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Originally Posted by naveenroy Nice quick drive!
You are lucky to get such a beautiful sunset. Usually the clouds play spoilsport with sunsets in Kanyakumari. |
Thank you, and yes, I was lucky to get a clear sunset view. It was cloudy on the way, but once I reached Kanyakumari, the sky was mostly clear.
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Originally Posted by TheHelix0202 Cool thread. Nothing like a solo journey, I always say! Anyone know what’s the actual distance between the Vivekananda Memorial and the Thiruvalluvar statue? When we visited Kanyakumari a decade back, due to shortage of time we couldn’t visit the latter. |
Thank you. I think the distance between the Rock Memorial and Thiruvalluvar statue is just about 100m. But there is sea in that 100m, so the distance does not matter unless ferry service is running. This time, for some reason, ferries were not going to Thiruvalluvar statue at all.
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Originally Posted by sramanat Excellent choice of destination/route to introspect :-). |
Thank you.
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Originally Posted by graaja Awesome write up AD. A solo drive gives lots of alone time and helps in discovering oneself. I am now tempted to drive to Kanyakumari |
Thank you Graaja. Yes, you should definitely plan this drive. It is even closer from Coimbatore than from Bangalore, and you can easily do this as a weekend drive.
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Originally Posted by PearlJam Nice travelogue and pictures, AD! You chose the perfect time to visit Kanyakumari.
Coincidentally, we too covered Kanyakumari, Vattakottai Fort, and Mathur Aquaduct during December last week (due to date compulsions, this was unavoidable), and it was a terrible terrible mess. Lots of crowd, dirty, chaotic, and to add to this, the President decided to visit on the same day - so the ferry was closed. Not at all a place worth going again (atleast that's what we felt after seeing the chaos). Just adding 1 pics with your permission. |
Thank you PearlJam. Yes, I can imagine how crowded this place would be in December. Even now, it was fairly crowded, and dirty as well. The sad thing was that the crowd was throwing all the junk just everywhere, and the evening walk around the "Southernmost Point" literally required finding my way through the garbage. It is really sad. Thankfully and very surprisingly, the sunset park was very clean and not crowded at all (and I am sure these two things have a strong correlation), and I really enjoyed the evening there watching the sunset.
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But Vattakottai fort was good - There's a small path to go to the beach, right around where you parked. There's a river joining the sea there, and it was nice. The Mathur Aquaduct was amazing too, a bit off route but was worth it
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Oh, great! Thank you very much for this information. Next time I will visit that beach. And thanks a lot for the Aqueduct information too. I had no idea about this, and now that you mentioned it, I googled it to find some information. Will surely visit next time. It is amazing how I learn about new locations in every travelogue :-)
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Originally Posted by deepfreak15 Awesome drive AD. If I'm not mistaken this is your first solo sojourn after Dusty. |
Thank you Deepak. Actually this was my first "both-ways solo drive in the BMW for leisure". The reason I qualify this is that on some of the recent team-bhp meets (overnight meets), I have driven solo one-way because of some time constraints. And further, I keep driving solo for work to Hyderabad and Chennai all the time. I have done multiple solo drives to these cities. However, those drives don't really count because there is no introspection there. In those work drives I keep thinking about my presentation while going to the meetings, and keep thinking about the follow-up while returning. In fact, my mind starts composing emails when I drive solo for work. So that is not really any fun. Therefore, this was the first solo drive which was totally for leisure.
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Couldn't wait for your typical monsoon drive? Can make out from the exposure of your pics that it was a searing hot trip but nevertheless the roads must have kept you highly entertained. Smooth long straights with the occasional long sweeping curves almost make your brakes redundant.
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Hopefully there will be a monsoon drive this year. We had one in 2018, and then missed out in 2019. Let's try to plan one in 2020. And yes, it was really hot.
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Look familiar? Check out my profile picture
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Absolutely familiar. In fact, I was thinking of you when I passed through that location. I remember your profile pic, but more than that, I also remember the picture you put in your A3 thread. In fact, you had taken a photo at the same spot in your GT TSi as well. So I remembered all those photos and that is how actually I got the idea of taking a photo at this location. So thanks to you for this idea!
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February? I want to ride down.
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Sounds good. I can also join you guys, unless you guys want to do solo drives/rides :-)
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Originally Posted by PapaBravo Great report Dr.AD. Such a short & sweet solo trip. Your writing style makes one travel with you while reading.
Amazing pictures as well.
Pawan |
Thank you very much.
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Originally Posted by tilt Awecome write-up AD. Yes, it has indeed been a long time since you went solo, I remember.
I guess you missed reading about and visiting Velankanni church. It has an interesting story and is worth a quick visit, but I am sure the crowds there would have dissuaded you from doing so even had you known about it.
More power to you, man, and I look forward reading about more of your solo drives. |
Thank you very much, tilt. Yes, it had been a long time and this solo drive was long overdue. Thanks a lot for this information about the church. I had no clue, and missed visiting this. This drive was so impromptu that I had done zero research and I had no knowledge of any nearby places. But thanks to your tip, now I know. This is a point added for the next trip.
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Originally Posted by NTO Brilliant write up AD and fantastic captures, especially the ones with the lady in the red saree
I wish I could do a solo drive too! It has been very hectic both in personal and professional front and a solo drive would definitely help :-) |
Thank you NTO. I can totally relate to your situation. Even for me it had been very hectic, and therefore, this solo drive actually provided a great relief and some kind of "mind/brain recharge" experience. I think even if it is for a short weekend, it is good to just take some time off and do a quick drive. You will come back totally fresh and recharged.