route which is a bit shorter[No Much difference] but traffic /road conditions are not so good when compared to the route I suggested.Just for your information, public buses take Chennai-Tambaram-Tindivanam-Villupuram-Ulundurpettai-Kallakurichi-AAthur-salem-Sankagiri-Erode-Perundurai-Avinashi-Coimbatore with Ulundurpettai-Salem stretch is pathetic [Around 150 kms]

Few Photos of Vellore-Chennai Stretch which was clicked a month back by my friend attached below !...

Attached Thumbnails

     

ma_hat_ma_candy

Thanks - this is brilliant!!! In London parlance " I'm well chuffed". Perhaps we can meet in Chennai for coffee - it'll give me an opportunity to thank you personally - email me if you want.

pmvelu

Nice to know it helped you !..

Thanks for your invite but I am in Mysore !!

Have a Great Trip and if you need any specific info on anything on this circuit, Please post as I could share more info on this circuit MC...

My Home PC is down and I can't access Internet based Email from my office ..Will share my Email id to you in a day or 2 ..Excuse me !!


Cheers
Velu

sriram_world

Hi Mhathma,

I am wondering,why you are interested in biking from chennai to coimbatore ? It has nothing special..unless you take detours as pmvelu has mentioned..

More sensible option would be,you can take a train or bus from chennai to coimbatore do the following stretches..

1) Coimbatore - mettupalauam - ooty - gudalaur - masinagudi - ooty.

2) coimbatore - udumalaipet - munnar - madurai.


Both are very intresting routes, Since this is september..you will have the monsoon with you .. Alwayz drizzling and excellent weather conditions..couple with scenic locales and forests..this will def be a biking adventure..

I have travelled especially the route #1 and it is damn good..you will never forgot the route.. specially the stretchesfrom ooty to gudalur and then to masinagudi and back to ooty.

You can even visit the mudumalai sanctuary near gudalur and probably stay at Masingudi..calm village at the base of the mountain.

Sriram

ma_hat_ma_candy

Yo Sriram,
Yeh - may sound a bit strange but I just need to do it! I kinda ride a bike for pleasure in all conditions, all roads, on routes I can say "I know" I like being immersed and though Chennai to Coimbatore may sound boring and bland as a highway I'm more interested in the byways and the convolutions.
Ooty's great and I've been there in a car and the blue train. Thanks for your recommendations - I shall definitely follow them - but noone's coming with me Never mind. Nobody's a stranger if I say hello

ma_hat_ma_candy

pmvelu

@MC,

For sure the location of "Yelagiri Hills" in the map in that link is INCORRECT ! They have Marked " Kolli Hills Of Namakkal District" as "Yelagiri".

And If you mean taking Harur / Paaapirettipatti road that's the short one But As far as I know it's a single road and not a highway as such !

And always My thought is whenever we are trying this kind of adventure , it's better to stick onto Highways so that we could get help in case of need and we could just Take rest and Relax whenever we feel ! .It's just my opinion.

And Infact, more shorter route on the circuit I proposed is , After Vellore, Travel to Dharmpuri and from there continue to Mettur followed by Bhavani-perundurai ... In this route, you will save some 40+kms and you will totally Skip salem but the sad part is you'll Skip Yercaud Hills even !

Happy Planning !!!

Cheers
Velu

sriram_world

Well,by missing yercaud..you don't miss much..Yercaud is slowly loosing its reputation..

Last time ( 1 year before),When I was there,it was not at all scenic and that too I was right in the time of monsoon and it was hell hot..

All the hills have been shaved off and there is a mining company which is destroying it in the name of development.

Do check out this link..for another longer route to coimbatore.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...lem-route.html

Gametotravel

The idea of adventure is to go off the "beaten path". It is always better to take the red roads in the map(the state highways) instead of the blue roads(The national highways) as these roads will be less populated with less oncoming headlights to deal with and more greenery everywhere. Though the actual distance from pointA to point B would increase but the adventure quotient will be very much there.

If the red roads in conjuction with the blue roads (i.e. roadmap indications) are judiciously used the travel experience can be more rewarding.

Gametotravel

@ Mahatma Candy:- will let you know if I would like to join the two wheeler adventure maybe on part of the trip upto Yelagiri if that is coming on your tour map.

pmvelu

My Suggestion is based on my "Actual" travel experiences .Basically Except that the OP want to take "Off-the-Beaten" track purposefully, Main roads /SH /NH is better for the following reasons:

1) Tyre goes Flat
2) Any issue with Bike As such
3) Want to Take a nap Or desperatly want to have tea
4) OP being a lone person doing this trip !

and I suppose OP might not travel on the nights as he is doing some indepth planning as such !