Announcement

**The Monk** · 02-05-2013, 05:18 PM

Travelogue Approved

Pictures are not visible to me. Someone else can confirm.

**Nagesh Patankar** · 02-05-2013, 06:21 PM

Originally posted by The Monk View Post

Travelogue Approved

Pictures are not visible to me. Someone else can confirm.

Yup , they are not visible to me as well ...

@ANUP WS - check this link - Tutorials - hope this helps

Regards,
Nagesh

**ANUP WS** · 02-05-2013, 09:04 PM

The COASTAL ROAD-RUNNER

Hi guys ,Im Anup Wagmore Shivamurthy. I havent posted much in xbhp , this is my first travel log in xbhp. Im 21 and am an engineering student.(mech).

thr route : Bangalore - Chennai - Mahabalipuram - Pondycherry - Nagapattinam - Vailankanni - Rameshwaram - Dhanushkodi - Toothukudi - Kanyakumari - Trivandrum - Alleppey - Kochin - Guruvayoor - Mahe - Kannur - Bekal fort - Puttur - Nelyadi - Dharmasthala - Charmadi - Chikkamagalur - Hassan - Bangalore

When i was in school , i had to draw the india man and locate the given places on it. by that time only i had this part of the map in ma mind . 1 because this mart of india is eady to draw and also because there is to seas on each side and which meets at the tip of india. these two factors made me wanting to go on this route.

total distance : 2851km
odo on my bike :50110km
bike : TVS Apache RTR 160 '09
no of riders : 1 (thats me) SOLO

First of all i arranged the cash which was required for the ride ,as i was saving from past 8 months ,though this route wasnt the only option as it required a high budget i also had munnar round trip in mind. when it was time i realised that i had enough cash and interest to do this "V" map i made sure both ma bike's tyres where changed and are good to go.
frankly i had no particular place in mind , as i was only interested in riding and nothing else. i just knew that i was supposed to go through the coasts of south india ,that is it. i roughly told my mom that it would take about 2 weeks for me to return and my mom agreed after a lot of begging and pleading.

the ride started on 25th jan and ended on 3rd of feb. 10 days of beautiful india and a paid self development course on the way(loneliness).
there were 2 major concerns for me 1 )the bike and 2) the boredom. luckily neither of them bothered me a bit.
i had never realised that SOLO rides were so fun . now i do. Its just me , me , me, me and me all the way. i take the decision of everything, which was great fun.

so here is what all i got to see on the way. teasers for now,,,,

beaches

twisties

ghats

straights

Attached Files

**ANUP WS** · 02-05-2013, 10:03 PM

day 1 : blr-chennai

left bangalore on 25th at about 430 and reached chennai at say 9.15 with a lunch break at shoolagiri.

before i started the ride ,i got the throttle cable,clutch cable ,spark plug and the engine oil changed and kept all the cables as spares . this took more than half of the day so i started late.

day 1 wasnt much of clicking but was just riding . my friend was in chennai with his friends and 26th of jan was his birthday and i wanted to wish him on time and i did so.

started ma ride, by that time it was 4 15 and i had not neven had my breakfast as i was busy with the bike's repair. and i thought i shall stop at ambur for that special treat ,but on the way i couldnot ride till ambur and had to stop at the very next restaurent which was just about 5kms from A2b at shoolagiri from thw place where i had stopped. but for my surprise ,food at this place was to die for . "sapad" it was. the rasam was just mind blowing. will surely stop by next time at this place.

second person from the left was the b'day bouy and all his classmates who were there for their internship.

**ANUP WS** · 02-06-2013, 06:48 PM

DAY 2 : Chennai-Mahabalipuram-Pondycherry-Nagapattinam-Vailankanni.

day 1 was just spent in the hopes of meeting my friend and wishing him and having a party with him. but day 2 was when the real challenge started as it was SOLO form here for the next whole week. must say i was a little worried bot the bike but wasnt worried about being alone ,because i had a mobile disco and a movie thetre travelling with me . that was my ipod and my mobile ,in which i had stored about 15-20 movies which i had not seen and few which i like to see repeatedly.

in the whole trip my ipod was the only friend to whom i would speak constantly and by the time i reached pondycherry i had already turned in to SPB and shankar mahadevan and the rest of them . i never knew that i sang so badly and which i liked . ha ha ha ha ha. i wasnt mad though!!!

the plan actually was that we party in the night and 26th morning we go on ECR and visit croc park and mahabalipuram and return to chennai , the next day i was supposed to leave to pondy. but time had its own call. my friend had to leave that day itself. so got his ksrtc volvo seat and i dropped him to the bustand at 7 and started my journey towards pondy.
the place where i stayed for the night in chennai had a supermarket in the ground floor . got all the resources for the ride ie, kitkat ,perk , munch , and lodz of candy's. i dont like nuts , so snickers is out of the list.

first stop was mahabalipuram.

