Sunday, March 6, 2011

Day 34 - Tirunelveli to Kanyakumari

Think of the most beautiful experience you've ever had and then get onto a cycle and ride from Tirunelveli to Kanyakumari and then you decide which one tops your list. This expedition could not have ended more perfectly. We cycled on the most picturesque road, with hundreds and hundreds of windmills on either sides, the wind guiding us forward. We had a 5 a.m. headstart and no troubles on the way. We had our last dhaba breakfast for the expedition and wiped out the chutney container and took a long lime juice break at a hotel mid way where the manager invited us in and allowed us to make our own lime juice in the lobby. We also met with two Bengali journalists on a bike who were riding from Kolkata to Kanyakumari and then to Kashmir to promote road safety.

The girls were cheering and screaming at every milestone achieved, excited to reach our goal. We seemed to be cycling at a 100km/hour!!! The feeling was exhilarating knowing that Kanyakumari was ahead of us!

We reached Kanyakumari by noon, and were recieved by the President of IMF who had especially come all the way to flag us in. Mr. Govind Srinivas, Mrs. Vasumati's better half was also there to recieve us. After having a quick lunch we headed off to the Vivekananda rock where we spent hours staring at the magnificent convergence of the 3 seas. We then headed back to our hotel to get ready to meet the Rotarians who treated us to some delicious dinner! They even honoured us with pretty pink purses and caps. Infact a very funny incident occurred while we were at the hotel where we had our meeting with the Rotarians; 9 girls got into a 5 man elevator and it got stuck!!!! We finally got a technician to open it up and the girls were rescued!!!

The night ended with the leader giving all the girls a surprise; we were all flying from Trivandrum to Bangalore!!! We all hurriedly packed our bags and loaded the truck with our excess luggage and cycles so that the truck could head off to Bangalore.

2 comments:

  1. Way to go gals..Way to go! Just do it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. We were visiting our good friend Pashu & Bhuvana at Ipoh , Parek . Malaysia.They took us to meet all their local friends . One of them was Shanti . A great lady . She described her trek to Kedranath , Badrinath , Velley of flowers etc . It was great listening to her adventure. She had , then , mentioned about the cycling trip from Kalkatta to Kanyakumar being planned .
    The write up of the trip was published in the Sunday suppliment of the Hitvada of 4 January 2012.It also gave reference to the blog .
    It was great reading about it . Must have been a fantastic experience .
    Missed the photos after day 29.
    One suggestion about the route given in blog of Jan18.
    Why not put it on a map . Have a look at what we did about our trip . http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=214404500806152338085.0004af8ab7d651eed6ef9
    Priti & PM Velankar.Velu.

    ReplyDelete