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Road tripping in Kia Seltos: Visited the longest drive-in beach in Asia

28th June 2022, 16:02 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

Two things were reverberating in my mind - the video of a Hyundai Creta which had sunk on a Goa beach & the rusting I have seen on cars.

BHPian ashis89 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

A week ago, we drove to Kannur and then Nileshwar before returning to Bangalore. This post is mostly about car updates. I will try not to be lazy and create a separate travelogue for it.

While the car was serviced over the previous weekend, I didn't get time to refuel it. And I read reports of several pumps running dry across the country, including here in KA. As it was already while returning from the office the previous night, I took my chance to refuel it the next morning.

Nearing the E mark

Started by 6:45 AM and it was only post Nelamangala that I found a good fuel bunk which was operational (had fuel) and didn't have a long queue of vehicles! By then the car had hit the reserve as well. Tanked up to the brim so we are set for at least half the trip.

51+ litres down

Clicked on the way, near Holenarasipur. Drove down this road to access a flowering field and found this nice shade while we clicked a few pics.

Based on past experiences shared by BHPians, we took the Nelamangala - Channarayapatna - Holenarasipur (tiffin break on its outskirts) - Arakalagud - Piriyapatna - Virajpet - Coorg Gate restaurant (lunch break) - Irrity - Mattanur - Kannur. Roads were good for most parts. Stay was at Seashell Harris Beach Home and its parking was surrounded by trees giving it a permanent shade.

Once in Kerala, we got intermittent rains every few kms and the wipers did their job very silently. I got ample chance to experience the famous Kerala highways. All the power of the CRDi engine was put to good use while performing overtakes on those highways. Some of the city roads were steeper and narrower than most ghat roads I have seen. Got to practice quite a few incline starts too, without any challenge.

Another observation about the cities in Kerala - the city roads go round their way while crossing the railway lines at multiple points. And these are manned level crossings without a flyover. I must have spent at least 1 hour idling at these crossings during the 4 days of my trip.

In Kannur, we went to the Muzhuppilangad beach, which is also known as the longest drive-in beach in Asia. Probably due to the underlying rock composition of the area, the beach sand is very hard and as such, doesn't sink under load. One can see any and all kinds of cars being driven and parked on the beach.

Two things were reverberating in my mind: the video of a Creta which had sunk on a Goa beach the previous evening and the rusting I have seen on cars. Had shared my experience here.

I also saw a yellow plate Etios parked by the water (back facing towards the sea and water crawling near its wheels) and people climbing on it for clicks. 15 minutes later, when they decide to drive out, the Etios front wheels were spinning happily without any traction. Lucky them, after some tugging pushing pulling, the car came out.

I crawled through the length of the beach. One section towards the end looked like a swamp although cars were splashing through it. I turned back. Parked near the sea for a brief photo shoot and then away from the water to get some coffee at the cafe.

Took it near the sea

Clicked a pic

Parked away from the water

Rains continued to pour but we were lucky that it never rained when we were out of our room or the car. Visited the St.Angelo Fort the next morning, grabbed some yummy pizza, ate my favorite falooda, bought some plum cakes and headed to the Payyambalam beach to enjoy the evening. Reached the hotel and it poured like never before.

A small glimpse of the St.Angelo's fort

The sea surrounding the fort. The fort could be seen from our resort through binoculars.

Falooda at Falooda Nation was top-notch. Also visited Sheen Bakery which was nearby, to get some plum cakes.

All cars neatly parked along the Payyambalam beach.

Visited a small private farm which is owned by the resort owner and who was very happy to give us a tour.

Nileshwar is a small city, about 15 kms south of Bekal and 65 kms from Kannur. All thanks to the traffic, it takes 2 hours to cover those 65 kms. We had booked the Malabar Ocean Front Resort. No trees, no shade and a rather warm day. Since the property already had a nice private beach, we decided to visit the Bekal fort the next morning.

Food!

Rains

More food

More rains

The following morning after getting ready, I get my phone to check the route and that's when Google tells me the Bekal fort remains shut on Monday! Mrs.A was not happy so I proposed we go for a nice lunch date instead. Deal was sealed and we headed to Bekal. By the time we were done eating the desserts, it had started pouring again. When I reached Nileshwar, the rain had stopped but with the schools getting over, the narrow roads were jammed with autos, school buses and walking kids. And of course, had to wait for a train at a level crossing.

Hot morning

Cloudy in the next hour and started pouring within minutes of clicking this at Taj Bekal

Evening was dry and we spent hours reading books on the beach

Next day, we were to return to Bangalore. Since Bekal fort was pending, we drove down to the fort, spent 1.5 hours there and then started for Bangalore.

It was raining again in the morning

But stopped when we started walking around the Bekal fort

Return route was slightly different this time as we started from Bekal: Nileshwar - Bekal - Periye (got lost here briefly) - Kundamkuzhy - Sullia - Madikeri - Kushalnagar - Arakalagud - Holenarasipur - Channarayapattana - Bangalore.

Last day was a bit of a dampener, me and Mrs. A were not feeling well after we set out from the fort. So I drove non-stop until Bangalore except for a couple of bio breaks. Didn’t feel like so we skipped lunch. Several patches of roads were not in the best shape until we reached Madikeri but I could maintain steady speeds throughout irrespective of the roads.

Given the roads were drove through, the car was muddy at its best. I am glad I didn't have to drive at night else I would have to clean the headlight lens for the projectors to do a good job.

We had started from Bekal around 10:45AM and reached Channarayapattana by 3:45PM. Another refuel was due and got it from the BPCL bunk in C.Patna city.

Another 53 litres down although the car hadn't hit reserve until then.

From there, it was another non-stop fast drive home and the car didn't disappoint one bit but brought back some smile in me. Being a weekday, hardly got any traffic until Yeshwantpur and managed to reach home by 6:30PM. Overall, the trip FE was 15 kmpl.

The new tyres have done 4k kms now. I had tried 35 Psi and then 33 Psi but felt the ride to be stiff, especially at city speeds. When I returned from home and drove the car, I felt the ride was softer and as such, decided not to top up the tyres for this trip. My experiment gave good results and the ride was a lot better over good and broken roads, road grip was very good and the tyres themselves are silent. I will get to know the magic Psi number once I hit the tyre inflator (it has 6 weeks since they were topped up).

Given how lost the car looked among the cleaner/shinier companions in my office parking, I got another water wash done yesterday. Same cheap option nearby but does the job of removing the muck and grime.

The driver side ORVM has been hit twice. Once by an Activa rider and the other a yellow plate Marazzo. Both of them were in a tearing hurry on the narrow lanes of Yemalur. Marazzo hit gave this scratch on the cover and lens. Nothing more.