My Longest Ride…Yet! (Part 1)

Abhijath Udayamvely
Nov 4 · 11 min read

Dhanushkodi….The first time I heard about this place was from my cousin brother. He told me that he’ll take me to this Wonderful place someday and told me many things about it. This got my attention and I got interested and wanted to know more about Dhanushkodi; its geography, history and about the people there. I found out that not many people live in this town anymore and the town is a Ghost town. And after a year my brother took me on a road trip there, along with 2 of his friends and this was a new experience for me, because I have never done a road trip before. But this record is not about my first visit to Dhanushkodi. This is about my second visit!

Before that, here is an overview of the place.

Dhanushkodi is a ghost town, located in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is about 20 kilometers from Rameswaram town, located in the Pamban Island. The town was destroyed in the 1964 Rameswaram Cyclone. It destroyed everything, and what remains now is the ruins dating back to those days. Dhanushkodi is also the only land border between India and Sri Lanka, which is only 45 meters in length. Before 2016 there were no roads built up to Dhanushkodi, which was only reachable by foot along the shoreline or by jeeps. But now people can take their vehicles to reach the Dhanushkodi beach tip.

The Legend of Dhanushkodi

The name Dhanushkodi means ‘End of Bow’, and YES!… We are talking about Lord Rama’s Bow. The Legend is that Dhanushkodi is the place where Lord Rama and his army built the Ram Setu (also known as Adam’s Bridge) across the sea connecting Rameswaram and Sri Lanka, to rescue Sita from the Demon king Ravana. Dhanushkodi was marked by Lord Rama as the Start point of the Bridge using his Bow and hence the name-Dhanushkodi. Also after rescuing Sita, Lord Rama destroyed the bridge using his Bow and Arrows.

The legend also says that Lord Rama threatened the seas to calm down for him to build Ram Setu. You can experience this certain phenomenon at Dhanushkodi. People who visited Dhanushkodi might have noticed this; The sea on the left side is very calm, but the sea on the right is fierce and the winds are strong.


The Plan…

Like every trip planning, our Dhanushkodi ride was also planned like a huge event with many of my friends signing up, saying that they are ready for anything. But when the time came, it was just the two of us. Since the two of us were from 2 different districts, Palakkad and Alappuzha, we decided to meet up at Pollachi. Our Route included places like Palani, Dindigul, Madurai and Ramanathapuram.

My Incredible Journey

It was 5 in the morning. I loaded my bag on my motorcycle, put on my Riding gear and set out from my home in Aroor to Pollachi, which was the meeting point that we decided since my companion was from Palakkad. Since it was early in the morning, there was no traffic on the roads. By the time I got to Trissur, the sun was already up and was shining bright.

NH 544 towards Kuthiran. On my way to Pollachi, Sun rising over the horizon…


I contacted my friend ’N’ and told him to set off from Palakkad. As the roads got busier my average speed started to fall. My route was through many different small and big towns, which were even busier than the outskirts as expected and also most of the roads were bad until I crossed the Kerala border into Tamil Nadu. I reached Pollachi town at around 10 am and met with N, who was already there waiting for me, at a fuel station. We refueled our motorcycles and set out from there towards Palani. I’ve got to say this….”The roads in Tamil Nadu are the best!” You cannot find any bad roads there, at least I have never seen one. Even small towns had better roads than most Kerala towns.


The roads in Tamil Nadu are the best!

YOU CANNOT FIND ANY BAD ROADS HERE, AT LEAST I HAVE NEVER SEEN ONE. EVEN SMALL TOWNS HAD BETTER ROADS THAN MOST KERALA TOWNS.


We rode together to Palani. The view all around us was striking; windmills, barren lands, small towns and a spectacular road through them. Since there was no traffic, we were able to enjoy our rides to the fullest all the while enjoying the views. All these were also being recorded on our mounted camera. It took us a little more than one hour to reach Palani town. We could see Palani Temple a long way before we were near Palani town. We didn’t go into the town as we knew that it will eat into our precious time and took a new bypass road which avoided the town. We stopped somewhere and took some photos of the Palani temple on the hill.

My friend asked me to check the route on the map and set the navigation, and for this reason, I removed my right-hand glove to check my phone and put it on my friend’s motorcycle. He didn’t notice this, and after understanding the route, he took off with my glove on his back seat. It was only then, when I got on my motorcycle, that I realized that my gloves were not on my hand. I called him to tell him to stop, but he didn’t pick up. So I set off to catch up with him, and after some distance, I saw him waiting for me, and I told him about the misfortune. We went searching on the roadsides for my glove together but we could not find it. There was no other way but to leave it and move on since time was limited. We had already lost more than half an hour in the search. We had to reach Rameswaram before sunset. And note this; this was the only mishap that happened for this entire journey-my glove getting lost, and me having to ride the entire journey with a single glove on my left hand. Luckily, the skies were clear the entire time!


The only mishap that happened for this entire trip was my glove getting lost, and me having to ride the entire journey with a single glove, on my left hand.


We started, after our small set back, towards Madurai. After Palani the route only included highways. We were on NH 83 up to Dindigul and after that, it was NH 44 up to Madurai. The roads were wide and smooth, and with less traffic, we were able to make up for our lost time. We were cruising at high speeds taking in all the amazing and breathtaking views around us. Most of the roads and areas were deserted, just plain grassland all around. It was only when were near Madurai City, that we started seeing more and more small towns and people. We reached Madurai at around 1:30 pm. We didn’t stop at Madurai, because it was already decided that we will visit Madurai City on our way back from Dhanushkodi. We rode through the city full of people and I came across some familiar places that I saw when I visited Madurai during my last trip with my brother and I was saying “Yeah I remember this place!”

