8th Nov : Tirunelveli – Rameshwaram

It was common to see people carrying goats on a motorcycle!

Vinayak Jee, responsible for keeping the Kinetic machines in perfect condition, enjoying a ride of a different kind

From carrying goats to utensils, people do it all. Under those colourful things is a tiny Luna

Thats what the Blaze leaks within five minutes of standing!

The 3km long bridge to Rameshwaram

These were never made for endurance runs like these...still made it here!

Technology rules in this modern era! Getting connectivity at this last point on India was a surprise

8th Nov : Tirunelveli – Rameshwaram

Today would be special. Yes, we had already ridden to the southern most tip of India, Kanyakumari, but today we would be riding our way towards one more ‘tip’ – Dhanushkodi, a little town, which was ruined by a Tsunami back some decades back.
We left this little town of Tirunelveli with excitement, looked forward to the roads and the destination we had in mind. I had read and heard a lot about the importance of Rameshwaram and Dhanushkodi in books and on television and today was the day to be there in person. You must be thinking why am I giving so much importance to these two places and not Kanyakumari. Well, there are far many stories attached with these two places, plus the excitement of the fact that Sri Lanka is just a few kilometers from the last point of Dhanushkodi.
We took the longer route to Rameshwaram from Kanyakumari via Tirunelveli and Madurai as the shorter one was said to be a bad one due to rains. Madurai was around 150 but was done at a good pace and then we bypassed Madurai to take the NH49 to the other tip of India. The road became less congested with traffic but I was starting to have a bad time with the Comet. Everything was making noise – the suspension, the brakes, but the horn was loosing its intensity! Riding alone, fortunately I had my Ipod to divert my mind too and soon got a call from Sunny about this whereabouts. Our brunch would be at a bakery company outlet, with bakery products, coffee, juice and fresh bread! Yeah, our biological cycles have been taking a toss lately but then its better to have food from good places than from small road side dhabas which will surely make sure you spend double the time tin loos the next morning!
I was now riding the Blaze and loved the little highway, which had pine tress on both the sides, as if they were the natural guard rails in case a vehicle went off the road. We also had these railway tracks running parallel to the road, which surprisingly had no tracks and lying the tracks was still taking place. As we started approaching Rameshwaram, small water bodies started emerging on both the sides and then we came across the 3km long bridge, connecting the city to rest of India. The maps don’t show the bridge, but then again they do show the rail line ending at Rameshwaram railway station! Sunny and I waited for the gang to arrive at the bridge for a while but as the sun was going down, we decided to continue to the last point at Dhanushkodi. I first thing that stuck me as we entered Rameswaram was that it was totally devoid of any tourist. There was a lot of sea sand on the roads and the town was quite small too. We rode thru the city onto the road to Dhanushkodi and then suddenly the roads opened up, smooth and wide, again with no traffic. As we approached sea, the roads started becoming narrower, the trees on both the sides gave way to sea sand and somehow the whole scene started giving some creepy hints to us, may be trying to remind us about the horrific past of this town. The roads finally ended at a small Navy check post, surrounded by some shacks and a tempo stand. The last point was still kilometers away but the bikes couldn’t go thru it due to the absence of tarmac and being inches deep in sand. We still had lot of daylight left and Sunny wanted to go further and hence I stood guard with the bikes while he took a tempo and went further on. Waiting there with the bikes, I walked onto the beach to see the place around and was taken aback with ferocious nature of the waves! The coast guard officials in the meantime were enjoying themselves swimming in that kind of waves! Sunil too joined me in sometime and we spend time photographing the setting sun with the bikes and playing around with stray dogs. Sunny in the meantime came back, just to be a little disappointed with the results. Paying 650 bucks for the tempo didn’t seem too worth it. The place he went to had fearsome memories of the past. There were half standing houses, rusting ticket counters, structures reminded of a city being there, before the Tsunami struck some decades back. Sri Lanka was just a few kilometers from there. What is surprising is that cell phone network was still there!
We rode our way back in dark to Rameshwaram and Ashish had already booked room in Hotel Tamil Nadu, a sea facing hotel, deep inside the city.
We are at a special place tonight – I can see the clear sky from outside my room, I can catch a glimpse of the lights of the boats and ships and probably take a secret boat and reach Sri Lanka in a matter of hours!
On the GIR, I have been able to see places in person – which I had only seen in books and TVs and heard about in the past. I can now understand our country better and reading about the places where we reach on the internet makes us understand things better too.
Dinner was at the hotel restaurant with the staff staring at us, what with three laptops on the table, working overtime to be in touch with the world! We head up north to Chennai via Trichy tomorrow.