2 tender coconut atleast for a day . so it was.

i had many other options on the ECR to visit but due to my early start i had to skip them ,out of which madras crocodile park was one prominent one. so i had to directly hear to mahabalipuram.

trying a little selftimer shots. 10 seconds is so less. and with that heavy leather and heavy boots and the heavy sun damn ,i was sweating like pig. had to rest on a bit under the tree's shade.

when i was on short rides i never used to stop at a CCD but when i was riding on ECR when i saw this CCD just 20kn short of pondy ,the breaks automatically got applied . it felt like an oasis in the desert.

right infront of the CCD there were migrating birds . my camera wasnt good enough to reach there.

i had plans to get a full tank in pondy but at the very instant i saw shell fuel stations in chennai , i just went in and got fueled up.

i had also visited one more beach in pondy whose name i dont remember and a big beautiful church, unfortunately have lost those pics. i stayed in a home stay in alleppey where they had a computer ,at the same time my cam's memory was full. thought of transferring the pics from my cam to my cell's memory. had a tough time getting the pics once the pics got copied to the system and got corrupted. at this time i was shattered . i will be telling about that later n in detali. so i lost about 130 photot on the whole . moving on.........

it was just 130 in the noon when i was resting in the church at pondy. while chatting with the people ,they suggested me to go to vailankanni and not waste my time in pondy after hearing my trip plan. i agreed and went there. by now people asking me where i came from , where i am going and why ????? was all a common question and also had become irritating . how many times would you tell people where you are going and all those names of the places that are mentioned on the map??????????????????

while crossing nagapattinam bypass had small issue with a police man. there were 2 police ,1 constable and the other SI . he stopped me and asked me to get down . i told him the purpose and the complete route in TAMIL. the SI was just happy to know and surprised but the constable had an itch to check my lugguage. i removed the bunjee and let him take a look and was happily chatted with the SI and offered him a ciggy aswell.

now it was time for the treasue hunt . as it was a long weekend and also some festival in TN. vailankanni was jam packed . after searching for about hour and half got a room for 700Rs.

parked my bike and it was time for street darshan on foot.

isnt that clear but this some remains of the ship which hit this place and was the reason for all the constructions including the church

i parked my bike in a reataurent and i guy comes running to me and asks "whats XBHP??? i know team bhp as im a member of it ib blr" , i tell him and then he wanted the shortest route to blr and i told him that . we became friends and had dinner together . he introduces me to his family of which his dad was also a passionate biker who rode a vespa. did lodz of chit chat visited the beach on foot which was bot 2kms from the palace ,stayed at the beach till 12 watching the high tides as it was a fullmoon . went back to my room at 1230 am .

**Haroon** · 02-07-2013, 02:35 AM

Nice ride & thanks for sharing.
Reminded me of our South India ride in 2010 on my GS. Almost identical route except that from Kanyakumari I took the inland route thru Madurai, Trichi to Pondi due to limited time.
Did you ride the MC Road in Kerala? It was the road we enjoyed the most.

Keep riding and ride safe.

**accuengineer** · 02-07-2013, 11:49 AM

Hai
Just Missed you. I reached velankanni on 25/01/2013. If I knew your plan we could have met. Anyway next time maybe.

Cheers

Mathews

**ANUP WS** · 02-07-2013, 12:30 PM

MC road ???? I dont know the names but if you tell me from where to where the road is ill be able to confirm .

**ANUP WS** · 02-07-2013, 12:31 PM

sure next time. i was in chennai on 25 th and reached vailankani on 26th.

**Haroon** · 02-07-2013, 03:00 PM

Originally posted by ANUP WS View Post

MC road ???? I dont know the names but if you tell me from where to where the road is ill be able to confirm .

From Cochin we took the inland route and rode from Chengannur to Trivandrum on the 'butter smooth' MC Road. Dont remember the distance but probably 60-70kms of pure biker's playground......Here is our small video:

R1200GS on the gorgeous MC Road - YouTube

**Nagesh Patankar** · 02-07-2013, 04:11 PM

A nice short n swift TLOG with nice pics ...
Thanks for sharing

**ANUP WS** · 02-08-2013, 03:44 PM

Day 3 : vailankanni-rameshwaram (straight roads with absolutely no traffic at all.)

started from vailankanni at around 10am and reached rameshwaram at 3pm.

