nice pics.....loved them

The East Coast Ride..

Prologue:

I always wanted to ride down south, but for some reason couldn't do it. Steve pointed out of a possible ride to Pichavaram, in the last chit-chat Chennai xBhp GTG. But then he wanted it to be a two day ride, with Sun Rise along the beach / backwaters of Pichavaram. A quick Google search revealed that there is actually a place called Point Calimere, which has a SunRise point., and so the itch began.

The Route Map..



Day 1: Ride to the Coast

The day began on a lazy and tiring note. Working continuously from Friday noon till Early Saturday morning. A perfect torture for a guy who needed rest. But having said that, The very thought of riding to a place less traveled was refreshing. 2 30 AM, my work was over and immediately Steve called up, "How many Confirmed?"., and I said "Hopefully 4, if not.. we both will ride!". 4 30 AM, Steve again called to confirm, this time it was a definite four or we can call it, 'The Fabulous Four' if you guys wouldn't mind! 4 45 AM, I went to the local meet up point Prahlad was already present. Soon Steve joined in. 5 AM, we were set to start. Called up karan and he said he would join us mid way on the East Coast Road, some 40 kilometers south of Chennai.

And FYI, the four riders are:

Prahlad a.k.a cbr600rr on a Honda Unicorn



Steve a.k.a steveburnside2001 on a HH ZMA



Karan a.k.a karan03130on a HH Hunk



Ananth a.k.a ananth on a RE TBTS




We started calmly signing off all worries of the day, and our first hurdle was to find a petrol bunk to tank up. Searched for a few of them and finally tanked up after a 3 kilometer ride into the city. 5 15 AM and we were off towards the EAST COAST ROAD. Our first stop was at the View Point, On the ECR for Sunrise shot. Few shots and we zoomed up a head. Prahlad, became our usual lead and Steve would tail and Me just cruising behind the Uni.

At the View Point,



Catching the SunRise,



The three rides,



Soon, we met Karan somewhere near Kalpakkam and started from there without any waste of time. We were maintaining 80+ on the highway with open beautiful roads and minimal traffic. Karan on his new HH Hunk was finding difficult to cope up due to some problem and we slowed down a bit or wait by for him to see him on our RVMs.

Reached Pondicherry in no time and stopped by for a traditional pic at the entrance of Pondy. Steve wanted to tankup and so was Karan. Found a pretty decent petrol bunk in to the city and FYI petrol is just 38 rupees in Pondicherry!! Seeing that i again tanked up and for my astonishment, the bull again drank around 8 Litres of petrol!

A traditional Pic @ Pondy entrance.,



Crossed Pondy and our next destination was Pichavaram, 16 kilometers from Chidambaram. After crossing the ECR, the roads weren't getting any better but manageable to cruise around the 70's. Stopped for a butt break along the green agricultural fields and had a relaxed time speaking to the farmers.



Steve trying to swap jobs with the farmers



Me Posing,



Soon, we reached Chidambaram and headed into a nice authentic hotel. I was getting tired and became dehydrated. Couldn't eat well, but the other three ransacked the hotel. We ate for about 250 bucks We then asked for directions and reached Pichavaram.

Pihavaram, is one of the large backwaters of India and second according to our fellow riders next to Sunderbans. It contains thousands of hectares of Mangrove forests. We took a rowing boat and 'a wonderful liar' boatmen sailed us through. The specialty of the two hour boat ride was the wonderful lies of the boatman as to his narration about Tsunami to Dasavatharam to the number of gaps between the mangrove forests







The two hour ride was not extra ordinary and it just kept us more dehydrated. Personally, i did not like the ride and it was not some thing extraordinary. We came back to the shore and took rest along the watch tower for a good 30 minutes.

The Liar,



The view from Top,



Young Fisherboyz?



The weather was doing what we didnt expect it to do. It was Hot, It was damn Hot and riding with a thick riding jacket after a tiring night was making things worse. We then started from Pichavaram, rode into the mad streets of Chidambaram, with numerous one ways and diversions and finally reached the state highway towards Nagapattinam.

