Bike Trips: Madurai - Rameshwaram - Kanyakumari (A complete Package)

Madurai - Rameshwaram - Kanyakumari

About Madurai

Madurai is one of the ancient southern Indian city currently located in the state of Tamil Nadu, it is famous for its ancient historical temples. Madurai is situated on the bank of the vaigai river. Madurai is famous for its meenakshi temple which houses massive 9 storey gopurams(towers).

Places to visit : Meenakshi temple, aayiram kaal mandapa, Gandhi museum, Thirumala nayak mahal

About Rameshwaram

Rameshwaram, situated about 164 kilometers south-east of Madurai in the state of Tamil Nadu. Rameshwara is considered as one of the most scared pilgrimage centers by the Hindus.The temple is built on an island in the Gulf of Mannar at the tip of the peninsular that projects out of the Indian Subcontinent towards Sri Lanka.
Places to visit : Pamban bridge, Dhanushkodi, Ramar padam, wax museum, kodanda ram temple, Lakshmana and Agni theertham.

About Kanyakumari

Kanyakumari is located at the southernmost tip of peninsular India. It is the place where the waters of the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea meet.The place Kanyakumari is known so due to the temple dedicated to the goddess Kanya Kumari. From the Kanyakumari one can view spectacular sunrise and sunset.At this place the spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda also spent some of his days in meditation upon a rock off the coast.

Places to visit : Vivekananda rock memorial, wandering monk, Gandhi madapam, sunset spot(kovalam beach), padmanabapuram palace, vattakotai fort, suchindram temple.

How it Went :

This trip could be called a a complete package coz it involved fun, excitement, fear, emotion, respect....

As usual I would like divide the experience in terms of days.

Day 1:

Route : Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Salem - Madurai (471KM)

I woke up by 4.45am in the morning took some fresh breeze and did some morning exercise to support the long drive,and was ready by 5.30am. Picked up my huge baggage, started my bike and ran the engine for 2-3min ideally. Then I started towards silk board junction where I am supposed to meet the great explorer called Rajaneesh (Rajjo), no complaints to rajjo this time, he was slightly on time by 6:05am. we had few conversations and started towards the destination, we decided that the next stop would be krishnagiri where we planned to have breakfast.

Near Chandapura

We reached Karnataka boarder with foggy weather surrounding, once we were near the toll, we saw that the traffic was almost kilometers in length, we managed to escape the heavy traffic manuring through the cars and trucks and accelerated towards krishnagiri, again at krishnagiri it was the same condition of traffic somehow managed to escape the traffic, at about 5-6km we found a hotel (Sarvana bhavan)

Near Krishnagiri

we were asked to park our bike inside some passage way and we entered the hotel, we were totally depressed after seeing the crowd inside the hotel, everyone were waiting for some or other group to vacate the seat, we waited for few minutes and decided we cannot have the breakfast in this hotel, it looked liked as if there are no other hotel near (but it actually turned to be true :) ). We moved to our bike and struggled to take out the bike of passage way, once we were out we were back on track back and we were cruising in AH43, I found that I was running out of fuel, I signaled rajjo about the fuel level and I was searching for nearby fuel station, found a bharath petroleum and my bike exactly stopped in front of bunk and pushed my bike to the filling point and fueled it up, then the search for the hotel began all along the way,

Near Dharmapuri

most of the hotels were closed coz of the diwali festival and we couldn't find any hotel for another 50km, and finally near dharmapuri, to our right side we found a huge sign board of hotel rajabhojana, the breakfast was really good and the ambiance of the hotel was also good, I would recommend this hotel for other travelers. After a heavy breakfast we took some snaps outside the hotel and started our journey. The next pitstop was salem toll booth, this was around 40km from hotel and the drive was really good as were passing through medium ghat section. We reached the toll booth, took break for few minutes by this time we had covered almost 200km, we started our bike and started

Family From Bangalore, Namakkal

towards destination. there was a right deviation near salem junction, one goes to ammanpet and the other goes to kanyakumari, we were bit confused (can say I was bit confused as it doesn't matter for rajjo :P ) and I didn't take the fly over and came beneath it, and found we should have taken the flyover, anyways we picked up the right route later and moved towards the AH43, our next pitstop was another 50km away somewhere near namakkal district, we stopped there for a while and then moved towards the nearby bakery, where we met a amazing family whom we saw long back near salem, these family were on there TVS wego (husband,wife,kid) they were on a KA41 registered vehicle and we were wondering where this people are coming from, he told they were coming from Bangalore, we

