Re: The East Coast Ride

Travelogue Approved

Fantastic teaser right there bro

Re: The East Coast Ride

very nice teaser pic bro bring on the rest

Re: The East Coast Ride

awesome
is that the pamban bridge???? [MENTION=36548]nisnth[/MENTION]

Re: The East Coast Ride

Day 1 : The Booorrriinnnggggg Stttrraaaaiiggghhhttttt Road until Rameshwaram




" I've got my rain gear, packed all the clothes in the plastic covers. Hope you guys did the same. We might encounter some heavy rains enroute!"


Yup, I was expecting rains. The forecast was "cloudy, with light showers". Anil and Nagaraj werent rain-ready as such apart from the Rain coat and liner. I shrugged at their negligence!


Waiting at the Meetup point at 4:30 AM near Silkboard, I receive Benaka's text asking if I started the ride " Reached home from office. Its raining. No, actually pouring!" I did not want to start the ride all drenched ! Anil and Nagaraj reached the spot jsut in time for the drizzles to start. Couldnt click a proper Pre-ride snap
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We plan to break at A2B at Krishnagiri. To my surprise A2B has disappeared! I only figured out later that a new road has been constructed away from A2B by about 200 mtrs! We stop at a small hotel well past Krishnagiri, relish the Dosas and Idlis and set off again to complete this long leg of the journey!


The weather was beautiful! But we wanted to finish off the straight roads soon, so hardly any stops!
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We've all had experiences with insects hitting the helmets and bike visors, but until Madurai, all we came across were zillions of butterflies. Felt sad smashing them but we had no other option while riding!
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We reach Madurai for lunch and had some amazing biryani @ Hotel Germanus. It looked expensive but thankfully was not


After this, the roads werent any interesting and was weirdly hot. The landscape was barren, acres and acres of land with just thorny bushes and dried river beds! It was surprising as to where the people of the region get their water from! :-o


But all this was only until we got close to Rameshwaram. The weather and surroundings drastically changed. We stop by at some shades for a quick break!
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The close we got to Rameshwaram, the more the feeling of the sea nearing us. Finally we could see the sea. Oh wait, Its an ocean in fact - The Indian Ocean!




We couldnt wait to pull over, so I notice a small temple by the sea and got the bike straight to the edge!
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We could see the famous Pamban bridge in the distance.
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I couldnt control my excitement and force Anil and Nagaraj to packup :bs:
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The Pambam bridge has quite a lot of history attached to it (Wikipedia). It was an awesome feeling of being over the sea!
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The day just wasnt over yet! To our luck it was the time for a train to cross the Rail bridge! I was over joyous! :dance2:


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Day 1 was supposed to be boring, although it was for the major part, Rameshwaram suprised us with its beautiful waters. We booked at the TTDC's Hotel Tamilnadu, which was by the Bay of Bengal and it was time for some rest!
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To be contd...










Yes it is

Re: The East Coast Ride

[MENTION=36548]nisnth[/MENTION]
superb speechles clicks...

Re: The East Coast Ride

Day 2 : The surprisingly beautiful Dhanushkodi


Dhanushkodi (DK), the sole reason I was at this part of India. The place has a quite a lot of history to it (Wiki). From the Ram Sethu to the Tsunami of 1964! The day was fully dedicated to Dhanushkodi. ALthough we werent keen on riding in the sand and struggling. Rather we wanted to enjoy the place. We decided to ride until the end of Tarmac. Had a yummy complementary buffet breakfast at the lodge, (One of the good things of TN, super tasty breakfast at any hotel!) and a quick phone call to [MENTION=49941]ANUP WS[/MENTION], thanked him for updates on the place and we set off lazily. DK is about 15 kms from Rameshwaram and the road is totally isolated and yeah, arrow straight too :bs:

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Anil noticed a beautiful spot facing the ocean on the right and goes right into the sand and gets stuck I give a big grin :bs:, park my bike and head towards the spot.


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We did not spend much time there and planned to return to the spot during the return and get back on the road. The road was surrounded by white sands. At some stretches there were walls of 5-6 feet high built to keep the sand from covering the road. After a few kms, we notice a board "Kodanda Rama Temple" which reminded me of the spot on Gmaps - a road leading to the temple, goes perpendicular to the DK road and is surrounded by shallow water! (Google Maps). We were too lazy to enter the temple and were more curious to check out the waters.
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Back on the DK road, the ocean got closer and closer.
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We finally reach the end of Tarmac. We ask a guard if we can go on bikes. He replied asking us to try, with a weird face. We went ahead, noticed the loose sand, took a U-turn and parked the bike We then hired a maxi-cab for Rs 100 per person and set off to the "end of land"!

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Although a bit cramped, the Rs100 journey was an experience. The whole area was a flat land with no sense of direction. This strip of land looks so narrow on Gmaps, but in real, its vast and wide! The only "way" is to follow the tyre tracks...
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A short Video ...
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[YOUTUBE]S2kV78xp2i4[/YOUTUBE]
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Some wild horses around...
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At some places, the sand was too deep and may be our bikes would have got stuck if we had got them here...
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That's our Maxi Cab in the background
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The sea was breathtakingly beautiful. The surprising part was on the right, the Indian Ocean was showing all its might...
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Whereas on the left, the Bay Of Bengal was acting like a lake...
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Some random snaps...
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After about 15 minutes or so, we were taken to the the destroyed buildings of the Old Town...
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The place wasnt deserted, many small shacks selling some artifacts like these..
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This is supposedly the "rock" from the Rama's Floating Bridge...
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There was nothing much to do there and hence returned to the Parking. We spent some time in the beach there enjoying the icecream and a cool breeze...
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We had carried a few food items as we knew there would be no lunch spots as such. We headed back to the empty beach we spotted earlier and relax. There was quite a lot of sand. But to my surprise, CBR did not give much of a trouble on the sand and glided easily. Only later I realized that it was possible as the rear tyre was punctured (The first on the CBR and what a place it chose :bs
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After the quick snap at the calm place, back to Rameshwaram, got the puncture fixed for a whooping Rs150, we still had time to kill. WE rememberd that it was the same time as the previous day we saw the train cross the Pambam bridge. So back we were on the bridge again
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After an amazing color display by the skies, we were back to our rooms, all excited about experiencing the renowned East Coast Road the next morning...



To be contd...

Re: The East Coast Ride

Nice ride and beautiful pictures Nishanth. We rode down there last December (in fact we were in Dhanushkodi on the 22nd of December 2012 - the cyclonic storm happened on 22nd Dec 1964)! Thanks for refreshing our memories
Once again, great going guys!!

Take Care & Ride Safe

Re: The East Coast Ride

Whhaaaat pictures, maaaaan!!! For a moment, I was like - Is this real?!!
Amazing, breathtaking & fantabulous work with the clicks, mate!!! It was indeed a pleasure to see places through your lenses - the bridge & the railway is simply magnificent. You've got some serious photography skills, my friend. Now keep continuing the series of mesmerizing photos.

Re: The East Coast Ride

The thread title alone pulled me here... Looking forward to hear the full tale of the east coast...

Re: The East Coast Ride

NIce trip and a cool set of rides for all the 3 of you

Re: The East Coast Ride

very bful pics, i am subscribed and waiting for more

Re: The East Coast Ride

lovely snaps & ride ..

Re: The East Coast Ride

i have no words to describe how awesome the pics look...!!
great work with the camera..!! awesome rides too...!! r15, cbr, zmr..!! just awesome..!!
eager to c more pics..!! keep uploading..!!

Re: The East Coast Ride

fantastic pics man...keeps glued