It all started with a friend once enquiring about the road condition in Dhanushkodi. At that time, I had no clue of what Dhanushkodi was and wiki helped me out here… Dhanushkodi was extremely appealing the moment I saw its images and read about it… And, that’s how Dhanushkodi came to be the intended destination and our 4 day trip was planned around visiting Dhanushkodi.
Riders
Vijay - Thunderbird 500
Dheeraj - Thunderbird 500
Suhas - Mahindra Mojo
Sundar - Avenger Cruise 220
Venki - Harley Davidson, Street Bob
Mahesh - Desert Storm 500
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| Venki, Vijay, Dheeraj, Sundar, Suhas, Mahesh at Dhanushkodi |
Day 01, December 23, 2017
Today, our plan was to start from Bangalore, visit Srirangam (Trichy) and then head to Madurai.
All of us synced up by 7.30AM at Attibele and we were in for a shock to see piles of traffic at the Tamilnadu border crossing… We missed the fact that it was start of long weekend (Xmas) and half of Bangalore was emptying. We thought we would be able to cross the border quite easily even with the traffic by sticking to extreme left of the road, however, few cars were determined to block our paths, however small it was, and we had to cross the border via the wrong side of the road… Nevertheless we crossed the road and stopped at A2B (after Shoolagiri) for breakfast.. Again, it was overflowing with people and so we moved on from there.. Luckily, in few more kms we saw a smaller hotel and stopped for breakfast..
All the regular south indian food items were available and we munched on delicious idli, dosa, poori, pongal and more.. And, that too at a fraction of the cost that A2B would have charged… This was quite a learning that it’s better to stop at nondescript hotels for aptly priced good food!
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| On route.. Harley standing tall |
Early on and through the next few stops we realized that we were finding it difficult to synchronize amongst ourselves.. Some riders would go ahead while others would be left behind and during stops we would not be together.. We tried using the “Share Live Location” option in WhatsApp and it did help to some extent but did not resolve the issue… We have to find another easy solution to keep the riders in the group in-sync all the time. Everyone was wearing riding jackets, except Suhas, who had got a loose windcheater. The result was that when Suhas was riding, the jacket would ballon up and from behind he was resembling Big Hero 6 Baymax character.. At least, we always knew where Suhas was :)
We crossed Salem around 11.30AM which was around 2 hours later than what we had planned and this led us to drop Srirangam visit and we decided to head straight to Madurai..
We saw sign board for “Thalapakatti Biriyani” near Namakkal toll plaza and planned to stop there for lunch.. We used google maps to find the place and mistakenly typed-in “Thalapakattu Biriyani”.. Google maps took us to a place few kms towards Namakkal town and by the time we realised out mistake, hunger had taken over and we had lunch there.. Again, the food was excellent and chicken starters were a killer… Had sumptuous food and we hit the highway again only to find our originally planned “Thalapakatti Biriyani” few kms from there… :)
The next non-stop ride of little more than 1 hour was absolute bliss… The roads were empty, we didn’t get much traffic after Salem, and we were able to hit more than 100Km/hr speeds consistently.. We rode in 3 different groups separated by some distances… Venki and Vijay blitzed away at the front, then Suhas and I rode together followed by Dheeraj and Sundar. Between Suhas and me, it was quite fun as we would take turns in setting the pace for some time while the other followed and then swapped positions.. No racing, but just setting the pace.. This actually helps in long rides as the riders following can relax a bit since the leading rider would watch out for crossing vehicles/animals, junctions, speed breakers etc and would inform the others to slow down…
In this hour we covered close to 90 KMs and crossed Karur to reach close to Dindigul toll plaza.
We reached Madurai Residency hotel around 7pm after rollicking through the Madurai traffic and decided against visiting the temple as it would be very crowded and planned to visit the temple in the morning, next day.