Kaveri River

were stunned for a moment and asked them can we take there pic, and they gave a good pose :D . After they left the spot, we too started and we took some pics near kaveri river from mettur dam next stop was for fuel and spent good amount of time there at HP bunk. Finally when we were 50km away from madurai, rajjo bike gave up :P this time not because of engine failure, its coz of puncture, I signaled rajjo about his bike state and then search for puncture shop began, and we were luck enough to find a punture shop within 1km, we spent about 20min at the shop and had our soft drinks breaks too, once the bike was ready, we started to madurai, it was 3pm by then and search for the lodge began, by 3.30 we found a descent lodge for 1000 bucks and took the first day stop.

Palani Range

We were totally strained as it was the

Rajjo's Bike

first longest drive for both of us and took some rest. By 5pm we refreshed and thought of going to meenakshi temple, it was diwali evening and the street was heavily crowded. We were scared how crowded the temple would be, but to our luck, the temple was totally empty, the sculpture and the architure of the temple were really beautiful ,we had dharshan of meeshashi devi and lord shiva and we were out of temple 7pm, we roamed near the temple and came to our room by 8pm, we turned on the tv to see kaun banega karor pathi and watched for a while,we

Madurai Meenakshi Temple

were hungry by this time, so we went to the hotel of the lodge had tummy full of food, once we reached room we were sleepy and we hit the bed.

Day 2:

Route : Madurai - Rameshwaram (180KM)

The plan was to get up by 8am and start by 9.30am or so. But its my routine to wake up early as by 6.30am and start the activity, so I woke up at the same time, had bath and woked up rajjo by 7am, he might have been cursing me, I believe he used to wake up as late as 9.30am at home, I told him that we have to start early to escape heat and start the sight seeing early in rameshwaram, he agreed and we were ready by 8am. We vacated the room, and I switched to my google maps and found out of madurai and towards the rameshwaram, just for confirmation we asked the localites too, and we got green signal.

Madurai-Rameshwaram AH43

In no time we were out of madurai, and we hit the AH43, this time its not a 4 lane road, but its a single road and the road was broad enough. It was sunny in madurai, but as we moved towards manamadurai it turned out to be cloudy. But this weather was awesome for drive, it was wet track in some part of the highway and rajjo was finally happy as he found some curvy roads.

Near Ramanathapuram

This track had lot of trees and perfect country side road. We stopped in between where ever we found the spot to be good. and took pics along our drive, btw we didnot had breakfast at lodge hotel as only pongal was available, so we thought we will have somewhere in the highway, but this highway doesnt even have a single descent hotel, and moreover it was diwali day and most of them were closed, we thought we might find some hotel in ramanathapuram, guys this part of the country has lots of wandering goats, as you know they are kind of dumb in response, I had nearly missed a accident because of it while overtaking a auto, my front tyre hit the belly part of the got I was at round 60kmph and I knew I have hurted the goat badly, really felt sad for it, I stopped for a while but couldnt help the poor animal, had no other option and had to leave the place.

View from pamban

We entered the ramnathpuram district and we went in search of hotel. But as suspected all the hotel were closed, finally we had to stick with bakery items and had some buns and juice and left the place, rameshwaram was another 50km away, we crossed the ramnathpuram district and by this time the weather turned out to be worse it was getting darker and darker, we took some snaps nearby, and when we were 30km away, heavy downpour started, I asked rajaneesh shall we stop he was like, I am ok with anything, so I continued for another 2km, but the rain was getting intensified so I pulled my bike nearby and changed to my rain wear, rajjo as usual no other outfit, and sticked with his riding jacket.

View of Rameshwaram

We started when it stopped raining, another 5km and again it was heavy downpour rajjo was cursing the rain as it was spoiling his new woodlands shoe :P, so I stopped near a bustop and we pulled over for a while. In another 15min the rain had completely disappeared. We were happy and zoomed our bike ask the weather looked good, we entered the island of rameshwaram over pamban bridge, guys this is a breath taking view, 360 degree of fanatic beauty of nature, no words to explain rajjo was kind of absent no idea what went inside him :) may be the spoiled shoe :)

View from Ramar Padam

we took some snaps and started to rameshwaram, while on the way we were at 60s, suddenly a person in his FZ chased us at 90s and suddenly as goat came in front of him, he applied the breaks and he lost the balance and he was pulled with his bike for another 100ft or so, it was a terrible view, the goats skin was ripped off and all it intestine was out, the riders body bleeding after rubbing across road, rajjo was totally blank, we saw the scene for a while and asked rajjo shall we leave, he had no expression was just watching me, I started my bike and I couldn't take my bike above 40kmph and somehow reached rameshwaram, we found a room for 800rs and took nap for a while, it was 1.30pm by then we were looking for the hotel but again no luck,again it was only bakery stuff which saved us.

