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8th September 2015, 04:25 | #1 |
BHPian Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Bangalore to Kanyakumari on a tankful of petrol Part 1: The context We typically go on a vacation around the 5th of September every year in an effort to keep my better half in good spirits till next year (though normally the effect starts wearing off after a couple of weeks or so). While we have covered most of the ‘been there done that’ spots in the South, I have never really sat down to write a detailed travelogue as I do feel certain pangs of guilt about wasting my time as well as that of others (ok, so it’s more about the fact of me being allergic to the keyboard). I had to make an exception for this one however as this particular trip was special for a couple of reasons that we will see later. The planning started about a month back. We had initially budgeted for 4 days in Kovalam, between the 2nd and the 6th so that we cover the 5th evening which happened to be a Saturday, while not wasting more than 3 working days for the whole trip. With the travel options gradually thinning out due to the relatively high airfares and the non-availability of reservation on Indian Railways, we decided to take the plunge and drive down instead, while covering Kanyakumari in the same trip. At this point let me clarify that I was unaware of the road conditions between Bangalore and Kanyakumari which made me factor in a logical stopover at a middle point during the return journey. The intention was to reach Bangalore fresh on Sunday (the 6th) afternoon and resume office on the 7th. A quick search on Google Maps yielded Dindigul, where a lake side stay between the 4th and the 6th seemed just perfect. So the Kovalam dates were now pushed between the 31st and the 4th and the trip began to look somewhat like this: 29/08 – start from Bangalore in the morning and reach Kanyakumari by late evening 31/08 – check out of Kanyakumari by noon, check in at Kovalam in the afternoon 04/09 – leave Kovalam in the morning, check in at Dindigul in the evening 06/09 – check out from Dindigul after breakfast and reach Bangalore before evening So far so good. A colleague in office suggested halting at Madurai instead, where he said the stay options would be better. While returning from office that very evening I caught an ad on FM where a well-known travel portal was offering the second night’s stay free at any hotel across India as part of their “magical Wednesdays” offer. I got back home and booked the Heritage Madurai with a cool saving of Rs. 4K. I was tempted to book the accommodation at Kanyakumari as well, but decided against it as I wanted to keep the onward travel dates flexible. That probably was a good decision in hindsight as we will come to see later. Now for the reasons that I forced myself to write this travelogue:
Now theoretically it’s quite possible, considering the fact that the City returns anything between 14.5 and 16.5 KM to a litre during my highway runs (depending on the terrain and speed, of course) and the fuel tank, though smaller than some hatchbacks, can still hold 42 L. Kanyakumari is around 650 kms from Bangalore and even if you have 39 L of usable gas, a quick back of the envelope calculation would yield 16.67 KMPL as the magic figure that I need to aim for. And now for some facts about myself:
As for point no. 1 - now that you have seen the other facts, go figure! Finally, these were the routes that I charted out for Kanyakumari and onward to Kovalam – pretty straightforward, huh? Due to the road conditions in India, I always budget around 30-40% more time than what Google suggests – this allows me to factor in food and bio breaks as well, both of which are important If you are travelling with small kids. So while Google suggested 9.5 hrs for Bangalore to Kanyakumari, I budgeted for 13. The original plan was to leave Bangalore by 10 in the morning so that we are in Kanyakumari before midnight. I had some preparatory work to get the car ready for the long trip – more of that coming later, in my next post. Last edited by thefuturist : 9th September 2015 at 22:08. Reason: Minor corrections and additions |
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9th September 2015, 01:59 | #5 |
BHPian Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on a tankful of petrol Part 2 : The Preparation The 4 weeks in between whizz by. Before we realize it, it’s already Wednesday, 26/08 with less than 72 hours to go before we hit the venerable NH7. In my last post I had mentioned about some pending work on the car to get it ready for the long trip, so here’s the list:
