The ride to the edge of the world.. contd...

Well woke up the next morning at a mind numbing 3.30 am!! Damn!! I had to saddle up and ride to Dhanushkodi. Freshened up and the cold water was not helping at all. We all rode out without much fanfare to the coastal check point where 4X4 vans were to ferry us across the sands to Dhanushkodi. A strong tea along the way helped brighten things up and we were off in full party mood to a very very eerie place!! Dhanushkodi was the definition of eerie. There is sand EVERYWHERE!! No life for miles together. All the fellas who were shouting earlier were slowly silenced by the deafeaning silence as we entered this haunted place. There were remnants of a railtrack, houses, a massive church and other boats that had landed here since the tsunami and untouched ever since. The power of mother nature in all its fury had us stunned into silence for several minutes.

Eventually regained composure and went clickety-click. I took lots of photographs and we spent a good 2 hours walking up and down the ruins of this ghost town. We then took the vans and went to the point where india ends. From there, if you can squint a little, and if the weather is favourable, you can actually see the outline of Sri Lanka!! Well, i tried and tried, to a point where i thought i was gonna be permanently squint eyed!! But no, the weather played spoil sport!! We clicked a good number of photographs here too. Eventually the time came for us to say goodby to Dhaushkodi and we all went back to our hotels. I managed to visit a temple while all the boys were saddling up to for the return journey!!

For the return journey i decided to take the East Coast Road through Nagapattinam and bypassing Pondicherry. Big mistake!! The roads were still under construction and we were offroading for about 150kms!! Luckily i was on the Unicorn and the suspension held all the way!! I would've stopped halfway if it were for my RD due to a broken back!!! Eventually stopped for lunch at Karaikudi and raced along towards Pondicherry. The off roading had taken its toll on everyone and we were dead tired when we reached Pondy. By the time we reached, the folks wanted to halt at Pondy for the night. Bad idea, being a saturday, i knew they would be overbooked!! The guys tried everywhere while i took a quick power nap. Eventually they returned with no good news. The power nap had refreshed my brains and i called up a local hotel where we stayed everytime we visited pondy. He knew me and instantly offered to convert the restaurant into a sleeping room for us!! We thanked the manager profusely and had a coupla drinks, some great food and crashed for the night!! Wokeup at ease the next morning and casually rode down that brilliant stretch of the ECR back home!! All in all a fantastic ride that is gonna be etched in my memory forever!!