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**gowtham_in** · 10-14-2012, 12:22 AM

Originally posted by BlackScorpian View Post

Nice ride there Gowtham. Keep it coming...
Didn't the pillion on R15 V2 have a tough time throughout due to its raised seating position?

Not this time, he was used to it... Well when we had been to kodachadri last year, that pillion did suffer a lot.... This time we had our seats changed, I mean extra thick layer of foam was used as a topping...

Originally posted by IronHide Shetty View Post

Nice pics " Gowtham". Cool start. Keep posting as and when time allows. Ride safe bro

Thank you

Originally posted by Rahil_thor View Post

Awesome pics, looking forward to the rest

Thank you

**gowtham_in** · 10-15-2012, 12:23 AM

DAY 4: Ooty-Munnar

DAY 4: Ooty-Doddabetta peak-ooty(lodge)-Coonoor-Coimbatore-Pollachi-Udumalaipettai-Munnar (300kms)

We left to Doddabetta at around 8 in the morning. The hotel people were kind enough for us to offer some temporary room for dumping our baggages as 12pm was the check out time. We left for Doddabetta and roads leading to it was in a quite good shape. Only the last stretch of it was very opposite of what was at the beginning. Spent some time there at the telescopic house and suicide point. Then rode back to collect our baggages and also finished our breakfast en route.

Roads to Doddabetta peak...

Super smooth tarmac...

Just before reaching Doddabetta peak...

Steeds parked at the peak...

Pradeep and Abhishek waiting for us while we were lost en route...

The Telescopic house

Scenery from Doddabetta peak..

The telescope was focused to view Ooty bus stand...

To suicide point...

On our way back to lodge...

Just before leaving to Munnar...

The initial plan was to reach Munnar by covering Valparai and Athirappilly waterfalls, but due to short of time we decided to skip both and head to Munnar directly. It was around 12pm when we left Ooty and then reached Coonoor in no time as the roads were in pretty good condition and it was complete ghat up till then. Then reaching Coimbatore was bit difficult due to scotching heat and also as the highway passes through the Coimbatore city to Pollachi, we were jammed in traffic and suffered from heat there for big time. Passed
through Pollachi and reached Udumalaipettai around 4 30pm and finished our lunch there. By the time we left the restaurant it was around 5 15pm and reached the forest check-post by 6pm. So we had to cover another 90kms to Munnar in dark, this disappointed us as we would miss the beauty around while reaching it. Roads leading were average and this irritated us further more. Then reached Munnar around 9pm and found a descent home stay for a good price.

Between Ooty and Coonoor....

We had forgot about the Ooty train there, but luckily saw one just before biding adieu to Ooty...

To Coonoor...

Windmills before Coimbatore...

A sunset before reaching Udumalaipettai...

The other side of Munnar I guess....

Forest check-post, our documents were verified and our details were noted...

Roads traversed in Chinnar sanctuary...

We were up for a shock when we had been to have our dinner at a restaurant there. The restaurant owner said that, there was "bandh" announced on the next day and it wasn't a good time for us to be there. We were stalled for a moment. But a person there gave us a hope that tourists won't be disturbed. But still we headed back to our room disappointedly and thought of deciding to explore Munnar or not on the next day based on the bandh circumstances in the morning. We all wished positive for tomorrow and went to
sleep.

But we were up for a another jolt next morning.

To be continued...

DAY 5: Munnar-Top Station-Munnar

**IronHide Shetty** · 10-15-2012, 02:31 PM

Great Pics.

Rossi with a pillion

. Nice one bro, keep it rolling in. Ridesafe

**Nagesh Patankar** · 10-15-2012, 04:20 PM

Nice log and equally nice pics as well. Keep it coming .

**sri.rtr160** · 10-16-2012, 08:10 PM

Nice triplog, waiting for more...ride safe

**gowtham_in** · 10-17-2012, 12:12 AM

DAY 5: Munnar-Top Station-Munnar (75kms)

As this day was planned for sight seeing, we woke up pretty late and went around Munnar city to check out the circumstances and thankfully police men controlling the situation there gave us a green light to carry on with our tour. SO we came back to the room with a smile up on every one of us, until we realized that my bike (Apache RTR 180) was low on fuel and was only capable of doing around 40kms. Due to bandh, the fuel station wasn't open anywhere and also we didn't have any pipe to get the petrol out from R15. With the help of our room's owner there, managed to get a pipe and transferred the fuel to my steed. But after this solution too we were tense because both the bikes had only sufficient fuel for the day and were giving out very varying mileage which wasn't that reassuring.

