traveling around tamil nadu june 27-july 1st (ish)

i'll be leaving for chennai on an overnight bus, probably around june 27th/28th, and will be headed to chennai for a few days. from there, i'll head down south, itinerary is flexible/ i'm open to pretty much anything, but i want to be in kerala by about july 4th or so...

if anyone's traveling around the area and would like to join, i know some things are easier with a group (such as ooty, other hill stations and national parks, etc.)

cheers!