V Ride: Mysore-Kanyakumari-Rameshwaram-Mysore

Having heard about Kanyakumari and rameshwaram in the geography/History books in School, it was quite overwhelming to think about a ride to those places, let alone actually ride there. We from Bulls of Mysore, had long standing plans to ride to KK. It finally materialized on 27th Sep 2009.
Five Bullets , Five riders were all set to conquer our dreams.
For all of us this was going to be the longest ride to date. hence the excitement knew no bounds. Even sleep eluded us on those nights, before the start of the ride.
I should not forget to mention about the ayudha pooja we did on our Steeds a night before the ride. We were blessed by the almighty for our mission.
Let me introduce you the riders and their Steeds before getting into the ride.

1. Wilson D'Souza on his Silver Electra 4S
2. Prathap(Self) on Optimus(Mach 350)
3. Bharath(Body) on his Mach 500
4. Diwakar(DJ) on his Black TBTS
5. Akshay on his Iron Hide, Black Std 350.
27th Sep'09
We were all set to start from Mysore by 5 30AM, starting point being in front of Mysore High Court. Me, Willy and Akshay started from the spot by 5 45AM, towards Nanjangud road. DJ and Body joined us at the ring road junction at 6AM. So after a short tea break we started our ride towards Gundlupet.The weather was just perfect, with light breeze and acceptable traffic. We were cruising at a stable speed of 75kph, feeling the wind through our helmets . We were feeling like GOD, deluged in to the ride.
Five bulls moving in tandem must have been quite a sight to the bystanders. Our first stop was after tackling the rough roads from Gundlupet to Bandipur. The forests have evolved into green haven for birds and animals alike. There is something with the curves and men, isn't it? (Pun Intended) the bandipur section till Gudalur, provided one beautiful curvy ride. We were enjoying every sweep of the curves. they were smooth, with good grip and broad enough for us to relax while banking. We made it a point to fill up our tanks in Gudalur, as it is cheaper by 3rs from Karnataka.We stopped at Gudalur for Breakfast, had sumptuous food, we could feel the heat of the day, I removed my warm liner from the riding jacket to counter the heat. had loads of cold water. The second leg would see us riding through Nilambur and Thrissur to Kochi.
At a crossroad after nilambur, a deviation to Thrissur was missed by DJ and Body, so three of us had to wait for them to realize the absence of their friends behind and return the unanswered missed calls. They had rode past 10Kms. After having realized, they unassumingly came back to join us at the crossroad. The roads were a bit bumpy, giving a test to our backs and bottoms. We stopped at Thrissur for Lunch. We had already covered close to 320Kms. We continue our ride towards kochi after replenishing our systems. It was very dry and sultry during that time of the day. We reached Kochi by 3 30PM, had a tea break, and decided to reach Kollam by day break.
We took the NH47, towards Kollam, It is well laid with double lane, Throughout we were challenged by the traffic, and all along we could see human habitation. Which delayed our plans to reach Kollam by day break. We reached Kollam by 7 PM. Searched for rooms and got one at Ambadi Hotel at a good price. We dislodged all our luggage, on came the beach wear, moved towards beach for dinner and to have some fun. Wilson was on cloud nine and stole the show with his funny comments and Jokes. Body's laughter caught everyone's attention too!! Me , DJ and Akshay were being a part of the fun with our own contributions.
We went to bed by 12AM resolving to wake up by 6AM and start towards KK and reach there by earliest.

28th Sep '09

Woke up to the alarm ring tone of Akshay, the most punctual among the group, closely followed by me and Body doing the last honors . We started by 6AM towards Kovalam Beach, and stopped at beach side for breakfast. We were absolutely surprised to learn about the rates, a plate poori was priced at Rs.60/-. So deciding to have breakfast elsewhere we pushed off from the beach towards town. We had Dosas and parathas with Egg curry.

We reached KK by 11 AM, All of us parked our bullets next to Gandhi Mandapam to celebrate our accomplishments. We all congratulated each other on such a marvelous ride. Willy came up to me and said that, he felt he was a complete rider, I replied with a grin, saying that we still need to complete the ride for you to feel like that. My father is a traveler himself, so he had contacts at KK, which helped us find the hotel at reasonable price. We surrendered to some rest after lodging in.
With great anticipation we freshened up to have a sight of the Vivekananda rock memorial, on a ferry. But to our utter disappointment, the day being Vijayadashami, the ferry services were closed for the day. However, we moved towards the temple and had a view of beautiful Kanyakumari. On this hand, the people were is lesser numbers, allowing us to move around with ease.

After a nice tea and bajji's we got ready with our cameras for the spectacular Sun Set.
overwhelmed with the nature's beauty, we returned towards our rooms.

All of us took a walk around KK after dusk.When five people full of attitude get together, then the fun is altogether different, needless to say, we had one hell of a laughter session. The walk was also for the search of a place where we can find some Beer. At last, we found it, Akshay was jubilant about it. The beer didn't seem like beer. Disappointing we returned to hit the beds.
We were to start towards Rameshwaram by 5AM. The Hotel warden gave us some useful information regarding the route to be taken.