2 – 5 definitely warranted a visit to the service center which I take up during Thursday, second half. While the fuse was replaced and the horn was re-tuned, I was told that a permanent solution to the clutch and the boot noise would require a day's time, so it’s back to the same old ‘Kaiser fluid’ spray treatment to the clutch pedal. The only other thing that was left now was a good car wash and some rubbing compound treatment to get rid of the minor scratch marks on the bumper and door panels – a gift of love by the 2 wheelers of Bang-galore. Both of these were promptly carried out by the friendly neighbourhood ‘unauthorized’ workshop next to my office, and the car wore a squeaky clean look on Friday evening – 400 bucks well spent I thought. Finally, I tank up on Speed (which, for some reason had been getting me better mileage than Shell Unleaded and V-Power) and religiously reset my trip meter during my drive back home. While parking the vehicle I check the MID one last time which shows a healthy 13.8 kmpl for a distance traveled of 6.3 km. I am rife with anticipation now, with the lure of NH7 / AH43 and the magic figure of 16.67 hovering in my head. Watch this space for more. |
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10th September 2015, 02:33 | #6 |
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| re: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on a tankful of petrol Post 3 : Late start, plans remapped It’s Friday night and I start turning a bit jittery – I now have some real doubts on our plans for an early morning start. There’s some pretty important stuff that both of us need to take care of before we can embark on our journey. Wifey was not able to file her tax returns during the day as she did not receive the security pin on her mobile to activate her e-Filing account. On the other hand, my CA had requested for the statements of my derivatives transactions during the FY which needs to be submitted along with the returns. By the time I resolve it all and her ITR-1 comes out of the printer, it’s already noon and the faintest hope of reaching Kanyakumari by midnight is all but gone. It’s now obvious that we’d have to stop over at Dindigul for the night. I start calling up the resorts that we had shortlisted earlier one by one for availability of rooms. Both of us had really liked the Lakeside Guesthouse from the reviews, but we were told by the manager that it would be difficult locating the resort in the dark as it’s a climb of around 15 kms from Dindigul town, and also that all the staff except for the security guy leaves by 8 PM so that there would be no one to receive us. I definitely need to find a stay on or close to NH7 in order to conserve fuel. Parsons Court seems to be a good choice as it’s within the town and the staff assure me that they have a 24 hour check-in. I silently pat myself on the back for not booking the accommodation at Kanyakumari in advance – some darn good estimation and contingency planning! In the meanwhile there’s some smart thinking on the part of wifey – she had instructed our maid to cook enough for dinner and the surplus food after lunch gets neatly packed into 5 separate plastic tiffin boxes, one for each of us (that’s me, wifey, our two kids aged nine and three and our maid). Chicken curry with soybean and rice – yummy! This ensures we won’t starve even if we reach the hotel late. By the time we hand over the house keys to our neighbour and press the lift button for the basement, it’s already 5:30 PM. Another 20 minutes and we are at the Ejipura crossing – that’s where the fun starts. Traffic for some reason seems to be piled up for as far as your eyes can see. We later realize that it was mostly due to a non-working traffic signal at the HDFC Bank crossing on 80 Feet Road. By the time we are on the Electronics City flyover, it’s 6:45 and the MID reading is a ghastly 10.1! Fortunately the traffic gets thinner and thinner once we cross Bommasandra. I keep the needle steady between 80 and 90 and the mileage starts picking up. The road surface feels nice and smooth, the i-Vtec mill is purring at 2500 rpm and there’s no stopping except at the toll booths which are placed at 50 – 70 km intervals. The toll charges on NH7 work out to around a rupee a kilometre which, though expensive for a long trip as this one, is still cheap considering what you pay to reach the airport. We cross Krishnagiri and the mileage is up to a healthy 16. The stock headlamps are dim, but the beam is much more usable as it points straight ahead and a little down. The night sky is looking magical as the moon plays -hide and seek with the clouds. The Radio Indigo signals faded out some time back, but SD Burman, Pancham da, Kishore and Lata continue to weave their magic over the USB while the kids are happily perched on the back seat. We cross Salem around 9:15 and decide