Day-1 : Road Trip to – Rameshwaram, Dhanushkodi & Kanyakumari

Three Days - Three Royal Enfield’s - Six Roadies - 1700+KMs – Long Weekend – Long drive with lovely friends to Rameshwaram – Dhanushkodi – Kanyakumari  between 2^nd  – 4^thOctober 2015.

The trail was in my mind since long time; however our Goa bullet trip made us comfortable to attempt more and more.  When I shared the trail details to my best buddy Sudhakar, without any second thought said big YES.  Friends Vijay, Kiran, Chandrakanth & Shanthi Prasad who were already complained me for not inviting to Goa trip, however decided to invite them too.  They happily accepted my call and ready to join with us.  The dates were finalized from 2^nd to 4^th October 2015 since the Gandhi Jayanthi a long weekend.  We all were waiting so eagerly ahead to venture this long and long ride.

We chose the below trail:

Bengaluru – Salem – Madhurai – Ramanathapuram – Rameshwaram [1^stday halt]

Rameshwaram – Dhanushkodi – Rameshwaram – Kanyakumari [2^ndDay halt]

Kanyakumari – Nagarcoil – Madhurai – Bengaluru [Back to home]

02.10.2015

I, Sudhakar & Chandrakanth started from Ramamurthy Nagar early morning around 3.30 am on one bike.  The plan was, all to assemble near Bommasandra Decathlon store at 4.00 am. Shanthi Prasad & Kiran were join from Kathriguppe and Vijay directly at Bommasandra. When we began our journey got rain drops near home. We bit scared about the initial hurdle; however we got completely wet near Intel, outer ring road.  Changed our cloth and waited for a while, then continued our journey.  Shanthi – Kiran were already reached the assemble point, later Vijay joined with us.

The rain was pouring non-stop on it job, we all agreed to wait and watch.  The time was around 5.30 am and rain was not in mood to stop.  We all geared up with rain jackets and covered our luggage with tarpaulin, continued our journey in the rain to our first destination of Rameshwaram.

There was no sign of stopping the rain, we drove maximum 40 KM/h speed.  Very soon we crossed the Hosur; reached the first break of breakfast at Adiyar Ananda Bhavan, near Krishnagiri.  The hotel was not yet opened, however we took a long break.  There was no any other option unless wait at hotel doorstep, since it was raining.  Hotel gates were opened, filled our stomach with hot breakfast and continued our journey towards Selam.

Rain was followed us till Dharmapuri, now the atmosphere turning into normal climate.  Taking multiple breaks reached the Salem.  By the time the sky was completely clear and started to feel normal hote temperature, the bikes were on it pace.  Very soon we reached Dindigul.

Suddenly there was a leakage of oil in Kiran bike and silencer damage in Vijay bikes.  Luckily we found a welding shop nearby, repaired it.  With consultation of mechanic for Kiran bike, he said it is quite common when engine get heat and nothing to worry.  Continued our journey towards Madhurai.

Reached Madhurai on lunch time around 2.30 pm.  We all decided to skip to visit the famous Madhurai Meenakshi Temple.  Filled our stomach with yummy lunch in one of the hotel.  The heat of the Madhurai is on peak, decided to move fast towards Rameshwaram before sun set.

The road from Madhurai to Ramanathapuram is very narrow.  The pace of bikes came down drastically comparatively Madhurai highway.  The opposite vehicles were coming very rashly; we should take additional care while riding on this stretch.

As per our schedule we have to be on Pamban Bridge to witness the beautiful sunset. Even though taking mini breaks relized that it was not going happen to reach in-time.  Now the breaks were little longer one, at last we reached the Pamban Nridge around 7.30 pm.  Spent very less time since we wanted to finish the Darshana of holy Jyothiralinga Sethubandetu Ramesham.

Not so difficult to find the Rameshwaram temple in the little town.  Parked our vehicle near the temple, deposited our mobile and cameras at nearest shop.  There was a special Pooja inside the temple so that we were enough lucky to get bless of the god.

The temple structure is similar to Kalahasthi.  Spent good amount of time and explored the inside premises of temple.  We all finished our dinner at opposite hotel of the temple mahadwara. Now the real challenge is to find out the shelter for night out.  We carried the tents to pitch in some lonely place out of town. However reached very late to Rameshwaram where we had no enough time to explore the places.  We all decided to find some economy place for night out.  We enquired couple of lodges & Ramakrishna Ashrama too.  Alas!!! We ended up with no rooms.  The last attempt is to find some good place near beach and pitch our tent.

The god might be sent some dooth for us; suddenly we heard voice “Room venuma?” Two guys on the bike followed us. We all were happy to find a person who can show a shelter for night.  They took little further street, they stopped a big bungalow where some construction work was going on.  Inspected the house, it was a big hall where we can happily spend night.  He demanded 2000 bucks where we could bargain to Rs.900/-.

We dumped our luggage and took bath.  The souls were much tiered riding a long ride around 600 KMs in a day. All decided to go bed, had little chit chat and discussed about our second day journey.  We all went in dream world imaging next day journey.

                                                                                

Day - 2 Journey