This is one of my dream rides that I have accomplished today. It was been quite a time since I last saw the Thiruvalluvar statue in Kanniyakumari. Today, I have been there on my own with my own efforts.
I started my ride from the IIST campus by around 05:40 AM. The route I planned was to reach Tamil Nadu by going through Thirparappu, and the return was through highway. I reached Nedumangad, then Aryanad and proceeded in a new route. The sceneries in that route were amazing. I recorded a couple of riding videos in that route which can be seen below, along with the pictures. I will ride through the same route once again during somewhat winter time to get the real experience.
I crossed the border in that route and entered into Tamil Nadu. It was a nice experience to see that route. I reached Thirparappu, where I went with the familiy members a long time ago, and also with MTech batch mates recently, both the trips were not that good to me. But not this time. I tried to see the falls but couldn’t as I thought like to leave the bike somewhere to walk and see the falls, which I don’t like. There were huge crowds in the place probably due to some sabarimala kind of stuff I think.
I had breakfast in one of the hotels there, and found that it costed only 40 rupees whereas over 80 rupees in Kerala for the same quantity of food. The food was good too. Then I proceeded into Tamil Nadu, reached Kulasekaram. My original plan was to go to Marthandam and proceed there towards Nagarcoil, but decided to explore that already seen route on the return and reached Kulasekaram. Then along Azhagiyapandipuram and Erachakulam, I reached Vadasery in Nagarcoil. Saw the big 3D wordings of “namma Nagarcoil” near bus stand and took a snap of it with my bike. And proceeded towards Kanyakumari.
On the way, I refilled my water bottles and few fuel stations and the people there was talking to me quite friendly. I crossed Suchindram, Kottaram, Agastheesvaram and finally saw the glory of Kanniyakumari entrance arch, which also I took a snap and proceeded into the town. I reached the beach and saw the Thiruvalluvar statue finally. It was an amazing moment for me. I asked for help to take a pic of me with my bike and the statue, and got them. Stayed in the mandapam near the beach for about half an hour, got wet of my feet by the sea waves, and proceeded for the return journey.
I traced back the same route to reach Nagarcoil and then decided to go along the highway which is already planned, already explored multiple times as it is the bus route for me from Puducherry. Despite multiple times of exploration, I lost track of the route after crossing the border. Still I cannot figure out how I lost the route, I was seeing the map as well as the sign boards and they are matching exactly. The places I am crossing, like Nemom, Balaramapuram, Neyyatingara etc.. are exactly in order. That shows that I am on the right direction.
But, at the same time, I don’t see any TNSTC or KSRTC buses on the route. The roads were wide enough but with climbs and descents, speed breakers and all sorts of stuff to call them as town roads and not highway. Finally, after crossing Balaramapuram, I caught the highway and proceeded peacefully without much climbs to reach Thiruvananthapuram city. Then from there, I reached my campus back by around 07:00PM.
I had quite refreshments on the way, but the total cost was around 215 rupees only. But, the experience was unbeatable. The total time was around 14 hours for me on my bike covering around 228 kilometers with moving time as 11 hours. It is a great experience that no other activity can give.
Below are the photos and videos recorded during the ride.
Below is the Strava log of this ride.
