Mudumalai - Kochi

What's the best way to go from Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary (the name of the village seems to be Thekkady) to Kochi? Is there a (more or less) direct bus connection? Or do I have to go back to Ooty?

I was thinking that heading for Nilambur Road (railway station) might be an interesting alternative - but so far I have not found any railway connections starting in Nilambur Road...?

Best regards,
Mio

Train 642 departs NILAMBUR ROAD daily at 09:10 and gets to SHORANUR Jn at 11:00 (2nd unreserved only), there are loads of trains from Shoranur to Ernakulam (for Kochi)

These little unknown lines are normally a great experience.

Hi Steven!

Just checked with Indian Railways site - for Train 0642 (is that the one you mentioned?) I got the following route:

SNo Stn Code Stn Name Route No. Arrival Time Dep. Time Distance Day Remark
1 SBC BANGALORE CY JN 1 Source 17:15 0 1
2 BNC BANGALORE CANT 1 17:25 17:27 0 1
3 KJM KRISHNARAJAPURM 1 17:35 17:37 14 1
4 WFD WHITEFIELD 1 17:48 17:50 24 1
5 BWT BANGARAPET 1 18:28 18:30 70 1
6 KPN KUPPAM 1 19:03 19:05 105 1
7 TPT TIRUPATTUR JN 1 19:58 20:00 156 1
8 SA SALEM JN 1 21:30 21:35 269 1
9 ED ERODE JN 1 22:30 22:35 331 1
10 TUP TIRUPPUR 1 23:13 23:15 381 1
11 PTJ PODANUR JN 1 00:08 00:10 425 2
12 PGT PALGHAT 1 01:00 01:05 473 2
13 OTP OTTAPPALAM 1 01:30 01:32 505 2
14 TCR TRICHUR 1 02:38 02:43 550 2
15 AWY ALWAYE 1 03:37 03:40 605 2
16 ERS ERANAKULAM JN 1 04:30 00:00 624 2

There is a train from Nilambur road to shoranur as Steven-Ber mentioned. And yes, it is quite an interesting experience - Quite a scenic route, a train that moves no faster than 60 kmph, small ( very small ) stations on the route, all through some really unspoilt terrain. The Nilambur station itself is set in quite a beautiful surrounding.

I have done this stretch a number of times years ago. It is quite a relaxing journey. Always nice to be in a train that isnt in a great hurry to reach anywhere. And i have never seen this train more than half full.

It will be an interesting option to catch this train, but to reach the Nilambur road station by 9.10 will be a challenge. You might need to start from Mudumalai the day before, because i dont think there are any early morning option from Mudumalai to Nilambur. If you really want to do this train journey, it may be a good idea to reach Nilambur the prevous night.

If you want to reach Cochin faster, You will be able to catch a bus directly from Theppekkadu ( Mudumalai ) to Trichur ( i dont know the timings - this is the Mysore-Trichur service - both Kerala state and Karnataka state used to operate one bus each - sorry i dont have the latest update on this. ). This bus goes via Gudalur, Nilambur, Perinthalmanna, Guruvayur to reach Trichur. The running time should be approximately 5 hours 30 min or max 6 hours to Trichur.

In fact you can get down at Guruvayur - there are direct buses to Ernakulam that go via NH 17 ( skipping trichur)- it takes around 2 hours from there.

Once in Mudumalai, you can check at The Information center on the bus timings. They usually stop at Theppakkadu and pick passengers.

If you dont want to try this, get to Gudalur. There are buses from Gudalur to Kerala, mostly to Nilambur and Calicut ( dont go to calicut since it will be a much longer route ). You will get buses to cochin or trichur from Nilambur. Let me check and see if i can get some info on the timings.

(Yet another option is via Ooty - You will get buses to Coimbatore and from then on you can take the train or bus to Cochin. but that too is a longer journey.)

I will search around to see if I can get some more info..

The train route via Nilambur Road seems very attractive but I would prefer not to stay overnight in Nilambur. Are there any reasonable (budget) hotels near the bus stop and/or train station in Nilambur?

I double checked with indian railways site - they definitely mention no train from/to nilambur road. Is that because there is only second sitting class in that train?

If i remember correctly, there are a couple of budget hotels there. Its not a very touristy place, and i dont really know what to expect there.

The Nilambur train has only 2nd class sitting - it is a local shuttle. I guess thats why it may not be appearing on the railway site.

Ok, I've found the train here - together with all the other regional trains of southern railways:

http://www.srailway.com/arr_dept/srtt/srtt_44_1.htm

There is another train (No. 646) departing from nilambur road at 11.40am. So it should be possible to catch that one without spending the night in nilambur.

Thats great! You will be able to catch this train from Shoranur..

http://www.trainenquiry.com/Schedule...cVENAD+EXPRESS

A 3 digit train number (or less) is a 'passenger' train, meaning a slow train, and a 4 digit train number (even if the first number is a zero) is an express, mail or superfast train, complicated isn't it.

There are six 4-digit train numbers that begin with a zero that are regular expresses, all the rest are temporary or special trains, often only running at holiday or festival times.

Don't you just love how the 'fast' passenger takes the same amount of time as the ordinary passenger.

That link was to the Southern Zone timetable, but I was unable to go to the 'home' page of that timetable to see if it was the current timetable, I mention this because I used the Southern Railways website earlier and found only 2 trains, the 11:40 wasn't listed, and I didn't mention the 17:00 as I thought it would make for a very late arrival time in Ernakulam.

Yeah! But the best thing is the fare: 14 Rs.

You will enjoy the journey if you arent in a hurry

by the way, the Nilambur Railway station is some 4 kms away from the town. You can take a Auto Rikshaw or a bus to get there.