We parked our bikes on the street, the hotel parking was full, after some haggling to find a decent enough place.. Venki’s Harley had to be parked carefully to avoid unwanted attention and people sitting on it… With bikes parked, we had dinner and crashed…
Day 02, December, 24, 2017
Dheeraj, Sundar and Venki were all ready by the time we woke up and in a bhakthi-mood to visit the temple. The famous Meenakshi temple was just 1 Km from the hotel and we all got ready soon and started around 7.30AM.. We reached the temple and took tickets for special darshan to speed up the visit. However, we found that the special darshan queue was long as well and the temple authorities were good enough to return the money on returning the unused tickets. We took an outer round of the temple and Dheeraj took some nice pics of the temple.. We wrapped the tour by 8.30AM and on getting out realized we were quite hungry and munched on some hot piping idlis at roadside stall… The food was extremely hot and unlimited quantities of sambar and chutneys was a welcome difference from what we get in Bangalore’s A2B centres..
On reaching hotel we digged in on some more breakfast at the hotel buffet.. With our tummies filled to the brim we left Madurai towards Rameswaram..
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| Photography by Dheeraj @ Meenakshi Temple |
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| Road side idli stall outside Meenakshi temple... |
We had to cover 190Kms to Rameswaram and the route was Madurai - Paramakudi - Ramanathapuram - Rameswaram. The ride should take around 4-5 hours with breaks and we had planned to visit Dhanushkodi in the evening.
The exit out of Madurai was tedious with the traffic swelling even on a Sunday morning. The initial stretch after Madurai was a pleasant ride with 4 lane highway sections and small under-development roads. We stopped couple of times for tea breaks and the ride was good all the way to Ramanathapuram, where we stopped for lunch at 1 of the very few non-veg restaurants.
The place was crowded with few tables and we got place to sit after few minutes. The menu looked very exciting and the owner told us that their special chicken biryani had just got over and next batch would be ready in 10 minutes. He suggested that we start on some white rice and by the time the chicken biryani would be ready and we can order that later.. Our hunger told us to go as per his plan. The food arrived and was very good, prepared in Chettinad cuisine and we munched on for long. Eventually neither us nor the owner mentioned anything of the chicken biryani thereafter.. We never found out whether the chicken biriyani really existed on the burning stove or was it a clever marketing strategy by the owner.. :) My gut feeling says it was the latter!
The COW
Rameswaram was just 60KMs away and the road was in good condition although single lane. The road would meander through lots of villages and here is where we found different traffic patterns from yesterday’s highway ride. Today, riding was more like playing a video game where any obstacle like cows, goats, jaywalkers, crazily fast cars/tempos/buses zooming from behind us and opposite directions… Eventually it happened…
Vijay was travelling ahead of us and was unlucky to encounter a cow who thought that the grass was greener on the other side of the road.. So, it decided to cross without looking left and right and was halfway onto the road when Vijay slowed and weaved right to avoid it.. He did avoid it, however, a speeding car from behind hit his bike on its right side and Vijay and the bike tumbled.. Vijay was quickly on his feet and bolted to safety by the roadside.. Venki and myself were behind him and saw all this as it happened, we stopped and picked up the bike and moved it aside.. Lucky for Vijay that the fall was at slow speed as he was slowing down and had few bruises on his legs, elbows and shoulders.. The bike took the brunt on the leg-guard which got scraped and loose… Vijay was able to continue after tightening the leg guard at a mechanics shop and the ride after was very careful for all of us… For those of you wondering, the cow was unhurt .. !
We slowly reached Pamban bridge and what a sight it was.. Clear ocean on both sides of the bridge, very strong wind blowing over, the beautiful railway bridge to its left and people parking their cars/buses/tempos on the bridge to take photos… The traffic on the bridge was moving at snail’s pace due to the parked vehicles and it took us a while to maneuver the bridge.. We reached hotel by 4.30pm and after freshening up, were ready to go to Dhanushkodi…
But, few things had changed about Dhanushkodi which we learnt at the hotel.. We wanted to hire a 4x4 jeep that would take us to the end point by driving over the sand.. But, the hotel staff mentioned that a new tar road has been laid till the end point and 4x4 jeeps were banned since they caused lot of pollution.. So, our plans of riding on the sand in a jeep or bikes were quashed… It was Dheeraj’s idea to go to Dhanuskodi early morning to see the sunrise and after much discussions of whether the sun rises in the east we all agreed to the idea.
