The dawn of Saturday was nothing out of the ordinary and yet it evolved to be an interesting start to an outstanding weekend. A weekend with cousins in coffee county, Coorg. With a normal day at the office and just an interview to go the day looked pretty much empty. After the interview was done, I took to the road, first filling gas and the disaster struck with the driver window not winding down. T a person the hills that's pretty mundane but to one in chennai it's grievous. Hot and dusty I had to cross ventilate the car by opening the rear right window and the front left window to let air.
Once I hit the road and just about crossed Poonamalle the second problem hit. A huge traffic jam. That block took over 2 hours to clear and what irritated the most was that the reason for the traffic jam is still unclear.... After that it was pretty much smooth sailing with the little difficulties cropping up once in a while.
Crossing the little hamlets that dot the smoothly laid out highways that stretch the length and breath of the state. Four hours later I found myself in the state capital of Karnataka, Bangalore. Bypassing Bangalore took about 30 minutes making the travel to Coorg all the more nearer. The usually wonderful drive to Mysore from Bangalore was spoilt with the unusually high number of speed breakers. Nearly all of them unmarked and virtually impossible to see in the dark. The speed reduced helped in watching several cars launching themselves from the speed breakers... Bypassing Mysore and on the Coorg route the story was the same. The you hit the Hunsur to Gonikuppal route.
On this route you are actually struggling to find where the Tarmac is. Half the time you are driving in the dirt near the road looking at vestiges of what once was a proper road. The state and inter-state buses plying the road were having a field day while the cars that's flashed past them earlier on good road were hardly moving. Rocking from side to side, going into pot holes that is so big that the car is almost engulfed by the hole you wonder if the car will climb out. 30 Kms stretched to over 2 hours of driving. Speeds reduced from 80km/hr to hardly 10km/hr, ie; if you want my our car.
Reaching, Virajpet was a relief and all that remained of the journey was the final stretch to the estate. The road that I had least expected to be the worst turned out to be the best. Smooth as silk and with no traffic it was a fitting end to a hard days drive... Zipping past coffee plants, sleeping cows, the mist low on the wet road, sharp turns and virtually no potholes. Hmmm that last 20 minutes makes you miss driving in the hills...
Reaching home you reflect back on the roads traversed, two states, half a dozen toll booths, over 700kms, speed breakers and potholes, but nothing like reaching home safe. In one state the roads were a delight with straight smooth roads, the other was a horror for both the driver and the car. Testing everything from human endurance to machine tolerance.
Country roads take me home to the place I belong.
