Here goes the schedule
Day 1: April 5, 2007
We started off as planned. Filled up the fuel tanks and we were cruising on the Hosur – Krishnagiri highway. We were something like 5 kms from the Krishnagiri city. Then suddenly Bunty communicates to me that there is some problem with the bike. We pulled over to the side on the highway, and on inspection we see that the precious fossil fuel is leaking out from the fuel tank. To check the extent of damage, I just tried cleaning up the portion where the leakage was present. But the situation got worse as the tiny hole just gave to make the petrol just rush out of the fuel tank. Now what, we had a couple of 2 litre water bottles, emptying them would hold only 4 litres of petrol, but still there is about another 7 litres of petrol. We some how source 3 more such bottles from a local person and ensure very little petrol is wasted. What next, removed the tank, took it to the nearby lorry workshop. These workshop people are well versed to get the tank back to shape. A good 3+ hours wasted in getting it fixed. After reconfirming that there is no leakage, we rode till Salem and called it a day. Salem in summer is awesome for its heat. Even an AC room can make you sweat. In such a situation we had no choice but to opt for the non AC due to unavailability of an AC room. Damn it was hot even at midnight, and to help myself, a cold water bath was not a bad idea after all. We hit the bed at around 12.30 in the night with a shortfall of our target by around 180 odd kms.
Day 2: April 6, 2007
We left the place around 8 am in the morning and started riding towards Dindigul. On the way we came across a few sun flower farms, with the yellow flowers more than inviting for a photo shoot. Since we were already off the schedule we thought we will move on without wasting too much of time.
Now a little more on the temple, the Karpaka Vinayakar Temple Pillayarpatti is an ancient rock-cut cave shrine dedicated to Ganesha, located at Pillayarpatti. This temple is famous for the Ganesha Shrine which is quite big. More so because it is believed that your problems would be solved by visiting the temple and offering prayers.
Reached Pillayarpatti around noon & the sun was scorching ensuring the April noon is pretty hard to bear. The temple had quite a few people waiting in the queue as the day was Sankastahara Chathurthi. Visited the temple and offered our prayers. Spent a close to an hour and half in the temple. Kumar did not have breakfast in the morning, and now no lunch as he would be fasting the whole day. Myself and Bunty had lunch in a nearby small restaurant and we were ready to hit the roads again. We had to ride more than 300 kms to reach Kanyakumari.
First we head to Madurai as we wanted to have the emission test on the second bike (F2) and adjust the chain as it was making weird noises. More than an hour wasted in getting these done and it was already close to 4.30 pm. We had to ride fast until nightfall to cover as much distance as possible because Bunty was not that comfortable riding at night.
The construction work of the 4 – lane ensured we made slow progress. We were making very slow progress all through the evening and I increased the pace for about half an hour and stopped around on the highway about 60 odd kms to Kanyakumari. The place was real dark, hardly any vehicles on the highway. Had lots of windmills all around which had slow revolutions due to the wind. It was cloudy and in a distant hill, I could see quite a bit of lightning. Almost waited for about 20 mins and then Bunty and Kumar joined me. We stop and chill there for about 10 mins. We decided to move not before we were questioned by the highway police as to why we were stopping there. We explained to them that we were on the biking trip to Kanyakumari from Bangalore. Being convinced, they asked to move on quick without staying for long at the place. We rode on to reach Kanyakumari at 11 pm. Checked into a lodge, again non AC. Kumar was really tired and he said he is hitting the bed after a bath. Myself and Bunty refreshed and headed for dinner. After dinner we decided to ride out to the beach which is about a couple of kms away.
The idea enough to keep me awake all night, we rode off to the beach. Wow!!! Was my expression, the cool breeze, the thundering waves, the sound, and almost no humans around us, very little light was very every inviting for me to spend the night at the beach. We sat around for about 45 mins after which Bunty said we will get back to the room as he wanted to sleep. Anyways the waves too was getting a bit more active as if it was enough for the time, making roaring noise when the waves was hitting the rocks on the shore. The distance light house added to the ambience. Its better to experience the place in the scenario rather than read it out in words. We head back to the room and it was already 1.30 am. Time for Bunty to sleep like a log.
Day 3: April 7, 2007
With the alarm set for 5 am and with sleep only for about 3 hours still wanted to capture the sunrise which has eluded me for the past 3 times I visited the place. Tried to wake both Kumar and Bunty but in vain, as they were pretty tired. Got up and headed to the sunrise point only to be disappointed that there was cloud cover, which ensured I was eluded from capturing the sun rise again.
Came back to the lodge, found Bunty and Kumar still asleep, I thought it would not be a bad idea to catch another couple of hours sleep. So we were all up and ready by 8.30 am.
We had breakfast, and then it was time to visit Suchindram. The marvelous temple is about 15 kms away from the southern tip of India. The gopuram of the temple has the puranas sculpted on it. The temple has fantastic architecture, with pillars sculpted out of single stone block. It has musical pillars which generate the saptha swaragalu when hit mildly at the middle of the pillar. The shrine here has Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in a single shrine. There is also a 16 ft shrine of Anjineya. There is a big pond next to the temple as well. This is a must visit temple in somebody is traveling to the southern tip of India.
We returned back to lodge. Kumar was feeling a bit feverish, so was not willing to ride on the bike back to Bangalore. Myself and Bunty check with the local travel agent and booked 3 tickets to Bangalore on the KPN Travels Volvo bus, along with the luggage charge for the two bikes. The bus was at 9.30 pm. With loads of time left, we first headed to the restaurant for lunch. After lunch it was time to visit the Vivekananda Rock which is about 250 odd metres from the shore. One needs to go in a ferry to the Vivekananda Rock and the Thiruvallur Statue which is about another 150 metres from the Vivekananda Rock. We chilled out at the Rock soothing the cool sea breeze and then back to the room.
It was still 3.30 pm, so we decided to rest at the room for about an hour and a half. Then it was time to head out to the beach. We decided to go to the beach about 2 kms from the room Not too many people to disturb us we were enjoying the breeze. Again the sunset eluded due to cloudy weather, actually a bit surprising about the weather as we were expecting a clear sky in April. But our luck ran out with regard to the weather. Left with no choice we were chilling out on the beach. We returned back to the room, packed everything and left for dinner.
After dinner, we had to vacate to the room and ride to Nagercoil to board the KPN Travels bus. All done, we thought but we had about close 15 litres of fuel in the bikes. We had to drain it out, which we did, but had to give it away at a throw away price (Rs. 5/- per litre).
With no further hiccups, we had a good journey in the Volvo right through to Bangalore. After all the hungama, we were back in our home town.
For me a part of life reclaimed and sore butts for Bunty and Kumar.Photos @ http://picasaweb.google.co.in/n.krishna.p/PilliarpattiKanyakumari
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