2004 Honda CR-V Photoblog: From The Deccan Plateau To The Palani Ghats

Bangalore was left behind on Wednesday morning, and we were pleasantly surprised by the ease with which we were able to begin clocking highway miles, as the traffic unchararacteristingly thinned out soon after Silk Board junction.

The four-speed automatic transmission makes the SUV thirsty, but kudos to Honda's attention to occupant safety even way back when - a passenger airbag is standard fare.

South India's steel city's two roundabouts kindly allowed us through without the usual hold-ups, we breezed through Salem and took the turn-off towards Dindigul. It's a big exit, but not marked too well, so GP-yes...

Follow me on Tweeter.

ANH7, too, still grooves to Planet Funk's Chase The Sun.

One crosses the Kaveri before Karur, and it was nice to see the river's waters running fairly deep.

Why stop at chasing the sun when the clouds want to race as well...

All this was too much for Jack Sparrow to miss, so the Pirates of the Caribbean decided to show up as well.

Trees a cloud.

Driving a Honda CR-V on a good highway is always a pleasure, with the commanding driver's seating position, great visibility, and relatively decent performance from the 2.0-litre mill. But where it really stands out is the spectacular handling, which is what makes Honda Honda.

Petrol pumped up kicks. 

Home in the range. Time for the aircon to go off because 'natural cooling' will soon be more than enough.

Manjalar Dam it. Is.

A hill road will always throw up surprises, so you need to be extremely careful in the ghats. There's a cow taking the racing line around this corner...

...and setting herself up for the entry into the next...

High rises, the Kodaikanal way. We wish this were always true, but rampant development is adding more and more concrete to the landscape.

Oh well, the curves will always treat those that respect them.

Almost Perumalmalai, and Anand's driving and the sun's lighting duties were winding up for the day.

And after seven hours on the road, our Kodaikanal International School's Bendy Field was chosen as communications HQ to set up the night's social activities. Because we were brought up well...