I had planned to do a solo drive to Rameshwaram twice. But each time I plan some sort of problem will arise each and every time. I thought solo driving to Rameshwaram is a bad dream for me. One day while casually discussing with a colleague of mine we planned to do a drive to Rameshwaram. It was not in car. It was only in bike. We discussed this with some more colleague in office. Some were really interested. We then decided to go in bike. All were really happy about it.
So the Day was decided. It was on 5 March 2016.
My travel mates were Biju, in his Honda Unicorn, Vishnu in Pulsar 220, Arun in Suzuki Gixxer,. Sarath in Royal Enfield Classic 500, and myself Stephen in Hero Hunk.
We bought all the gears before 5 days so that we made sure there is no messing up things in the last minute. We made the plans of reaching each and every location so that to make sure that time is not getting wasted in the drive. The route is Trivandrum – Nagercoil – Tirunelveli – Tuticorin – Rameshwaram.
The team members started from Kazhakoottam at 3 AM, Biju joined from Balaramapuram on the way. I was waiting near Marthandam and they joined me at 4:30. We made some refreshment in Thuckalay and reached Nagercoil in no time. We filled up the fuel in the motor bikes and we headed to Tirunelveli at 6 AM. In another 30 minutes we were cruising in the 4 lane road. It was a pleasure in driving. We were cruising at an average of 80 KMPH. It was really a fun to drive. But we made sure that everything is safe.
We reached the road which deviates to Tuticorin at 7:30 AM. We took a break of 15 minutes. And we then headed to Tuticorin. From this junction I started to go first and all team members were made to follow me. In another 30-40 minutes we were in Tuticorin. On arriving Tuticorin we found that Vishnu is missing from the team. We made lots of calls to him and he did not attend. We planned to lookout for him and he called us back saying instead of deviating to Tuticorin road he took the Madurai road. He arrived in 15 minutes. We then headed towards the East coast road. We decided to stop for breakfast in Tuticorin. We filled our bellies with a delicious Tamilian breakfast and started again.
From the four-lane we need to deviate towards the ECR. Temperature began to change. It was getting damn damn hot now. We were maintaining the speed to a mx of 90 KMPH. We took break every 1 hour and drank lots of water and made sure that body is cool. Since we were wearing fully covered mask, gloves, helmets. In every place we took break we spoke to the local people, discussed their works and other things. It was a good feeling to speak with different type of people. And finally at 2:30 we reached Rameshwaram. It was around 12 hours of journey but it was with lots of break.
We went to hotel, took showers and took some rest. We then went to Dhanushkodi in bike. We hired a offroad van and ventured into the areas. There is a road which is being constructed till the end of Dhanushkodi. May be in another 1 year it will be ready.
We came back to hotel after having a heavy dinner. We have to sleep well before making a return journey. In the morning, the teammates planned to go to temple. They returned back at 10 AM.
After having breakfast we started at 11 AM. We took a couple of breaks in between and reached Tuticorin at 3 PM. We had lunch at the same hotel where we had breakfast. The hotel people were happy to see us back.
Again while crossing Tuticorin, we missed up Biju and Sarath. Around one hour was wasted. And we were then heading towards Trivandrum. It was going to be a tough time as driving in the night in 4 lane is bit risky. We were driving very carefully. We then reached in Marthandam at 9:30 PM. We had tea and some snacks. I had to say good bye to them as my house near to Marthandam. The team members started to Trivandrum, they all reached their place by 11:30 PM.
It was a fantastic drive over all despite some bad things, like a minor accident, happened. We made some plan to do a bike drive to Kodaikanal in June 2016. Hope we will do it.
Signing off now. Will meet you all in the next travelogue.
1ac9d838-e904-4fd4-b669-e46daf41fb08|1|5.0|96d5b379-7e1d-4dac-a6ba-1e50db561b04