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| Through the Rameswaram streets.. |
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| Rameswaram temple |
So, we head to the temple and it was a walk of 20 mins to the temple… The temple was crowded and we did not enter the temple, took some photos from outside and saw the interiors from exteriors.. The weather was pleasant and we headed towards the ocean.. The ocean side is rocky, not much sand and with well maintained walkway.. We munched on some roadside snacks like paani puri, boiled and fried peanuts.. The TTDC (Hotel Tamilnadu) is right on the sea shore with rooms facing the ocean.. We tried to get rooms here for our stay, but unfortunately all rooms were booked.. This place is highly recommended for your stay and book well in advance…
On our way back we took ride back in one of those autos that ply close to ten people.. We all squeezed in, feeling each other in awkward places, and we were jolted to the bones whenever the thing jumped over potholes and speed breakers.. The damn thing had no concept of suspension..! We took some eerie photos with clever lighting effects in the auto..
We had heavy dinner at the hotel and crashed..!
Day 03, December, 25, 2017 - Merry Christmas!
DHANUSHKODI
All of us were ready to go by 5.30AM and started for Dhanushkodi, when it was still pitch dark outside. Near the hotel though there were people getting in and out off the railway station and those visiting the temple. The road to Dhanushkodi was around 25Kms and deserted..
So there we were, six bikes on the road, one behind the other in zig-zag fashion, dark-as-night roads and trees silhouettes, fresh morning air and the bike’s exhaust note joining us all the way..
This was a ride that will stay in our memories forever… !
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| At Dhanuskodi... Destination reched!! |
We reached Dhanuskodi via the freshly laid road before sunrise and were amazed by the simplistic beauty of the place. There is just a piece of land and both sides are covered with 2 oceans, each with its own characteristic, and somehow the experience at that place was very serene and calm in mind… Though there were people around I felt a sense of calmness in my normally confused mind.. Slowly the skies turned bright but we could not glimpse the sunrise due to cloud cover…
We turned back and stopped at a jetty near to the old town ruins.. Took a break for sometime and returned back to hotel and filled our tummies again for long ride to Pondicherry….
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| Road to end point |
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| Some of the ruins.. I had expected more ruins... |
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| Add caption |
Our plan was to reach Pondicherry via the ECR road by 7PM, so that we can relax a bit at the promenade. Even though the ECR road sounds very interesting, it was mostly single lane roads throughout with good to bad road sections.. This slowed us down early on and we quickly realized the daunting task in front of us.. The distance was around 400KMs from Rameswaram and we lost much time in traffic and going waywards through Karaikal town… And ofcourse, to add to the delay, we had to deal with more goats, more cows, more crazy cars and crazier jaywalkers who would walk right on the middle of the roads… !
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| Pamban Railway bridge |
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| Trying not to get blown away by the fierce winds.. |
At one place we stopped for break, somewhere before Nagapattinam, there were these 3 boys who stopped by and were super excited to see the bikes.. They were particularly excited about the Harley with its twin exhausts, one boy hopped onto it and was playing around.. We were worried that the bike may topple over or the exhaust may burn his legs, but none of these happened and we made a hasty retreat from there…
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| Young bike enthusiasts.. |
We soon realized the effect darkness has on the pace of a group.. During day time we were able to do around 50Kms/hr, but during night we were reduced to ~30Kms/hr and the last leg took very long time.. We finally reached the hotel by 9PM, checked-in and got refreshed…
We stayed at Ajantha Sea View Hotel and is possibly the best hotel for its price and location.. The hotel is bang on the promenade with all the 4 rooms having big balconies looking at the sea.. You can enjoy the sea breeze and sound all the time…
We dined at the roof-top restaurant, took a stroll on the promenade and called it a night..
