A distance of over 300 kms; approximately a 6 hour journey; less than the Bangalore-Goa road trip we had last October. We had no stops planned in-between and so the comparatively smaller distance meant a slow start, aiming to reach Pondicherry 3:00 pm; we decided to start out by 9:00 am. (We were late, starting earlier would have been better….read on!)

9:00 am – Bright and sunny, relatively low traffic on roads, we were on our way to Hosur, in Tamil Nadu and out of Bangalore city🚙.

10:20 am – We passed Hosur and a few kilometres before Krishnagiri, we stop for a bite. This place has the choice of McCafe, Shri Krishna Inn and Cafe Coffee Day; Shri Krishna Inn appeared to be most popular judging from the crowd; but we chose the McCafe. Not a wise decision, the food was insipid🍔. 

Pledging not eat at McD again, we were on our way to Krishnagiri.

11:00 am – We payed the toll at the Krishnagiri Toll Plaza, after which we took a wrong turn. Some course corrections later, we were on NH 77 bound for Pondicherry. The scenery outside was varied and beautiful. It felt sooo…. good to see the plenitude of land, trees, greenery, mountains….less of traffic jams, buildings, neon signs🍃.

Krishnagiri has a stretch of road filled with shops on either side selling Granites.

By now we could see the Eastern Ghats, the mountains were clothed in varying shades of green, looked majestic. The road was bumpy, patchwork done in some places, missing tarmac in few areas; but low on traffic. Few stretches had kachha (dirt) road. 

12:00 pm – We reached a small dusty town called Uthangarai and now on the way to Thiruvannamalai.

1:00 pm – We reached Thiruvannamalai, a major town and it’s here that we started seeing the road signs pointing to the Gingee fort. There were also signs leading to the Sathanur dam, we had to make a choice – fort or dam; we chose the Gingee fort.

1:30 pm – The visit to Gingee fort is here 👉Gingee fort: Our Fort(uitous) Encounter

We spent two hours exploring the place, a majestic fort; but needs almost a day to see all the beautiful structures and climb the Rajagiri and Krishnagiri hillocks. We were out of time, if we had started from Bangalore earlier, we could have spent more time at the fort.

3:30 pm – We are off from Gingee; Pondicherry is 58 km away. The road becomes narrow as it passes through a town and finally we emerge to the four lane Kamraj Salai Puduchery road (NH 66) and from here it’s a smooth drive 🛣

4:30 pm – We reached Pondicherry and out stay is at the heritage hotel – Maison Perumal🌿

A fabulous drive and finally at Pondy 😘.

More in the next post, take care !!