EONic drive to Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari

[rksingh1]

Alright!

So the trip to Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari is done! Now, its travelogue time!

While the text with various info and reviews will appear by the weekend, I do have some high level details to share with you all on this trip. It’s mostly tabular and pictorial info which I guess you all would like.

I do hope that you wouldn’t mind me putting it before the textual details of the trip.

DETAILED PLAN:

Part 1 - Sunday and Monday

	Sunday - 1 July 2012		Monday - 2 July 2012
	Planned	Actuals	Planned	Actuals
0:00	Bedtime		Bedtime	Bedtime
1:00	Bedtime		Bedtime	Bedtime
2:00	Bedtime		Bedtime	Bedtime
3:00	Bedtime		Bedtime	Bedtime
4:00	Start from Chromepet home	Actual start happened by 4:20am	Bedtime	Bedtime
5:00	Karunghuzhi - NH45 - 56km	We were still in Chennai outskirts by 5am, looking for a fuel station. They were mostly closed in morning	Temple Darshan	Getting ready in the morning
6:00	Approach Ozhukarai - 130kms	Karunghuzi crossed, got a fuel station finally and topped up the tank. Crossed Aadhiparashakti	Completing darshan	At temple completing the 22 wells bathing procedure, back to room by 6:50
7:00	Cross Villupuram, Karuveppalai(161kms), Kedlam, stop for breakfast - 165 kms	Crossed Tindivanam, Villupuram	Checking-out from Hotel, breakfast	Changed, went out for temple darshan by 7:30
8:00	Cross Ulundurpet(176), Asanur(193), Seeppakkam(201), Kallur - 215kms	Stopped for breakfast at 7:15 or so for 25 mins, 5km before Ulunderpet next to the toll, it was a good restaurant. Trichy was 131kms ahead	Starting from Rameshwaram	Darshan complete by 8:30
9:00	Perambalur (245), Kalpalayam - 283kms	Late by 20 mins or so, 20kms behind	Ramanathapuram outskirts and touch ECR - NH 87 - 52kms	Walk to Agnee Theertham and Shopping time
10:00	Crossed Trichi Airport and move towards Pudukottai - 311kms - take a break	Trichy crossed, pretty much on track	Melselvanur-Keelselvanur Bird Sanctuary - ECR - 97kms	Some breakfast and tea, back to hotel, packed stuff
11:00	Pudukottai - 357kms	Approaching Puddukottai - still 15kms away	Sattpans-Melmandai - ECR - 135km	Started from Hotel at approx 10:44am
12:00	Karaikudi - 400kms	Puddukottai and Karaikudi crossed,	Kurukucchlai - SH 75, touch NH 38 - 164kms	Stopped at Pamban bridge at 11:10am for 10 mins
13:00	Thiruvadanai - 435kms	Crossed Devakottai, Thiruvadani - took a small break for cocunut water	Tirunelveli outskirts - SH 75 - 215km - Lunch time	Crossed Ramanathpuram, Valinokkam, Milakidaram at 12:55, Keelselvanur done by 1:00pm
14:00	Lunch break - one hr	No lunch break - no one hungry - continued the journey, crossed Devipattanam, touched ECR, stopped for fuel, took a washroom break	Panagudi - NH7 - NH944 crossing - 276kms	Stopped for Lunch at 1:10 for 25 mins
15:00	Cross Devipattanam - Move on ECR - 470kms	Crossed Ramanathpuram, Stopped at Pamban at around 3:10pm for 15 mins, Reached Rameshwaram by 4:00pm	Reach Hotel Tamilnadu - NH7 - 302kms	Stopped near Salt pans before Toothkudi for a break, at 2:45pm,
16:00	Ramanathpuram - Uchipuli - Pamban - Hotel - 535kms	Evaluated hotels and liked a 4 bed big sea facing room in Sri Palaniandavar, Checked in at 4:15, Started for Dhanushkoti by 4:50	Freshen-up -	Crossed the Toothkudi - Tirunelveli road
17:00	Hire a jeep - Dhanushkoti	Vibhishan temple 5:10pm, Dhanushkoti reachd - 5:51pm	Time for little tour to Gandhi Mandapam / Bhagwati Amman Temple	Crossed Tirunelveli and approached towards Panagudi
18:00	Hire a jeep - Dhanushkoti	Started from Dhanushkoti - 6:20, stopped at Dhanushkoti stattion - 6:30, for 10 mins	Sunset	Reached Kanyakumari 5:30pm, in Hotel Tamilnadu by 5:50pm
19:00	Hire a jeep - Dhanushkoti	Reached hotel by 7:30,	Market tour	Freshen-up, tea time
20:00	Town walk - leisure walk	Dinner done by 8:30pm	Local tour	Rest all went for tour near market
21:00	Dinner	Back to hotel, freshen up, sleep time	Dinner	Dinner at TTDC Hotel
22:00	Bed time	Sleep time	Bedtime	Slept by 10
23:00	Bed time	Sleep time	Bedtime	Slept by 10