Stopped by a mechanic shop to fix the fairing of Prahlads bike. The roads size were shrinking with 4 lanes to 2 lanes to just one lane!! Mad bus drivers was making things for us, as we had to off road for every vehicle coming in the opposite direction and the bad twisties between them made things horrible. The 30 kilometers from Chidambaram towards Sirkazhi and upfurther was like riding 300 kilometers. we were tired and stopped by to empty some 12 tender coconuts

The small State Highway,



Nice greenery,




Thankfully, the roads improved and reached Tharangambadi (Tranqubar). The beach was inviting and the ancient Danish fort was good too see. We relaxed ourselves and enjoyed a lot at the beach. Took our bikes into the shore, except for the hunk all other three bikes comfortably came across the loose sands. The shore temple, the danish fort, the ancient church were all great! Though i didn't like the colour of the fort After spending some quality time at the shore, we decided to ride till Vedaranyam , the final destination for the day.

The entrance into the town,



The Fort,



The rides,



The riders,





Future Rider!



The shore temple.,



The ancient church,



Reached Nagapattinam, and asked for directions towards Vedaranyam. We (I) didn't wish to stay at Nagapattinam as we had to cover up some more distance to see the sun rise the next day. Asked for routes and finally some one showed us the shorter route through veilankanni and then towards Vedaranyam.

The roads were Ok, with minimal traffic towards vedaranyam with just the goats to give you the un-necessary braking. Finally reached Vedaranyam around sun set, just to find that there is only ONE LODGE in the whole town!! And once into the lodge we found that the whole lodge has been prebooked for a local marriage. With nothing else left to do, we rode towards Point Calimere - the ultimate destination.

We were hoping to get the forest guest house accommodation there, which is very much tough to get through - otherwise we have to come back another 35 kilometers to Veilankanni for the night stay. After a few struggles, we finally found the Forest Guest house, and peeped in to ask for the rooms.

The forest officer politely refused at first and later, Steve convinced the officer to try with his superior for a permission. We just explained him about our trip, from chennai, etc etc and he was impressed. After the call, we registered our names and got the room and gave ourselves a big sigh of relief.

The room was not ready and so we waited till the food gets ready in the ONLY HOTEL in the village. We get tiffin only by 7 30 PM and that too gets over by 8 PM. So we have to park our butts by 7 30 PM to ensure fuel for our tummies.

The food was just awesome and we ate like we have not seen food for days. Even after eating like a wild barbarian, the bill was just 84 Rs. We were just wonder struck and happily gave them a 100 Rupee bill to them and thanked them for the royal treat!

We ended the day with 405 kilometers on the odometer, Covering Pondy, Chidambaram, Pichavaram, Tharangambadi (Tranqubar), Nagapatinam, Vedaranyam, and finally Point Calimere.

Thanks for the link, but you could still post your log + pics from your end here in this thread. Wont you?

Thanks!

Beautiful pictures there Ananth and huge log (haven't read it though), will read it in sometime.

fcking sexy ride guys!
Now people plz stop making me jealous

@ ananth : Nice log machi.. Pics turned out too gud..

Day 2 Trip log:

We were up at 4:45 to catch a view of the sunrise. Everyone had a kind of disturbed sleep. So as usual we took our rides to the sea shore. It was an awesome sight to see the fishermen taking their rides to the sea for early morning. There were lot of small red crabs along the shore. Dont know how many we smashed !Initially we parked our bikes along the shore , then figured out after a while that we were facing south and not east. So we moved in the opposite direction. We rode for around 2-3kms along the shore. Its something which I always like to do. Well did this in the first Xbhp G2G !!!

Then we waited for the sun to rise, but to our disappointment the sky was covered by clouds and we really couldn't capture what we wanted. But we spent quality time there for 1.5hrs enjoying the virgin beach and early morning cool breeze. We moved out of the beach to visit the Light House and Wildlife Sanctuary.

We went to the sanctuary but it was closed. We had a chat with the small kids around. We decided to take another ride along the shore to see if we could get close to the old Lighthouse built during the british period. This time we rode for around 4kms but then we stopped and turned back. While riding back we spotted lot of Sea Eagles catching their morning breakfast (crabs). They were flying right above our heads. I have never seen eagles so close. Ananth wanted get a shot of the eagle which was sitting on a rock . We were shouting not to go too near it as the sound of the TB would scare the bird. But he din't listen. Well bad luck it flew away and his Bird also had a bad fall cos the place was too muddy and slippery. Oops! He couldn't lift it! Karan parked his bike immediately and ran to help him.. oops again! Karan had a slip! Then myself and steve came carefully n all 4 of us lifted the bike up . His camera had a great escape!