to stop by the landing area in front of a refreshments joint for stretching our legs and having our packed dinner. The MID shows 18.7 and the chicken curry and rice though only a little warm by now, tastes even better. That’s how the i-Vtec rewards you if you drive with a light foot. I call up the hotel to let them know that we would be arriving around midnight and to keep an extra bed ready for our maid. No problem, I was told by the voice on the other side. Mentally relaxed, I feel like having a cup of tea at the hotel and check if there’s a washroom. There indeed is one at the back – clean, dry and neatly maintained. We don’t mind paying a small premium for the tea and the water bottles and continue our journey. A few kilometres on there’s flashing of headlamps at the back – it’s a Fabia going really fast and I decide to have a friendly sprint along with him. A quick flick to the third, a thrust on the pedal and before you know it, there’s already a big gap between me and the Fabia. The i-Vtec does know well how to put a smile on your lips – now if only Honda made their suspensions a bit stiffer. We approach the next toll plaza and I take off my foot off the pedal, giving him a nod and allowing him to pass. While paying the toll I gaze at the MID and I am shocked to see that the FE had dropped to 18.0 in the last few miles! I chide myself and carry on, settling down to 80 once again. We reach the hotel around half past midnight after going through multiple diversions and one-ways within the small town. The hotel lobby looks pretty cool with a couple of big, glass elevators and the check-in process is smooth. There’s ample parking at the back gate and the City rests for the night beside a Pajero Sport. The rooms are big and cozy, exactly how a 3-star should be. The kids are super excited and the little one is having fun jumping on the bed. We finally hit the bed around 1:30 AM and tuck ourselves in under the blanket to get ready for the next day. Last edited by thefuturist : 13th September 2015 at 18:08. |
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13th September 2015, 18:57 | #7 |
BHPian Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on a tankful of petrol Post 4 : Sunday 30-Aug, Day 2. Dindigul to Kanyakumari – planning for the trip The bed was cozy and we wake up by 8, finish our morning chores, get the kids ready and rush down to the restaurant by 9:30. Breakfast is complimentary and the spread though not extensive, is quite decent. The plan is to check out by lunch so that we can catch the sunset at Kanyakumari. We had logged 389 kms on the trip meter so far and had another 294 kms to cover. Google Maps’ suggestion was 4 hours and having seen the road conditions till now, I knew that there was no need to budget for any buffer. We briefly debate on lunch – whether to sample the famous Dindigul biryani at the hotel or get it packed. Since none of us were hungry enough for lunch, we decide to hit the road. A quick search on Tripadvisor yielded a couple of good restaurants on the way – Burma Kadai at Viridhunagar and Capsi Drive-In Restaurant before Tirunelveli. The reviews on Tripadvisor and Google seem to be pretty good, with the added advantage that both of these are on the highway so that there’s no need to take a detour. I was also keen to find the location of BPCL fuel bunks on the way to Kanyakumari, just in case we need it. Surprisingly, I find that BPCL has an app on the Play Store called BPCL Fuel Finder which does exactly that. There are variety of options, ranging from checking the pumps closest to your location and even searching for pumps by services (e.g. if you are looking for a “Pure for Sure” pump that stocks Speed and accepts cards, it does exactly that). The best part is, you can punch in a source and a destination and it will list all the pumps on the route. I make a mental note of a few pumps on the way stocking Speed, just in case. |
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13th September 2015, 19:16 | #8 |
BHPian Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| re: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on a tankful of petrol Post 5 : Sunday 30-Aug, Day 2. Beautiful roads, but would we make it? It’s 1:30 PM by the time we are out of the hotel. There are quite a few one-ways inside the town – we negotiate a couple of narrow alleys and are back on NH7 in another 15 minutes or so. The mileage had slipped down to 17.6 levels by now on account of letting the ac run to cool down the interiors before we could board the car, the outside temperature being around 33 degrees. I settle down to a steady 80 and bypass Madurai by 2:30. Great roads, traffic is sparse and we have only a couple of Innovas passing us by. I could not help but notice