We had ridden from 5.30AM to 9PM!
Day 04, December, 26, 2017
The last day started bit late for Vijay, Suhas and myself… Whereas Dheeraj, Venki and Sundar had got up early and went for morning walk on the promenade.. They were able to get into the dilapidated jetty as well… Visitors are not allowed to go here, theoretically…
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| Sea View from Ajantha Sea View Hotel |
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| Khaaka Khaaka Surya.. :) |
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| Again awesome photography by Dheeraj... |
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| Venki lifting the pillars single handedly... |
After getting refreshed, we went for breakfast at the hotel restaurant.. Alas, no idli-dosa on the menu.. We had to try the Continental breakfast of omelets, breads, chicken and oats.. :(
Earlier we had planned to go to Mahabalipuram via ECR and then head to Bangalore. But the earlier 3 days had worn us out and our plan had changed on Day02.. We decided to skip Mahabalipuram and head to Bangalore via Tindivanam, Vandavasi, Arcot, Vellore, Ambur, Krishnagiri, Bangalore. The good part of this route was that we would take the Chennai highway from Vellore onwards (6 lane highway)
We started by around 10.30AM and the initial stretch was 4lane highway till Tindivanam.. There were couple of places where the cops stopped and did random checks for liquor.. We didnt have any and were left scot-free.. We were then enquiring for route to Vandavasi and Dheeraj found a lone rider who was also lost.. He asked whether he can join us to Bangalore which was his destination as well, and Dheeraj gladly agreed.. And none of us knew about this, so for the next hour all of us were wondering why we were being followed by an unknown rider.. He would speed up when we sped and slow down when we slowed… The mystery was resolved at the lunch stop where Dheeraj informed us about the 7th rider…
The lunch was an interesting place where the lady of the owner was from Pune and moved there on marriage.. The food was good and they claimed their coffee was very famous and coffee was indeed worth the fame.. We moved through Vandavasi and then to Arcot and then to see the Chennai highway.. Finally, we could ride at 80-90 Kms/hr and made very good ground on the highway… The highway was devoid of much traffic as it was a weekday and we reached Krishnagiri by 6PM.. Then few more stops and we touched Karnataka again by 7.30PM..
We made it! Safely back from awesome 4 days..
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| Back Home to Karnataka.. |
We bid goodbye to Sundar and 7th rider..
We stopped again at lay-bye on Electonics City-Silk Board flyover and bid good bye to Venki and Dheeraj.
Suhas, Vijay and myself went to BTM layout to drop the bikes… The bike rental person was very understanding about the accident on Vijay’s bike and did not charge any for repairs.. Then, Suhas left us for home.. Vijay and I dropped off his rented-out jackets and went to nearby restaurant for dinner..
Vijay summed it up well when he said.. “Once in a lifetime bike trip”
Bike:
I wanted to try the Royal Enfield Desert Storm with an intent of buying the bike if it suited me.. So, was eager to receive the DS 500 from rental place..
Initial feeling on the bike was very good… the seating position was good and lower gear torque was excellent to overtake slow moving traffic. The vibrations started at around 90kph and got worse with the increasing speed.
All the positives of the bike are cancelled and ignored in the face of the vibrations.. The ride on highway was difficult due to vibrations… and the mirrors would shake violently, rendering them useless..
Another problem I faced was that the vibrations would cause my grip on the throttle to loosen and speed would drop… Had to readjust my grip all the time… This was hurting as well as irritating… The palms of my hands were exposed to constant pounding from the handle bars…
The vibrations was a very big let down for me…
Other cons of the bike are lack of windscreen, indifferent gear-shifting and brakes were bit soft. The famed "bullet thump" is hardly audible under your helmet and with wind noise, so it hardly adds to the riding experience.. dont know why bulleteers fuss too much about it..
The pros were not many and vibrations was the deal breaker for me.. No point in buying DS 500 when the vibrations would make even a small ride unbearable.. :(
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| My ride ... |
Route Map:
