Another lovely day today..

Woke up at 6, packed, and looked outside the window. Beautiful fog, 16 degrees in the morning. Been a drastic change from my near heat stroke episode to this within 24 hours.

Thought I’d just skip breakfast and make it a good travel day. So quickly packed and rushed out by 730. It was actually cold, but regardless, I knew it would warm up fairly soon given I was to travel down the mountains.

The roads were super empty, people were just waking up, and I had the whole world ahead of me 😊. Happy start basically.

Took a brand new road to head towards madurai-rameshwaram.

70 kms of pure bliss, new looks, new lighting effects, everything very calm and serene. 10 mins down the road and I started ignoring the schedule and started taking photo breaks.

Same winding roads, this time well lit up and empty, look down and there are valleys of a million colors.

The journey so far has been completely cashless. Digital payments only. Haven’t had any trouble, except in areas where UPI payments don’t work – that was a couple of times in 5 days when a tea shop guy said “bro, no range”. So I got turned away. Not that I regret having absolutely zero cash, but those 2 times when it was cold and there were only road side tea shops around were ones where I could’ve used currency.

Didn’t even other stopping this time anywhere for tea et al… No range no tea. Not that there were many shops en route. Reached an area where you could see a beautiful fog blanket down below in the valleys.. and then a super still river – it may have well been a lighting effect.

Well the mountain ride finished and the bike was doing great, so were both my phones, heat wise on the charger.

The main highway stretches started. Now these are the ones where you throttle up because the tarmac quality is so good, as is your visibility. Went up to 3 digits on the speedo, pushing as far as I felt comfortable. Stopped for some local food at a Saravana bhavan place.

In no time I reached madurai, after which the road was pretty much the same all the way until rameshwaram.

Saw a hotel and asked for the tariff. Negotiated it down to 50% showing them the online rates they obliged.

The main reason for coming down here was to visit dhanushkodi, an abandoned town at the needle tip of India, 20 kms or so from Sri Lanka across the sea. Apparently it was destroyed in the 60s.

Dumped my luggage, and asked at the reception, and was told it closes by 5. I had an hour to travel 25 kms, so rushed out. Seeing the ride I figured I hadn’t needed to rush at all. I was there in about 25 mins from the hotel. You can see the land narrow down to 100 meters end to end, sand or rocks on both sides, the road in the middle, straight empty beautiful stretch for 25 kms or so. Throttled up, enjoying the beauty and the chance to be able to go there. That last 10 km stretch showed signs of the old town it had been, a church in ruins, a couple of other structures, a board saying “railway station” . The thrill of riding those “last few kms of India” on a completely empty straight stretch made it worth the 400 kms I did today in 7 hours of riding total. The actual tip of India – that 50 meters stretch of sand and rocks was a typical tourist place, people crammed in, trying to get a picture, their share of having been here.

Well, I found a small spot, took my pics and headed back to the bike. Met a fellow biker here, spoke to him for sometime, and headed back.

Reached the hotel by 530 or so …

Most hotels here serve vegetarian food only, being a religious place too. Almost decided to just eat here since I was super tired from the ride.

…..Then I thought, life is too damn short to not eat chicken – took the bike out again, hunted for a place that I found 10 kms away, making bbq chicken and did a take away of some delicious bbq.

Back in my room, repackaging done like everyday, cleaned up the gear, freshened up the helmet and ready to head out tomorrow. Actually no clue where I’m going tomorrow.

Cheers !