that most of the locally registered vehicles were steadily ambling on between 60 and 70 and were moving to the left lane to give way the moment you flash or honk – the traffic sense is that good really! Or probably it’s about life that’s real cool and easy in these parts, unlike city life that we are used to. We pass Virudhunagar by 3 and decide to speed up a bit at the cost of mileage as we did not want to miss the sunset at Kanyakumari. Despite the mileage having slowly climbed up to 17.9, the fuel gauge was close the empty mark. At around half past three at the 533 km mark, the low fuel indicator lights up. Now, the City has a “reserve” of around 8 litres from the point of the low fuel warning. I quickly make some mental calculations once again – even considering a conservative mileage of 15 - 16, I would still get anything between 120 and 128 kms before running dry. That’s a total of 661 kms which theoretically should take us to Kanyakumari. And considering the fact that it was only 3:30 PM with another 120 odd kms left, I can afford to drop the speed back to 80 for extended range and still reach by 5:15 or so. However, the big question is whether to take that risk on the highway with kids on board. And just then Murphy’s Law comes into play – the kids had been happily playing with their toys in the back seat and they ask for food. While we do have a lot of snacking items including cakes and juice packs, we feel it’s better to make a quick stopover at Capsi which should be another 30 minutes or so. I tell my wife to redirect Google Maps to Capsi so that we don’t miss it. Another 20 minutes and hoardings for Capsi start popping up by the side of the road every few minutes to make it difficult to miss. We drive in to Capsi's by 4. The place looks very well maintained, and best of all they have a covered parking along with a children’s play area. We are greeted by a friendly staff and we order fish fingers, fried rice and some fresh lime soda. The kids are happy once again and we are back on the road by 4:45. It’s time to take the final call now – either the single tank feat or the sunset. |
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14th September 2015, 13:04 | #9 |
Team-BHP Support | re: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on a tankful of petrol Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing! |
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14th September 2015, 18:50 | #10 |
Newbie Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on a tankful of petrol Hello thefuturist, I am planning to do the same stretch for New year. Instead of Kovalam, we are planning to stay at Varkala. I am eagerly waiting for your remaining posts. |
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18th September 2015, 02:47 | #11 |
BHPian Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on a tankful of petrol Post 6 : Sunset at Kanyakumari With around 570 kms on the odo, I decide to throw in the towel. I can reattempt the single tank feat on our way back to Bangalore, but we might not be able to witness the sunset at Kanyakumari again. I set the navigation to the next BPCL pump and step on the gas. As per the BPCL Fuel Finder app, this one’s supposed to have Speed and accept credit cards as well. Within 500 meters of the pump, I pause for a moment and leave the elevated highway to take the service road instead. If we miss this one, we probably won’t have another one on our way selling Speed. It turns out to be a good hunch – it’s by the service road while NH7 continues on the elevated stretch for another 500 metres or so. I pull over and ask for Speed, but to my dismay they are out of stock. The pump attendant says there’s one inside town where I might try – it’s about 7 kms from here but I am not willing to waste any more time by deviating from NH7. I settle for the regular petrol and ask him to put it on auto cut-off while reaching for my phone to compute the mileage. Tanked up: The trip meter reads 582.6 while 35.09 litres are dispensed till the cut-off. A quick calculation yields 16.60 kmpl as against the 17.3 kmpl on the MID which is well within the +5% tolerance that most City owners would be used to seeing. I let out a sigh of disappointment – it probably was another 90 odd kilometres or so to the destination and it would have been quite possible to stretch in 5 litres of fuel going at a steady speed of 80. I try to console myself saying that the dead space in the tank above the auto cut-off could be more than 2 litres, meaning less than 40 litres of usable fuel. And it probably was a sensible thing not to take the risk of running dry with children on board and that there’s always a next time. My mind was free at least as we drive out of the station. I can enjoy the remaining drive without having to worry about the mileage or where to tank up. The bill - thankfully the credit card machine was in perfect order: It’s 5:15 PM as we drive out – another 5 minutes of carefully tackling some massive speed breakers and the service road merges back with NH7. I unleash all the horses and let the i-VTEC roar. The road is beautiful as is the scenery and my wife starts snapping. Hills in the background, clouds floating like cotton wool, some lovely curves and we enter windmill country. Some of them are almost adjoining the road and the little one cries out – “Look ma, fans in the sky!”