Dhanushkodi Beach

we planned to start visit different places in rameshwaram, we started with nearby places and covered it quickly, the next point was dhanushkodi, this is the end point from where sri lanka was around 20-30km. It was 16km from rameshwaram and I was riding my bike and rajaneesh was pillion, we found a temple called kodanda rama temple the view was mesmerizing we took some snaps had dharshan of temple and moved to dhanushkodi,

@ Kodanda Ram Temple

we parked our vehicle and took the mahindra min bus to go to the end point of dhansuhkodi, this end point was 6km away. Few bikers do take there bike on this route but we didn't.

@ Dhanushkodi

This part of the town was completely destroyed by the tsunami, we spent 30min of time and we were back in our bus, we saw three KA registered dukes who had come these long way on the beach track, I took there pics and we reached the parking spot, rajjo did some shopping and we started towards our room, it was 6pm by then, we came to room refreshed and started to main rameshwaram temple, cameras were not allowed here nor the mobiles. The temple architecture was superb with mile long pillar structures.We had darshan of the jyothirlinga of lord shiva and were out temple by 8pm, took some bakery item as it was only line for our dinner and started watching completion of double century of rohit sharma :) and we slept off to end the second day.

Day 3:
Route : Rameshwaram - Ramanathpuram - Thirunaveli - Kanyakumari (310KM)

We had planned that we will start by 6am in the morning and all went according to the plan, we were ready by 6am checked out of the lodge took our bike from the parking shed and gave engine a good run for a while.Since we were out of fuel we moved to a nearby petrol bunk for refueling and started our journey.

ECR

I was very much excited about this route as we would be taking ECR this time, which is one of my favorite road. In another 45min or so we were at ramanathapuram and we found the deviation to the left which connects to the ECR.

Near Sayalgudi

I got a confirmation from a auto driver, these people are well versed with route, when I asked does this route goes to kanyakumari he started explaining the complete route, was very happy from his response.The road found to be little bit bumppy for few kilometers and we were scared as we couldn't cross beyond 50s in that section, then after few kms the road turned to be super smooth and the weather was awesome, it was cloudy and road was wet from the previous day rain. We were crusing in our 70s and 80s and the road was in perfect shape and had proper banking. We were searching for hotel for food, and we decided that we will not see the quality of the hotel , we will just fill up our tummy's first, but we didnt find any hotel for another 100km we took sufficient break in between, and at around 100km

Rajjo with coffee

away we saw a nearby hotel and we stopped for coffee break, we were hungry too after seeing the dosa, we thought of having one, while we were in hotel, we saw another group of bikers KA registered and had a conversion with them, they were coming along the coast from west to east (bangalore-mysore-calicut - guruvanyoor-thiruvanatapuram-kanyakumari - rameshwaram - pondy - bangalore) I was really impressed by them said all the best to them and then we left the place, we were continuing on the ECR taking some pics and asking here and there for the route, then we came across a junction were we were supposed to take the right devitaion, but the local guy told we can take left this is were we got mis gudied and entered into tiruchenddur.

Near Thoothukudi

We reliased after covering 10km when we observed that the traffic was reduced to zero and the road was not wide enough, then we again asked one of the passperby and we

Thruvaneli-Kanyakumari

found that were in wrong path, but he told in another 5km we can touch another highway and reach kanyakumari, we almost reached a place called tiruchendur where a guy told we should have taken route of thirunaveli which was 5km behind, so as per his advice we took that route, this was NH7A and road was too good, we topped at 90s and reached Bangalore-Kanyakumari highway in no time. Kanyakumari was around 80KM from here, rajjo told me that he would need to change his engine oil, so we stopped near a fuel station, but he didnt had any equipment to take out the screws, so had to continue, we were cursing at 90s in NH7 and we entered the region of Nagercoil district, where there were thousand of wind mills planted,

Kanyakumari

and as we expected it was heavy windy region, so we reduced our speed to 70s took some snaps of the mills, my bike clocked 1000km of the trip and stopped to take the break.

