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**MUSTANG 27** · 04-14-2015, 03:29 PM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

Some more pics would have added flavors and ya couple of pegs and rock music makes the day anytime, any place...

**Sharrrrrrad** · 04-15-2015, 04:08 PM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

I got new cam recently, so next tlog will be picture log

**Sunil Pradhan** · 04-19-2015, 12:08 AM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

Lovely tlog sharradd!!
The tiger bluff was good.

And solo is the way to go.

**shashank ashwin** · 04-20-2015, 11:42 AM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

I think I know the guy who was responsible for the hype of that drink

Good going, carry on with the log.
One small thing -"Then I followed Nakul's D390 through some tiny(cute) roads till Nakul's home" - It's RC 390.. .

**Sharrrrrrad** · 04-20-2015, 03:47 PM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

He was using his brothers Duke 390.

**Sharrrrrrad** · 05-04-2015, 11:15 PM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

Some pics from my last post are not visible, adding em here.

Attached Files

**Newbie101** · 05-07-2015, 11:39 AM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

Just saw the update; good going mate!

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Just saw the update; good going mate!

**Sharrrrrrad** · 05-08-2015, 01:53 AM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

Day 4 - Varakala - Kanyakumari - Rameshwaram (U-Turn day)

Although, It did not feel right to leave this place, I had a bigger picture to paint. As per the morning ritual, I was on saddle by 5:45am, started riding towards Kanyakumari. This was my next destination, the plan was to reach kanyakumari and spend rest of the day there, this was not such a challenging task. 148kms along the west coast. I rode through the state highways along with the coastline. I was looking out for a nice place to have some tea, I just love early morning tea. I also did not wanted to reach KK too early, as many commercial places would not open up and there was no point to try to make it before sunrise :P .

After taking a lot of stops I reached KK around 10am. Since I entered from the west, it was not really a U-turn. I reached near the vivekananda statue only to find the chaos. Kind of chaos I dont like, temple tourists, destroying the place by littering all around. I was totally unaware of place to visit in Kanyakumari neither I had researched previous night as I was having a gala time. I thought I'll book a hotel first. Went to some nice ones with a sea view, all full (again temple tourists). Found a hotel room, before booking I thought Ill check with xbhp buddies. Called up Suvra, "Me: Dada, Kanyakumari pohuch gaya, ab kya karu? Bole to, idhar dekhne layak kuch hai kya? Suvra: Ha, you can check out wax museum, temples or monuments..... OR you can make it till Rameshwaram before Sunset. Dont miss the sunset on Pamban bridge. Me: Theek hai, thanks a lot..." Looking at the crowd I was no where in mood of visiting any places around. I quickly pulled out Google maps and checked for distance, 309kms via East coast road, No problemo, All I did in Kanyakumari was that I had a full half litre Maza and took the empty bottle along (Me no temple tourist).

Nh7 was just adjacent to the place where I had stopped, While I was passing by I had a good look at the Great India U-turn, and went ahead. I forgot to click pics here as my mind was busy thinking about some movie stunt that could happen. (Just Imagine - There is a chase scene that goes on NH7 at full speed, about 120kmph, they reach the U-turn, unable to take it they decide to go straight up, and just to spruce things up there is a ramp for the bikes/cars to go flying. Wonder where they would land? In the Sea... classic huh? :P ) Moving on, while I was riding google maps played a joke with me, it asked me to take a right, In no time I was off road, I was wondering if this road goes anywhere, there was not even a single vehicle on road, I kept moving. Turn's out, it was no joke. there is a lake near Mahadanapuram Kovil, NHAI is supposed to make a bridge over it, hence the detour. this trail literally went inside the temple compound and came out from the other side. In some time I was again on NH7, I thought I can catch up some speed now, once bored of NH I will detour again.

