Bluey

I always prefer to travel any where all alone. If I get a chance to drive through out India all alone, Im always ready for it. Hope will make it one day for sure. We can have our own freedom if we do a solo drive. No disturbance, No late comings, etc etc. We can set our own limits. Might sound bit crazy, but I mean it. Lol. 

This time I prefer to do a solo drive from my home town → Nagercoil → Kanyakumari → Thiruchendur → Thoothukudi → Thirunelveli → Nagercoil →back to home town. The total distance is approximately 365 kms. Earlier I planned to drive in my Hero Honda HUNK. But since it was raining in the parts of the areas I visit, it might spoil my entire trip. So zeroed down to drive it in my THAR. Its a 2WD DI model. This drive will be done in the day time as 60% of the route will be like a no-mans land. I mean there wont be any humans at all.

I started in the morning at 9 AM from home. When I started from home, it was raining like hell. I was thinking if I could able to take any photos of the drive. I was driving towards Kavalkinaru and from there I was driving towards Kanyakumari. From Anjugramam I had to deviate towards the Koodankulam route. It was pouring out like anything.

By the way, I have a huge collection of Illayaraja songs. Driving the vehicle in the rain, and hearing those songs is really awesome. I bought lots of snacks too and was driving while eating those. Hmm.. superb.

The road was really worse at some places. This road is said to be a highway, but there is no road at all. In no time I was crossing the Koodankulam nuclear plant. 

In my childhood days I used to see the bus which goes to Kodayar Lower Camp and friends say it is a dam. During that time once my father went with his friends for a trip and he told me those experiences.

Comming back now, I was planning for nearly 5 months to go there. Nothing worked out. This place is hardly 35-40 kms from my home. One day my friend named Manikandam came to my home to fix up a issue in the printer. When I told him about Kodayar he said his friend is working there and we planned for a trip on 26 Oct '12. It all happened all of a sudden.

In the mean time, I was searching for some photographs of Kodayar in google images. I was unable to get a clear cut pics. The best thing is go in person and see it.

We had applied for permission to go to the dam and we got it through the TNEB department.

It was all set to travel on 26 Oct. I had invited my other friends like Joshi, Evan, Sibi to join the trip. But they had to pull out in the last minute. Finally its me and Manikandan to go there. My newly maintained MM 540 was the carrier.

I started from my home at 9 AM. Filled the stomach of MM540 with diesel and set out to meet manikandan. He was waiting in his home in Kulasekaram and we had a tea and set out to Kodayar. We had to go to Kodayar via Pechiparai dam. After crossing the dam, there was a small village and from there we need to go for another 1 kms there is a check-post. Since we have got permission from the TNEB dept our vehicle number was given to the checkpost. The forest department maintain the check post. After a small formality we were inside the camp area. We travelled for nearly 5 kms through the rubber estate and we stopped the vehicles to take some shots. Wow.. its a beautiful place. We can able to find bus, jeep, tempo going inside. The place is not at all crowded. Only the estate people were inside. Happy that this place is not spoiled in the name of tourism.

I drove the jeep further and we crossed some beautiful places. Felt like to stay there forever. Cant imagine such a lovely place in Kanyakumari dist.

We then reached a small village named modiramalai at 12 PM. There was a small hotel named Hotel Achu. We had some snacks there. We ordered lunch too. We then set out to go to Kodayar Lower Dam. There was another place named Kuttiyaru on the way. On speaking with some locals they said there is no water over there and going there is mere waste. So we cancelled the plan and set out to the dam & power house.

By 12:45 we reached the dam and power house. Since we have already got permission the officials showed us the working of the dam. We saw the equipments which are needed for power generation. My god.. such a big. he explained us every thing.

Water is taken from the upper Kodayar in Manjolai through the penstock pipes and when the water comes in full speed they generate power through the shafts and this water goes to Dam - 1. From the Dam - 1 the water goes to Dam - 2. From Dam - 2 they generate power and the water from there is being pumped to the upper kodayar through pipes. Its totally a recycling process. This dam started to function from 1965. Fantastic plan. They saved every drop of water not to get wasted.

We saw the beauty of the power house and the dam. There is a winch which carry the people from the lower dam to the upper dam. Since photography is prohibited we did not shoot any pics. We had some conversation with the police who guard there. Its time for us to say bye to the people.

On the way we saw a beautiful water falls named RAIN FALLS. Good one. We then drove further and stopped the jeep near to a bridge in Kodayar. We took some bath there. The water was as cool as the water in fridge. We spent nearly one hr there. After that we came back to modiramalai. Had lunch in Hotel Achu. It was awesome. Fish curry meals and fish fry. Superb. Can never forget the taste.

Its time for us to go to home. We then came to the main check post and signed the registry and said a good bye to the entire area. At this time of writing I can never forget the scenaries inside the area. Its full of green. No waste things around. No pollution. The best thing is NO TOURISM. That makes this place a real place in earth.

I dropped Manikandan at his home and I came back to my home driving all alone with the memories of Kodayar Lower Camp.

The photos which I uploaded in FB was liked by every one.