We started from Madurai around 6:30 AM with the destination being the famous hill station: Kodaikanal. The route selected for the journey was Kochadai-NH 7 (Towards Dindigul) – Kodai Road (SH 155) – Batlagundu – Kodaikanal. Once you reach NH 7, you have to take a right turn towards Dindigul and travel approximately 24 km. After that, you need to take a left turn to touch Kodai Road. There will be a railway crossing immediately and it is hard to miss this road. Anyway, the gates were closed and we had to wait another 15 min and two sets of trains to pass after which the gates were opened. We passed through Batlagundu and took the right turn towards Kodaikanal. The left turn takes you to Cumbum. I was little bit skeptical of tackling the Ghat section roads as it was my first major travel in such roads in the beast. I had heard many horror stories of how diesel engines are inadequate and you need an expert behind the wheel to tackle the vehicle in such situations. However, the ghat sections came and went in a jiffy. We had approximately 40-45 km to climb in the ghat sections and it was literally “a piece of cake”, completely devoid of any untoward incidents. The only thing that I remember of that drive was that my camera broke down and we were not able to take any breathtaking of pictures of the scenic locale.
We reached the entrance to Kodaikanal around 9:15 AM. We paid the toll of Rs 30 and was immediately welcomed on the other side by the breath taking Silver Cascade water fall. We decided to stop there on our return journey as all of us were ravenous after an early dinner the day before. We stopped at Meenakshi Bhavan for breakfast and it took us around 20 min to get a table another 20 min to complete our breakfast. Rejuvenated after the scrumptious breakfast; we were on our way to the kodai lake. Parking near the lake cost us another 30 bucks. We decided to take the horse riding around the lake and the cost was around Rs 80 for a 1 km stretch. I took my daughter Malu with me and she thoroughly enjoyed the ride and even now reminds us of her ride by saying Thik-Thik-Thik by holding imaginary reins. We went for a pedal boat ride after that. We took a four seater pedal boat and me, my wife and her two cousins took the positions. After the Thekady mishap, it is now mandatory to wear life jackets. They give you the life jackets before entering the boat. Our two cousins fooled around with the life jacket and were given a dressing down by the authorities when they gave the jackets back. It was a very hot day at Kodaikanal and the mercury was literally soaring. We had some ice creams which alleviated the effect of the sun for a little while. We decided to take the route towards Coaker’s walk. However, we did not stop there as nobody was interested in taking a walk. Our next destination was Guna caves. We were all very hungry and the only source of refreshment was bread-omelet or omelet-bread. Let me explain: They put the egg on the frying pan and make omelet and then put toasted bread on top of that. It was really good and was ambrosia for all of us. I took that opportunity to take a second helping. Another interesting thing that we noted was that the road and entrance to Guna caves was festooned with over zealous and over-ambitious monkeys which will not get scared even if you throw a stone. So, bottom line is that you need to be really careful with your food and other items if you don’t want it nicked by our ancestors. Guna caves is really a place where you should spend a lot of time. Adventurous guys can indulge in some illegal activities like climbing down inside the caves. My wife’s cousin Prashant was our guide for these activities and he took me, my wife and Vignesh to the “Beginer’s Slope” and took Vignesh for a second time to the “Intermediate Slope”. Fortunately, we did not have time to venture in to the “Expert’s Slope”. After that, we drove to the Pillar Rocks. These are three boulders standing shoulder - to - shoulder vertically measuring to a height of about 122 metres. Fortunately (because of the hot day), there was no mist and we could get a very good view from our car. We stopped at Silver Casacde on our way back and took some pictures.
There are other places to see in Kodaikanal like Shenbaganur Museum, Bryant Park, Berijam Lake, Kurinji andavar Temple and Bear Shola falls. However, you need to stay at least for two day and take local help to cover all these places. For, some places like Bear Shola falls; prior permission from the Forest Department is necessary.
Silver Cascade Waterfall
There are other places to see in Kodaikanal like Shenbaganur Museum, Bryant Park, Berijam Lake, Kurinji andavar Temple and Bear Shola falls. However, you need to stay at least for two day and take local help to cover all these places. For, some places like Bear Shola falls; prior permission from the Forest Department is necessary.
One of my wish list in life is to drive up to visit all twelve jyothir lingas in India. I was about to embark on a journey to visit the first one as I prepared for the journey to visit Rameshwaram and Dhanushkodi on Dec 30th. Rameshwaram is approximately 189 km from Madurai. We started at 6:00 A.M from Madurai. You need to take the NH 49 from Madurai and from there it is one single road which literally ends at Rameshwaram. The roads are not in great condition and it would benefit your car if you exercise caution while driving on this road.
We reached Ramanathapuram and the Gulf of Mannar biosphere around 8:30 A.M. We could see back waters on both sides of the road from there on. We reached the sleepy coastal town of Mandapam around 9:00 A.M. This place is just 19 km before Rameshwaram and it is more famous for the Indira Gandhi Bridge or the Pamban Bridge. Prior to 1914, boats were the only mode of transport to ship the pilgrims on their journey to Rameswaram. It is possible to take a boat for a cruise through the mangrove marshes to Kurusadai Island. The 2.2 km. length bridge connecting the Rameswaram Island and the mainland is the longest bridge in India constructed over a bay. The toll to enter the bridge was Rs 20. You can see the now deserted metre gauge railway bridge on one side and the new state of the art railway bridge next to it. The uniqueness of this new railway bridge is that it can be opened to pass the ships through the sea. We had breakfast after that. Then, we went to our retreat at Sringeri Matt and changed clothes to start our visit to the temple. There are 22 theerthams (to be read as wells) within the temple and the Agni Theertham (the Sea) next to the temple. Legend has it that if you have take bath in all these theerthams; all your sins will be washed away. We went and took a dip in the sea. Then, we started our journey to the temple. You will find many people with a bucket and if you pay Rs. 60; they will take water from each of twenty one theerthams in the temple and pour it on you. If you think that I made a typo by putting twenty one instead of twenty two; then think again. The last theertham (Kodi Theertham) is not really a well and water comes only in a trickle. They say it is equivalent to the Ganga Jal from Kasi. Once we had completed showering in sea and all the 22 theerthams, we went back to our retreat at Sringeri Matt to change our dress. It is not allowed to go into the temple in wet clothes. The main deity here in Rameshwaram is is Lord Shiva in the name Ramanathaswamy. The legend of the temple is that Sri Rama returned victorious after vanquishing Raavana to Rameswaram. However, Sri Rama wanted to do penance to Lord Shiva as he had committed Brahma-Hatya by killing Ravana. So, he asked Lord Hanuman to bring a shiva linga. When Lord Hanuman did not come back after a long time; Sita Devi made a Shiva Linga from sand and Sri Rama prayed Lord Shiva. So, this the placed where Rama prayed Eshwara (Lord Shiva); hence the name as Rameshwaram. Lord Hanuman came with two Shiva Lingas and one of them is called Vishwanathar and you need to worship that first before worshipping the main Shiva Linga. The main linga is a jyothir linga and represents the southernmost of the 12 Jyotirlingams of India and has been a time honored pilgrimage center held on par with Banaras. There are other temples to worship in Madurai like the Ramapatham, Satchi Anjaneya temple, Navagraha temple and Panchamuga Anjaneya temple. However, our plan was to visit the ghost town of Dhanushkodi.
We had lunch at the Gujarathi Sangam and then strated our journey towards Dhanushkodi. The southernmost tip of this island is called Dhanushkodi. It was completely washed away by a cyclone in 1964. It is 18 KMs way from Rameswaram can be reached by road. A popular belief is that, it is where Vibishana a brother of Ravana surrendered before Rama. At this point the Bay of Bengal meets the Indian Ocean. Hanuman took his famous leap from here to Lanka. And it is the point from which the monkey army built the bridge to Lanka. It is called Dhanushkodi because at the request of Ravana's brother Vibheeshana, Ram broke off the bridge with his bow. The most intriguing element here is the ancient underwater sandbank known as Adam's Bridge, which connects India to Sri Lanka. Geological evidence shows that an isthmus, which, according to temple records was breached by a violent storm in 1480, once bridged the gap. Some new pictures taken by a NASA satellite show this "bridge" in all its glory. The 30-km-long connection, which stretches across the Palk Strait, is actually a narrow and shallow ridge of sand and rocks connecting Mannar Island in Sri Lanka to Pamban Island in India. The Sri Lankan archaeology department has said the connection could be two million years old. You cannot go straight to Danushkodi in your vehicle. We reached the point in the beach where our vehicles could go. We parked the beast on the sand (the effect of which we were to know later) near the Naval camp. You can take the last 3-4 km in old Tata mini Lorries. These people don’t have four wheel drives and traction control vehicles; but are expert drivers who can drive through the sand and sea. They also have crude methods to overcome difficulties of losing traction. They charge around Rs 100 per person for the 4 km journey and back and will only take the vehicle if they get around 10 people. We went in one of these Lorries where the wheels lost traction at least couple of times and they put wooden planks under the wheels to regain traction. We finally reached the ghost town which was completely wrecked by a cyclone in 1964. However, to our surprise; we learnt that around 2000 people live there. A school, a temple and some shops cater to the needs of the residents. There is no electricity here and they have some small scale solar panels for lights and a diesel generator cater to the electrical needs of the temple. Dhanushkodi was in the news recently for the solar eclipse on Jan15th. This was the only place from where the “Ring of Fire” was visible. We saw some peacocks very close to us. Locals informed us that this place is not polluted at all and is completely devoid of mosquitoes and ants. They even told us that the life span of an individual increases by staying at this place. Some information; you do need to take with a pinch of salt. The lights from Talai Mannar island in Srilanka would be visible from Dhanushkodi. We even met a very old man who claimed that he had swum across from Srilanka.
The Tata mini Lorry took us back to our starting point. We got an unexpected delay as my Tata Safari lost traction in the sand and half of the rear wheels were buried in the sand. With the help of local drivers and the Naval force; we were somehow able to take the 2 tonner from the pit. The only plus point from that mis adventure was that we were able to view the sun set. We started back at 6:30 P.M and reached Madurai around 9:30 P.M
@Danushkodi: Drinking water from the person who had claimed to have swum from Sri Lanka
The plan for the next day was to return back to Palakkad with a stop at Thirivavinan kudi at Pazhani. I will update about that trip and the Ooty-Mysore-Bangalore trip in my next post.
