Black Storm had just been back from the 70k kms service, the christmas holidays beckoned, Rameshwaram was a destination high on our must visit list, many times the trip had got cancelled due to various reasons, the last time it was a cyclone which prevented us from visiting inspite of having made reservations.
22 Dec 2012 - Day 1
Another 4.30 am start, most of our drives in the recent past have been at this hour, simply to cover the maximum distance over the day and have time to rest on reaching our destination.
We reached Salem for breakfast as planned, Jai (Nevertouchme) is now based there so met up with him for breakfast, he took us to Devi Towers as the last few visits to GRT for breakfast was hugely disappointing with the declining quality, Devi Towers set a new low in buffet breakfasts, next time we'll just eat in a small roadside joint.
A good two hours spent at Salem and then we filled up at the HP pump at the main junction, then we were on our way. Mjothi, who also was driving towards Madurai had just reached Karur when we called him, he mentioned the ghastly Ikon accident near Karur (details and pics in the accident pics thread).
By 1 pm we were on the outskirts of Madurai thanks to the 4 laned highway with sparse traffic. At Madurai we wanted to taste the famous Dindigul Velu biriyani, we asked a few autorikshaw drivers for directions and then decided to hire an auto to guide us till the hotel, so we followed the auto till the hotel and discovered that the hotel served only non vegetarian fare, nothing vegetarian was available for mom who is a strict vegetarian, so we (wife and I) wolfed down the biriyani and then drove across the street to a vegetarian restaurant for mom's lunch.
Velu Biriyani Hotel
As we were waiting for mom to finish her lunch, we discovered that the hotel we were sitting in was showing on Google maps, so plotted our way to Rameshwaram, the new Google maps for iOS is superb, the voice prompt heard via the bluetooth headset was just perfect to guide us.
We had reserved a room at Daiwik Hotel at Rameshwaram, this is currently the most luxurious hotel in Rameshwaram and is about six months old. We reached Rameshwaram by 5.30 pm.
Daiwik Hotel Rameshwaram The Reception Lobby
We were received very warmly by the smiling staff and shown to our room, the room was quite spacious and very well furnished, the parking too is ample and surprising over the next day it was full and there were cars parked outside the compound too.
we just rested ourselves and decided to drive out to check out Rameshwaram before dinner, the place was jam packed with Sabarimala pilgrims and taking the car on those narrow roads was a mistake. We returned to our hotel discussed the next day's plan with the friendly hotel staff. They suggested an early morning "Spatika Linga Darshan" and then said we could hire a jeep to visit Dhanushkodi, they strongly advised us against taking our vehicle in spite of 4x4 and going by their advice we hired a jeep to come and pick us up at 6 am from the hotel. This done we called it a day and retired for the night.
23 December 2012 - Day 2
We woke up at 3.30 am for the 4.30 am darshan, but since our daughter was sleeping so peacefully, I decided to stay back with her and only mom and my wife took an auto from the hotel to the temple.
6am they were back and by then our daughter too was awake and we got ready to take the jeep to Dhanushkodi, the jeep arrived by 6.15 and we were on our way. Dhanushkodi is about 21 kms from Rameshwaram and there is a single lane road in excellent shape till about a few kilometres before where it just ends abruptly into sand.
Our daughter's first jeep ride, she was quite thrilled
Once the asphalt ends, the jeep has to be driven in 4wd mode on the sand, though there are jeep tracks, the sands keep shifting and it's quite tricky.
The drive through the sand is amazing, the jeep slides all over, crossing water in some places and then there is the sea on all sides, if we look at Dhanushkodi in Google earth, we can see that it is a thin finger of land extending into the sea, we were driving on that thin finger.
A raft made of logs Co passengers for the voyage across the seas
The jeep takes us to the old ruins of Dhanushkodi, there used to be a railway line in the past and the remnants of civilisation is a stark reminder of what nature can do. Now for pictures of Dhanushkodi
The old Railway Station An old church, we were told it completed 100 yrs in 2012 Another view of the church The ruins of Dhanushkodi
Some of the local children were only too happy to pose Ruins of what used to be a school
most jeep guys take you till the ruins of Dhanushkodi, but we wanted to drive till Land's end, so on our insistence the jeep guy agreed to drive on further.
....Contd.