Another xbhp friend Shashank had mentioned about wind mills on the way, I thought I have seen em so any times, whats the catch? I had to see it to believe it, there were 100's of them and spinning way faster than the one found in chitradurga or chikmagalur. I stopped by and clicked some pics

After a while on NH7, I got bored of it. Time to take detour, I chose to connect to East coast road. I had plenty of time In hand, on the course of it I reached this state highway which was sheer pleasure to ride. Only problem was that this highway was deserted, there were petrol bunks which were closed long back, no restaurant, not even a single shop for 40-50kms, when I found a shop, there was no water bottles available, One thing to remember while riding on this side of the country, carry your supplies. I made it through in that heat with what I had, Also filled up my maza bottle with bore-well water

. After some time, worries were gone and I started to enjoy the ride again through the unknown territory all by myself and some nice music. I had lunch at one of the hotels I was surprised to find, there was only rice and samabar available, in that moment, that food came straight from heaven and to top it all they had kulfis in their freezer. I had two of them before they could melt and drip over my gears, and they were melting fast.

Post lunch ride was a lazy one around 50-70kmph, gazing at the tiny islands formed on both side of the roads. I could see dark clouds ahead, I was shocked, this is not possible, I left all my rain gears thinking that there is no chance of rain and here you are in front of me. It seemed like I escaped from the trouble, the roads were wet and with a little sunlight, it added the no of stars on th vistas that I was enjoying. I kept on riding, after about half an hour suddenly it started pouring. Before I could make it till the bus stop I was drenched. I evaluated the situation, it wasn't that bad. hoping that it would stop raining in some time so that I can make it to the bridge before sunset. It did stop in some time and I reloaded the luggage and moved on. It was very beautiful here, watching the palm trees along with the coast line and open sky was just amazing.

I reached the pamban bridge before sunset. there was quite a crowd on the bridge, I found my vacant spot and parked my bike there and was gazing through the amazing vista around me. Quickly I was accompanied by 2 kids who had tons of questions, I kept feeding their curiosity for about half an hour. One of the kid said the hotels are usually booked here since there are lot of temple tourists incoming. Realizing that I left to check for the room thinking I will be back on the bridge at sunset, it was 4pm. The kid was right, I checked the nice hotels first, they were all booked, After moving ahead I found one lodge which had one room available. This place was again was pretty bad, better than the Allepy one though and the manager arranged a good closed parking for my bike, I had to oblige and the price was just 800 per day. All done, I checked in, there was a huge spider in the room, largest spider I have seen indoors(around 3inches). I tried driving it away but it would come inside again within 30secs, I guess it was his room. I named him spidey and decided to share the room with him. I quickly changed and went back to watch the Sunset. It was an amazing one, I was spell bound by the beauty around me. I sat on the bridge with my legs on each side till the dusk. This was one of those times I was glad that I made it till here.

while leaving from the bridge I realized that my headlights had gone for a toss some wiring was broken and rain might have added to the problem. Thanks to the CREE Aux, they were working and good enough to ride on pitch dark roads. On my way I settled for a decent meal as the crowd in Rameshwaram was crazy. I went to room and crashed hoping I would turn into Spider man in the morning.

**Sharrrrrrad** · 07-05-2015, 10:48 PM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

Day 5 - Rameshwaram - Dhanushkodi - Pondicherry

Early morning I woke up and headed towards Dhanushkodi. On the way there was this calm and peaceful temple of Kodandarama, this place is where pattabhishekam of Ravanas brother was done by lord Rama. Best part about this place was that it was empty, not even a single person, I was all by myself here and loved every minute spent here. The guilt of not visiting the Rameshwaram temple because of the crowd was instantly gone. Seemed like Lord Rama understood my plight and decided to meet me in private with Sita Maiya and Laxmana. After spending good amount of time here I decided to go forward for Dhanushkodi.

The Road towards Dhanushkodi was also an open and empty road. Loved to ride here. It was an arrow straight road with ocean on both the sides. I reached small village of Dhanushkodi where I could only see fishermen, no tourists. That was another boon, I kept riding till the road ended. I was tripping heavy looking at this place, I have grown up looking at lot of beaches but this one was way different than what I had ever witnessed. It is hard for me to explain the beauty of this place in words, you have to visit to realize it. Rest let the pictures do the talking.