I was doing a constant 100kph thinking of reaching rameshwaram by 2 and going to dhanushkodi for the sunset. i had not stopped for more than 130 kms and here comes a remainder/speed breaker /alarm in the form a peapock. there was a strech where either side of the road was covered withe thich bushes of about 10ft tall. AS i was in good speed i was enjoying the music as there was very little traffic ,suddenly out of nowhere a male peacock ( male as in it had long tail(feathers)) which jumped from one side of the road to another side. i had missed it in a second i guess. if i were a little more faster i would have hit it. that was a remainder for me to slow down and not get carried away by the roads and also to be aware of the unknown dangers.

enroute rameshwaram i saw a light house and just deviated into a small gully which led to the place . found these guys having a political chitchat and also little talk on the degrading indian culture. i never complained about it as i wanted a break and ma ass was paining like hell. i took a long break here chatting with tose guys and again telling my trip plan and stuff.

the light house

just as you are 8kms form rameshwaram i fount this

reached rameshwaram by 3 and got myself a room as i entered the city.
as told by the owner this lodge is the oldest lodge in rameshwaram ,which is renovated now.

i never knew the truch services to dhanushkodi was only till 5pm. by the time i was ready to leave it was 4 pm . so decided to postpone it to AM. end of day 3.

day 4 : Rameshwaram-Dhanushkodi-Rameshwaram-Toothukudi-KANYAKUMARI-Nagercoil.

i hope there is no limit to upload pics as im not able to decide which pic not to upload and which to upload.
started from rameshwaram at 8 am. i was the 2nd person (tourist) at dhanushkodi waiting for the trucks to get filled.
i had no great expextations form dhanushkodi as it was a last minute entry on ma lists.

must appreciate tamilnadu govt. this road leads to nowhere and is a dead end. even though is just spotless.

im there

fisher men were returning with their fresh catch

sitting on these rocks and waiting for the trucks to start

im in a truck , has the driver mistake it to a submarine??????????????????????????????

what , where is the road?

i wanted to go like this ,but the water was knee deep many places and was afraid that it would enter in the silencer

this is called off-roading . some times loose white sand and some times the ocean itself. was a fabulous journey

now i realised that my trip was worth it as i visited dhanushkodi. awesome place for group of friends. super clean beaches and peaceful atmosphere. best beach for swimming aswell. very calm waves.

now when im in dhanushkodi let me give a short history about the place. long long ago about 64 years back this place was more prominant than rameshwaram ( a hub). all the major activities were hapening here and not in rameshwaram like now ,including the train facilities. but there was a wild sea at that time and washed the complete city away and everything in its path. this was told to me by a person whose family was a resident of thanushkodi and who was the incharge of the lodge where i stayed. he was a great company.

the metre gauge railway track(rather the remains)

railway water tank

the stones which the VANAR SENA used to build the RAM SETHU which floated even on the application of force downwards.

remains of the railway station / godown

once a very beautiful church

the beat beach that ive visited till now

clear blue

original "shankhs"

source of fresh water

where is he coming from??

and where is this bus going??

at this stage i would like to pause as its a lot of pics for now. ill continue day 4 in my next post.

**ANUP WS** · 02-10-2013, 10:14 PM

DAY 4 continues......

All these days i had been riding in forests and ghats and mostly that sort of roads. but when i neared Rameshwaram i was really scared . the reason was that its just blue sea on either side of the road and was sort of everywhere. I love beaches and its not that im visiting coastal area for the first time, but the view at that time was scary and to add to that the 3km long bridge that connects rameshwaram to the main land (india) also seemed a little scary on the first note. but later i was the kind of addicted to it.

a week back (when i visited Rameshwaram) the railway services to rameshwaram was stopped as a ship had collided with the railway track . how cool.(dont mean it though). it was told to me that a ship had got stuck in the sand ,and due to the tides and the sail it was dragged on to the track(bridge). and to my bad luck it was cleared off the same day when i reached the place and that too hours ago.

yo can see the repair works going on ....

this bridge can be lifted when a ship is passing by. i dont know the exact name of these sort of bridges.

I was at this bridge for atleast half an hour while returning enjoying the view.

A LOOOOOONg bridge

from there it was so so salty. it was just heaps and heaps of salt where ever i saw .

the place where i stopped had a very small storage of Salt , furthur on there were like mountains of it covered with coconut leaves and plastic sheets

enroute kanyakumari

i could not reach kanyakumari for the sun set . reached KK at 8 and started looking for a stay, to my bad luck no it seemed like no one was willing to give me a room . they just told me that the rooms were filled or would tell me 1000+Rs for a night's stay for a single person. i was confused and angry aswell. before i and my friends had taken a room for 500 per night for 5 of us. and it wasnt a rush aswell when i went there. at that time one person in the reciption of some ladge told me that there was a new rule in KK that no single person male/female is given room and had to get a letter form SP or DC for getting one . the reason behind this strange rules was that many cases were reported of suicide of single persons taking rooms in KK. how silly! i got so damn frustrated after listening to this that i started to nagercoil after serching for about 1 and half hour in KK. at last found a decent stay in Nagercoil which is about 20 km from KK .

**christo** · 02-10-2013, 10:46 PM

Re: The COASTAL ROAD-RUNNER

Nice pics, thanks for sharing your experience.

But I think listening to music while riding isn't safe. Ride safe

Sent from my WT19i

Announcement

The COASTAL ROAD-RUNNER

The COASTAL ROAD-RUNNER

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment