[Lightening-Fast]

For quite some time i was looking for opportunities to go on a long drive. Not a day trip, something that lasted almost a week. It really had to feel like a tour, not just a weekend getaway. Yes, we were game for it. My wife and i dont really need to a reason for travelling. Its almost an unspoken agreement that we dont deny ourselves of the first opportunity to travel. Now then, its over to planning and execution. First of all, the dates and tenure of the trip was decided. 1st week of December it was. We deliberately wanted to stay away from the mad rush during christmas and new year. Yup, it was a long due travel report and apologies for the late post. But i still believe that any travelogue is a lot of information and hence the post.Had been a little busy with things on the proffessional front.5 nights was good enough and glad enough, our leave applications got approved. Now that we had 6 days at our disposal, the all important question had to be answered, Where are we going?
Lot of contenders to fit in the itenerary, but my love for NH-7 is undeniable! So a thought passed my mind. Why not drive all the way along NH7. Yup, that was happening and our travel itenerary included Madurai, Kanyakumari and Kodaikanal on our way back. With a couple of weeks to hit the road, 3 of us were getting ready, our Chevy Sparky being the 3rd Few pics to start...

Sunset at Kanyakumari


Kanyakumari beach as seen from Car's rear view mirror


Vivekananda rock memorial and Thiruvallavur statue


Madurai Meenakshi Temple


Flora at Byrant Park

[Lightening-Fast]

Next two weeks, i spent doing a lot of research on hotels, travel routes and places to visit. With a lot of help from Team-BHP as well as google, the itenarary was prepared and to our satisfaction. Plan was to travel to Madurai and spend a night. Next two nights in Kanyakumari and on the way back, visit Kodikanal and spend a couple of nights before returning to Bangalore.All set and the D-Day arrives.Got up early in the morning and got ready and hit the road by 4.45AM. Started from Koramngala, took the elevated expressway, onto the Hosur road and drove all the way to A2B, Dharmapuri. This was our first stop and for our breakfast. Drive till Dharmapuri was a breeze and i was sure i was going to drive faster for the next leg of journey. Till the sun showed up, my drive was a little cautious, not going above 100KMPH, considering the high beam due to continuous heavy traffic on the opposite end.Spent about 45 minutes for breakfast, did a tank full and headed straight to Madurai. I never forget to tank up in TamilNadu. Petrol is cheaper there!!! I was doing 130-140KMPH
frequently and reached Salem in no time. In and around salem, speed reduced considerably because of the morning rush. However, post salem, traffic was too thin and back to my high speeds. I kind of do agree with the criticism about NH7, that it is boring. For the Bangalore-Madurai, stretch i kind of think, it is actually boring with nothing to look around and appreciate. But i dont mind that. My goal on any trip, is to reach as early as possible, clocking the best possible time. However, Madurai to Kanyakumari was quite enjoyable with countless windmills on the way. More on that later.Reached Madurai at 12.30PM. It
took us a while to locate our hotel, Madurai residency. This was the first time i had visited Madurai. Mum tells me i had visited when i was a kid. But i dont remember that. Before leaving, on my research, i had come across to read that almost every Madurai street resembles KR market of Bangalore. I agree. City is way too crowded and seems chaotic all the time. Checking into a AC room was a big relief. Madurai residency is a good hotel, located very close to Meenakshi temple and to other sight seeing places like the Palace.For 1700 bucks for a night, it seems to be a good deal. Without a doubt in mind, i can say that the 'Thali' lunch that i had there, was one of the best. Excellent taste and true value for money.Post lunch, we decided to rest and start for the Palace and temple at 4. We started at 5. Walked our way to Palace and found it closed. Our next stop was the famous Madurai Meenakshi temple. Boy, what a
temple was our first reaction. Massive temple and most often you might go around the temple complex to locate your footwear.Cleansing effect of the temple continued even after we came out of the temple,literally. Rain started pouring, cats and dogs!!! Took shelter in a Saree store and good time for some shopping. It poured heavily for about an hour and we had no idea what was in store for us. Hotel was a kilometer away for about 750 mts of it, we made our way through knee deep water. Traffic had come to a halt. Even on the footpath!!! Walk back to the hotel was as memorable as the visit to the temple. Back to room and looking forward to the drive to Kanyakumari the next morning.

Few pics from Meenakshi temple,NH7

[Lightening-Fast]

