Team-BHP - New Year Celebrations In Southern Tip Of India

Wanted to celebrate new year 2010 in the southern tip of India i,e cape comorin / Kanyakumari. So we planned a week trip in southern India before the new year's eve.

Since i was busy with my work, iam posting the travelouge few days late. Sorry!

Breif introduction of the Tour:

Period: started @ 4-45AM on 29/12/2009
ended @ 10-33PM on 04/01/2010

Team: 3members - Myself (sree70-lone driver), wife & Son

Vehicle: Hyundai I20 (Asta) - Petrol

Places covered:
Karanataka - Srirangapatna & Sivanasamudra falls.
Tamilnadu - Trichy, Pillayarapatti, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Tiruchendur, Suchindram, Nagercoil, Padmanabhap'rm, Manimatthur falls, Papanasam, Tenkasi, Courtallam & Srivalliputtur.
Kerala - Covallam Beach & Tiruvanthapuram.

Total distance travelled: 2229 KMS
Total time of driving: 51Hrs 55mins

Petrol filled: 149 Lts
Effeciency: ~15.00KMS / ltr with 45% AC driving

Expenses in RS:
Fuel - 7500/-
Accomodation - 6900/- for 6 nights
Road Toll fees on NH - 295/-
Car parking / entry fees - 365/-
Food & Water - 3215/-
Temples Special entry fees (optional) - 1700/-
Camera, Musuems & other places entry fees - 365/-
Boat & ponny ride: 180/-
TOTAL = RS.20,250/-

I will post the day to day expreinces & photos in further posting shortly.

Once again sorry for the delay in posting my detailed travelouge.
I DAY OF THE TRIP:
River cauvery has formed 3 big islands on her journey from starting Talacauvery to ending @ bay of bengal. These 3 islands are Srirangapatna & Sivanasamudra in Karanataka and Srirangam in Tamilnadu. In all these 3 islands have temples dedicated to Lord Ranganatha ( incarnation of Lord Vishnu) who is sleeping on huge coils of snake Ananthashesha.The sleeping position of the deity in all 3temples makes it evenmore beautiful to watch.
The 3 Temples are
Adi Ranganatha swamy Temple @ Srirangapatnam - (AR)
Madhya Ranganatha swamy Temple @ Sivanasamudram (MR)
Anthya Ranganatha swamy Temple @ Srirangam (ANR)
By visiting all the above 3temples in a single day would bring salvation / moksha and good luck. And also the above 3 temples should be visited in the above order only. I also heard in one of the TV programmes that even Tippu Sultan had visited these 3temples in a day on the advice of his senior guru.
The 1st day was planned to visit the above 3temples in a single day and the estimated distance was 525 KMS. The challenge was to cover these 3places & also to have darshan of temple deity in a time frame. The last temple @ srirangam would be closed @ 8-00pm and our target was to reach srirangam within 7-00PM. So considering the time constraint, we decided to leave as early as possible in the morning.
After a good night :ZZZ:we got up @ 3-30am and got refreshed by 4-30am and loaded the luggages packed for a week along with necessary other items. Left our house in Rajajinagar @4-45 to reach srirangapatna.
The route was usual & popular B'lore-Mysore SH17, since the traffic was very low we reached 1st temple @ Srirangapatna (AR) @6-30am(125.6KMS).
The temple had just opened and there was mild rush, then too we had a good darshan of the lord Ranganatha and Temple premises.
We left the temple premises @ 7-10am and near the temple had a glimpse of ruins of Tippu Sultans palace and his death place. we also saw many piligrims taking bath in early morning cold @ river cauvery banks.
From Srirangapatna we travelled to the 2nd temple Sivanasamduram (MR) via Bannur & Malvalli. The route upto Malavalli was almost metal road and found many new culverts built with their top level few inches higher than the road level. Also found local farmers had spread their unseeded harvest on the roads @ many places for drying & deseeding.These 2 factors made our drive little slower.
We reached Madhyaranga (MR) temple @ 9-32am and the temple is 5KMS form Sivanasamudram falls. As the previous day was vaikunta ekadasi the lord @ (MR) was beautifully decorated with butter & dry fruits and was kept for the darshan the next day also.We had nice darshan of the lord and the preist allowed us to take a still of the lord.
Since the Sivanasamudram falls ( Gaganachukki & Barachukki) was just 5kms from the temple we decided to have a breif visit to the falls.
on enroute to the falls we found godess Meenakshi temple with Sreechakra. Decided to visit this temple also and the temple was an old one built by kings ( Hoysalas or Gangas). The main deity was Someshwara (lord shiva) and on the side there was meenakshi temple. The idol of the godess was a small one and infront of the idol was the srichakra carved on a natural stone. The priest told that the idol and srichakra was installed by adi sankaracharya. After the visit of the temple we left to Barachukki falls.
Within few minutes reached the falls and were unhappy @ the veiw. The water falls was not so great and after taking few snaps left to Gaganachukki falls. Even here the water falls was lean. By this time (10:30am) all the 3 of us were very hungry(had few snacks before). On enquiry the nearest good resturant for breakfast was in Kollegal. Hurrily we left to kollegal and reached Annapoorneswari resturant in Kollegal. @ 11-10am the resturant was empty and they served good breakfast very fast. After finishing a heavy & nice breakfast we left to next destination Srirangam (ANR).
to be contd.,

