First Road Trip- Day Two

The plan was to do the following:

Srirangam-Tiruthangal-Srivilliputhur-Courtallam-Banatheertham-Tirunelveli.

Going by the previous day experience we left home only by 6.16 AM at Srirangam. Reached the TVS Petrol Bunk and filled the nearly empty tank with 42.5 L Petrol.

6:39 AM: Left TVS Petrol bunk near Mannarpuram.

7:03 AM- NH45B- Boothakudi Toll- INR 50

8:08 AM – NH45B- Chittampati Toll – INR 50

8:17 AM – Madurai byepass Toll- INR 10. I guess this is some random number. I asked for the lowest amount toll to be charged. Initially the toll person asked for INR 50. Not sure if there is some fishy things happening here. Looks like. Anyway the road after this toll is not worth to be described. Pathetic.

8:25 AM – Breakfast stop. (20 Mins)

9:01 AM – Madurai Tirumangalam Exit- NH7 Toll – INR 50

9:35 AM – Virudhunagar Exit to Sivakasi

10:05 AM- Reached Tiruthangal. The road between Virudhunagar and Sivakasi is a mix of good and bad stretches. You could never anticipate the bad stretch coming.  Tiruthangal is a few KMS before Sivakasi and the temple is on the road itself. We had a nice darshan of Ninra Narayana Perumal and proceeded to Srivilliputhur.

10:28 AM – Start from Tiruthangal to Srivilliputhur. This road is also a mixed bag and the traffic is bad. Be wary of local buses and Scorpios who are eager to show their road presence. Even if they sense a mild aggression from you they will ensure that you are pushed off the road. Stay calm and stick to the left most lane.

11:09 AM – Reached Srivilliputhur Temple. There are two temples to see here. Also we made a few calls to find out which is the best shop to get the famous Pal-khova. Since the time was around 12 we looked for a decent hotel for lunch. Could not find any, hence left to Tenkasi. This is where we realized that the plan started going off. We were supposed to exit Srivilliputhur by 11:30!

12:11 PM – Started from Srivilliputhur and passed Rajapalayam. There is a confusing check post/barricade near Rajapalayam which asks four wheelers to enter Rajapalayam on the left, but after making a few enquires found that misleading and headed straight. This stretch is good but got heavy traffic. Also there are some villages through which the road passes making the road very narrow. I am not sure if I missed any bye-passes for those villages.

13:54 PM – Reached Tenkasi and since we were extremely hungry and tired we stopped at the first hotel we saw. Very average looks, but passable food.  The next one hour we wasted by going from one falls to another, hunting for parking spaces among the huge Sabarimala traffic. Adding to that is the fact that it was Sunday. We were not in a mood to bathe in the falls after the lunch and hence just saw the falls and then came out.  Water flow was fairly okay.  I was slightly put off by the delay. Hence we exited Courtallam by 14:45 PM.

15:18 PM – Since we were in no mood to go to another falls (Agasthyar/Banatheertham) we took things slowly.  Near a place called Duraisamypuram we halted for around 1/2 hour to stretch our legs and take some snaps.

Inviting roads! I would pay toll for these but there isn't any!

15: 35 PM – Post this siesta, we left for Ambai only to be held up in a traffic jam! It was a small bridge and the toursit bus carrying Ayyappa devotes brushed with a TNSTC bus and both are stuck! No injuries but the traffic was halted for more than 45 minutes.

16:45 PM – Traffic jam cleared. Since it is already late, we could not make it to the dam. So left for Melaseval Navaneethakrishnan Temple. This is on the route to Nellai via Pattamadai.

Sunset at Melaseval, Tirunelveli

17:33 PM- Reached Melaseval Temple and after a quick darshan left for Tirunelveli.

18:10 PM- Boarded at Bharani Hotel. Very good service and excellent food. Rooms do not look new, but that doesn’t mean it is bad, just old.

Thus the second day ends.

 

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