29th Sep '09
Unfortunately, after a tiring evening , we woke up only by 5 30AM. After freshening up we thought of starting off, but since it was time for sun rise, we stopped for the sunrise. Here the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the Thiruvallur statue are quite a sight at this time. captured few photos had tea and started towards Tuticorin. It started drizzling after few kms from KK, the road was curvy with lot of bumps. I took a turn(left) a bit like one in dry conditions and paid the price for it, my rear tyre slipped plunging me into a fall. the speed was around 50kph. I had a scratch on my left leg. Others helped me out to remove the bend in the gear lever. Akshay had some Old Spice after shave, which he applied as tincher, my god it hurts when its poured onto flesh. Bruised but not beaten, we started back again, keeping a steady pace. Wilson keeping a close watch on me. There was a huge conglomeration of people in one of the towns we were traversing. many people were dressed up like Eunuchs, or may be they were eunuchs. We had a hard time to get through the blocked roads, my bruise worsened it for me. We reached Tuticorin by 12PM for Brunch, where I picked up Ear buds and dettol for cleaning up my wound. DJ insisted that I took a TT shot there itself and took me to a clinic. After an unprecedented delay of 2 hrs we started towards rameshwaram.

The East Coast Road is well laid but for the bumps. The winds were very strong on this straech making us bend our bikes about 5deg to left to counter it.

A bridge leads into the city of rameshwaram, without which, it would be isolated from rest of India. The bridge is around 2Km in length with picturesque sea surrounding.We checked in to a AC room, for a good price, costing each 250/-rs. Freshened up and left to the temple for 22 theertham snanam. For me this was an ordeal of sorts because of my open injuries. the theertham waters were salty hence giving a burning sensation to the wound. Filled with contentment of having the theertha snanam and darshanam we went back to the room.I picked up my camera and with dry clothes returned to the temple for few snaps. The Rameshwaram temple is one of the biggest in India with 15Acres of it. Got few snaps of long corridors with carved stone pillars on either sides and paintings on the roof.

There was also an Elephant ( read Tusker) inside the temple. We retired to bed after a light dinner, planning to go to Dhanush Kodi early morning.

30th sep '09

Akshay woke me up at 5 45AM and said that we going to miss the sun rise as others were still were asleep and we needed to get ready. but I suggested we push off status quo, without even brushing our teeth, me and Akshay pushed off towards Dhanush Kodi.

The place is 15km with road, and another 10km on sand . We almost caught the sunrise. but the obstructive clouds anyway spoilt the view. I have seen nothing like Dhanush kodi before, both of us were transfixed at the sight of it. We rode till the tip, where the land meets Water. Spent few minutes and started back. The ride back felt very fast, in no time we hit the tar road. We met Willy, DJ and Body on our way back. Took the room key and instructed them about the route. Got back to the room, freshened up and used up my last pair of fresh clothes. By the time we had our breakfast and packed up the others were also back. So we bid adieu to the great city by 11 AM. Next destination was Madurai, where I insisted on visiting the Meenakshi amman temple, for the structural beauty of it, than anything else. It pretty hot ride. Had a nice lunch at a seemingly large restaurant. The NH 7 starts from Madurai , so the traffic is very bad on the road leading to NH7. This is where Body had a fall, when he took an evasive action to avoid hitting to a rickshaw. He had a light scratch on his forehand, Helmet saved his temple. Slight damage to the front mud guard. Now it was bruised, battered but not beaten.

After doing first aid to Body, we were determined to reach Salem by 10PM. We stopped at Karur for Body's TT shot and dinner. We halted at Salem for the night. The NH 7 leading from Karur to Salem is simply great.

The reason we wanted to reach Salem by the day was the idea of visiting Hogenekkal Falls. We were told that, there is only one route to the falls and that is through Dharmapuri. Which I felt would be very strenuous, so decided to call the plan off, and rather disperse from there to Mysore (Me, Willy and DJ) and Bangalore (Akshay and Body).

1st Oct '09

A day filled with surprises, we bid adieu to body and Akshay for a wonderful ride, and wished we could do more of them in the future. Started off towards Mettur. Missing Hogenekkal falls weighed heavily on our minds. We had breakfast in a thatched hotel. As we entered Kar border, a big arch welcomed us. So we stopped for few snaps. A few hundred meters ahead, we saw a diversion and a mark board saying, 28kms to Hogenekkal Falls. We were cursing our luck for not having known about this route. So the remaining three of went to the Falls, for a great body massage and bath in the stream.

The background was filled with mountains of MM Hills range. went around the falls on a rented round boat. Had fun to the brink. Packed up and left Hogenekkal Falls, with a desire to revisit in some time. The final stretch was no less attractive, it was through the MM Hills. The road is not good, needs complete renovation.Our final stop was at Gargheswhari 30kms from Mysore. The ride was something remarkable in all our lives.

Photos : http://picasaweb.google.com/prathapchandra.sp/VRideKanniyakumariRameshwaram#

We Ride therefore we Exist.

-PC