The two most scenic hill stations in south India are Munnar and Kodaikanal – so, it’s expected that the road connecting the two will be equally stunning.
It’s not.
It’s far more beautiful than the two towns, and in the monsoon, it turns heavenly.
We drove two Honda sedans and an SUV on this God’s own stretch.
The route
Part of National Highway 85 (NH 85), the route passes through tea gardens, cardamom plantations, and forests. The route is Munnar to Chinnakanal to Pooppara to Bodimettu to Theni Bypass to Kodaikanal. It rises in elevation when you leave Munnar, touches a high at Bodimettu when you cross from Kerala to Tamil Nadu, and then goes downhill towards Theni. From there, it’s again an uphill drive to Kodaikanal.
In this 5-hour, 170-km stretch, you get to see waterfalls and rainforests on the windward side (west of the Nilgiris, facing the Arabian Sea), and rocky hills and drier conditions on the leeward side (rain-shadow area), followed by plains and again mountains – it’s like a lesson in geography. There are lessons on history and culture, too – language changes, food changes.
Why Kerala in the monsoon?
It’s generally advised not to travel in the hills in the monsoon, because there’s risk of landslides and cloudburst – as happened in Himachal Pradesh recently – but Kerala is relatively safe for two reasons:
– The Nilgiris (and by extension the Western Ghats) are stable mountains, made of rock and covered by rainforests, or plantations. So, even if there is heavy rain, there are few instances of roads being washed away.
– Roads such as NH 85 are well-paved, wide, and there are no sudden elevation changes.
Why Munnar?
Apart from the usual touristy things – buying tea, spices, coffee, or taking plantation tours – the following is what you must do here:
– Trek through the highest tea plantations in the world (Kolukkumalai and Suryanelli), where you’ll be mesmerised by clouds floating through tea leaves.
– Visit the Eravikulam National Park, to get up and close with the Nilgiri Tahr (an endangered mountain goat species).
– Don’t stay in the crowded town, but choose places nearby, where the AQI almost always stays under 20.
Why Kodaikanal?
Apart from buying chocolates and boating in the Kodaikanal Lake, do explore the following:
– Visit Guna Caves (15 km away), which are infamous for strange disappearances, and famous for hosting the Pandavas during their vanvasa (exile).
– Visit prehistoric dolmens (megalithic tombs) from the Stone Age, estimated to be more than 3,000 years old, near Perumal Malai. These resemble the Stonehenge (in England), and some artefacts are also displayed at the Shembaganur Museum of Natural History in Kodaikanal.
– See the Pillar Rocks formation, a set three huge granite pillars almost 400-feet tall.
When to visit?
Any time of the year is good – and especially the monsoon for abovementioned reasons – but if you were to visit these hill stations just once in a lifetime, wait till 2030, when the next Neelakurinji bloom will take place (Neelakurinji is a blue-violet flower that blooms once every 12 years – last recorded blooms were in 1994, 2006 and 2018 – and the next will be in 2030). The Nilgiris are so called because during these blooms the entire mountain range turns blue.
Escape Road and WW II
Do check out the remnants of the now-closed ‘Escape Road,’ or the old State Highway 18. During the Second World War, the British – fearing Japanese invasion after they bombed Madras (now Chennai) in April 1942 – started constructing a road from Kodaikanal to Munnar and finally to Cochin (Kochi), so that their families living in the Madras Presidency could escape to England via Cochin. That invasion never happened, but the road got constructed. In 1990, however, it was closed for traffic as it passed through a protected forest area – and also because there was a dispute over its maintenance between the Kerala Highways Department and the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. Today, while you cannot drive through it, you can obtain a trekking pass and see how nature reclaims when humanity moves aside – for it’s said to be full of vegetation.
The cars
We drove Honda’s three cars – the Amaze, City, and Elevate – on this route, and realised the strengths of each model. The Amaze (Rs 8.1 lakh to Rs 11.2 lakh) is supremely fuel-efficient, and consistently returned more than 15 km/litre; the City (Rs 12.4 lakh to Rs 16.6 lakh) drives almost sticking to the road; and the Elevate (Rs 11.9 lakh to Rs 16.7 lakh), despite being an SUV, doesn’t have any body roll. The City is also available as a strong hybrid – called the City e:HEV, it’s priced Rs 19.9 lakh, ex-showroom.