[Vijesh L]

You know life is good when last minute plans become the best adventures you can have. We had to go on a family trip along with my parents to Banglore for 2 days. The trip got cancelled due to some unforeseen circumstances. Suddenly I thought why not plan a trip to Varkala as our previous month’s plan got cancelled at the last moment. So me and my wife decided to take the bike. We started looking for stays at Varkala and planned the itinerary for 2 nights stay. The plan was to leave as early as possible to avoid traffic in Kerala.

Day 0
I removed the grab handles and fixed the luggage rack back on the motorcycle. Cleaned the chain and washed the bike in the morning. Let the bike and chain air dry for few hours and then adjusted chain slack, lubed the chain and checked the tyre pressure. Packed our luggage in my Viaterra Claw Mini and essentials in Tank Bag.

Day 1, Sep 7th.
We started from our home at 5 Am in the morning. Reached Traveloungue, Walayar around 6 am for our first stop. We had a coffee and a cheese cake break.









We resumed our journey towards Varkala. Filled the bike in a petrol bunk and planned to stop for a coffee break after an hour. On the outskirts of Kochi, google asked us to take a diversion and took us through less crowded routes. The roads were excellent but narrow and too many diversions. With not many options for food amd refreshment, we just took a water and stretch break. After another hour of riding, we stopped at a random hotel around 10.30 am to have our breakfast. It was getting very hot and humid. We stopped again around 12 pm for a tender coconut break.





We reached our stay at Varkala around 2.30 Pm. Our stay Point Break surf and stay, was located at Edava beach just behind the aquarium which is a lesser crowded beach. The room was a small but adequately sized room with a cozy ambience and clean washrooms. We were given a welcome drink.







After refreshing, we went to Cafe Sarwaa on the south cliff to have our Lunch. The food was good with an excellent view of the beach from the cliff.









We then returned back to our rooms, parked the bike and went to Edava Beach which is just 100 metres away from the stay. We spent some time watching the Sun set from the beach and then proceeded to explore the North Cliff. Wife was busy shopping souvenirs to give back home. We had dinner at Dargeeling Cafe and returned to our room for the night.

[Vijesh L]

Day 2, Sep 8th.
We had slight changes in our Itinerary. We had planned to visit Jatayu Earth Centre, but shifted it to Day 3 because I wanted to return via Shencotta, Kovilpatti, Madurai route as I could visit my Grandparents at Tenkasi and have lunch break there. So we woke up late around 9 am. Had breakfast from the room and went to beach to spend some time. Went to lunch at Cafe Trip is Life. Had lunch with some amazing views of the beach.














We then came to rooms, got changed and went to Mangrove Village for our Sunset Kayaking. Kayaking experience was fun and adventurous. It was a 3.5 km Kayaking trip of 2.30 hours. We Kayaked through the mangrove forest and reached a spot where we could get down into the water and have some fun. Since we didnt bring any change of clothes, we just dipped our legs into the water. While returning, we went through mangrove tunnels. It started pouring while returning to the starting point. We then returned to our rooms, changed our clothes and went to Cafe God’s own country for dinner. The food there was just average but the live music was very good. Spent some time there and returned to our rooms.







Day 3 and 4, Sep 9 and 10.
Got up to a gloomy morning with on and off rains. Got ready, had our breakfast, checked out of the room by 10am and we were on our way home. Our first stop was at Jatayu Earth Centre. We reached there around 11.30 am. The cable car experience was pretty good and the sculpture and views were great. Had some buttermilk and kulukki sharbhat and resumed our journey towards my grandparents’ home. We reached Tenkasi around 2.45 pm, got ourselves refreshed and had our lunch. We then decided to stay there for the night as wife was feeling a bit tired and also I wanted to avoid driving at night. Next morning we started around 5 am and reached back home with some stretch and breakfast breaks around 11.30 am.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[SoumenD]

Nice travelogue there

We did Varkala last month in August and visited the same places you mentioned here. Even Darjeeling Cafe & Cafe Trip is Life.

Being off/season, the hospitality was superb and food(seafood) in Darjeeling cafe was excellent. And as for Cafe Trip is life, while food there as well was excellent the view of beach was terrific. Looked so clean & blue which is a rarity specially in mainland India.