View from our home stay..

Our rides parked in front of our home stay

With all these things happening with us, we went to explore Munnar around 10am. The weather was quite sunny for this kind of location. Once we started our day towards Top station by exploring all the places en route, we forgot our fuel scarcity and started to enjoy every corner and the scene around. We checked out Madupetty Dam, Echo point and Kundala Dam en route to Top station.

To Madupetty Dam

Corners all the way..

Too many sign boards at the back drop..

Madupetty dam electricity generation station

Again a group pic...

To echo point...

At echo point...

Way to Kundala Dam...

View was amazing..

To Top Station

Photo shoot...

Don't know what we were discussing... sometimes we seem too serious...

Just before reaching Top Station...

The view from Top Station was stunning, but it would have been better if the weather was less harsh. Finished our lunch at Top Station and while returning we spotted a photo point. As we didn't have much fuel left to explore around Munnar we spent our time clicking photos near the photo point and headed back to Munnar city around 6pm. By the time we reached the city, it had come to life again except the fuel stations. Had our refreshments and roamed the streets of Munnar, had our dinner and headed back to the room.

One had to descent few steps to reach the view point...

View from there..

The route visible here is a trekking route to the very first settlement in Tamil Nadu..

Having some fun at the view point... But the weather was too harsh...

That's me...

That's Pradeep...

And that's Abhishek riding here....

At photo point...

My favorites...

Reflection...

All of us were happy because this was our first ever visit to Kerala and it was truly astounding. It truly is "God's own country"

to be continued...

DAY 6: Munnar-Kumily-Kottayam-Thiruvananthapuram (350kms)

**gowtham_in** · 10-17-2012, 10:17 PM

DAY 6: Munnar-Kumily-Kottayam-Thiruvananthapuram (350kms)

We woke up filled with ecstasy. After a good rest, we were ready to leave Munnar by 8am. Our room owner insisted that we be very careful while riding and asked us to visit again by a "car" next time

We thanked him and left from there.

The day's plan was to reach Kanyakumari by night. We had planned for a boat ride in Thekkady today, but hearing about the advance bookings to be done, we cancelled our plan for a boat ride and headed to Kanyakumari. The route planned was through the interiors of Kerala and we found one peculiar thing about this place. It is that you never ever encounter a straight road anywhere here

We had planned for a breakfast stop in Kumily. While travelling to Kumily my bike just broke down all of a sudden, I was shocked for few minutes. Gained my senses again and checked the oil level, everything was normal. Called up my mechanic, explained the problem and based on some tests he asked me to do, it was found that there was an electrical short and a mechanic was needed to rectify it. Along with Pradeep, I mounted on his R15 and then the search began for a mechanic. We remembered that we passed through a small town just few kms back and headed there with a hope of finding one. Luckily we found one auto mechanic who said he can repair it, we asked him to come along with us and help us out. Agreeing to it, the mechanic came and rectified the problem. We lost good 1.5hrs there and reached Kumily for lunch.

We still were quite sleepy in the morning, but this beauty awake us....

Through Idukki ghat...

Periyakanal fall en route...

Fog was accompanying us up till Kumily

Some foreigners walking at the side of the road...

This is were my bike broke down...

Being repaired...

This was last day of our ghat section in this entire trip. We savored this to the most. After finishing our lunch at Kumily we started towards Kottayam and reached there in the evening. Based on the road and the traffic sense followed by the vehicles there, we decided to call it a day in Thiruvananthapuram. Incidentally it was also Abhishek's birthday the next day. We thought it was auspicious for him and planned to visit the famous Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple the next day morning. We reached Thiruvananthapuram by 10pm and experienced a hard time to find a room. After finding one, it was even hard to find a restaurant at this time, so went back to room without our dinner.

This day's experience was totally different and we hoped it would be favoring us at least for the rest of the ride and went to sleep.

**gowtham_in** · 10-17-2012, 11:55 PM

DAY 7: Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil-Kanyakumarai (100kms)

In order to cover Kanyakumari today, we had to leave Thiruvananthapuram by 10am. So we woke up at 5 in the morning, got freshen up and went to the temple. The temple was very close by to our room, so finding it wasn't any trouble for us. But by the time we reached there, it was 7am and the darshan was closed until 8 30am. So decided to have our breakfast in the mean time. The fun part with us was that, we had to mandatorly wear dothi and angavastram to the temple which we had no experience with. All the time had a very big fight with the dothi for it to stay on

. Everything was finished by 11am and we left for Kanyakumari.

Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple

Kanyakumari was just 90kms from here, and we had scheduled only one day to explore there around. We visited Kovalam Beach en route which was too small to call a beach anyway. Roads up till Nagercoil was in average condition and from there to Kanyakumari it was super smooth. We reached Kanyakumari by 2 in the noon. Found a decent lodge to stay near the shore and finished our lunch. First place to visit was Vivekananda memorial rock and Thiruvalluvur Mandapam, it had to be done through ferry services available there. The view from both were astounding. Spent some time there and returned back to catch the sunset. Every planned location to visit were at walk-able distance from each other, while walking en route to sunset point we spent some time by asking about our future by the so called astrologer there. Well he was quite expensive for what he looked like:P Anyways it was just for fun. All of a sudden some guys around planned to buy a souvenir for their beloved one's and this led us to miss our sunset for today. This was OK with us because we were anyways going to catch sunrise tomorrow morning and happily went back to the room.

Kovalam Beach... Its very tiny...

Ferry services for Vivekananda Memorial Rock and Thiruvalluvar Mandapam...

With safety precautions on our ferry ride...

Sunrise calender at Vivekananda Memorial Rock

We all looking tired....

A Vivekananda Statue is placed inside that building by mentioning his year of arrival there(which we failed to remember) and photography is prohibited in there...

Our ferry to visit Thiruvalluvar Mandapam...

Thiruvalluvar...

The buildings visible here is Vivekananda Memorial Rock and Lakshmi temple which holds the foot print of Goddess Lakshmi

Guys enjoying the view.... I know it doesn't seem like it, but still they are... Sadly that's how we express....!

Magnificent view...

Sunset point...

Post sunset...

Our steeds were real dirty and planned to give it a shower, but wasn't successful at this time of the day. Finished our dinner and headed back to the room by appraising each other for conquering the "Southern most tip of India"

DAY 8: Kanyakumari-Thoothukudi-Along ECR-Rameshwaram (350kms)

As we had to view the daybreak today, we woke up early and headed to the abandoned ITDC project in Kanyakumari to enjoy it. As many people were heading for the same location, it was easy for us to find where exactly it was. Honestly speaking guys this is my first sunrise ever, though I had tried many times earlier it wasn't successful due to the climatic conditions. Had some good time there and headed back to the room as we had long way to cover up for today.

Just before dawn...

The abandoned ITDC project...

The golden path..

We were all set to go by 10 30am, finished our breakfast before bidding adieu to Kanyakumari. The route planned was along ECR(East Coast Road). I had heard many things about this route, so wanted to explore what it truly was. Finding ECR after Tiruchendur was quite difficult for us. The sun was at its peak and also the ECR was completely deserted. The intense heat around was very uncomfortable for us and this led to many breaks between. We checked out Kundankulam Nuclear power plant en route, though from a very far distance and gave a break at Thoothukudi for our lunch. We spotted many peahens while traversing along ECR, but we never spotted any shore along the road and were quite disappointed.

Kundankulam Nuclear power plant before Tiruchendur

Super deserted ECR...

My best pillion... Balakrishna...

Somewhere before Ramanathapuram while we were lost....

We reached Ramanathapuram by 6pm, fueled up the steeds and headed towards Rameshwaram. It was all dark by the time we reached the renown "Pambam Bridge". We thought of checking it out while our way back home which was gonna be our last day for this ride. There was intense traffic all along, reached Rameshwaram by 8 30pm and checked into a room which was close by the temple without much effort. We had planned to finish visiting the temple today so that the next entire day would be spent wisely at Dhanushkodi and also it would be like a state of rest for us so that we could be prepared for the long journey to be happening on the last day. But again today, there was change of plans and decided to visit the temple early in the morning tomorrow. Finished our dinner, checked out Rameshwaram town and headed straight to bed.

**gowtham_in** · 10-18-2012, 03:23 PM

DAY 9: Rameshwaram-Dhanushkodi tip-Rameshwaram (50kms)

Usual drill in the morning. Were at the temple premises by 8am and found a guide who helped us out with all the drenching to be done with all the 14 theerthams(holy water bodies), ofcourse for a price. Then again came back to the room, changed our clothings as we weren't allowed for darshan with our wet clothes on. Checked out the temple premises and headed in search for a restaurant to be done with our breakfast.

