Our last holiday in 2019 was to Annamalai Tiger Reserve near Pollachi, Tamil Nadu.

We decided to break our journey to the Tiger Reserve at a friend’s farm-house, located near Mettupalayam. We were informed that the more scenic route would be via the mountain road running through Hasanur and Bannari, connecting the town of Chamarajanagar in Karnataka with Sathyamangalam in Tamil Nadu.

We decided to take the Kanakapura Road towards Chamarajanagar as it is the more direct route. We left Bangalore at 7 am and halted for breakfast at Nasa’s Food Court at Nettigere. This is a recent and very welcome addition on this road, providing delicious South Indian breakfast in a clean, family and wallet friendly setting.

After a filling breakfast of dosas washed down with excellent filter coffee, we hit the road again. Our next stop was at the stunning Hoysala era temple at Somanathapura.

By the time we finished seeing the temple, it was past 11:30 am. We reached Chamarajanagar by 12:45 pm and decided to halt for lunch there. The drive, almost immediately after we crossed Chamarajanagar, took us into the forests that form the boundary between the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The road, which was very good till then, started deteriorating significantly. But thankfully, traffic was quite minimal and we were able to make steady progress.

No sooner did we cross the border into Tamil Nadu than the condition of the road improved significantly. It was silky smooth, as good as any road I have been on! The scenery was also stunning, though the dense fog at the top of the mountain pass reduced visibility to just a few metres. It made for an exciting drive, but we could not appreciate the beauty of the lushly forested hills and valleys.

But this disappointment was more than made up for by our encounter with a lone tusker. The male elephant appeared out of the forest to our left, a few metres in front of our car and proceeded to cross the road and walk towards us, but thankfully on the opposite side of the road. It then passed our vehicle, not more than 5 metres away from our car. It is the closest I have ever got to a wild elephant and was a memorable encounter.

The rest of the journey was sedate and we reached the farmhouse by around 5:45 pm.