. Beautiful stretches: It's quite possible to mistake this for one of the interstates in Arizona: Another 10 minutes or so and a signboard signals the end of NH7. A diversion to the left, a smooth drive for another 5 minutes on slightly narrow roads and we are officially into Kanyakumari! It’s just about 6:15 and we have made it just in time for the sunset. The trip meter shows 93 km which we have covered just within an hour. The MID shows a paltry 13.2 kmpl which isn’t surprising considering the speeds that the City was able to hit on the long, smooth stretches on NH7. There’s a fair bit of congestion around the parking and we manage to find a slot. We head off towards Beach Road to capture the sunset over Cape Comorin. Finally, I would like to offer my apologies to all who had been following this thread eagerly. Work had been keeping me from being more active on this thread - going forward I will try to keep the updates coming more frequently. I leave you all with some pictures of the sunset and pics of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial coming up in my next post. |
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18th September 2015, 03:19 | #12 |
BHPian Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on a tankful of petrol Post 7: Sunset and evening shots of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial These shots were taken with a DSLR in contrast to the earlier mobile uploads, so you might notice the slightly higher image quality. Sunset from the park: Vivekananda Rock Memorial Shrine devoted to Swami Vivekananda The moon rising behind the Vivekananda Rock Memorial. The statue of Thiruvalluvar looks almost scary! The last few are high ISO shots taken without a tripod using a self-timer, hence the graininess. We do some shopping for conch shells on the beach market, and head back to the car park. It's around 8 PM now. The choice is between Sea View and the TTDC Hotel. Having heard good things from my colleagues about the location of the latter, we call them up. We are assured that rooms are available - I set the GPS to TTDC and head out of the car park. The plan is to stay for the night and head out for Poovar (Kovalam) the next day evening where we are booked till the 4th. |
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18th September 2015, 14:20 | #13 |
Senior - BHPian | Re: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on a tankful of petrol If you haven't planned what you want to do after you retire, I suggest you become an Author, you would surely make more money writing than what you might be making now. Just kidding. The thread had me glued Very sad that you could not 'officially' do it on a tank-full, but after reading this thread, had you not tanked up, you would have scraped through and made it into Kanyakumari in a sputtering and spitting i-vtec for sure. Eagerly awaiting the next 'chapters' and hoping to follow in your footsteps when time permits, the 700 kilometer Bangalore to Kanyakumari has always been a plan on the horizon for me. I can't believe that I can read such quality stuff for free :-) Last edited by TheARUN : 18th September 2015 at 14:20. Reason: Grammar |
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19th September 2015, 17:13 | #14 | |
BHPian Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on a tankful of petrol Quote:
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19th September 2015, 18:27 | #15 | |
BHPian Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Pune
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| Re: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on a tankful of petrol Quote:
I am releived that better sense prevailed and you decided to fillup fuel. That is what a responsible person should do. Next time you want to do a single tank target, just keep 5 litres of additional petrol on a can. If you run out of fuel, you always have a backup. Be very very careful with keeping the bottle sealed and insulated from bumps and heat. Last edited by ampere : 21st September 2015 at 08:56. Reason: Removed some of the quoted post | |
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