It was a long weekend – Makara Sankranthi on friday and weekend off on saturday and sunday. I was hoping to go for a trip or small outing and in the meantime I got a call from my friend and he asked me to join him for a long bike ride. We didn’t had any plans for this ride , we didn’t know which route to take or which place to visit. We would always plan our trip beforehand but this time we both decided to go for an unplanned trip. I did not think much about it and told him that I will join and headed towards Mysore immediately.
0000km:
Morning 5AM. It was a cold morning, though it was not freezing cold we were freezing on our bike ride from Mysore to Tamil Nadu via Sathyamangala forest. We reached Trichy (Tiruchirapalli) quite early, that is by 1PM in spite of taking frequent breaks for tea and snacks. The distance covered was 370km(Mysore to Trichy ). As we were tired by continuous riding and as our first destination was a temple , we decided to take bath and move forward.
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- North river.
So there are two rivers near to the temple – one is to the north of the temple and the other one to the south. The river which is to the south of the temple is bit far so we decided to go to the river which is to the north as it is just 10minutes walk from the temple. Parking, security for the baggage was also good here. Oh! I forgot to tell, the temple we visited here was Sri Ranganatha swamy temple , historically famous temple of Trichy.
Sri Ranganatha swamy temple Trichy
The temple was quite crowded as it was special occasion of Makara Sankranti. Even though we took special darshana ticket we got late. According to our plan we had to reach Tanjavur by sunset but as we got late we had to leave Trichy by 6.30PM.
0370km:
Tamil-nadu roads are perfect for bike rides, no complaints regarding that. And there are no humps except the main roads. Even though we got late in trichy , we reached reached our next destination by 7. 30pm. Yes ! Town of gopurams , Tanjavur is just 65km from Trichy. Tanjavur is known for Rajagopuras.
Tanjavur.
World’s highest peak Rajagopura is present at Tanjavur. We went directly to the Ishwara temple. I don’t know how it looks at day time but at night the view was splendid with lightings and all the decorations. Here also there was quite a large crowd that day. As we enter the gopura we get the luggage room, as we move further we get the complete view of the temple. It is like a palace. Main deity here is Lord Shiva and there is Nandhi infront of it. We were lucky enough to get special pooja in this temple too. People were making garlands with different flowers, vegetables, green leaves etc and offering it to Nandhi.
We spent some more time exploring the temple and reached previously booked hotel room by 10:45pm. We discussed about the trip so far and planned about next day’s trip and then went to sleep. I got a good sleep that day.
0460km:
As per our plan we had to wake up by 5AM and start for Rameshwaram, but we were so sleepy that we got late by one hour and woke up by 6AM. By the time we vacated the hotel and started towards our next destination it was 6.30AM. There were three routes to Rameshwaram from Tanjavur according to Google maps – one was main highway , the second was from coastal side and in the third route construction was going on. We decided to take the coastal route. Total distance was around 245km. It was a straight road and we got a good view as it was beach side. When we saw fish markets on the road side I got a feeling that I am in my native Udupi & Kundapura!, Rameshwaram is an island. We were very much thrilled while passing it from bridge. Next to it was railway track. We were imagining how thrilled we would be while going on that railway track and were riding very slowly.
We reached Rameshwaram by almost 12.30PM, parked our bike, kept our luggage in luggage room and enquired local people about the temple. It was a special day in Rameshwaram temple too. The idol was taken to different place for Kumbhabhishekam and the temple would remain closed for next 5 days , and during this time it was auspicious to take bath in the sea.
We did so and left for Rama Paada which was 2km distance from there.We had lunch and left for Dhanush kodi. It is a famous place which has a historical background from Ramayana. The legend says that Rama built Rama-Sethu (bridge) to the sea at this place to bring back Seetha from Lanka. Sri Lanka is very near from this place. Dhanush kodi is at a distance of 25km from Rameshwaram.
Peak of Danushkodi.
Earlier vehicles were allowed only till the starting point of Dhanush kodi but now it is allowed till end point , road is almost complete, only 3km road construction is pending. Only bikes were allowed there and we were lucky here too as we were on bike ! We could see Rama-Sethu from the end point ,We were recollecting stories from Ramayana here.
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- Road between sea.
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- Sun set at Danushkodi.
Here we got sunset view, then we saw the place where Vibhishana’s pattabhisheka took place and then we saw Lakshmana Theertha. By this time we were hungry and so was our ThunderBird . We filled our tummy and left from Rameshwaram at 9.00PM.
0790km:
Madhurai is at almost 170km from Rameshwaram. We thought it would be better if we travelled this distance at night and take some rest after that, so it would be good to visit Madurai-Meenakshi temple in the morning. As it was night we decided to ride slowly. By the time we reached our previously booked hotel in Madurai it was 12.30AM. We woke up at 6AM in the morning, freshened up and started for the temple which was at walk able distance from the hotel.
We enquired about the temple with local person and he told it was special day as it was Sunday, Meenakshi got married on that day. So Meenakshi would be decorated speacially and it was good to visit the temple at 8AM. As we were near the North gate entrance, he told us to visit a handloom saree shop there. They were offering 50% discount on the sarees from 6-10AM. So we visited that saree shop and purchased saree for mom.We heard that Madurai is famous for sarees and its quality, also the way those people were presenting saree before us was really good. By 8AM we entered the Meenakshi temple, it was like entering into different world.
We explored the extraordinary beauty of the temple and felt like saluting to those who constructed this beautiful temple. We came out of the temple by 10.30 AM, had coffee and then vacated the room by 11.30PM. Our journey began towards Mysore.
0970km:
It was highway route towards Mysore which was 417 KM from Madurai. We had heard that Satyamangala forest route would be blocked at night so we had to speed up. Also we had to ride under hot sun. If we were late it would be difficult to reach mysore, even our Thunderbird understood that and supported us. Google has helped us a lot throughout our journey, showing us the shortest routes without misleading us, it has helped a lot in reaching our destination sooner. We entered Sathyamangala by 5.00PM filling our tummies with fruits and tender coconut juice along roadside. We were still hungry, so we stopped by a hotel nearby, had some snacks and started our ride again. There are 28 hairpin curves in Sathyamangala forest where we have to go very slow.
On our way we saw one elephant and 2 deers. Mobile beeped with Welcome to Karnataka message and we were eager to hear our Kannada again but we were missing Tamil Nadu roads for sure. Finally we reached Mysore by 8:38PM and Thunderbird meter showed 1387km.
Lastly ….
This was the longest bike journey of our life. Both of us had a satisfaction and happiness on our face. There is a saying “ If you want to see God visit north India ; if you want to see temple visit South India”, and it we felt it was true after this journey. Temples were so beautiful that even atheists would like these temples. I had a dream to go for a long bike ride since long time and which my friend fulfilled. There is a saying in kannada “Desha sutthi nodu kosha odhi nodi”, which means visiting many places and reading many books will help in transforming ourselves into something new. I don’t know if I will read many books but this trip made me think about visiting more places, studying cultures , lifestyles and specialities of different places in future. Trip with many friends and trip with only one friend, both gives you different experiences, we will know the difference only when we experience it. If it was group trip, then we wouldn’t have reached our destination this early.
Tips for bike riders…
- Take minimum luggage.
- If you go for bike ride don’t miss Jacket.
- Tamil Nadu is bit hot, so take proper precautions to cover yourselves, take sunscreen etc.
- Better if you know Tamil Language.
- For navigation, always use Google Maps.
- Taste the local food wherever you go.
- Interact with the local people as much as possible, you will get to know many things.
- Decide beforehand for a proper place to stay.
- And lastly don’t plan too much .
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