We came back to the same place to have breakfast. Filled our stomachs with hot Idlys and Vadas! Food was excellent. I would drive there again to have food @ that place ! We couldn't decide whether to visit the Sanctuary or not due to time constraints. finally Ananth said lets have a go as the main purpose of the visit is to see all the places around. Karan wanted to take rest as he had back ache.

Bikes weren't allowed inside the sanctuary. Steve's sweet talk din't work! We took an auto which cost 150 bucks for the ride. First we spotted a fox lying on the road (well they call it a road but i couldn't see any road). Took some shots and moved on. We spotted some deers far away. I spotted a Horse but later figured it out to be a cow! :P

We moved on to visit the old lighthouse. Went to the shore again and spotted a group of horses standing near the waters and having a relaxed time. We had a very good time there.

We returned to the rest house at 10:30. Had a short nap for half hour before we started our ride back. We did a rough calculation of the time required to get back home. We finally started @ 11:30. Had a plan to visit Velankanni church. Our first stop was at Rama's Feet where Rama had a look at Sri Lanka from that point. Our next stop was at Velankanni Church. It was peak afternoon heat. We were literally burning. Quickly took some pics and moved on to the place where 3700 bodies were buried as a remembrance to Tsunami victims. We weren't feeling good at that place.

Our next stop was at Nagore Dargha which was 30kms odd. We wanted to take pics at a Church, Dargha and Temple. We did it by visiting all the three holy places. We maintained 80-90kmph all the way. Pretty decents speeds given the bad roads. We reached chidambaram @ 4 after facing heavy traffic for 30 kms from Sirkali to Chidambaram.

We decided to take the NH 45 from Pondy as we did not want to risk the ECR at night and also sunday evening traffic was heavy in ECR. We quickly reached Tindivanam from where the NH 45 - 4 lane highway starts. It was 7 and we took a butt break in a petrol bunk. We decided to maintain 70-80kmph as it was night. I was asked to lead the way. Well sorry guys I couldn't control, eventhough it was night ride, I was easily able to maintain 90kmph and the guys followed with ease. It was a sexy ride! Moving through the truck traffic. We reached Chengalpattu (65kms) in no time where we had to bid goodbye to Karan. We had another 60kms to reach the city. Well we reached the suburbs in 25mins and from there on it was city traffic. We had our last stop near the airport and bid goodbye!

One of the best rides of my life!

@ Ananth: could you please PM me the links of photos ?

Nice trip guys...



I really liked this pic

i didnt know that... That was a crisp log machi..

Just remember those roads very well. Have driven my car with my parents from Chennai many times as Nagapattinam is my Dad's home town. In fact we returned by car from Nagapattinam on December 25, 2004 by ECR(day before the deadly tsunami) and the day before the heavy rains lashed out Chennai(closing these highways) in October - 2008!

Forgot to add the Route Map.. here it is:




Thanks! Sorry if i had blabbered too much

Thanks mate!

Thank you!

Yeah, it was one of the better trips for me too..

I'm yet to upload the full resolution files, will do it tonight and send it tomorrow early morning.

Thanks!

yes, You didnt know many things!!

Wish you could have warned us before, we would have planned accordingly!

--

A teasers for Day 2:

nice trip log and the pics have come out very well.some more pics of the fort and the beach which karan took.

this is was an amazing ride.the 35 km ride from Pondi to tindivanam where we have the 4 way lane was covered in under 20 minutes (sun was setting)- 90 + speeds on a small 2 way lane with heavy traffic- I will never ride like that again- it was scary.

one thing because of the bad roads - the 800km trip felt like a 1500 km trip.boy was I exhausted.

very nice pics and log guys..
Seems you 4 had a gr8 time with the trip cheers

Super stuff there...

I've been wanting do this route for a long time now! Steve remember we almost made plans once!

Waiting for the rest....

Yeah, it was indeed a memorable trip. And i wont regret leading the pack with 90+ .. May be the trip became more interesting riding like that, and i was sure we were doing it safely and comfortably well


Thanks! and yeah, it was a fabulous trip!

thanks! Day 2's log + pics would be done tonight

Thanks for reading