We left to Dhanushkodi by 11 30am with all the necessary belongings like ample water for all of us and biscuits. Roads were in pretty good conditions with undulations quite frequently. We checked out Kothanda-rama-swamy Temple en route to Dhanushkodi. Dhanushkodi beach was amazing with strong waves and also there were quite a few tourists at this time. We started to move towards Land's end and it was very difficult at the beginning as the sand was all loose and there wasn't enough traction for the wheels to move further on. With the help of pillions, we managed to get on to a tight part of the sand and rode with less effort from there on. We rode for almost 10kms in that no man's land and reached the tip with loads of fun.

Road to Kothanda-rama-swamy Temple...

It was suppose to be filled with water...

The temple....

Reflection...

Nearing Dhanushkodi Beach...

Dhanushkodi Beach...

At Dhanushkodi Beach...

Spot the bikes...?

Struggling at the beginning... It was worth it...

Funny posture to ride... But it was inevitable...

Almost nearing the tip...

My favorite...

Can you spot me...?

At the tip...

But couldn't spot Sri Lanka...

Happy faces....

Thanks to Abhishek, R15 was only able to stand with the support of his chappal....

On our way back...

A city that was....

The ruins... The city was destroyed during 1964 cyclone with high velocity winds and high tidal waves...

A church...

A Railway Station that was...!

The rock here is believed to be used to construct the Rama Sethu....

How can we forget a photo shoot here....!

This was totally a different experience among all those from the entire trip. We very happy for conquering the Land's end finally. We were like "Mission Accomplished" :P Spent some insane amount of time there playing around with the sand, water and the mighty blasts of wind around. This time including myself, bought some souvenir and headed back to Rameshwaram. By the time we reached Rameshwaram, it was close to 6pm and as our steeds were all unclean we gave it a pressure wash there and lubed the chains. This happened to consume good 1.5hours. From here we moved on to Rameshwaram Beach spent some time there and headed back to the room by finishing our dinner at nearby restaurant.

We had to cover 640kms for reaching home tomorrow, so we planned of having our shower in the night and then go to bed so that we could just get up and accomplish our trip tomorrow.

DAY 10: Rameshwaram-Madurai-Salem-Hosur-Bangalore (640kms)

For some reason all of us got up as planned and checked out by 7 15am and were far away from the town before we realized. As planned earlier, stopped at the magnificent Pambam Bridge. The view was breath taking as it was only dawn. Relaxed there for some time and continued with our circuit.

Pambam Bridge...

Enjoying the view and feeling the warmth...

It truly is magnificent....

We had planned not to stop until Madurai which is 170kms from Rameshwaram for breakfast. Fueled up at the same filling station which we did as well on the day reaching Rameshwaram, Everything went as planned and we were at Madurai without any breaks between by 10 30am. Finished our breakfast and left for Salem by 11am. The previous day's effect of lack of rest started creeping in, we were really tired and even though the NH7 was of amazing quality, it started to bore us and we were damn sleepy. To get over it, we needed to have few breaks between and managed to reach Salem by 4pm. Finished our lunch there and were back on tarmac by around 5pm. Without many butt breaks between, we reached our friend's place where this odyssey had begun 9days ago. We had ended up clocking 2791kms of sheer fun and astounding experience. This journey was a planned 12hour one and we successfully did in the scheduled time.

KARNATAKA welcoming us...

At the end...

A feeling of achievement...

Epilogue

As we neared my friend’s house at night , I couldn’t help but feel elation whilst various experiences from this trip flashed through my mind. All of us felt that we had indeed achieved something; not everyone would consider going on such a journey, let alone go on to finish it successfully. It is only the unrestricted soul of THE BIKER within us that could drive us on to do such a thing.

Everyone knows that planning is essential but at the same time, in practice, things don’t always go according to plan. However, certain instances of this trip proved to us that this can provide us with a thrill and enjoyment of a different kind. Ultimately this trip also ended up exposing us to all that our beautiful country has to offer and I cannot stop recommending touring to everyone after this experience. Highways are after all, heaven for us.

Maps used throughout...

Bills collected...

Hey guys,
This blog has been submitted for TRUE WANDERERS contest,
if you like my blog then please vote for it by rating it at the following link.

http://www.truewanderers.in/entries/index/272.html

Thank you.

**gowtham_in** · 10-18-2012, 09:00 PM

Originally posted by IronHide Shetty View Post

Great Pics.

Rossi with a pillion

. Nice one bro, keep it rolling in. Ridesafe

Originally posted by Nagesh Patankar View Post

Nice log and equally nice pics as well. Keep it coming .

Thank you....

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