It was 11-35am and we had finished the darshan of 2 temples & had breakfast. We were left with another 7hrs time & 300kms to travel to the reach 3rd temple @ srirangam.
We had to cross the karnataka state border & enter into Tamilnadu state.
Earlier i had made enquiries about the shortest & safest route from Kollegala to Srirangam and couldnot get find right information.
Searching on Google map, TTK Tamilnadu atlas & South India map of vasan publications found 4 routes to travel from kollegal>nammakal and 2routes from Nammakal to Srirangam.
The 4 routes are
1. Kollegal>Hannur>MMhills>mettur>Bhavani>Nammakal - 243KMS
2. Kollegal>Hannur>MMhills>mettur>Omalur>Salem> Nammakal - 225KMS
3. Kollegal>Hannur>Ramapura>Bargur>Anthiyur>Bhavani>N ammakal - 205KMS
4.Kollegal>Yelandur>Chamrajnagar>dimbham>Satyamang ala>Bavani>Nammakal - 252KMS
The 1st route was longer & also found in one of the threads that road condition between Mettur to Bhavani is worse.
The 2nd route included to travel to Salem & was worried about traffic in Salem.
The 3rd route was the shortest one & unexplored and it was through thick Baragur forest.
The 4th was the longest one.
On local enquiry we found that the 3rd route would be deserted & through thick forest area without much villages & shops in between. We also enquired about the safety & conditions of the roads and got information that previously it was Bandit & poacher Veerapans area. But now it is safe and the road from Rampura to Garkekundi bridge is being newly laid.
So we decided to take the shortest route (3rd) & procedded.
We travelled from Kollegal to Hannur & found a filling station (last filling station in Karnataka). At Hannur took right turn & reached Ramapura. At Ramapura we found a Govt. School & a Panchayat office. Earlier Veerapan had attacked the Rampura police station & killed few policemen. From ramapura we travelled to Nall road Junction. Here we could travel to MMHills by taking left turn & to Chamrajnagar by taking Right turn, but took straight which lead us to Garkekundi (state border). The road conditions upto Nall road was good and further it was a single lane and in bad condition (uneven metal roads). On enroute we saw new road being laid. We travelled further 11 kms from Nall road to reach Garke kundi bridge, which is the inter state border of Karanataka & Tamilnadu.
Here we found a Tamilnadu state bus parked which was transporting people from Bhavani to Garkekundi bridge. Tamilnadu state roads welcomed us and the roads were very good.
Further we travelled in Baragur thick green forest & it was ghat section roads. We reached Thottakarai forest check post & the road was closed.
After entering few details in the forest check post register the guard opened the gate of the road and we continued our journey.
On enroute found Varattu Pallam reserviour & dam & further after travelling 27Kms from check post the ghat section road ended.
The traffic on the road from Naal road to anthiyur was almost nil & found few 2wheelers & a police jeep but the forest scenery & Hill veiws were very beautiful. At Anthiyur filled fuel in Bharath petroluem.
After travelling about 20kms reached bhavani @ 3:15pm. Found Saravana Bhavan resturant but the meals were over and had lunch in adjacent New Arya Bhavan Hotel.After having meals we left bhavani & reached Sankaridurg>Tiruchengode>Nammakal. By the time we reached Nammakal it was already 5-00PM and had a quick teabreak & got refreshed on Road side tea shop. We were left with only 2hrs & to travel 85KMS to reach srirangam.
From Nammakal we decided to take SH25 since it was shorter than Nammakal>karrur>srirangam NH route and travelled via Thottiyam>Musiri>Srirangam. The single lane road was not so good with lots of potholes & traffic. At last @7-10PM and by travelling 516.7 KMS from Blore we reached Srirangam temple premises( North Chitrai street).
To our shock :Shockked:the entry gates to main temple were closed @ 5-00pm itself on this particular day because the previous day was Vaikunta ekadasi. All the 3 of us were very disappointed.
A localite temple social worker told us that the main temple door would be opened for a short time @ about 10:30pm after some rituals.

At 8:30pm almost the temple premises was emptied & only very few people were sitting near the main temple. On enquiry they told that they were waiting for the procession deity which would be brought from the thousand pillars hall to the garbha gruha (sanctorium) of the temple.
So we also waited and around @ 9-15pm the procession deity entered the main temple premises.The deity was bought inside by perfoming some rituals. At every corner of the temple they asked everyone to be in pin drop silence and the musicians played veena and sang devotional songs to please the lord. Then the deity was taken inside the garbha gruha and only a few people were allowed to see the last harathi perfomed to the lord. we 3 were also the lucky people in the few. At last we had the darshan of lord Ranganatha @ Anthyaranga and comleted the Triranga darshana in a single day. We thanked the lord for this & came out happily:) @ 11-00PM.
We came to the North chitrai street where we had parked our car.
We searched for accomodation near by the temple & checked into SN Towers. @ 11-30pm all the Veg hotels were closed and found a small veg hotel preparing hot hot uttapams. Had a light dinner & dozed off soundly preparing in mind for the next day programe.
Here are few snaps taken between Hannur - Nammakal.