This day was relatively calm and uneventful, though we covered some 370 kms. Earlier in the morning, Bunny told us that we’ll have to take the longer route to Rameshwaram via Madurai instead of the shorter route, which was in a bad shape due to the recent rains. But, we started early in the morning after taking quick breakfast and a glassful of orange juice at a nearby fruit juice shop. The ride was fast, I rode some 90 kms nonstop before stopping at a tea-stall when a truck driver gave me the wrong directions; bugger !@#%$. But I used that stoppage for a small tea break. By then, Sunny had gone far away and even I was at least 5-6 kms ahead from my nearest fellow rider. By the time I finished the tea, Bunny had joined me. He asked me if I wanted to ride the Comet, which I somewhat reluctantly agreed to because I did not want to leave the comfort of Blaze; no bike in the
GIR stable beats the riding pleasure of Blaze, it rocks. But, there was no other option. The Comet is now in really bad shape; there is some sound coming from each and every part of Comet except the horn. Jokes apart, the chain was making some noise already, rear and front disk pads are now gone and the bike is making some horrible sounds. Anyways, it still is running good. The rear suspension is also a little soft, making it comfortable for the smooth ride through potholes. We had covered some 150 kms by then, bypassing Madurai coming from Tirunelveli on that soon-to-be-four-lane-highway; it wasn’t much congested and we took full advantage of it, managing an average speed of around 60 kmph. We (me and Bunny) met Sunny few kilometers ahead. He was sitting in a bakery shop; actually it wasn’t just a shop, it was a retail outlet of a factory making confectionary and bakery products, and it was situated just in front of the factory.
This was a nice cottage-type place, all sides open, and it was managed by a girl. First we thought that it was restaurant, but only bakery products were available there. We decided to save some time and to convert that small break into a lunch break, filling our bellies with all those delicious chocolates and some other stuff that were being sold at that shop. As we were sitting there, eating, talking, and working on laptop, 3 girls (apparently worker from the same bakery) came into that shop; they were talking to each other in Tamil and laughing, sometimes staring at us in between. We had no idea what they were talking actually, but we could figure it out by their gestures that they were talking about us. It seems that the news of ‘biker boys in town’ was spread in that factory as 3 more girls came in that shop after the first 3 girls left, and again that laughing-passing smile-laughing story continued; they were coming in set of 3; this was so amusing that even started enjoying it. Now, the scene was that we were laughing on them and they were laughing at us, but nobody actually knew what we are talking or laughing about.
We rode ahead after spending there approximately 1 hour. It was straight nonstop ride till Rameshwaram apart from 2 photo breaks where I had to stop once at a nice stretch of road full of palm tree on one side and the second break at the Indira Gandhi Setu connecting Rameshwaram to the rest of India. There is also construction work going on on India’s largest railway bridge over water, called Pamban rail bridge. There were also a lot of boats, some small, some big ones, parked on the right side of the bridge and there were too many of them, looks like there was a G2G of boats like we have bike G2Gs in Delhi.
Because I stopped two times, Bunny had gone ahead of me and he was with Sunny and they (Sunny and Bunny) were about to reach Dhanushkodi. The town Rameshwaram is a very famous pilgrimage center for Hindus all over India and is called the Kashi of South India. This is the place where lord Ram worshipped lord Shiv to get rid the sins of killing a Brahman. But, I had to go beyond some 18 kms till Dhanushkodi. I tried calling Sunny and Bunny, but couldn’t get through; I also waited for the backup truck to come and in that process I had wasted some 10-15 minutes, which did cost me a lot that I later came to know. The road from Rameshwaram to Dhanushkodi is very good; there is one particular stretch where there is seawater on both sides of the road.
There is a navy checkpost some 5 kms before Dhanushkodi where you’ll have to stop and take a ride on some tempo, jeep, or van; they charge 100 bucks per person from the navy checkpost till Dhanushkodi; and usually the driver of your ride is your guide in Dhanushkodi. Taking bikes till Dhanushkodi is not easy also, the road is full of mud and sand; it takes approx. 30 minutes for a jeep to cover that 5 km ride. So there was no question of trying to take our bikes there, which were running on tires nonsuitable for these kind of rides. However, Sunny had reached there on his CBR along with Bunny some 20 minutes before me and it was getting dark, so he left alone for the Dhanushkodi in a van, leaving Bunny at the check-post for guarding the CBR. How much that 20 minutes costed me was apparent here as I couldn’t go to Dhanushkodi; I was so near to that place, yet so far. You might want to see
this blog separately to know more about Dhanushkodi. However, Bunny and me utilized that time to capture sunset at the beach, though the sky was slightly cloudy so we couldn’t enjoy the sunset at its best. Yet we had nice time there, seeing those big waves in the sea and trying to figure out where the land ends.
Sunny came back about an hour later and by that time Ashish had booked 2 rooms for ourselves in Hotel Tamilnadu; this ‘Hotel Tamilnadu’ chain is under tourism department of Tamilnadu and they have branches in almost all the big cities of Tamilnadu. So, we only had to ride back to Rameshwaram and find the hotel, which we found without any much problem.
It was time to doze off after having dinner and writing and uploading the blogs and website with 2 different routes in mind for the next day’s ride.
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07-29-2009, 10:38 AM
The Great Indian Roadtrip : Day 71 – Nov 8 – Tirunelveli – Rameshwaram – Dhanushkodi