Gandhi Madapam, Kanyakumari

After a while we reached the kanyakumari point, the road was closed and we took inter city road to kanyakumari. After 5km we came across a lodge and it was entrance of the kanyakumari town. We booked the room and it was 600rs. It was 12.30pm by then, we took

Sachindram Temple, Kanyakumari

rest and then left for lunch. We came back after lunch, took 2hrs nap and we started by 4pm, when we went for ferry ride for rock memorial it was closed by then, so had no luck for that day, so we sticked with other plans, we visited gandhi madapam, wandering monk and few other near by places, it was evening by then so we thought of going to suchindram temple which was 15km away, by the time we came back it was almost 6pm, so we came to room and changed to beach-ware, we saw that kovalam beach was 4km away, so we jumped to go to the beach. We didnt carry anything, when we went to beach, we found that it is not place to enjoy the beach fun, rather it was for sunset point and beach walk, we were two buffoons in beachwear's :) anyways we didnt care, we went to place which was remote had spent some time playing in beach and returned back.

Day 4:
Route: Kanyakumari - Thirunaveli - Madurai (235KM)

Next morning we went early to see the morning sunrise, but we were slightly disappointed as it was cloudy,

Sunrise @ Kanyakumari

but some how managed to take some pics, then we went for the ferry ride after breakfast, the

View from Rock Memorial

queue was almost kilometer in length finally it was our turn after an hour. The ferry service costs 34 per person and it takes less than 5min of to reach the rock memorial. The view from the rock memorial was spectacular, far off we could see the thekku malai reserved forest and its huge range which were covered with clouds, it was surrounded by thousands of wind mills we were in the split rock for more than an hour taking pictures in different poses :P. Then when were about to leave, again we saw lengthy queue to get inside the ferry but it was quite quick this time,

View of Thiruvallar and Rock Memorial

we reached the bike and left to the room, rajjos bike was looking for oil change so we found a nearby garage and got his bike fixed. It was almost 11.30 by then, both of our bike were running out of fuel and our tummy too. So fueled up both, and said bye bye to kanyakumari.

Vivekananda Rock Memorial

The next stop was madurai which was pre planned to stay for that day, so taking good number of breaks near the tolls we were about to reach the madurai city, but it started raining heavily, so I parked near a temple and changed to my rain wear, but the rain had stopped by then I had no mood to remove it again, so we left to madurai and reached our old lodge Empee by 4pm, we took rest for an hour and we decided to go to the temple again, but this day the temple was heavily crowded we had dharshan of lord shiva and meenakshi and we were back to our room by 8pm, we went for the dinner and slept of early as the next day jounrney was supposed to be started at 5am.

Day 5:
Route : Madurai - Salem - Krishnagiri - Hosur - Bangalore (475KM)

This is the day where I can say we had race with the time :D.

Near Dindugal

We started by sharp 5am, we checked out of the room and started our journey, I turned on the Google maps to find the route towards the national highway. I had a bare idea about the

Near Namakkal

map and road, but it was dark outside and we managed to ask direction to the localites and within 25min or so we hit the national highway, as my vision is poor during low light I couldn't make out between the curb and the road and had slipped of the track while joining the highway but somehow managed to take control of my bike and stopped for a while, rajjo was behind me and told that's highway as if I don't see the road :P. It was 5.30am by then still very low light, I told rajjo that I cannot ride beyond 70s, and we were following a truck for another 15min, by 6am the view was quite visible and I was driving at my 80s, we saw a toll booth nearby and stopped there for few minutes, after this break we decided we will take break at every toll

Near Dhamagiri

booth, and on average the toll booth repeats for every 60-65kms, we throttled our accelerators to max, we were ridding in 90s and 100s all through the distance till Bangalore. In between we had to face light rain here and there,

Near Dharmagiri

and we were lucky till krishnagiri it was cloudy which was giving good shade for us to ride. It was 11.15am or so when we reached krishnagiri, and we were relaxed, for us reaching krishnagiri is like reaching bangalore

Near Krishnagiri

in less than 30min we reached hosur crossed the pathetic traffic and stopped near electronic city flyover, we took the fly over and we were at silk-board by 12.30pm, I couldnt find rajjo after that, may be he got missed in the heavy traffic so I left to my home took hot water bath slept till evening. It was an awesome experience, my bike had covered 1804km.