We came across the Vaigai River that flows through the city and for some distance until we exited the city limits, we were traveling alongside the river. We could see that the river was polluted and since it was not monsoon, there were only small puddles of water here and there. There were cattle grazing on the dried-up riverbeds, people washing clothes, bathing, living their life and we rode through the city watching all these happening around us!

We realized that it was way past lunchtime and we were starting to get hungry. So the next step was finding a restaurant. And we found one, after some distance, on the outskirts of the city. It was called Velammal’s Annam Bhavan. It was a new and fairly good restaurant with ample parking space and a good seating capacity. The food was also nice. Since it was a vegetarian restaurant we ordered Thaali Meals and after having food, we took rest for about 15 minutes, set our navigation to Rameswaram and set out. The time was around 3 in the afternoon.

Have you heard about Asian Highways? Just so you know, The National Highway 44 and 85 on which we were traveling on, shares some of its portions and NH 87 shares most of its portions with Asian Highway 43 (AH43). This Asian Highway connects Agra to Mantara in Sri Lanka. So the rest of our journey after Madurai was on AH43. This highway briefly ends at Rameswaram before starting at Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka. The total length of AH43 is 3024 kilometers. There are other highways of the Asian Highway Network, passing through India like the AH42 which connects India to Nepal and China.


The National Highway 44 and 85 on which we were traveling on, shares some of its parts and NH 87 shares most of its parts with Asian Highway 43 (AH43)


So like the entire journey before, we were cruising along the AH43 towards Rameswaram, passing through towns like Manamadurai, Ariyanendal, and Thiruvadi. The experience was all the same. “The Highway cutting through a vast area of grassland with small towns here and there.” People were only seen in these small towns, other than that the only people we saw were the people traveling on the roads like us. We could see cows, goats grazing on the fields and grassland. There were some rivers and lakes along the way and also we saw some overhead canals passing alongside the roads.

At around 4 in the evening, we reached the town of Ramanathapuram. We parked our motorcycles and had tea from one of the shops there and left for Rameswaram. It was after this place that we started noticing the change in the scenery around us!

The Changing Landscapes as we got closer to the Sea

The fields and grasslands changed into waterlogged areas and we started seeing swamps on both sides. There were trees on both sides of the road. And then, we once again were traveling alongside Vaigai River, but in this area, it had water flowing through it. And after some time, at about 5 O’ clock, we were passing through a place called Mandapam, after which the view of the sea appeared on both sides. We realized that we were close to the famous Pamban Bridge!

As we continued further, the sea became closer to the road on both sides and the Pamban bridge became visible. I remembered the time when I came here last time with my brother. It was not as crowded then, as it was now, I recall. During that trip, we stopped our car on the bridge to look at the landscape and the rail bridge. But now the bridge was very busy with tourists.

We rode across the bridge slowly on our motorcycles and came to a stop on the other side of the bridge, where we parked our rides and decided to go on a walk on the bridge. We were just in time for the Sunset and this was a spectacular view, watching the sun go down the horizon. During our walk on the bridge, we noticed that all the tourists were stopping their vehicles on the bridge itself to view the mesmerizing views of the Pamban Rail Bridge and the Scenic Beauty all around. Police were patrolling on the bridge to control the tourists and the traffic. They were trying to stop tourists from stopping their vehicles on the bridge. Although we did the same thing when we were here last time, in my opinion, this patrolling was needed, because if they were not there, there will not be any place on the bridge to travel! You can see this in the video below, which contains the complete footage of me and my friend riding across the bridge. Keep in mind that the video is not edited, so wind noise will be there.

We walked on the bridge for some time and were able to see the part of the Pamban Rail Bridge which can be lifted for boats to cross. From there we could also see the Sunset and also below the bridge, on the south side, there were many boats tied up in the sea below. After watching the sunset, we walked back to our motorcycles. By this time it was already dark all around and lights from shops and houses illuminated the streets.

The View from the Top of Pamban Road Bridge after the Sunset

Sunset view from the Bridge
The old railway line towards Dhanushkodi. Now it’s only till Rameswaram. This passes under the Pamban road bridge
The Fishing Harbour at Rameswaram

We started out towards our hotel as we were really tired and just wanted to rest our heads. It was a 12-kilometer ride to the hotel. We got there in about 20 minutes. The hotel was near the famous Ramanathaswamy Temple. We parked our bikes and checked into the hotel and freshened up. Then plugged in our power banks and cameras and left the room to have food. We went to Sri Saravana Bhavan near the west street of the temple. It was a good restaurant, and I had been here before when I came with my brother. After having food and wandering around for some time, we returned to our room.

We were tired from our journey and we had to leave for Dhanushkodi early next morning, we decided to call it a day and drifted off.

Tomorrow “was” a Big Day…

Dhanushkodi experience will be continued on my next post. Thanks for your support!

Check the following link to my blog for more photos

https://wanderinggiant.home.blog/2019/11/03/my-longest-ride-yet/

My Longest Ride…Yet! (Part 2)

https://medium.com/@abhijath/my-longest-ride-yet-part-2-3148c05be936

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