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WORDS by ANAND MOHAN PHOTOGRAPHY by ROHIT G MANE Keeping Secrets There’s an epic road on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border that has been closed since the Nineties and a village nearby that not many know about. Let me tell you a secret you must promise to keep

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THE TRAILS OF VATTAVADA MAKE FOR EXCELLENT VIEWING POINTS TO THE MOUNTAIN THE ESCAPE ROAD RAN ACROSS

This pic: Tea gardens may look like beautiful landscape on mountain slopes but the trails are tough and unpredictable. Right: Mud and ruts mode is ideal for these conditions. Below: Kerala is perfect Disco playground

THE SUN HAD SET WHEN WE REACHED THE anymore so it’s of no real importance to anyone. But I’ve the trails near this village are excellent viewing points forest department check post of Pampadum Shola been reading about Japanese WW II stories in the past to the mountain that the escape road ran across. Every national park. No vehicle is allowed to cross in to the month, as you will notice from a few stories in these road that leaves the bitumen behind is a 4x4 trail in and Koviloor road once the sun sets, unless you’re staying winter months at evo India, and the story of this closed around the tea estates of Kerala but there are a few such on the other side of the forest road. As night falls road is another one of those classics. South India may not routes in Vattavada that could well be almost as high up elephants, tigers, bison and leopards come out to play, have seen any WW II action but the Brits were prepared as the Escape road. mist blankets the landscape and the cold warns you to for a Japanese invasion in South India and, hilariously, I was banking on the Discovery Sport’s robust keep your wits about you. We are headed for a log cabin were scared enough to build a road through the forest of underbody protection to take on the mounds between on the other side of the forest, climbing further up from Kerala and Tamil Nadu to drive straight from Munnar to the rutted trails. While these are hardened soil tracks Munnar to a village called Vattavada. The guard lets us Cochin, hop on to a ship at the port and run to the queen. with grass growth on its spine, the occasional rock enter the forest with a stern warning to not stop, honk, It was unashamedly called the ‘escape road’. does appear. A little bit of slip and slide is part of the speed or use the high beam through that short stretch. This escape road at its highest point was 8140 feet game but traction is always there to find as the mud I love it when there’s some hostility in the air, it brings above sea level, the highest road in India south of the and ruts mode on the Discovery Sport controls torque out your sharpest instincts, you notice every detail and Himalayas, and was at its treacherous best even back to absolute precision and activates hill-hold so you don’t you focus so hard on the task ahead that driving a few then. For the soldiers to rest during this 230km road go sliding back down a slope. As long as the throttle kilometres at moderate speed feels like an achievement. from Kodai to Cochin (it’s 300km now as the escape application is gentle, there are no surprises. We had the The check post is at a strategic location with two route is shut), transit camps were built every 15km. petrol Discovery Sport on this trip with the smooth and routes, a tarmac one turning left into the forest to One apparently still exists near the Berijam lake on strong 2-litre Ingenium engine. Its 237bhp and 340Nm Vattavada and a broken trail heading straight up. No one this escape route. While this road has been shut for a on tap and light 4-cylinder rumble makes the Sport a notices the latter and you aren’t allowed to drive there decade and a half, Vattavada is almost as high up and charming SUV for our roads, but it’s even nicer when the

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I WA S B A N K I N G O N T H E D I S C O V E R Y SPORT'S ROBUST UNDERBODY P R O T E C T I O N TO TAKE ON THE MOUNDS BETWEEN THE RUTTED TRAILS SPECIAL FEATURE: NEVER STOP DISCOVERING

roads end and the trails start. I can’t remember the last time I went off-roading in a petrol SUV and had enough torque to actually enjoy the rough stuff. That makes the Disco Sport special. It’s a 4x4 with a deep desire to get dirty, one wheel in the air, nose tilted to bend in to the trail and tail up like a dog’s playful bow. The trails take you down tea valleys and forests and climb up to the top where dramatic views of the layers of mountains around Vattavada are as captivating as it can get. The greens have multiple shades and the sky makes the colours and clouds dance to its tunes. Migratory birds make it their winter home when the Himalayas are covered in snow and wild animals stroll around the village quite often as human interaction with them is still quite minimal. High up here, as we manage the Discovery Sport over trails that require proper rock crawling and axle articulation cred, it gives a little bit of an understanding about the crazy escape road the Britons built. The 4x4s in those days were light and nimble and could somehow manage to climb up trails that only guys on foot would otherwise attempt. A transit camp every 15km speaks about how tough it was to crawl through these parts, GOOGLE'S and to assume the Japs were crazy enough to invade the south of India and then put their army through this TRICKY LONG challenge seems quite silly in hindsight. ROUTES MAKE What’s crazier is that there is this village settlement YOU WANT TO GET BACK TO THE EASY RESORTS OF MUNNAR

right on the outskirts of the Escape road. They’re largely self-sufficient, soaked in natural beauty, thriving with all the modern luxuries of a cell connection (only BSNL), dish television, a handful of homestays and a hotel, tarmac road access in most parts, even a massive Tata Tea plantation — yet is nicely tucked in the mountains for the regular tourist to not find it. Vattavada is on Google Maps and you will find plenty of addresses on the map in this village to go to, but even Google tricks you into taking the long tiring route through tea gardens so that you’d most likely give up half way and return to the easy resorts of Munnar. When technology wants to keep this place a secret, so must you. We are travellers and explorers, not tourists, and it’s our responsibility to care of the places we go to so that Top: Narrow rutted trails are very the experiences we share are handed out to the right common here. Above: Mud & guys out there. I am also a writer with a story to tell so Ruts mode on Terrain Response. it seems like I’m in a Catch 22 situation here. I’ll stick to Facing page: Torque vectoring by braking helps immensely in keeping some of it a secret hoping you will hold on to corners the rest of it when you return from Vattavada. L

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