I had spent good amount of time wandering places in Rameshwaram. I forgot I had to cover around 400kms on the same day to reach Pondicherry. I quickly had some snacks went back to the hotel to get my stuff and quickly leave. It was around 12:30 and before I reached pamban bridge, it started pouring heavily, I had to stop for shelter as I had no rain gears with me. After about 45mins of raining it stopped and Icould start again. I stopped on the bridge to click some pics. I was involuntarily in a rush and I was doing opposite things to avoid it, at that time I saw a Hovercraft in the ocean, my mind was blown, I loved the idea of it, one amazing piece of engineering, spent almost 15-20mins watchng it. I thought it would be good to continue now, except the rain clouds were ahead of me. Somehow, I started racing with rainclouds and managed to pass them to find clear skies. I think those rain clouds were heading to bangalore, as 2 days later there was heavy pouring in Bangalore. Riding through out the day through beautiful east coast highway I reached Pondicherry at around 8:30pm.

The usual hunting for a bed to crash begun. By now, I was used to that feeling where you have no Idea, where to start from. The best approach is to reach the tourist destination and searching for hotels outwards, it did not take much effort once I was on South Bouleward road. I found a nice one called L'Ocean, good room for Rs800, kickass deal considering the locality. I freshened up and went for a walk on the beach. On my way back had my dinner and headed straight to the hotel room as there was getting missed calls from the hotel bed. On my neighbouring hotel there were bunch of bikers with one HD 883, duke 200 and I dont remember other two. It was a nice feeling to see other bikers. I was exhausted by the day's ride as it was like a big endurance ride for me, there were hardly any restaurants or shops on the east coast highway, its better to carry food and water on this highway. I did not do much at pondicherry as I had plans to visit this place sometime with my friends to squeze much fun out it. Right now the plan was just to hit the sack and leave early morning next day.

Attached Files

**krishna77** · 07-05-2015, 10:57 PM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

This road with sea on both the sides - has a majestic feeling about itself. A long-cherished dream in my wishlist.
Thank you for these beautiful pictures.

**khuram** · 12-03-2015, 12:11 AM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

Nice one Sharad

**thunderRider** · 12-03-2015, 02:46 AM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

@SharrrrrradMe and another xBhp guy are planning to do a similar trip.

see below for the routes we have chalked out.

can you please advice on the road conditions??

**Sharrrrrrad** · 12-24-2015, 01:18 AM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

Originally posted by thunderRider View Post

@SharrrrrradMe and another xBhp guy are planning to do a similar trip.

see below for the routes we have chalked out.

can you please advice on the road conditions??

[ATTACH]198161[/ATTACH][ATTACH]198162[/ATTACH]

Route 1 is faster but annoying traffic and not much fun.
Route 2 is slow but scenic and more fun. Take the state highways and east coast road. Amazing routes and isolation at places. Do carry water and other stuff to eat. Many places you won't find shops on East coast road.

Ride Safe,
Cheers

**thunderRider** · 12-31-2015, 11:43 AM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

Originally posted by Sharrrrrrad View Post

Route 1 is faster but annoying traffic and not much fun.
Route 2 is slow but scenic and more fun. Take the state highways and east coast road. Amazing routes and isolation at places. Do carry water and other stuff to eat. Many places you won't find shops on East coast road.

Ride Safe,
Cheers

thanks!

could not do this due to limited time. may be sometime in the near future

[MENTION=74890]raakeshchauhan[/MENTION] interested??

**raakeshchauhan** · 01-02-2016, 02:08 AM

Re: Solo to Great Indian U-turn

Originally posted by thunderRider View Post

thanks!

could not do this due to limited time. may be sometime in the near future

[MENTION=74890]raakeshchauhan[/MENTION] interested??

Yes I am.. Rameshwaram is on the list since long time..

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