Stuffed ourselves with complimentary breakfast and the journey began to the southermost tip of India. I was actually living my dream. It was a deep held desire to drive to Kanyakumari and it was coming true. It was pretty hot even in the month of December. Wonder it must be a furnace in peak summer. If i thought NH7 till madurai had thin traffic, then the traffic between Madurai and kanyakumari is almost negligeble. This is also my personal favorite stretch of NH7. Long straights + Less traffic = High Speeds!! This is the stretch where the Sparky touched 151KMPH. Made sure this was recorded on cam! And no, i was not driving and recording at the same!! Everyone on this road seemed to be heading towards Kanyakumari. About 90kms from Kanyakumari, we saw a lot of windmills. This stretched for Kms and something nobody would miss if travelling by road. I dont have much information on the business purpose of those windmills though. Bulk of these are located near Thirunalveli. We reached Kanyakumari at 12 in the noon. We did the Madurai - Kanyakumari stretch in 3 hrs. This included a 10 minute photography break. Did not have any problem locating our hotel, Hotel Tamilnadu. I had made an online booking of the hotel from the tamilnadu tourism website and was pleasantly surprised at what the hotel had to offer. Highlight and the reason why is chose this hotel was beacause, it had a sea view from the room balcony. Kanyakumari is not a big place and not many hotels had this to offer. For 1500 a night, i could not complain. Good food and room service too. Its about 10 mins walking distance from the Vivekananda Memorial Ferry service. There was no way in the world we could have missed the amazing sunset at the beach. We drove to the sunset point and saw the sun go down for an hour. It would not be wrong if i called this as the high point of the trip. Its spectacular and breathtaking. The only dilemna in your mind is to whether take pics or just appreciate the beauty through eyes. Later visited the Bhagwathi Amman Temple.Did some food items shopping. There are a number of stalls near the Gandhi Museum and did not miss the chance for "Chai -Bhajji" combination. Sunrise the following day was a little bit of dissapointment. There were clouds and did not actually see the sun coming out.Decided to head for the Vivekananda Memorial rock and Thiruvallavur statute. There was a huge line for the ferry ticket at 10 in the morning. It takes about 15 mins to reach the Rock memorial. Nice place to click some snaps of the ocean and Kanyakumari city. On the way back, 5 mins ride will take you to the Thiruvallavur statue.It was really sunny and on our way back to hotel, our energy levels had dipped by 50%!!Evening was at leisure and we took a walk to rock path that leads into the sea. Not many people go there. But worth a try. It feels as if you are standing on the southernmost tip of India. Literally!! By this time, i had enough TamilNadu food. I liked it and i was not complaining

[ramanan.skr]

Originally Posted by Lightening-Fast

There was no way in the world we could have missed the amazing sunset at the beach. We drove to the sunset point and saw the sun go down for an hour. It would not be wrong if i called this as the high point of the trip. Its spectacular and breathtaking.

How long is the sunset point from Hotel TamilNadu? When I was there, went up the Gandhi Mandapam to see the sunset where we had a good view but had to negotiate with lot of crowds over the roof.

[Lightening-Fast]

Ramanan, The sunset point is about 10 mins drive from Hotel Tamilnadu. Yup Gandhi Mandapam was just down the gate of Hotel Tamilnadu. But its damn crowded. You need to take a ticket for car, bascially parking fee. Sunset point is relatively less crowded. You can pick a rock in the sea and watch the sun go down. Great place. Would love to go there again

[ramanan.skr]

Very nice pictures of the sunset.

With your permission, I am intervening your travelogue. Please apologize.

I could manage to view this level of sunset from Gandhi Mandapam.




And the sunrise, the next day.

[Lightening-Fast]

Nice pics. But i guess the sunset point is the best way to watch the sun go down. In my personal opinion, sunset is more beautiful in KK than surise. But thats just my opinion

[ramanan.skr]

Thats true. But Sunrise happens to be perfect on certain days in an year which is known to the locals.
'Perfect' means view of the sunrise right from the sea and less of cloud hindrance.

[Lightening-Fast]

But contrary to our observations, i saw more people watching sunrise than sunset. Guess tourists are early risers!! Since i visited in Dec, there were "Shabari malai" aiyappa groups around and somehow the place was a mess. So decided the best bet would be watching the sunrise from hotel room balcony. And thats not a bad view actually

[Gansan]

What you saw must have been the Muppandal wind farm for producing electricity, the largest in India:

Muppandal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wind power in India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Lightening-Fast]

Oh yeah. That answers. Thanks Gansan. Man that is actually something. Wind miles spread across Kilometers.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Lightening-Fast

Oh yeah. That answers. Thanks Gansan. Man that is actually something. Wind miles spread across Kilometers.

Some thing surprises me. When I was coming back from KK to Madurai, I also saw these windmills on the way. But when @Ganesan mentioned about the place, I just checked on Google Maps about its location and sure there it was, but on the NH47B.

But then I realized, I had visited Suchindram from KK before, I hit back for Madurai (I was not driving. I had hired a cab). Since it was from Suchindram to Madurai, I now think the driver would have taken the NH47B route.

But then @Lightening-Fast says, he was on NH7 all the way. Looks like there are more windmills around this area.

[Lightening-Fast]

Before leaving, i had read that NH7 was complete till KK. I was expecting it to be a 4 lane till KK. However, though, its still a 4 lane, there are several diversions and you join back onto NH7. This certainly eats some time. Might be these are temporary diversions for repair work

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Lightening-Fast

Before leaving, i had read that NH7 was complete till KK. I was expecting it to be a 4 lane till KK. However, though, its still a 4 lane, there are several diversions and you join back onto NH7. This certainly eats some time. Might be these are temporary diversions for repair work

The other point as you said: Since traffic is very sparse, you dont find get hotels/break areas on the highway beyond Madurai. (As it would be economically not viable, none of the guys have put any hotel on the way).
Even within Tirunelveli, I struggled to find a decent vegetarian hotel.

[Lightening-Fast]

Thats very true. I remember you telling me this before i left for the trip. My observation is that apart from A2B's, all within Dharmapuri, there are few hotels around Salem, and then there is GRT near Madurai on NH7. Of course, if you get inside town, there are more options. But on NH7, there are limited options. And almost no options post Madurai till KK