Part 2 - Tuesday and Wednesday

	Tuesday - 3 July 2012		Wednesday - 4 July 2012
	Planned	Actuals	Planned	Actuals
0:00	Bedtime	Sleep time	Bedtime	Sleep time
1:00	Bedtime	Sleep time	Bedtime	Sleep time
2:00	Bedtime	Sleep time	Bedtime	Sleep time
3:00	Bedtime	Sleep time	Bedtime	Sleep time
4:00	Bedtime	Sleep time	Start from Kanyakumari	Sleep time
5:00	Wake-up / Sunrise	No sunrise view, Getting ready for a walk	Cross Nanguneri - NH 7 - 58km	Getting ready and packing stuff,
6:00	Freshen up	Went out by 6:40,	Approach Kovilpatti -NH 7 - 140km	Checked out from hotel at 5:40am
7:00	Breakfast time	Had breakfast on a small hotel	Approach Virudhunagar - NH 7 - 191kms - breakfast time	Stopped somewhere before Panagudi for tea at 6:10am, stopped at 6:35 for some pics
8:00	Vivekananda rock	Went to View tower	Madurai Airport - Switch frm NH7 to NH38 via SH184- 237km	Filled petrol, Crossed Nanguneri, Tirunelveli
9:00	Vivekananda rock	Back to hotel	Sokkampatti - NH7 - 300km	Stopped at Hotel Ariyas Veg for breakfast at 8:10am for 30 mins or so
10:00	Vivekananda rock	Getting ready for temple darshan	Panjappur - Near Trichi - 370kms - take a tea break	Crossed Sattur at 9:10, Virudhunagar at 9:40
11:00	Local Tour / Rest at hotel	Getting ready for temple darshan	Sriganur / Trichi Engineering college - NH45 - 405km	Crossed Madurai by 10:40 or so
12:00	Local Tour / Rest at hotel	Temple done	Cross MRF Plan (425km), Thirumandurai Toll - NH45 - 455km	Crossed Melur, Sokkampatti, stopped near toll for a break
13:00	Local Tour / Rest at hotel	Rock done	Ulundurpet Outskirts - NH45 - 501km	Crossed Trichy,
14:00	Local Tour / Rest at hotel	Statue done	Lunch Break 1hr	Perambalur by 1:20pm
15:00	Local Tour / Rest at hotel	Back to Hotel and lunch time	Ozhukarai - NH45 - 552km	Stopped near Asanur at 2:05pm for lunch - stop for 20 mins or so
16:00	Local Tour / Rest at hotel	Post lunch rest	Aadhiparashakti Temple - 612km	Crossed Ozhukarai at 3:10pm, Tindivanam by 3:35
17:00	Local tour	Getting ready for sea bath	Approach Urapakkam - 670km	Crossed Aadhiparashakti temple at 4:00pm, Chenglapttu by 4:15pm,
18:00	Local tour	Sea bath and walk back to hotel	Reach Home - 686kms	Reached home 5:15pm,
19:00	Local tour	Back to hotel - taking bath and getting ready
20:00	Dinner	Went out for a walk and shopping
21:00	Bedtime	Lunch at Hotel Tri Sea
22:00	Bedtime	Back to hotel,
23:00	Bedtime	Sleep time

I have done my best to be exact in terms of times and places, however, do let me know if there are any anachronism in the same.

[rksingh1]

Below is a pie chart depicting cost break-up for this trip. Total cost for me was around 19.5k roughly! The details include the amount spent on each of them!

Here is the time chart for this trip. Total hours were 86, the break up of same is outlined with activity wise hours and respective percentage.

The distance break-up is shown in a table below. It contains rough estimation of hours taken to travel and average speed for the same:

Sector	Distance covered	Time taken	Avg Speed
Chromepet to Rameshwaram	542	11	49.3
Rameshwaram to Kanyakumari	322	7	46.0
Kanyakumari to Chromepet	685	10	68.5
Total	1549	28	55.32142857

[shishirbn]

Amazing details. Just waiting for some amazing snaps and writeup.

[piyush7243]

Great start to an amazing travelogue.. Waiting for pics and more details

[WildWeasel]

Amazing details. Bring on the rest. I dont think i will ever have the patience or time for preparing such an extensive plan and log.

[Dev11]

Amazing details. Just waiting for some amazing snaps and writeup.

Great start to an amazing travelogue.. Waiting for pics and more details

Amazing details. Bring on the rest. I dont think i will ever have the patience or time for preparing such an extensive plan and log.

+1 to everybody!

Your log is amazing! Surely, your better half has major contribution to this!

From your travel-diary it seems that you managed your tour very well, no rush to reach any destination.

[IronMan]

Its like some research paper work. detailing Expert MutantX will be pleased

[Nomad]

It appears that J.Ravi sir has one more fan and follower. Welcome to the gang rksingh1.

Tables, pie charts, summary charts, amazing

Looking forward for pictures, details of your journey and sights, experience with your car's first long drive etc.

[rksingh1]

Thanks friends. Next I'll put in the route pics from Google Maps and then hopefully by Sat / Sun, I'll have the text ready along with pics.

Surely, your better half has major contribution to this!

I like to capture every minute details of things. So, I had taken print out of 4 days and given them to her before the start to note everything down and track our progress as per the plan. However, on first day itself, by the time we stopped for breakfast in the morning, she managed to loose the pen she was using to write everything down.

We bought a pen at a shop near Trichy (along with water bottles) - I forgot to bring the pen from shop!

We took a pen from the petrol pump near Devipattanam, where I had stopped for fuel - lost that one as well.

All in all, I understood that real time tracking is not in fate of this trip. Thus, I started keeping rough notes in my phone related to expenses and excel was anyway there in laptop which I updated later on. Now you can calculate the effort put in by my better half for getting the info I pasted in this thread!

Not undermining her constant support though.

[rksingh1]

I had opened another thread asking about the route to take for this trip and I sincerely thank Dev11, WildWeasel, Nomad, roadracer, myprecious, shishirbn, camchennai and rest for their valuable inputs there. Those responses brought enough positivism in me to go ahead with this trip.

The link to thread can be found here : http://gearheads.in/showthread.php?1...adurai-Chennai

Chennai - Rameshwaram Stretch:

Route I took	Route to avoid

Rameshwaram - Kanyakumari Stretch:

Route I took	Route to avoid
	And

Kanyakumari - Chennai Stretch:

Route I took	Route to Avoid

Point B to C in all the route to avoid section represent the road you can avoid or seek alternate of.